Opinion
Board’s eye view Safe practices THE THEME for this year’s annual conference of the Emergency Nurses Association, in Indianapolis, was ‘safe practice, safe care’. Presentations and sessions covered topics such as whether technology has made patient care more efficient, improving communication and caring for homeless people. According to Safe Practices in Patient Care, errors in health care cost the US economy the equivalent of between £10.63 billion and £18.13 billion a year. Such errors in a single large teaching hospital cost the equivalent of about £3.1 million. Small wonder that several healthcare forums, including the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and the National Quality Forum, promote safe and effective care in the US. In addition, evidence-based guidelines have been drawn up to guide healthcare provision in large and small organisations. The importance of such work is illustrated by the US response to the current Ebola epidemic. As the first cases of the disease outside Africa came to light, president Barack Obama said he was considering the imposition of a travel ban ‘if it is necessary to protect the American people’. Meanwhile, healthcare providers are being educated to care safely for patients with conditions they may not have encountered before, while complying with protocols to keep patients and staff safe. The response to the epidemic shows that safe and effective practice must involve teams of professionals collaborating with other agencies. In other words, if patients are to stay safe, professionals must work together. ■ Safe Practices in Patient Care website is www.safe-practices.org Rachel Lyons is an associate clinical professor of nursing at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, and a member of the Emergency Nurse editorial advisory board
12 November 2014 | Volume 22 | Number 7
Book reviews How Your Doctor Sees You: A Guide to the Body in X Rays and Scans Robert Angus Farthings Publishing £12.99 | 191pp ISBN: 9781291731132
THE FORM, functions and inner workings of the human body are fascinating. This anatomy guide presents a range of medical images to illustrate how hospital doctors see the human body in their everyday practice. Its author studied medicine in London in the 1970s before beginning work as a junior hospital doctor. He later trained as a radiologist and continues to work as a consultant radiologist. Most of the films and scans presented in the book come from his teaching files,
Clinical EKG Modules Anthony Chiaramida and Jacqueline Green Springer Publishing Company £37.25 ISBN: 9780826199768
THIS IS an easy-to-navigate educational DVD based on excellently reproduced electrocardiograms (ECGs) with accompanying case studies. All the case studies are informative and should be useful to emergency nurses, and the authors adhere to consistent assessment criteria in analysing the ECGs, which is educationally sound practice. The DVD also includes a self-assessment quiz with answers.
which he has collected over a radiological career spanning more than 30 years. The book describes each of the imaging techniques, and the large, high quality images are annotated and work well alongside the text. Each chapter examines the features and functions of different body systems, including the skeleton, head, chest, abdomen and urinary system, and the text is clear and concise. Throughout the book, the author shares clinical insights based on his career and helps to bring the images to life. This book will appeal to anyone interested in medicine and health in general, those considering nursing or medicine as a career, nursing students, and nurses wanting an inexpensive refresher in anatomy and physiology. Simon McGurk is a former healthcare assistant and medical student at the University of Birmingham
In assessing heart rate, the authors recommend a method that involves counting small squares when they could have adopted a simpler system. Similarly, they have not included a simple approach to cardiac axis, such as assessing the directions in which leads I, II and/or III point. This is disappointing because this approach is becoming more and more widely used. The DVD concerns electrocardiography in the United States, and some of the terminology used may be unfamiliar and confusing to UK nurses. These issues do not distract from the educational content of the DVD, however, which is helps to foster reasoning skills while being generally simple to follow and reproducible. Nick Castle is a nurse consultant at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey
What’s your view? If you want to express your opinions on any of the issues in Nursing Management, email the editor at [email protected] EMERGENCY NURSE
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 26, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Board’s eye view Safe practices THE THEME for this year’s annual conference of the Emergency Nurses Association, in Indianapolis, was ‘safe practice, safe care’. Presentations and sessions covered topics such as whether technology has made patient care more efficient, improving communication and caring for homeless people. According to Safe Practices in Patient Care, errors in health care cost the US economy the equivalent of between £10.63 billion and £18.13 billion a year. Such errors in a single large teaching hospital cost the equivalent of about £3.1 million. Small wonder that several healthcare forums, including the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and the National Quality Forum, promote safe and effective care in the US. In addition, evidence-based guidelines have been drawn up to guide healthcare provision in large and small organisations. The importance of such work is illustrated by the US response to the current Ebola epidemic. As the first cases of the disease outside Africa came to light, president Barack Obama said he was considering the imposition of a travel ban ‘if it is necessary to protect the American people’. Meanwhile, healthcare providers are being educated to care safely for patients with conditions they may not have encountered before, while complying with protocols to keep patients and staff safe. The response to the epidemic shows that safe and effective practice must involve teams of professionals collaborating with other agencies. In other words, if patients are to stay safe, professionals must work together. ■ Safe Practices in Patient Care website is www.safe-practices.org Rachel Lyons is an associate clinical professor of nursing at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, and a member of the Emergency Nurse editorial advisory board
12 November 2014 | Volume 22 | Number 7
Book reviews How Your Doctor Sees You: A Guide to the Body in X Rays and Scans Robert Angus Farthings Publishing £12.99 | 191pp ISBN: 9781291731132
THE FORM, functions and inner workings of the human body are fascinating. This anatomy guide presents a range of medical images to illustrate how hospital doctors see the human body in their everyday practice. Its author studied medicine in London in the 1970s before beginning work as a junior hospital doctor. He later trained as a radiologist and continues to work as a consultant radiologist. Most of the films and scans presented in the book come from his teaching files,
Clinical EKG Modules Anthony Chiaramida and Jacqueline Green Springer Publishing Company £37.25 ISBN: 9780826199768
THIS IS an easy-to-navigate educational DVD based on excellently reproduced electrocardiograms (ECGs) with accompanying case studies. All the case studies are informative and should be useful to emergency nurses, and the authors adhere to consistent assessment criteria in analysing the ECGs, which is educationally sound practice. The DVD also includes a self-assessment quiz with answers.
which he has collected over a radiological career spanning more than 30 years. The book describes each of the imaging techniques, and the large, high quality images are annotated and work well alongside the text. Each chapter examines the features and functions of different body systems, including the skeleton, head, chest, abdomen and urinary system, and the text is clear and concise. Throughout the book, the author shares clinical insights based on his career and helps to bring the images to life. This book will appeal to anyone interested in medicine and health in general, those considering nursing or medicine as a career, nursing students, and nurses wanting an inexpensive refresher in anatomy and physiology. Simon McGurk is a former healthcare assistant and medical student at the University of Birmingham
In assessing heart rate, the authors recommend a method that involves counting small squares when they could have adopted a simpler system. Similarly, they have not included a simple approach to cardiac axis, such as assessing the directions in which leads I, II and/or III point. This is disappointing because this approach is becoming more and more widely used. The DVD concerns electrocardiography in the United States, and some of the terminology used may be unfamiliar and confusing to UK nurses. These issues do not distract from the educational content of the DVD, however, which is helps to foster reasoning skills while being generally simple to follow and reproducible. Nick Castle is a nurse consultant at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey
What’s your view? If you want to express your opinions on any of the issues in Nursing Management, email the editor at [email protected] EMERGENCY NURSE
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 26, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
