CVME Insider: Nursing Knowledge That Matters

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is one of more than 100 non-polio enteroviruses. This virus was first identified in California in 1962. What are the symptoms of EV-D68 infection? EV-D68 can cause mild to severe respiratory illness. Mild symptoms may include fever, runny nose, sneezing, cough, and body and muscle aches. Severe symptoms may include wheezing and difficulty breathing. See  EV-D68 in the U.S., 2014  for details about infections occurring this year. Anyone with respiratory illness should contact their doctor if they are having difficulty breathing or if their symptoms are getting worse. How does the virus spread? Since EV-D68 causes respiratory illness, the virus can be found in an infected person’s respiratory secretions, such as saliva, nasal mucus, or sputum. EV-D68 likely spreads from person to person when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or touches a surface that is then touched by others. What time of the year are people most likely to get inf...

Does Your Hospital Use the  The Surviving Sepsis Campaign ? This c ampaign  was created to help healthcare workers implement the recommended guidelines for Severe Sepsis patients in the Emergency Room (ER) and Intensive Care Units (ICU).  The  Surviving Sepsis Campaign  kits include posters, pocket guides, bundle cards, lapel pins and a list of resources to aid your implementation efforts using the most recent edition of the international sepsis guidelines.   The Surviving Sepsis Campaign has developed pre-packaged kits to help clinicians within institutions to improve sepsis identification, management and treatment.   "The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) partnered with the Institute for Healthcare  Improvement (IHI) to incorporate its “bundle concept” into the diagnosis and treatment  of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. We believe that improvement in  the delivery of care should be measured one patient a...

SO I have been thinking about Nina Pham.  Who is Nina?  Well if you have to ask; then I think you should stop reading and go check your heart and soul.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention  ( CDC ) has a poster that has been put out that shows you exactly how to put on and take off your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in case you have a patient in isolation for whatever reason. However, I have been studying this poster and thinking about all my years of training; not only in the civilian world; but the military as well.  What is missing from the poster?  Can you guess? The Poster provided to us by the CDC is shown as follows:   Well, have you guessed?  What about the healthcare provider cover their hair or head?  What is a patient with the EBOLA virus is having a coughing spell; or having massive diarrhea and you are the one having to help them and care for them?  What if those small particles g...

Central Valley Medical would like to introduce "Heather Connor."    Heather Connor is originally from The Unites States; however, she has spent the last 11 years in Canada. Two years ago, after a long search that yielded no answers for the cause of her boys mystery symptoms, she gave up her career as a Surgical Device Rep, to focus on getting her kids the care and treatment they needed. Since then, both of her children and husband have been diagnosed with Dystonia , a little known neurological movement disorder that causes painful twisting and contractions of any voluntary muscle in the body. She has found her voice as an advocate for dystonia through her blog " Raising Dystonia ". by Heather Connor October 13, 2014 He was younger than I imagined. Maybe forty...tops. He was tall and attractive with light brown hair and glasses. He was Yale educated with a B.Sc, an M.Sc, a Ph.D and an MD. My research revealed that he is a pioneer in the fi...

EBOLA The Ebola virus has been around for quite some time and in fact first appeared in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 1 However, with the invention of social media our population has 24 hour news coverage and this news can be brought to us immediately from around the world. We have recently seen an uptick in the discussion of the Ebola Virus due to the recent outbreak in Western Africa. “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that from 550,000 people to as many as 1.4 million people when under reporting of cases is taken into account could be infected by mid-January in Liberia and Sierra Leone, in a worst-case scenario generated by a computer modeling tool the agency constructed. Around 21,000 cases would occur by Sept. 30.” 2 So with this information at your fingertips; are you ready for the increase in Ebola cases here in the U.S.? Is your hospital and medical staff ready to treat these types of patients? “The current outbreak in West Africa, ...