Mammogram Guidelines – What to Do Now?
The U.S. Preventive Task Force Services (USPTF) has recommended that screening mammograms were no longer routinely required for women in their 40s and that self-breast exam is no longer advised. What!? Is this just cost-cutting or is this good medicine? Read this post to learn more.
Symptoms and Causes of Diabetes
Insulin resistance is a silent condition with no symptoms that, because it goes unrecognized and untreated, causes diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 57 million adults are estimated to have insulin resistance – also known as (AKA) “impaired glucose tolerance”, “impaired fasting glucose”, “prediabetes” and “metabolic syndrome”.
And you know what? You have more power over this condition than your health professional does. A diagnosis of diabetes is a life changing event. Read this post to see what you can do to head diabetes off at the pass and prevent it.
Diabetes Diagnosed - Now What?
When you are diagnosed with diabetes for the first time, you get a whole lot of information pushed at you in a very short time. I strongly encourage you to attend formal diabetic education classes. If you are a newly diagnosed diabetic, here’s a checklist of things it’s important to learn about and understand. Once you know this stuff, you’ll find handling your diabetes isn’t such a big hairy deal after all. Everything will start to fall into place.
It Is a Mistake to Call a Nurse Practitioner a Nurse
I do not like it when people call me a Nurse. I liked it when I was a Nurse, but for more than 17 years now I’ve been a Nurse Practitioner. The two titles are NOT interchangeable and the duties and responsibilites are NOT the same.
As a Nurse Practitioner I’m often asked “What should I call you?“. Doctors are addressed as “Doctor”, but if your doctor is a Nurse Practitioner, how should you address that person? Read this post to brush up on the correct titles for different types of nurses. Your nurses will love you for knowing who we are and what we do!
Access denied: Florida lawmakers and doctors silence NPs - again
Florida is one of only two states in the country to restrict NP prescriptive authority for controlled substances. Florida is also the “pill mill” capital of the country. Seven Floridians die every day from controlled drugs prescribed by Florida physicians.
It is past time to bring the responsible medical community, including NPs, together to enable the use of these drugs properly and appropriately. It is past time to aggressively seek out and punish those physician rogues whose small numbers have caused such an enormous and deadly problem in Florida.
It is not Florida’s NPs but a small number of Florida’s licensed physicians who are the problem. Restricting NP practice will not solve a problem caused by physicians.
Watch this 3 minute YouTube video by NP Jana Esden who (silently) shows how Florida’s lawmakers and physicians have ignored the advice of experts and used politics to restrict patients’ access to care by restricting nurse practitioners’ practice and prescriptive authority in the state.
Florida citizens are being denied access to safe, proven quality health care by NP medical providers. Please write your lawmakers to protest these outdated restrictive laws that are hurting all Floridians.
Nurse Practitioners—Valuable but Undervalued
NP World News is the official news publication of nurse practitioners. Its contributors and columnists are thought leaders in the NP profession.
In my column “NPs On the Edge” I write about issues relating to NP practice, health and health care reform.
Click “Read Full Post” if you would like to leave a comment.
Putting Prevention into Practice
NP World News is the official news publication of nurse practitioners. Its contributors and columnists are thought leaders in the NP profession.
In my column “NPs On the Edge” I write about issues relating to NP practice, health and health care reform.
Click “Read Full Post” if you would like to leave a comment.
Don’t Give Up on Haiti
These are trying times - wars overseas and terrorist threats at home, a miserable economy, a health care system in crisis and Washington politicians behaving with more pettiness and self-interest than squabbling two year olds – well, it’s just plain disheartening.
This week a patient of mine lumped Haiti’s problems in along with all those others I just mentioned but I begged to differ. Haiti is neither a governmental nor political problem – it is a humanitarian one. It is not our governments’ problem to solve, it is our own as individuals. We can save Haiti by not giving up on her. Read this post to see how.
Defining Nurse Practitioners
NP World News is the official news publication of nurse practitioners. Its contributors and columnists are thought leaders in the NP profession.
In my column “NPs On the Edge” I write about issues relating to NP practice, health and health care reform.
Click “Read Full Post” if you would like to leave a comment.
Help Haiti and Help Yourself – Make a Long Term Commitment
The devastating natural disaster in Haiti has gripped our hearts and minds. Many are suffering without water and food while suffering injuries and the loss of family, loved ones and shelter from the elements. Those people’s circumstances are utterly unimaginable. Please donate money NOW and plan to keep on giving in the future.
Recovery will not be quick. Read this post to help you think through how this disaster can help you help others and help you help yourself.
