Features Category
Crystal Clear
November 15, 2012
The putrid smell of her own flesh burning was not enough to make Jade Wilhite seek medical attention. She was following the methamphetamine user code: do not get caught. The day she tilted her head back to administer what she thought was a soothing liquid for her tired, irritated eyes, was the day her loyalty…
Not Just Aspirin and Band-Aids Anymore
November 15, 2012
Tyler Ralph slumps into the yellow chair looking as limp as the untied shoelaces on his back-to-school sneakers. But the fourth grader knows to get down to business – swabbing his fingertip, pricking it with the lancet, putting the drop of blood on the test strip, waiting for the blood sugar reading that explains why…
The Art of Aging
April 18, 2012
Frances Raines knows the secret to successful aging. “Keep busy,” says the 97-year-old resident at Bethany Health & Rehabilitation nursing home, flashing a knowing smile that momentarily erases the wrinkles on her face. With a bright red crochet hook and yards of sky blue and royal purple yarn, Raines keeps busy through her stitches, even…
Geriatric research
April 18, 2012
“Is this a house of corrections or a house of comfort?” asked the attending physician, a native of Britain, noting that American nurses have such strange practices, tethering their patients. Those comments, delivered to a group on medical practice rounds that included a young Lorraine Mion, PhD, RN, FAAN, shaped the whole course of her…
Geriatric Nursing Facts
April 18, 2012
According to the Administration on Aging, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services: The population 65 years or older numbered 39.6 million in 2009, the latest year for which data is available. They represented 12.9 percent of the U.S. population, about one in every eight Americans. Older women outnumber older men at…
On a Patient’s Worst Day
April 18, 2012
Minutes from now, the newly conscious patient will flail softly in her bed and try to pull out her breathing tube. A nurse will be there to stay her hand. Right now, though, she’s slipping toward death. As she was being turned in her bed, her heart rate plummeted, and it hasn’t returned. She’s gone…
