http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog A digital venue for creative expression, nursing adventures, reflections on living with chronic illness, thoughtful reverie, thoughtless repose, and other flotsam and jetsam Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:03:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Living with chronic pain is a difficult lesson to integrate into one's life. Dogged by discomfort, where does one turn to learn to assuage the pain? How does one rise above the waves of physical sensation in order to see beyond the more obvious earthly struggle? Pain is indeed a ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/21/the-lessons-of-pain/ Please feel free to visit my new fun blog, "The Adventures of Bob The Nurse "--one more thing for a nurse with too much time on his hands.... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/17/the-adventures-of-bob-the-nurse/ Since this is the end of Public Health Week, I wanted to share a link to a site created by the American Public Health Association which is encouraging Americans to make our country the healthiest in the world within one generation. Contrary to popular belief, the United States lags far ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/11/healthiest-nation-in-one-generation/ At a time when it is universally agreed that the fight against communicable and infectious disease is an absolute necessity, right here in New England the city of Worcester, Massachusetts is choosing to dismantle its public health infrastructure, laying off its public health nurses during the celebration of Public Health ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/10/public-health-layoffs-in-new-england/ After five days of hearing about emergency preparedness and response at the Integrated Medical Public Health, Preparedness and Response Training Summit , I'm ready to go back to work and hit the ground running. I have my work cut out for me, and this conference fed me ideas and inspiration ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/08/emergency-preparedness-and-response/ Every week, I receive emails asking me to review a product, comment on an article, or react to something happening in the world of health care. From nursing to union organizing, the requests come in fairly regularly. Not long ago, I was asked by a website called Software Advice (who offer ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/04/02/wal-mart-selling-emrs/ So, my learning curve continues to veer upwards as different aspects of my job ebb and flow. This week, it's tuberculosis case management. According to our state Department of Public Health, every patient with active or latent TB who lives in the community must have a nurse case manager, and the ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/03/30/tb-again/ Well, here in New England, the colder days are slowly being outnumbered by the warmer ones, (emphasis on slowly). The mornings can be quite nippy and the nights still drive the mercury down. However, the crocuses are up, the birds are returning, windows are opening and people are out with ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/03/28/spring/ I spent today sitting in a conference room with public health nurses, people from our state Department of Public Health, and other professionals who focus their professional lives on the surveillance and prevention of infectious and communicable disease. As dry as this topic may seem, there is a passion that people ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/03/25/the-macro-and-the-micro/ Just yesterday, I went to the office of the visiting nurse/hospice agency that I work for as a per diem nurse, and I tendered my resignation. With my public health nurse position consuming 30 hours of every week (and a large percentage of my cerebellar real estate), my per diem hospice ... http://DigitalDoorway.alensa.com/blog/2009/03/23/change-and-release/