Qigong:-11th World Qigong Congress

Will be away for this congress for a week in San Francisco, attending workshops and meeting some of the world's most gifted energy healers.
There will be many in the health profession, including family physicians, psychologists,physical therapists, nurses and scientists, who have incorporated natural healing into their practice. I will also be attending Dr.Effie Chow's workshop.

Just keep the comments and questions coming in and I will answer them next week. If you want to know about Qigong, please go to the past postings on the Qigong.
Agapelife

Interview with a Nurse Practitioner (PN)

Jennifer works as a Nurse Practitioner in a clinic.

Why did you chose to be a nurse and a Nurse Practitioner (NP) in particular?

I spent many years as a cashier but I had always wanted to be a nurse, then I met my husband who told me to pursue my dreams. So at age 30, I entered the nursing program with the ultimate goal of becoming a NP.

How long did it take?

7 long years, while working on the Medical-Surgical floor and a stand-by charge nurse full time, as well as being a full time mother and wife, I studied for my Degree in Nursing and NP. Now I am a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner (ARNP)

So who is a Nurse Practitioner?
Most people have heard the term Nurse Practitioner but don't understand what the title entails.
We order tests, diagnose diseases and treat them just like a family physician can.
What are the Pros and Cons?

Pros - ability to take care of patients and their entire family through education, diagnosing and treatment in an office setting.

Cons - not having prescriptive authority for controlled substances and not being able to follow patients into the hospital setting as the primary care provider.
In what way are you Empowering your patients?
Empower them to take charge of their own health.

What is the future of Nursing and for the NP?
It is becoming better through expansion of research, regarding treatment outcomes.

To know more about what the Nurse Practitioner does, please visit Jennifer's blog.
http://www.npplace.com OR http://arnp.blogspot.com

Thank you Jennifer for an inspiring interview!
If you have any questions or comments, please send it along.

Next Thursday September 25, our interview will be with Nurse William, an emergency care nurse.

Nursing 2030 - Future of Nursing

Here are some of the technologies that have changed the nursing career in the past century. 1. Electronic IV monitors,
2.portable defibrillators
3.computer stations
4.hands-free communication devices including remote call badges
5.portable IT devices.
6.drug management technology to regulate dosage of medications.
Yet with all these advances, there is an acute nursing shortage in many parts of the world. By the year 2020, it is estimated there will be a shortage of 800,000 nurses.
Buerhaus, JAMA,2000

In the 1990's I wrote a skit for a degree nursing course called Nursing 2020 and some of my fellow classmates enacted it out. I had a challenging time to convince these registered nurses that charting would be done at the bedside on computers and that hospital cleaning would be done by robots.

Three years later, working in Florida, the former was a reality. While visiting a maternity hospital in Singapore, I was going to an elevator when I was told by a voice to move out of the way which I did and stared in disbelief at the machine that gave the command. It was taking food trays to the patients on the floor and was gave the command after entering the elevator for the particular floor.

New technological advances are continuing?
R2D2 - Robot nurses could be in hospitals by 2020! (Warwick University Engineering Dept, UK.)
What are your views? Would robots take over as Nurses?
Will hospitals be managed by Nurses?

Some Nurses are already ordering treatments and medications. They are the NP - licensed Nurse Practitioners. On next Tuesday's post, we will have the interview with Nurse Practitioner, Jennifer and the following week, we will have the interview with Nurse William!

Agapelife
copyright/P Nicholas

Who Becomes a Nurse?

Before we peer into the future of the Nurse and Nursing, let us discuss the characters of people who enter the nursing vocation. In the days of Florence Nightingale and before, it was middle class ladies who were altruistic or nuns and monks as the extension of their religious vocation.
in Europe.
In the forties and fifties, some nurses might tell you that they became nurses as there was not much opportunities for women in other fields.

Traits of nurses include compassion,intelligence, diligence ethical,non-judgemental, confident, problem solver, multi-tasking,humorous,
politeness, flexibility, well organized,precision,intuitive, a good listener,patient advocate and many other traits which will need a longer posting. Do send me traits not mentioned in your comments?

Irregular Nursing shifts, physically or verbally abused by patients, working extra shifts, working weekends, call back on days off, no room for errors are all part and parcel of a nurse's life. Through all this, the nurse is expected to be kind,polite and smile without retaliation of any kind. Is it any wonder, that some think nurses have a masochistic trait as well.
On several occasions previously, when I was assigned to six patients and four of them in the same room were asking me, at the same time to attend to their requests, while I was doing a treatment on one, I remember saying " I am not an octopus, only a nurse", which made them laugh. Many times, I felt I needed more arms to tend to the patients assigned to me.

As one nurse wrote on her blog posting, -
"Nursing is head on, hands on, heart on, all together, all at once, maybe that is enough explanation why there is a Nursing Shortage; because not a lot of people can be all that, all at once".
may at www.aboutanurse.com
Agapelife
copyright/P.Nicholas

The Nurse and the Past 50 Years

Physicians gave the orders, Nurses implemented them!This is how the nursing profession have been linked with the medical profession and still continues, in many areas. In the last fifty years, some changes have occurred that does not make the above statement accurate to all nurses! LPN or licensed practical nurses have taken over the bedside nursing in many facilities, especially in Long Term Care but they do work under the Registered Nurses' supervision.

In order to make these postings simple, all the Nurses I mention in the next paragraphs are Registered Nurses who are either educated in a nursing college or a university and all have post-graduate studies in some specializations.

You, most probably have heard of ICU (intensive care unit), ECU (emergency care unit), CCU(cardiac care unit) Dialysis unit. All these units are specialty units and the nurses who work there have extra education and certification above their basic nursing education.

Scientific and Medical discoveries like radium, vaccines and antibiotics expanded the role of the nurse. Then in the last 15 years, informatics has changed the mode of recording data and treatments.

Nurses are now working in other areas besides the traditional hospitals and Nursing Homes. Community Health Nurses work in clinics and visit homes to do assessments on home-bound clients. Public Health Nurses work in municipal and other government agencies, teaching, researching on disease prevention and policies for health protocols. Occupational Health Nurses work with employees, in industries and organizations.

Nurse Researchers, nurse Educators are found in colleges, universities and some major research facilities. There are also Nurse Anaesthetists, Nurse Case Managers, Mental Health Nurses

The Informatics Nurse is a new addition in the last decade and she is responsible for teaching her colleagues on IT related documentation as well as formulating new applications for nurses. Another new addition is the Nurse Practitioner who is able to diagnose and prescribe some medication and treatments independently. Usually, she works in a community clinic or Wellness Centres. Sometimes, she works in partnership with a family physician in an office setting!
Yet another is the Nurse Entrepreneur - she is a business owner either online or off-line.

So what is next for the Nurse?? Tune in on Tuesday?
Agapelife

copyright P Nicholas

Nurse - Who was the first Nurse?

Let me ask you a question? When you were feeling unwell or when you had a cough or cold as a child, who was the first person who gave you care, till you became better? Many of us will answer - mother, grandmother,aunt. Likewise, the first nurse was untrained and the female member of a family.

The history of nursing seem to be synonymous with the history of women.(V.Robbins)
Yet both sexes have the tendency to respond to helplessness (Donahue,M.96) The first religious orders had male nurses caring for their sick in the monasteries in the middle ages as women were not allowed in the enclosures.

Nursing was part of many religious orders who followed Christ's mandate in ministering to the sick. In 1633, St. Vincent de Paul and Louise Marillac of France founded the Daughters of Charity who looked after the sick in their homes and in hospitals. In the Americas, Jeanne Mance founded the first hospital in Montreal in 1645 and in 1783, James Derham, a slave in New Orleans, through the earnings as a nurse bought his freedom.

In the nineteen century in the England, Florence Nightingale, initiated Evidence-Based Nursing after she went to France to learn from the Daughters of Charity, their methods in caring for the sick. She included statistics and a systemic approach to nursing. She and the women she trained were ladies who volunteered their services without being paid.



So in England in the nineteenth century, nurses' training was provided for those who cared for the sick and carried out their duties under the direction of a physician. I mentioned England, because all the Commonwealth countries adopted the same training as those in England. Training was provided in hospital schools, and usually an unmarried girl or widow was accepted. They were trained on the job and were required to live in nursing residences attached or close to the hospital. There was a nursing hierarchy

The student nurses were paid a stipend while they trained, which usually lasted for three years when they are promoted to staff nurse. The next level is a nursing sister (only a few reached this status, as many of the staff nurses married and left the hospital to raise a family. Nursing sister did not marry. They were provided lodging and the acted as supervisors and teachers.

The final level in the nursing ladder was the Matron, who also was unmarried. Physicians at times were intimidated by the Matron. Nurses usually stayed in the residences except for their occasional week-ends off. White, starched, a-line,modest, dress uniforms and little caps or veils were part of the scenery in hospitals for two centuries.

Florence's contribution to nursing and health, included, careful statistical data collection and thorough documentation. She changed Public Health and reformed the hospital environment, including basic infection control. You can read more about Florence in this website - http://spartacus.schoolnet.com.uk/re nightingale.htm

This is only a brief description of the history of nursing and the Nurse! There is a great volume of information on the web and in books, describing the history of nursing in the individual countries.
From its history, we can travel to the present and see the paths, Nursing and the Nurse evolving, in the area of education, duties, opportunities and empowerment.

The next posting will be nursing in the last 50 years. Would like to hear from Nurses, retired or still working as well as student nurses!
Agapelife
copyright/pnicholas

The Nurse - Who and Why?

A discussion in a social blog forum, about how the general public perceived Nurses prompted this series. I was prompted to write this as I spent many years in the different areas of nursing, from medical-surgical in the hospitals to Home Health and Long Term / Chronic Care, from bedside nursing to teaching, supervision and case management. All along, nursing has evolved and continues to evolve!

In the next few postings, we will touch briefly on, the History of Nursing. Who becomes a Nurse? Why Nursing as opposed to other careers? Why is there a shortage of Nurses? Will it improve? Technology and Nursing, The evolution of Nursing! What will nursing in 2030 be like? We will have short interviews with perhaps five or six nurses, each in a different area of nursing.

So join me in the next few weeks, as we explore this noble, dynamic yet vulnerable profession. We would also like to hear your positive and not so positive impact of nurses or nursing on your life.

Have Nurses contributed to society? Have Nurses made a difference in your life? Do you see a future in Nursing? If you are looking for a career, would you choose Nursing or Not? What are the reasons? Would Robots ever replace a Registered Nurse??

After you have read the completed work (expected date of completion - mid-Septemeber), perhaps, you will no longer have myths about Nurses and the Nursing Profession?

How do you stand and walk?

So elementary, you might think? Yet many people are putting needless strain on their spine and joints, when they assume the incorrect standing and walking position.

Remember your parents saying, " Don't slouch" "Don't lean against the ....? Perhaps they did not why? Well here is why? Our bodies have a body system where alignment of skeletal system is vital to our mobility. It is a strong system but just like a machine needs lubrication and proper mechanics, so does our skeletal system.

So how do you arise from a sitting position to a standing one! First move your buttocks to the edge of the chair, then place one foot slightly forward. Both feet should be about 6 inches apart and flat on the floor, then lift your buttocks off the chair with your back straight and your head looking straight ahead. Do not rise up on your toes or on your heels.

When you sit, get close enough that your legs feel the seat of the chair, and sit down with your back straightened and perpendicular to the back of the chair. All of the above keep your spine in proper alignment.

When you stand, your feet should be slightly apart. You should be like a willow tree and not like a rigid oak tree. So do not tighten any of your muscles or your joints.
When you walk, take light steps. Do not land on your toes or your heels but on the whole foot.

All these positions also create the right position to breathe properly and it does help circulation.
Agapelife

What is your Position in Bed?

I noticed that several of my clients with snoring conditions or with Sleep Apnea sleep on their backs or even on their stomachs.

The correct position to prevent snoring is the lateral position or side position. Few people remain on their sides, which is why the Thera-P-anti-snoring cradle pillow prevents you from turning and remaining on your back. This pillow keeps the upper part of your spine in proper alignment. What about the lower part of your spine?

I have noticed that when people sleep on their side they tend to take the fetal positions sometimes, bending or flexing both knees. This position causes improper alignment of your spine, causing lower back discomfort in the morning.

The correct side-lying position should be Only one leg is flexed from 20 degree to 40 degree angle, which ever feels comfortable to you and the other remains straight.

These positions keep your spine in alignment, while in bed and prevents aches? Also when you are sitting in a chair, remember to keep the spine in proper alignment. Slouching or sinking into a chair will cause back problems. Tomorrow we will discuss standing and walking positions that keep the spine properly aligned.
Agapelife

Anti-snoring product - Review 1

Well the reviews are coming in. I wanted people I knew to try the Thera-P-anti-snoring pillow, so that I would have honest views of the product. Well, one of them visited me for a few days and slept on the pillow. When this person stayed over at my place a couple of years ago, I could hear the snoring.

My visitor also has a problem with nasal drip which makes her cough in the night and in the early morning.
Previously, my visitor had used nasal drops and some other pillows that you are able to buy in a pharmacy to combat snoring with little effect.

I noticed the first night, the snoring was reduced considerably. By the fourth morning, my visitor was delighted to find that the nasal drip problem was curbed by the use of the anti-therapy pillow and will never leave for trips without it.
Agapelife

Do you wake up with sore neck ,shoulders and back??.

50% of respondents to this question answered "Yes"!
I, too, would have answered "Yes", a couple of years ago, but not anymore. I tried everything from medications, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy which provided some relief but after a few days, back to the uncomfortable ache. Finally, I saw this product in an occupational health magazine.

So I ordered and tried it. After one night of use, I woke up the next morning, missing what I was accustomed to awaking up to, for so many years - the irritable, gnawing, slow to get rid of, Neck Pain, shoulder and back pain. I feel so refreshed in the mornings now. So what is this product you may ask?

"92% of my patients think it's great,not just good but great I have never recommended an orthopedic product with so much confidence." Dr. E. Lubberdink,D.C. Toronto, Canada

It is the Thera-p- cradle and the Thera-p-petite-cradle pillow (for women and children), and doctors, physiotherapists and other professionals are recommending it. If you want to know more, please click here.
Agapelife

Thera-P-Anti-Snoring Cradle Pillow

WoW. I did not expect such interest in this product. It has kept me quite occupied that this is my first posting for this week.

So how was your sleep or your partner's sleep this week? Mine was fantastic!
I tried the product, myself and I had such a great sleep. I am asking all my customers to send in their testimonials.

This product has been recommended by MDs,Sleep Clinics and the wife of even the world's loudest snorer. As one MD stated this pillow promoted and encouraged the snorer to turn on their side. Dr. D. Lipman MD, Oregon

World Record Snorer Stops Snoring? How?

" The Thera-P-Anti-Snoring Cradle Pillow is fantastic. It allows me to get an uninterrupted, quiet sleep" says Carol Hebbard, wife of the world's loudest snorer...Mark Hebbard whose earth shattering records appears in the Guinness Book of World Records 1991.
Carol Hebbard, Richmond, British Columbia.

"Research shows that when back sleepers roll on their sides, it cuts obstructive sleep apnea episodes dramatically. ...Staying on your side is easier said than done, once you're snoozing. To the rescue, FDA approved Thera-P anti-snoring cradle pillow." Women's World Sept. 2005

I spoke to the inventor of this pillow, Peter Sandler,a reformed snorer, who was in the furniture business with his father for a number of years and one day upon a client's request, researched and invented this thera-p-anti-snoring pillow. According to Mr. Sandler, this pillow is sculptured with a built-up edge to provide for a rest under the chin, forcing the jaw to close and another vital feature is the anti-snoring bar that promotes sleeping on the side which keeps the nasal passages open. This is the only FDA approved pillow for anti-snoring.

If you wish to know more please visit www.transformlifehealthandwealth.biz
and for a limited time there is a discount on this pillows as a launching web-site gift. Next week we will discuss another product for people who wake up with neck, shoulder or back pain.

Anti-Snoring devices - How good are they?

There are many anti-snoring lotions, portions and devices. Some do reduce snoring, while others are not very effective. I was researching and found a snoring forum which is no longer active.

Looking at the past comments, Pillar implants did not seem to be effective, nasal strips did reduce some snoring. There are also nasal cones, nasal clips and inserts and
could not as yet find rave reviews for these products. A friend of mine uses an herbal nasal drops sporadically and is not certain of the effect.

Sleeping on your side does help but many of us change position during the night.
With sleep apnea, c-pap and bi-pap machines with the constricting mask is recommended but I know during my nursing rounds on night shift, I was replacing those masks continually as people tend to have them off their face or over their forehead at times.

I tried using them in the night when diagnosed with a mild case of sleep apnea and I woke up many times at night as the mask or the nasal cannula ( tried a few different ones) bothered me.

So after much research, I found a product which some chiropractors, physiotherapists and some sleep clinics have recommended to their clients who have had success with it.

Finally I found it - the ideal solution which I will share with you on Friday's post - 08/08/08.
If anyone wants to comment on any of the products mentioned and how long they were using it and if it helps, please comment and mark private if you don't wish the comment to be published.
Agapelife

Snoring statistics

If you thought Snoring was just an annoyance, a nuisance, or harmless, think again.
These are the statistics that I have compiled from various authorities.

1. 59% of adults snore which means 6 out of 10 in a survey done by National Sleep Foundation 2005.

2. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) statistics reveal that 30% of adults start snoring by age 30 with a 2:1 male/female ratio with the gap closing after menopause. The number increases till fifth decade or the fifties, then the number decreases. Why? The declining number after 50 is attributed to the demise of these snorers due to heart attacks and strokes.
(Vancouver Sleep and Breath Centre)

3.By middle age, 40% of the population snores in Great Britain (British Med. 97)

4. 5.6% of children snore habitually.

However, there are effective measures to reduce or eliminate snoring. I will share some with you tomorrow, especially the one I found most effective.
Agapelife

Humor Saturday

Jim Carrey - comedian from Canada in Transitions

Impact of Snoring on your health!

Why is habitual snoring so dangerous to our body? Snoring is a symptom that our body is not getting enough oxygen during our sleep. The organs in our body cannot be deprived of oxygen without some major repercussions.

Obstructive Sleep apnea is when the body does not receive oxygen for a period of time due to obstruction of your airways during sleep. Usually, it does not last long, as it causes the person to wake up to draw a breath. However. repeated episodes of sleep apnea will cause some health conditions to surface.

One of them is high blood pressure, another is cardiac conditions and even stroke. Children who are snorers are also at high risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

There are many treatments in the marketplace for snoring relief, reduction and elimination. On Monday, we will explore some.

Agapelife

Snoring - How it is formed and causes?

I have yet to meet a person who likes to hear someone snore, no matter how loved the person is, the snoring is not. Why? Perhaps the following reasons, it is loud, not pleasant to the ears and usually occurs when the non-snorer is trying to sleep.

How A Snore Occurs?
As your sleep progresses into deep sleep, the tissues in your throat relaxes and vibrates and this may cause partial blockage of your airway. When the airway is narrowed, the airflow becomes forceful, causing the snoring to grow, the narrower the airway. Two types of snoring, 1. occasional 2. habitual. This article will focus on habitual snoring.

Factors contributing to Snoring
1. Thick soft palate in your mouth or enlarged tissues (adenoids) at the back of your throat.

2. Nasal conditions like deviated nasal septum or nasal congestion or chronic sinusitis.

3. Alcohol consumption

4. Sleep Apnea - If snoring is associated with obstructive sleep apnea, it is serious and one should seek proper treatment.

Tomorrow, we will look at the effects of habitual snoring and some treatments available.
Stumble It!

Agapelife

How well do you sleep?

This week, we will address sleep or lack of sleep, including a couple of effective solutions. We did discuss Insomnia in one of my earlier posts. However, the posts this week, we will concentrate on a couple of sleep disturbances.

1.Has your sleep been interrupted by your partner's Snoring?
2.Have you awakened with a stiff neck or neck pain?

Please click on to Comment and answer - Yes Or No to either questions #1 or #2

As of this week, my posts will be reduced to approximately three times to four times weekly for the present. If you would like for me to continue x6 weekly, then contact me via comment. If this was an interactive site, then I would continue to post six times weekly but I have not received the required responses.
Agapelife

Humor - Gilda and Gene

One of the funniest couple.