CVME Insider: Nursing Knowledge That Matters

Is it truly the 3rd leading cause of death in America? According to the CDC , in 2015,  633,842  people died of heart disease,  595,930  died of cancer, and  155,041  died of chronic respiratory disease—the top three causes of death in the U.S.  However, according to Dr. Martin Makary, MD, M.P.H a professor at John Hopkins and a recent study he conducted may prove the CDC wrong putting medical errors as the cause of death behind cancer but ahead of respiratory disease. Dr. Martin goes on to state that;    “Incidence rates for deaths directly attributable to medical care gone awry haven’t been recognized in any standardized method for collecting national statistics,” says  Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H. , professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an authority on health reform. “The medical coding system was designed to maximize billing for physician services, not to collect national health statistics...

by Heather Connor It was a grey and cloudy afternoon in early fall and the sky had that threatening look of an impending storm.  So it seemed oddly appropriate when the school called to say my son was having a storm of his own. Storm This is the medical term used to describe a Dystonic episode.  If you've ever had the misfortune to experience or witness one, then you know it is perfectly named. Just like a real storm, some can be seen coming from a mile away and others appear all of a sudden with no warning.  They can be mild and short lived or violent and destructive.  Some storms resemble a grand mal seizure where the patient shakes and convulses. But unlike a seizure they are awake and lucid.  The experience can be terrifying for my children. When his body will let him, my son tries to hide if he feels one coming. His teacher has found him several times hidden and alone on the floor of the bathroom shaking with his muscles cramping so hard that his little...

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, ...

Over the past two to three decades we have really grown in the health care industry in the fact that we have developed and advanced the infusion and vascular therapy industry by leaps and bounds with the PICC line, Mid-line, and peripheral intravenous catheters.  However, as nurses we have not kept us with the pace of technology in regards to our education and skills sets.  This may seem harsh yet numbers do not lie and with this in mind it is a simple fix.  Practice, Practice, Practice. Still many years later we continue to have one in four medications errors in our hospitals as well as approximately 45 000-164 000 1 patients get an infection in their central venous access devices (CVAD).  ( CDC.gov ) Most of the infections in our patients CVAD ’ s occur the intensive care units ( ICU ) .   Who is responsible for these infections and errors? We are as nurses.  Whether you are a new graduate nurse or a nurse with a lot of experience i...