By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

What is patient engagement?
Patient engagement is a connection between patient, caregiver and health care provider.  A trusted relationship forms and mutual respect is fostered.  Patients and their families are empowered and they are active in health care decisions.  However, patient engagement begins before the initial interaction with health care providers.
When [...]

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

Thanks to Laura Landro for shining light on unsafe injections in her WSJ blog, “Unsafe Injection Practices Persist Despite Education Efforts.”
Landro writes:
“A new push is underway to eliminate unsafe injection practices, which remain a persistent safety problem despite years of efforts to educate clinicians about the risks of re-using needles, [...]

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA
Q & A with Mary Knudson
Mary Knudson
Mary Knudson, a patient, health journalist and author, shares a glimpse into her journey with heart failure.
Mary Knudson was diagnosed with heart failure in 2003.
She knew something wasn’t quite right.  She became very short of breath and fatigued from walking from one room to [...]

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA
Here are a few of the top Healthin30 posts that focus on patients, doctors and nurses.  Thank you for your insightful comments and for posting them on Facebook and Twitter.

The Patient, the Most Important Part of the Medical Team
Are patients the most important part of the medical team?  Find out [...]

By Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA
(A follow-up post to “When Doctors and Nurses Work Together.”)
Do you feel that patients are the most important part of the medical (health care team)?
In a recent post on Healthin30, “When Doctors and Nurses Work Together” I wrote about the team-based approach for caring and treating patients, and it addressed [...]