General Healthcare Industry

The use of computers has influenced every area of society including medicine. Medical practices depend on computers as much or more than any other business. Medical practices use computers for...

A lift chair can greatly improve the quality of life of a person who has difficulty rising from a sitting position, allowing them to lead a more independent life and preventing them from sitting...

Headaches are a common medical complaint for men, women and children. Headaches and dizziness can be difficult for medical personnel, such as first responders, EMTs and nurses, to assess when...

As technologies become more realistic, the role of simulation in nursing education is becoming more prevalent. While simulation cannot replace human patient interaction, it does offer benefits to...

When you transfer a patient, never assume that the patient is physically able to handle the move. You should check the patient's overall health and vital signs before you attempt the transfer to...

Home health aides care for disabled and/or elderly people in their homes, helping them with feeding, toileting, dressing, bathing and other activities of daily living. Many families hire home...

Ironically, the benefits of electronic record keeping in medicine were not highly touted when today's medical finance applications were designed. An EMR offers a host of benefits to the health...

Hypothermia exists when core body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and is caused by exposure to wet or cold environments, which rob the body's ability to maintain heat. If left...

Humerus fractures occur in the shoulder joint, or where the upper arm bone and shoulder joint meet. This type of fracture may also include additional injury to the shoulder, such as dislocation or...

Electrocardiography (EKG or ECC) machines are universal in the ability to read cardiac activity and provide a printout demonstrating the electrical activity of the heart. While EKG machines vary...

Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious complication of diabetes in which blood sugar raises to abnormally high levels, often due to illness or a lapse in insulin therapy. As blood sugar rises, the...

Elbow injuries should be splinted to reduce movement and further injury to the joint during transport to the hospital. Extra care should be taken not to disturb the joint during splinting by...

Cardiac leads used during an electrocardiogram (EKG) are essential for transmitting heart signals to the EKG machine. The machine provides a tracing of cardiac activity on graph paper, which a...

In 1996, Congress passed into law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The privacy rule section of HIPAA provides strict protection of the use and disclosure of a...

Some patients' rights in the United States are mandated by state and federal law, and some are part of an individual institution's policies. Also influential on the health care system is the...

Avoiding nerve damage when performing a venipuncture requires using correct procedure during the blood draw. Venipunctures, performed correctly, carry a low risk of any type of injury. An...

An comprehensive eye examination is a series of tests administered by an optometrist to assess a patient's level of vision as well as detect any abnormality or diseases such as glaucoma. Patients...

Health care informatics uses technology, such as computers and networking, and multidisciplinary health sciences, such as biomedical and pharmacy, to improve patient care. Informatics organizes...

NANDA is an acronym for North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. NANDA was founded in 1982 to develop and standardize nursing language, terminology and nursing diagnoses. NANDA terminology...

Patients who cannot get out of bed to use the restroom will require a bedpan. Drugs.com states that women can use a bedpan for bowel movements and urination. Men also use bed pans to move their...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that certain information be provided with prescription medications intended for human use. This information is typically made available through a...

Phlebotomists should follow two practices to prevent pain in their patients: using correct procedures when drawing blood the first time and open, clear communication with the patient. However,...

The primary objective of medical record keeping has always been to maintain accurate records of a patient's condition and treatment in order to better care for that patient. However, certain...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) led to the establishment of strong safeguards to protect the privacy of patient health information. The privacy rule only...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) contains strict standards regarding the release of an individual's health information without authorization. This act was...

As health care systems become increasingly complicated, it can be difficult for patients and their families to ensure that the best possible care is being provided. A patient advocate may be the...

Collecting blood from the femoral artery in the groin area is less common than collecting blood from other arterial sites, such as the radial artery at the wrist or the brachial artery in the...

The Joint Commission provides accredited status to health-care organizations that choose to comply with its standards. The commission has several hundred standards designed to provide safe,...

In order to avoid injury to either a caregiver or a patient, there are two types of boards to ease the transfer of a patient. A transport board is used by caregivers for daily care to transfer...

Patient rights are always under heavy scrutiny in the health care field, and what constitutes abandonment is always being questioned. However, there are clear guidelines that must be followed and...

While working in the medical field you are faced with many challenges. With these challenges you must know how to protect the well-being of the patient while preventing injury to yourself. A...

The palpatory method of taking blood pressure is performed by using only a blood pressure cuff. It reads the systolic measurement, or the measurement of the heart at work. The palpatory method is...

The Snellen eye test is a common medical test used to determine a patient's visual acuity. Visual acuity is a quantitative measure of the ability of the eye to identify black symbols against a...

The Privacy Act of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects sensitive medical and health information for all patients.

The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Labor, requires that healthcare workers and nurse practitioners, including RNs, follow specific...

France's health care system has been ranked No. 1 in the world by the World Health Organization, and some believe that the U.S., which ranked No. 37, should follow France's lead.

Phlebotomy, the act of drawing blood from the body with a needle, is a specialized skill. It is necessary for blood to be drawn in a variety of medical settings. Many nurses need to be...

The digestive or gastrointestinal (GI) tract consists of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine or colon, rectum, and anus. GI bleeding can occur anywhere along the digestive...

Approximately 600 million clinical documents are dictated in the United States annually, and 60 percent are transcribed reports. When you see a medical professional, they document your visit by...

Numeracy involves the ability to recognize and utilize numerical data, enter data on forms and perform numerical calculations. A major part of your nursing education is learning how to use numbers...

The current state of the nation's health-care system is a hot topic, and many Americans are left fighting for the best coverage, to find insurance or to simply afford going to a doctor. Being...

Working with children and infants, a pediatric nurse often deals with tools and supplies that are smaller than those that general nurses use for adults. Because the patients that pediatric nurses...

Nursing-care plans are an important part of the nursing process. They allow nurses to diagnose health problems and threats, create goals to avoid or overcome those problems, and interventions to...

The Joint Commission (TJC), formerly known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, is an organization founded in 1951 that certifies and accredits health care organizations. To have...

Abbreviations are commonly used in medical records to save time and space when writing medical information in a patient's medical record, file or for prescriptions. Many medical conditions and...

The field of radiology offers a number of medical career paths for those who enjoy working as part of a team and with patients. Two possibilities are X-ray technician and radiographer. There is...

Misconceptions about cloning and its capabilities are running rampant in the media. Many of these misconceptions are spawned by much of the science fiction also on the market, with imaginary...

When a nurse manager is hiring and scheduling nurses, he follows a unit-specific nurse staffing standard to guide his decisions. Staffing standards are typically specific to the type of patients...

Math is a vital part of nursing and is used in a variety of ways throughout the average day. A clear understanding basic math skills and the metric system is essential to keeping patients alive...

The health care industry is subject to numerous ethical and legal issues. Through years of regulation, the addressing of many concerns brought changes to the actions of medical care providers and...