Code Blue!

There’s a crisis in the ICU, the operating theater, a patient room, the emergency center. A patient is “coding” – he has stopped breathing, she is in cardiac arrest, an elderly patient has collapsed, a heart has stopped mid-surgery. The call goes out over the loudspeaker, summoning a specialized “crash team” of professionals trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) to resuscitate the unfortunate individual. The team, typically made up of various medical personnel and emergency responders, works as a unit under the team leader to perform lifesaving efforts on the patient. In “running a code,” every member of the team is required to understand his or her role and work in sync with the others; teamwork, trust, and well-defined responsibilities keep them unified and coordinated. Even the most cohesive group, however, cannot be a match for a Code Blue without the availability, proximity, and reliability of high-quality emergency resuscitation equipment and supplies.

An emergency cart, or “crash cart” as it is more commonly known, serves as a focal supply center for the crash team. An undersupplied or substandard cart results in confusion among the responders, a frantic scramble for appropriate equipment, and often the death of or irreversible damage to the patient due to a delay in proper treatment. Whether your cart is situated in a busy hospital, quiet outpatient surgical center, hectic clinic, or generally predictable nursing facility, it must be stocked and ready for use at all times. Read on to find out what your crash cart must contain in order to perform its function: waiting to save lives.

Making a Career Choice? Consider This

Grey’s Anatomy. ER. Scrubs. Private Practice. M*A*S*H*.  Dr. Kildare.  Dozens of television’s most popular shows, dating back to the mid-1900s, focus on the dramatic and heroic lives of doctors and medical personnel in assorted positions. We as a society often glorify the medical career, leading to changes in popular medical specialties in correlation with shifting societal demographics. Idealistic medical students tend to choose a specialty based on its attractiveness, the status associated with fashionable “hot” fields, and the enticing salaries that come with entering most high-demand departments. They may crave the excitement of the emergency room, the delicate concentration and prominence of surgery, or the lucrative earnings of cardiology. The choice may also be influenced by the trends and needs of society; plastic surgery to address growing societal pressure, orthopedic surgery to keep up with the professional athletic community, or psychiatry to help the mounting population of those affected by war or tragedy or grappling with mental illness.

One field of medicine is grossly overlooked despite a critical need for it. As America’s baby boomer generation – those born in the years following World War II, considered the time period from 1946 to 1964 by the U.S. Census Bureau – ages, the demand for qualified geriatricians is constantly rising. According to the American Geriatric Society, by the year 2030 we will need approximately 30,000 geriatricians to care for more than 70 million baby boomers reaching retirement age. Unfortunately, as of 2012 there were only 7,356 certified geriatricians in the United States and about half of all medical students are not required to complete geriatric training.

Walker or Rollator – Which one is Right for Me?

Standard Walker

Until the invention of walkers (also known as walking frames) in the 1950s, individuals with disabilities or short-term walking difficulties were confined to wheelchairs until they were able to support themselves with a cane. That arrangement was detrimental to those with the ability to walk supported; those with chronic disabilities were unable to achieve a higher level of independence while others with temporary conditions experienced drawn-out recovery times without a reliable transition aid from wheelchair to walking. Today we are fortunate to have a wide variety of walking assistance tools to address every need, from persistent mobility impairments such as cerebral palsy or paralysis to rehabilitation following injury or surgery. The seemingly endless selection of walkers and rollators does pose one challenge, though: it can be exceedingly difficult to locate the right one!

  

At first glance, walkers and rollators are very similar. In fact, many classify rollators as wheeled walkers. While they do indeed bear remarkable similarities, there are important differences between a walker and rollator that will influence your decision in choosing one over the other.Read on for a comprehensive comparison of different types of walking aids to help you find one that suits your lifestyle and individual situation.

We Salute the Nurses of the World!

WWII Nurse Corps Recruitment Poster

Join us at Tiger Medical Supplies as we honor the month of May, a month loaded with days dedicated to the devoted individuals in the nursing profession. National Nurses’ Day (also known as National RN Recognition Day) is observed on May 6^th, kicking off Nurses’ Week, which includes National School Nurse Day (May 11^th) and culminates in International Nurses’ Day (May 12^th). The entire month of May is considered Oncology Nurses’ Month. This month is the perfect time to celebrate your employees, your personal nurse, your nurse friends and/or family members, or yourself, if you are dedicated to the demanding, often thankless profession; May is the month to applaud yourself for your achievements and caring. Even student nurses are recognized – May 8^th is National Student Nurses’ Day, encouraging those who are training for this noble endeavor.

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of the nursing field or a student in your first week of nursing school, you know that the career you have chosen is not necessarily an easy or relaxing one, but has the potential to be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. For hundreds of years, loyal nurses committed to helping people have made history, transforming the face of healthcare, wars, and even entire countries. They have fought for their beliefs and created nationwide – even worldwide – organizations to change the world for the better.

A Simple Solution to Improve Your Lifestyle

Along with food and shelter, sleep is quickly becoming widely recognized as one of the most crucial commodities, a necessity rather than a luxury. Forced sleep deprivation has been used for decades in the interrogation of prisoners, sparking debates over whether the technique qualifies as torture or not. Navy SEAL trainees must endure, as part of their infamous Hell Week, days of little to no sleep, putting their bodies and minds under extreme duress. And approximately four ordinary people like you and me are fatally injured in vehicular accidents related to tired drivers falling asleep at the wheel or unable to avoid a crash due to slowed reflexes and focusing skills.

Warning Sign in Utah

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asserts that drowsy driving is a leading cause of accidents, injuries, and deaths, accounting for at least 100,000 crashes, 40,000 injuries, and 1,550 deaths yearly; they also proclaim these numbers should realistically be higher due to the underreporting of fatigue as a cause of an accident. [1] Drowsy driving accidents characteristically involve a single car with a lone driver and occur during the late night, early morning, or mid-afternoon hours, when exhaustion is most likely to set in. The three population groups who are considered to be at the highest risk of fatigue-related accidents are teenagers and young adults, night-shift workers and those with long or irregular hours, and people of all ages suffering from untreated sleep disorders, namely sleep apnea and narcolepsy.[2]

Do I Need an EMR or EHR System?

It seems almost futuristic: a patient arrives at the hospital and checks in using an airport-style kiosk. His full medical record, including multiple diagnostic test results and doctors’ notes, is accessible on his bedside screen and on connected computers throughout the hospital. A nurse administers medication and checks his vital signs; the information is automatically included in his file and conveyed to all involved medical personnel. When his hospital stay concludes, all information regarding his updated history is relayed to his doctors with a few keystrokes – no printing, faxing, or mailing necessary – where it will be incorporated into his chart and fully updated before the next time he visits the office. Seems too good to be true? It may be…

CardioPerfect Workstation

The introduction of electronic health record (EHR) and electronic medical record (EMR) systems into our healthcare structure has been met with mixed reviews. While the use of EHR and EMR systems are becoming widespread in private practices, clinics, hospitals, and nursing facilities, some users express dissatisfaction with their systems for various reasons, such as inefficiency, technological dependency, and high costs. Others appreciate the EHR/EMR’s performance as it delivers the results they expect – improved workflow, decreased human error, and better staff communication and patient tracking. Read on for a comprehensive review of electronic medical and health record systems to help you decide whether implementing an EHR/EMR would help or hinder your facility.

Road Rash

For avid cyclers and skaters, there is nothing that can compare to the adrenaline rush, to the wind in their hair and faces, to the thrill of the sport… or to the pain and consequences of an untimely injury. While cycling is an excellent, low-cost and low-impact fitness activity, it carries plenty of risks for unpleasant mishaps. One of the most commonly occurring injuries is the shallow but painful skin abrasion referred to in the cycling world as “road rash.”

Road Rash & Scarring

When a cyclist or skater falls off of his or her bike, board, or skates, he or she makes damaging and often prolonged contact with the road as he or she lands on the ground and/or slides due to continuing momentum. While most abrasions are not deep or serious, they often remove several layers of skin and can be inordinately painful without excessive bleeding. If road rash is not treated promptly and properly, however, the seemingly harmless scrape can lead to more acute conditions.