By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA I asked Daniel Sands, MD, MPH, Director of Medical Informatics at Cisco IBSG and a primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a few questions about twitter. 1. What value does tweeting health info bring to the public? By following tweets from health information sources that they trust, people can get general health tips, preventive health information, disease specific information, and even suggestions about to be more…
Read More...Why Doctors & Nurses Need Twitter
By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA I use Twitter and I like it. As a registered nurse, twitter helps me promote health and wellness and it helps me educate the public on vital health topics. It allows me to tweet about an upcoming radio show, link to informative websites and blogs, or retweet (RT) a tweet. I can read about the latest breaking health news, learn about the latest in health 2.0 and sometimes it…
Read More...After 40 Years, Patients Still Crave Attention and Respect
The Doctor/Patient Relationship By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA What do patients want? Despite the technological promises of the Health 2.0 movement, in some ways it’s really no different today than it was forty years ago. An article that appeared in Time Magazine on May 13, 1966 says: Today, Americans get far better medical care than ever before; as for the rest [of the doctor-patient relationship], they are often lucky to get as much as…
Read More...How to Question Doctors and Nurses — Without “Challenging” Them
By Barbara Ficarra I think there is a huge difference between challenging a doctor or nurse and simply questioning a doctor or nurse. In yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal, in an article titled “Finding a Way To Ask Doctors Tough Questions,” Laura Landro writes: “Despite efforts by advocacy groups and others to empower patients, challenging a doctor or nurse on whether they are correctly doing their jobs remain downright intimidating. Signs and posters in hospitals…
Read More...Real Simple Magazine Taps Experts for Emergency Care Advice
Preparing for Life’s Mishaps by Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA Having this card in your wallet could save your life in an ER When Real Simple Magazine reporter contacted me for a story on emergency rooms, I was delighted to help out. I think it’s important for readers to have the perspective from a nurse on the front line of the ER as well as ER doctors. The March edition of Real Simple is on…
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