What did you like or dislike about taking an asynchronous online course?
I really liked that there was a great deal of flexibility in completing the modules. This allowed me to take a few trips with my family and accommodated my surgery as well. I am not the biggest fan of online courses--being a more audio-visual learner I find it easier to grasp concepts that I am presented in a lecture. The powerpoint presentations and podcasts were extremely helpful in assisting me with learning the material.
What topic did you learn the most about and what was your favorite topic? What did you like least?
I feel that I learned the most about electronic health records--their ease of use and the need to move healthcare in the direction of using electronic resources. I enjoyed learning how to properly evaluate programs and websites which makes me feel more confident in being a consumer of technology.
Do you have any other comments for us?
No additional comments--this class and its material are very well suited to this format. I hope that they do not change how this class is taught.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Module 5
Why would a patient want to create a blog? What might they gain from this?
I have actually followed a few parent's blogs regarding their child's experience in the NICU, PICU, and with living with a chronic disease. For the families, sharing their experiences can be therapeutic and it offers them a forum to express their emotions. When I was pregnant with my daughter I blogged on a regular basis to keep my family and friends notified of how I was progressing (I am from Delaware and have been living in Utah since well before my daughter's birth). Blogging allows families and friends to communicate with one another--to share photos and memories and is easily accessible as well.
Why would a health care provider create a blog?
There are many reasons a healthcare provider would create a blog. They could use the forum to share important information about common illnesses, immunizations, healthy diet and activity information. Since I plan on working in pediatrics, I think blogging would be helpful in reminding parents about school physicals, immunization schedules, preventing chronic illnesses/conditions and advocating for maintenance of a healthy weight. I could post activity suggestions for families--ways to stay fit and involved and advertise local programs that support active parenting.
What are ethical considerations when blogging on a public website, such as we've used for this class?
Ethical considerations include protecting patient confidentiality, ensuring proper credit is given to information sources (citations--avoiding plagiarism) and ensuring that medical advice is not shared on the site. Personal information should be limited to protect the user's family. Overall, it is important to protect privacy of anyone connected to and with the site.
I have actually followed a few parent's blogs regarding their child's experience in the NICU, PICU, and with living with a chronic disease. For the families, sharing their experiences can be therapeutic and it offers them a forum to express their emotions. When I was pregnant with my daughter I blogged on a regular basis to keep my family and friends notified of how I was progressing (I am from Delaware and have been living in Utah since well before my daughter's birth). Blogging allows families and friends to communicate with one another--to share photos and memories and is easily accessible as well.
Why would a health care provider create a blog?
There are many reasons a healthcare provider would create a blog. They could use the forum to share important information about common illnesses, immunizations, healthy diet and activity information. Since I plan on working in pediatrics, I think blogging would be helpful in reminding parents about school physicals, immunization schedules, preventing chronic illnesses/conditions and advocating for maintenance of a healthy weight. I could post activity suggestions for families--ways to stay fit and involved and advertise local programs that support active parenting.
What are ethical considerations when blogging on a public website, such as we've used for this class?
Ethical considerations include protecting patient confidentiality, ensuring proper credit is given to information sources (citations--avoiding plagiarism) and ensuring that medical advice is not shared on the site. Personal information should be limited to protect the user's family. Overall, it is important to protect privacy of anyone connected to and with the site.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Module 4
How did the readings influence your perception of your own clinical decision-making?
I've never really taken a good, hard look at how I make clinical decisions until after I completed the readings for this module. I tend to think of myself more logical--relying on my observations and hard data to make decisions regarding the nursing care of my patients. Then I started to remember some of my encounters where I let my intuition pepper my judgment--often resulting in favorable outcomes for the children I care for. Truly and expert nurse has to combine both evidence based (logical) concepts with intuition to be successful.
The emergence of new CDS systems, I feel, will benefit our profession. During times when quick decisions are needed, these systems can provide guidance for determining the best course of action. I'd like to learn more about how these systems are created and perhaps, someday, become involved in contributing to them. In my own experience, I worked in a pediatric clinical specialty where there was no existing protocol for dealing with emergent calls from parents. I worked with the reception staff, providers and other nurses to establish a protocol (if-then model) to guide individuals who took these calls to the appropriate course of action. It felt good to make a difference in the clinic--parents and pracitioners were much happier.
I've never really taken a good, hard look at how I make clinical decisions until after I completed the readings for this module. I tend to think of myself more logical--relying on my observations and hard data to make decisions regarding the nursing care of my patients. Then I started to remember some of my encounters where I let my intuition pepper my judgment--often resulting in favorable outcomes for the children I care for. Truly and expert nurse has to combine both evidence based (logical) concepts with intuition to be successful.
The emergence of new CDS systems, I feel, will benefit our profession. During times when quick decisions are needed, these systems can provide guidance for determining the best course of action. I'd like to learn more about how these systems are created and perhaps, someday, become involved in contributing to them. In my own experience, I worked in a pediatric clinical specialty where there was no existing protocol for dealing with emergent calls from parents. I worked with the reception staff, providers and other nurses to establish a protocol (if-then model) to guide individuals who took these calls to the appropriate course of action. It felt good to make a difference in the clinic--parents and pracitioners were much happier.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Module 3: Teaching in Nursing
For this module, we were asked to answer a couple of questions about a nurses role in teaching...here are my responses:
What sort of teaching is done in your nursing role?
As a nurse involved in public/school health I have taught students, parents and the community about a variety of topics. These include maturation classes, self-care/management of asthma and diabetes with elementary school age children, infection control/prevention, medication safety and delegation. I have done simple teaching at the bed-side and more complex teaching with powerpoint presentations for members of the school board and administration. I can't honestly think of a time when I haven't been actively teaching others in my career.
Is there any nursing role that does not involve teaching in some manner?
All nursing roles involve teaching. I feel that no matter what position a nurse holds he or she is always able to teach others. Nurse leaders teach those that they manage how to be a better professional, those involved in informatics instruct others in how to better use technology...I cannot think of any circumstance where a nurse would not be in a position to teach. We teach our patients how to better care for themselves and their families and often spend time teaching one another by sharing our patient care and professional experiences.
What sort of teaching is done in your nursing role?
As a nurse involved in public/school health I have taught students, parents and the community about a variety of topics. These include maturation classes, self-care/management of asthma and diabetes with elementary school age children, infection control/prevention, medication safety and delegation. I have done simple teaching at the bed-side and more complex teaching with powerpoint presentations for members of the school board and administration. I can't honestly think of a time when I haven't been actively teaching others in my career.
Is there any nursing role that does not involve teaching in some manner?
All nursing roles involve teaching. I feel that no matter what position a nurse holds he or she is always able to teach others. Nurse leaders teach those that they manage how to be a better professional, those involved in informatics instruct others in how to better use technology...I cannot think of any circumstance where a nurse would not be in a position to teach. We teach our patients how to better care for themselves and their families and often spend time teaching one another by sharing our patient care and professional experiences.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Update
Just a little update...I have survived my second ASD closure procedure and am at home resting comfortably. Needless to say this has been a very crazy summer. Thanks to my friends/classmates for thier support (go Peds Posse!) and willingness to work ahead on our group projects so I can be an active group member. Hope you all have a wonderful summer and I look forward to see you all in the fall!
~Dawn
~Dawn
Friday, June 4, 2010
Module 2 Posting: Information Retrieval
This assignment has really shown me the dynamics and differences that exist between different search mechanisms. My quest to learn more about pediatric atrial septal defects (ASD)and treatment via catheterization began on Pub Med where I used MeSH terms and limits to refine my search and located 89 viable resources regarding transcatheter closures of pediatric ASDs. There are currently no published randomized control trials (RCT) for this procedure but I was able to find studies that looked at long term success of this new closure technique and possible effects on the pulmonary system. I feel that Pub Med supplied me with a great deal of information that would be useful in clinical practice. It can be time consuming to use this resource but I feel that will improve with continued use and practice.
Next I moved on to the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) website to investigate if there were any published clinical guidelines for the use of transcatheter closure for ASD defects in my defined population. Unfortunately, no guidelines currently exist for pediatric patients. There are, however, very specific guidelines for closure for the adult population. I found it frustrating that I could not find more concrete information on this website. The site was straight forward and easy to use.
Finally I performed a search on Google and typed in "Pediatric Atrial Septal Defect treatment" into the search box. I was a bit surprised at the number of results that emerged from this search. Many of them were websites from cardiology services offered at children's hospitals across the country. These websites contained pertinent information for families of children with ASDs but did not contain the more clinical data I require. These sites could be useful tools when patients need to access educational materials to better understand their child's health condition. One website, however, eMedicine.com did hold my interest as there was a link to "General Concepts" for ASDs in the pediatric population. The information, authored by a pediatric cardiologist, contained information regarding diagnosing ASD during exam (clinical assessment), treatment protocols, differences between types of ASDs and more. I found this site to be a good comprehensive overview of the current trends in pediatric ASD management.
In our day to day practice, there may be times we need to access pertinent data and research for our own knowledge and benefit. I feel that tools such as Pub Med and the NGC are better suited for our context of knowing and education. In instances where patients are requesting information, the world-wide web can be a useful tool. When directing our patients to the internet as a resource, we need to help them locate reputable information that is written in a way that they can understand (less jargon, etc). We need to do our part to know the resources out there to help prevent patients for obtaining inaccurate data.
Next I moved on to the National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) website to investigate if there were any published clinical guidelines for the use of transcatheter closure for ASD defects in my defined population. Unfortunately, no guidelines currently exist for pediatric patients. There are, however, very specific guidelines for closure for the adult population. I found it frustrating that I could not find more concrete information on this website. The site was straight forward and easy to use.
Finally I performed a search on Google and typed in "Pediatric Atrial Septal Defect treatment" into the search box. I was a bit surprised at the number of results that emerged from this search. Many of them were websites from cardiology services offered at children's hospitals across the country. These websites contained pertinent information for families of children with ASDs but did not contain the more clinical data I require. These sites could be useful tools when patients need to access educational materials to better understand their child's health condition. One website, however, eMedicine.com did hold my interest as there was a link to "General Concepts" for ASDs in the pediatric population. The information, authored by a pediatric cardiologist, contained information regarding diagnosing ASD during exam (clinical assessment), treatment protocols, differences between types of ASDs and more. I found this site to be a good comprehensive overview of the current trends in pediatric ASD management.
In our day to day practice, there may be times we need to access pertinent data and research for our own knowledge and benefit. I feel that tools such as Pub Med and the NGC are better suited for our context of knowing and education. In instances where patients are requesting information, the world-wide web can be a useful tool. When directing our patients to the internet as a resource, we need to help them locate reputable information that is written in a way that they can understand (less jargon, etc). We need to do our part to know the resources out there to help prevent patients for obtaining inaccurate data.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Module One Posting
1. My name is Dawn Powell and I am in the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (BS-DNP) 2009 Cohort. I have been a nurse for the past 5 years, working in pediatrics (NICU, neurology & school/public health).
2. Graduate level nurses need to be aware of information managment and technologies to help in managing practice related issues, improve quality of care and ensure positive outcomes.
3. I am not currenly working, but in the past have used multiple information technologies in practice. In the NICU, we used IT to order/review labs and input patient acuities. While working in Pediatric Neurology IT was used to input patient history, review hospitalizations, order medications, review MRI/CT/EEGs and access appointment schedules. While working in public/school health I attempted to get our department to order a electronic charting program, but the cost was prohibitive. We used Microsoft Word and Excel to chart patient encounters throughout the day. These encounters were then used to calculate the number of students/patients seen daily//weekly.
2. Graduate level nurses need to be aware of information managment and technologies to help in managing practice related issues, improve quality of care and ensure positive outcomes.
3. I am not currenly working, but in the past have used multiple information technologies in practice. In the NICU, we used IT to order/review labs and input patient acuities. While working in Pediatric Neurology IT was used to input patient history, review hospitalizations, order medications, review MRI/CT/EEGs and access appointment schedules. While working in public/school health I attempted to get our department to order a electronic charting program, but the cost was prohibitive. We used Microsoft Word and Excel to chart patient encounters throughout the day. These encounters were then used to calculate the number of students/patients seen daily//weekly.
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