Just remember nursing students...

No means no. No agreement equals no consent. No consent equals no enema.

I almost fell out of my chair when I read this article about forced enemas. Yes, you heard it right.

WT...?

I guess those "medical professionals" missed that day at school where they taught the differences between assault, battery and consent.

Time to update the slides

I do an education presentation for a local non-profit organization which many of our rehab patients belong. Traveling partner and I discuss the favorite rehab nurse topic: bowel and bladder issues.

We did a thorough research on the internet and in journals, etc., since the folks we work with publish stuff.

But, I never realized until today when I attended a presentation with a urologist that we forgot a surgical intervention: bladder augmentation. (And yes, it does make the bladder bigger.) I guess one of these days I may actually meet a patient who's had this done. So far, not yet.


Finally, they mentioned this device. I got flashbacks to nursing school when I had to do a soap suds enema (without a balloon, which would have been nice).

Stay tuned...

Nuggets for December 31

It's finally here, the end of 2008. The year always seems like forever for me until I get to December. Funny how when you have your birthday late in the year, it can put things into perspective !

Nevertheless, I'm not going to do a recap of all the best nuggets this year. You'll just have to go look at the rest of them and decide on your own, but here are a few of the latest crop.

Enjoy your 366th day today...it'll be over soon enough and you won't get another for four more years.

From the 'net...

Tight blood sugar control is mentioned in just about every article you read about diabetes these days. This article from the NY Times mentions another great reason to keep your blood sugar controlled--memory loss.

I, like some of my other fellow nurse bloggers, am a big fan of soup in winter. I ran into this handy, dandy red lentil soup one today. Get your protein (when combined with rice, etc.) and enjoy the cold with this aromatic soup. Since we're all coughing and hacking here, it can't hurt!

Did Santa bring you some new shoes? This article from ADVANCE for Nurses talks about what kind of shoes nurses should wear to work.

Goodies from work (or a few things I've encountered recently on the floor...)

Here are some of the pharmaceutical items:

• Short chain fatty acid enemas- This was a big, 60cc syringe of cloudy fluid one patient used twice weekly. This article on ulcerative colitis talks about this treatment.
• Mometasone Furoate - It also goes by Asmanex and we've got a few people using this twisty inhaler lately.
• Vantin - 'Tis the season for pneumonia, especially in SCI patients.

Finally, I had a patient recently with a history of PSVT. Medscape has a great article about this arrhythmia with sections on diagnosis, treatment and a multimedia section with graphics of what an EKG might look like.

More nuggets to come...stay tuned!