Health Tip: Coping With Low Blood Pressure

(HealthDay News) -- High blood pressure gets all of the attention, but very low blood pressure can be just as dangerous, experts say.

If severe enough, low blood pressure (hypotension) can lead to dizziness and fainting.

The U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute offers these suggestions for dealing with low blood pressure:

• After you've been sitting or lying down for an extended period, stand up slowly. Also, change the position of your legs before you stand.
• Eat frequent, small meals that are low in carbohydrates.
• If your doctor mentions that you have neurally mediated hypotension, avoid standing for long periods. If you must stand for a long time, wear compression stockings and walk around frequently.
• Drink sports drinks that contain sodium and potassium, or water, throughout the day.
• Try to avoid scary or upsetting situations.

Copyright © 2011HealthDay. All rights reserved.

5 Growing Health Care Careers

See how the right education could prepare you for a hot career in health care.

By Marcelina Hardy       

Interested in pursuing a career in the health care industry?

Now might be a good time to start preparing.

As an industry, health care is projected to create about 3.2 million jobs from 2008-2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

To help you decide which health care career is right for you, we've highlighted five careers with favorable employment growth through 2018.

Career #1 - Medical and Health Services Manager
Average annual salary: $93,670*

If you've got a passion for business - and health care - you're in luck. Medical and health services managers, who plan, direct, coordinate, and supervise the delivery of health care, can enjoy the best of both worlds.

Employment Growth: According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employment of medical and health services managers will grow by 16 percent from 2008-2018.

Education: A master's degree in health services administration, long-term care administration, health sciences, public health, public administration, or business administration is standard for this career. However, according to the Department of Labor, a bachelor's degree could be enough for some entry-level positions in smaller facilities.

Find Health Care Administration Programs Now

Career #2 - Registered Nurse
Average annual salary: $67,720*

Want a career that lets you help save lives? As a nurse, you could work in a fast-paced and rewarding environment, helping those in critical and/or stable condition sustain or improve their quality of life.

Employment Growth: Nurses are in high-demand. In 2008, there were 2.6 million nursing positions and by 2018, there will be another 582,000 more available, according to projections by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Education: The three typical educational paths to a career as a registered nurse are a bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, and a diploma from an approved nursing program, according to the Department of Labor.

Find a Nursing Program Near You

Career #3 - Medical Records and Health Information Technician
Average annual salary: $35,010*

Think a career in health care means you have to work with patients? Think again. As a medical records and health information technician, it could be your job to work with patients' health information - not the patients themselves.

Employment Growth: Medical records and information technicians are projected to experience 20 percent job growth through 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Education: Don't want to spend four years in school just to prepare for a new career? This may be a good option for you. According to the Department of Labor, an associate's degree, which could take as little as two years to complete, is the general credential.

Click Here to Find Medical Billing and Coding Programs

Career #4 - Medical Assistant
Average annual salary: $29,760*

Unlike medical records and health information technicians, medical assistants work directly with patients, often taking their medical histories and vital signs. If you're a people person, a career as a medical assistant could be just what you're looking for...

Employment Growth: Medical assisting jobs are projected to grow by 34 percent through 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Education: Medical assisting programs can sometimes be completed within one to two years, either through a certificate or associate's degree program, respectively.

Find a Medical Assisting Program Near You

Career #5 - Pharmacy Technician
Average annual salary: $29,330*

Interested in a health care career, but can do without working in a medical setting? About 75 percent of pharmacy technician positions are in a retail setting, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The gig itself often involves helping licensed pharmacists prepare prescription medications or provide customer service.

Employment Growth: The U.S. Department of Labor estimates employment of pharmacy technicians and aides will grow by 25 percent through 2018.

Education: Consider looking into certificate or associate's degree programs, which generally take about six months to two years to complete, according to the Department of Labor.

Click Here to Find Pharmacy Technician Programs Now

*All average salary information is from the U.S. Department of Labor's May 2010 Occupational Employment Statistics. All employment growth data is from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition.

Sharing public health data: necessary and now

"Data management is the most neglected area of the pub lic health research process." So argued a draft code of con duct for funders of health research, discussed at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, USA, last week. Ably led by the Wellcome Trust and Hewlett Foundation, the gathering included UN agencies, academics, public health bodies, develop ment organ isations, and journal editors. The vision is to increase the public health benefits of research by pro moting data sharing in the scientific community and beyond.
Currently, the outputs-and rewards-of research are based almost entirely on published papers in scientific journals. Incentives strongly favour publication, but not data sharing. Indeed, the extreme focus on publication creates disincentives to share data. This imbalance is at best inefficient, at worst profoundly harmful to health, preventing, as it does, other researchers from using datasets to make their own discoveries. There was broad agreement in Washington that funders should create a mechanism to translate the meeting's concerns into more precise principles, goals, and recommendations on incentives, infrastructure, and capacity building.

That said, there was also concern that although data sharing was a critical issue, it was a part of a much more troubling set of predicaments facing researchers in lowincome and middle-income countries. Data producers in low-income settings desperately want to be data users. But all too often those same scientists see researchers from western universities use their data, leaving little or no benefit behind for local research capacity. Calls for data sharing need to embed trust and equity as core values. Any global code of conduct must advance local ownership of data, local analysis, local communication, and local translation of research findings.
Scientists in low-income and middle-income settings want an opportunity to analyse data for their populations according to their own priorities. They want to be in the frontlines of national and global conversations about their country experiences. They want a seat at the table among those writing codes of conduct about the sharing of data. data that may well be about their own people. There is an obligation among all of us who hold a hegemony in public health research to assist colleagues wherever we can to sustain embryonic scientific cultures, to help build research institutions, and to address locally relevant questions about health. Data sharing is a vital and urgent matter. It is also a part of a much larger set of interdependent hazards that need our equal attention.

Scientists Map Key Structure HIV Uses to Infect Cells

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. scientists say they've finished the first detailed description of the complete protein package within the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) thought to be essential to its ability to infect human cells.

HIV uses this protein package, a cone-shaped container called a "capsid," to transport its genetic material into the host cell, after binding with receptors on the cell's surface.

After gaining entry, the capsid releases its genetic cargo into the cell, helping HIV to hijack the cell's machinery to replicate its own genes and proteins, according to a news release from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
As new viruses form, the genetic material is incorporated into round, immature capsids that HIV uses to flee from the cell. Each round capsid then reconfigures itself into its characteristic cone shape so it can help the virus move on and infect other cells in a similar fashion.

However, if any part of this capsid rearrangement were to be blocked, it would render HIV no longer infectious, the scientists said. And that could point the way to new drugs aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS.

Much more work will need to be done before that kind of research can begin, stressed senior study author Dr. Mark Yeager, a Scripps Research professor and staff cardiologist and chair of the Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics Department at The University of Virginia School of Medicine.

"We don't have the full story yet, but we have volume one," Yeager said in the Scripps news release.

The findings appear in the Jan. 19 issue of the journal Nature.

Yeager's team noted that the capsid structure of HIV differs greatly from that of many other viruses. For example, the capsid of the poliovirus has a rigid, symmetrical structure, while the HIV capsid is more flexible and can take on slightly varied shapes. Yeager, along with Owen Pornillos and Barbie Ganser-Pornillos, a husband-and-wife team working in his lab, spent years figuring out the precise atomic structure behind capsid formation.

They now plan to use computer programs to hunt for weak spots in the capsid's structure that might offer promising targets for drug development.


SOURCE: The Scripps Research Institute, news release, Jan. 19, 2011



HealthDay

Copyright (c) 2011 HealthDay [http://www.healthday.com/] . All rights reserved.

First Paper 'Dipstick' Test for Determining Blood Type

ScienceDaily (June 3, 2010) — Scientists are reporting development of the first "dipstick" test for instantly determining a person's blood type at a cost of just a few pennies.

Their study on the test, which involves placing a drop of blood on a specially treated paper strip, appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry, where the authors say it could be a boon to health care in developing countries. The test also could be useful in veterinary medicine, for typing animals' blood in the field, they note.

Gil Garnier and colleagues explain that determining a patient's blood type is critical for successful blood transfusions, which save millions of lives each year worldwide. There are four main blood types: A, B, AB, and O. Use of the wrong blood type in a patient can be fatal. Current methods for determining blood type require the use of sophisticated instruments that are not available in many poor parts of the world. An inexpensive portable test could solve that problem.

The scientists describe development of prototype paper test strips impregnated with antibodies to the antigens on red blood cells that determine blood type. In lab tests using blood samples from human volunteers, the scientists showed that a drop of blood placed on the strip caused a color change that indicated blood type. The results were as accurate as conventional blood typing. "The paper diagnostics manufacturing cost is a few pennies per test and can promote health in developing countries," the report notes.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Chemical Society.

Journal Reference:

Mohidus Samad Khan, George Thouas, Wei Shen, Gordon Whyte, Gil Garnier. Paper Diagnostic for Instantaneous Blood Typing.
Analytical Chemistry, 2010; 82 (10): 4158 DOI: 10.1021/ac100341n

Transforming Care at the Bedside: Empowering Better Nursing Care

Empowered Health News | Low Carb Diet For Diabetes

Caffeine Doesn't Make You More Alert

"Association of the Anxiogenic and Alerting Effects of Caffeine with ADORA2A and ADORA1 Polymorphisms and Habitual Level of Caffeine Consumption."Peter J Rogers, Christa Hohoff, Susan V Heatherley, Emma L Mullings, Peter J Maxfield, Richard P Evershed, Jürgen Deckert and David J Nutt.Neuropsychopharmacology advance online publication, June 2, 2010.DOI:10.1038/npp.2010.71Source: Bristol University.Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

A UK-led study suggests the notion that caffeine makes us more alert is more imagined than real and that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both its stimulatory and anxiety-producing effects.

You can read about the study led by researchers at Bristol University in the 2 June advanced online issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

While frequent coffee drinkers may feel alerted by coffee, the study suggests this is just a sign of reversing the fatigue effect of caffeine withdrawal, and given that caffeine also increases anxiety and blood pressure, there is no net advantage.

Co-lead author Dr Peter Rogers, of the Department of Experimental Psychology at Bristol told the media that:

Access FULL-TEXT article

Nutrient Density is the Key to Good health

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGgeGHU1Bs

New Library Mobile Website

For your convenience, we have developed a mobile version of the library’s website where you can quickly access some of the most basic resources. For example:


- Check availability of library material before you make your trip to the library

- Access to drug information and other useful resources

- Mobile reference help with a professional librarian

- Quick access to library contact information

Access our mobile website by saving this URL to your mobile device favorites:
http://www.mdc.edu/medical/library/mobile.asp

Online Journals

• Ask a Librarian for Username and Password
  
  American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine
  Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  AWHONN Lifelines
  Birth
  Chronicle of Higher Education
  Clinical Laboratory Science from ASCLS
  Critical Care Nurse
  Heart and Lung
  JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association
  Journal of Allied Health
  Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
  Journal of Dental Education
  Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography
  Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS)
  Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health
  Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
  Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing
  Journal of Orthopeadic and Sports Physical Therapy
  Journal of Professional Nursing
  Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA)
  Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
  Journal of Transcultural Nursing
  Journal Orthopaedics Sports Physical Therapy
  New England Journal of Medicine
  Oncology Nursing Forum
  Physical Therapy
  Radiologic Technology
  Respiratory Care
  RN: National Magazine for Nurses

APA Style Video Presentation

APA presentation

Itunes needed

Identifying domestic abuse against women and children

Kathleen Baird and Debra Salmon outline the role of primary healthcare professionals in identifying domestic abuse against women and children.

Access FULL-TEXT article

Do your patients understand? Determining your patients' health literacy skills.

Despite teaching endeavors, nurses are constantly faced with patients who do not understand how to manage their health-care. This problem has come to the forefront of healthcare issues. As a society, there is concern that despite medical advances, progress with healthcare may be in jeopardy because the skills needed by patients to manage their care are insufficient.
This issue is affected by many factors.

One of the most prominent factors is the lack of patient health literacy skill assessment. One of the first and most basic parts of the nursing process is to assess the patient. To teach patients, we must identify their learning needs, but the assessment cannot stop there.

Nurses need to know patients' health literacy skills so that they can teach them in the best manner possible.
This article provides specific information on health literacy assessment tools and the skills needed by nurses to use these tools. Each nurse must decide what tools will work for his or her patients, so that in the end, each patient will understand how to manage his or her healthcare.

Access FULL-TEXT article

A Guided Tour of the Human Body

Over 18000 Digitized sections of the body and Images demonstrate introductory concepts of anatomy.

Access Website (click here)

Preparing for and responding to bioterrorist attacks: the role of disease management initiatives.

Components of disease management that are applicable to the development of services for bioterrorism preparedness and response include collaborative practice models, population identification processes, reporting/feedback loops, process and outcome measurements, patient self-management education, and evidence-based practice guidelines.

This management system should be flexible and applicable to all possible diseases associated with bioterrorism, while including specific management recommendations for each disease.There are many gaps in the US's ability to respond to a bioterrorist attack that can only be filled by collaborative research among disciplines involved with bioterrorism preparedness; namely, basic, clinical, and behavioral sciences, public health, and law. Laboratory scientists will need to develop new and improved diagnostic tests, treatments, and protective measures.

Accsess FULL-TEXT article

Woundcare Assessment and principles of healing

The management of wounds has been described since ancient times, when wounds were cleaned with substances including saltwater, milk, wine and vinegar. Leaves and sand were often used to achieve control of bleeding (haemostasis) and cavities filled with sea sponges soaked in wine and vinegar.

The Second World War brought huge advances in wound management, with antibiotics such as penicillin becoming widely available. But it was not until the 1960s that the concept of moist wound healing was developed, and it was the 1980s before it was implemented

Access FULL-TEXT article