The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2011, published by the
World Health Organization, presents a comprehensive perspective on the global, regional and country consumption of alcohol. It also portrays patterns of drinking, their health consequences, as well as policy responses in the various countries. The goal of the WHO is to assist countries in their efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, and its health and social consequences.
Click for the statistics on individual countries including St. Kitts & Nevis.
Labels: alcohol consumption, global health, Nevis, St. Kitts, statistics, substance abuse, WHO
A recent
New York Times opinion article by oncology nurse
Theresa Brown presents a disturbing picture! It seems that among our trusted and honored health-care profesionals, bullying is alive and well! A physician is quoted in the article to say
,“It’s a time-honored tradition — blame the nurse whenever anything goes wrong.” The article also points to some of the more subtle manifestations of bullying:
"...the most damaging bullying is not flagrant and does not fit the stereotype ... It is passive, like not answering pages or phone calls, and tends toward the subtle: condescension rather than outright abuse, and aggressive or sarcastic remarks rather than straightforward insults."
How pervasive is bullying in the healthcare setting?
"...because doctors are at the top of the food chain, the bad behavior of even a few of them can set a corrosive tone for the whole organization. Nurses in turn bully other nurses, attending physicians bully doctors-in-training, and experienced nurses sometimes bully the newest doctors."
What is the cost, besides the ongoing toll from workplace stress?
The author contends that "The result, not surprisingly, is a rise in avoidable medical errors, the cause of perhaps 200,000 deaths a year."
Bullying, needs to be pulled off life-support, and fast!Click on the post title to read the full article.Labels: interprofessional relations, nurse-physician communication, physician-nurse relations, workplace bullying
A recent study evaluated the information literacy skills of first-year dental students and looked to identify any significant associations between search engine use and database preferences.
Conclusion: The study confirmed that
information literacy was lacking and that
"preference for the use of Google was significantly associated with students who were unable to find evidence-based citations." "Few issues in higher education are as fundamental as the ability to search for, evaluate, and synthesize information. The need to develop information literacy, the process of finding, retrieving, organizing, and evaluating the ever-expanding collection of online information, has precipitated the need for training in skill-based competencies in higher education, as well as medical and dental education."
Recommendation: Integrate evidence-based learning modules early in the curriculum to help students filter and establish the quality of online information.
Click post title for full text of the research article:
"Why not just Google it? An assessment of information literacy skills in a biomedical science curriculum." (April 25, 2011), Kingsley K [et al], BMC Medical Education 2011, 11:17doi:10.1186/1472-6920-11-17.
Labels: EBP, evidence-based practice, information literacy, medical curriculum, nursing curriculum, search skills
The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2011, published by the World Health Organization, presents a comprehensive perspective on the global, regional and country consumption of alcohol. It also portrays patterns of drinking, their health consequences, as well as policy responses in the various countries. The goal of the WHO is to assist countries in their efforts to reduce the harmful use of alcohol, and its health and social consequences. Click for the statistics on individual countries including St. Kitts & Nevis.
