A message from The Most Interesting Health Consultant In the World about universal health care in the United States and the truth about Canadian publicly funded health care.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Most Interesting Health Consultant In the World
Monday, September 14, 2009
Knowledge Translaton and Transfer. In teaching . . .
In teaching, you must simply work your pupil into such a state of interest in what you are going to teach him that every other object of attention is banished from his mind; then reveal it to him so impressively that he will remember the occasion to his dying day; and finally fill him with devouring curiosity to know what the next steps in connection with the subject are.
Source: James on Psychology and The Teaching Art
Source: James on Psychology and The Teaching Art
Monday, September 7, 2009
Knowledge Translation 1.0 (the work of William James)
Ever wonder what you audience is up to? William James writes (in 1892)
We have thus fields of consciousness,—that is the first general fact; and the second general fact is that the concrete fields are always complex. They contain sensations of our bodies and of the objects around us, memories of past experiences and thoughts of distant things, feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, desires and aversions, and other emotional conditions, together with determinations of the will, in every variety of permutation and combination.
In most of our concrete states of consciousness all these different classes of ingredients are found simultaneously present to some degree, though the relative proportion they bear to one another is very shifting. One state will seem to be composed of hardly anything but sensations, another of hardly anything but memories, etc. But around the sensation, if one consider carefully, there will always be some fringe of thought or will, and around the memory some margin or penumbra of emotion or sensation.
In most of our fields of consciousness there is a core of sensation that is very pronounced. You, for example, now, although you are also thinking and feeling, are getting through your eyes sensations of my face and figure, and through your ears sensations of my voice. The sensations are the centre or focus, the thoughts and feelings the margin, of your actually present conscious field.
On the other hand, some object of thought, some distant image, may have become the focus of your mental attention even while I am speaking,—your mind, in short, may have wandered from the lecture; and, in that case, the sensations of my face and voice, although not absolutely vanishing from your conscious field, may have taken up there a very faint and marginal place.
Again, to take another sort of variation, some feeling connected with your own body may have passed from a marginal to a focal place, even while I speak.
We have thus fields of consciousness,—that is the first general fact; and the second general fact is that the concrete fields are always complex. They contain sensations of our bodies and of the objects around us, memories of past experiences and thoughts of distant things, feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, desires and aversions, and other emotional conditions, together with determinations of the will, in every variety of permutation and combination.
In most of our concrete states of consciousness all these different classes of ingredients are found simultaneously present to some degree, though the relative proportion they bear to one another is very shifting. One state will seem to be composed of hardly anything but sensations, another of hardly anything but memories, etc. But around the sensation, if one consider carefully, there will always be some fringe of thought or will, and around the memory some margin or penumbra of emotion or sensation.
In most of our fields of consciousness there is a core of sensation that is very pronounced. You, for example, now, although you are also thinking and feeling, are getting through your eyes sensations of my face and figure, and through your ears sensations of my voice. The sensations are the centre or focus, the thoughts and feelings the margin, of your actually present conscious field.
On the other hand, some object of thought, some distant image, may have become the focus of your mental attention even while I am speaking,—your mind, in short, may have wandered from the lecture; and, in that case, the sensations of my face and voice, although not absolutely vanishing from your conscious field, may have taken up there a very faint and marginal place.
Again, to take another sort of variation, some feeling connected with your own body may have passed from a marginal to a focal place, even while I speak.
LHIN investing in wait time reduction strategies
Three London health care institutions are in line for significant funding to help reduce wait times and to start new programs and carry on with initiatives that have already proved successful.
That was the word from three London MPPs, Deb Matthews, Chris Bentley and Khalil Ramal, as well as representatives from the South West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Friday (Sept. 4).
"Our government is investing in community-based services to improve healthcare." said Ramal MPP, London-Fanshawe.
"The 18 initiatives that are receiving funding through the South West LHIN prove that partnerships and innovative initiatives are making a difference in freeing up emergency room beds and allowing seniors and other patients to stay in their homes," he said.
In total, Ontario is providing funding of $2.4 million to the Southwest region as part of its Urgent Priorities and Aging at Home initiatives. The funding includes:
*$310,517 to London Health Sciences Centre for three programs that will improve cancer surgery wait times, improve outcomes for hip and knee care and help long-term ventilation patients get back to their home communities.
*$950,161 to the Southwest Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) for a number of programs including enhanced overnight supports for medically fragile children and improvements to wound care management.
*$857,931 to St. Joseph's Health Care to extend the operation of its Transitional Care Unit Parkwood Hospital until October 2010 when more long term care beds will become operational.
"The transitional care unit is a more appropriate place for patients who no longer need acute care," said Elaine Gibson, vice president complex, specialty aging and rehabilitative care at St. Joseph's Health Care, London.
"It provides restorative care to help patients maximize their potential to be cared for in their own homes with support from the South West Community Care Access Centre, or in long-term care homes or supportive housing," she said.
That was the word from three London MPPs, Deb Matthews, Chris Bentley and Khalil Ramal, as well as representatives from the South West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Friday (Sept. 4).
"Our government is investing in community-based services to improve healthcare." said Ramal MPP, London-Fanshawe.
"The 18 initiatives that are receiving funding through the South West LHIN prove that partnerships and innovative initiatives are making a difference in freeing up emergency room beds and allowing seniors and other patients to stay in their homes," he said.
In total, Ontario is providing funding of $2.4 million to the Southwest region as part of its Urgent Priorities and Aging at Home initiatives. The funding includes:
*$310,517 to London Health Sciences Centre for three programs that will improve cancer surgery wait times, improve outcomes for hip and knee care and help long-term ventilation patients get back to their home communities.
*$950,161 to the Southwest Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) for a number of programs including enhanced overnight supports for medically fragile children and improvements to wound care management.
*$857,931 to St. Joseph's Health Care to extend the operation of its Transitional Care Unit Parkwood Hospital until October 2010 when more long term care beds will become operational.
"The transitional care unit is a more appropriate place for patients who no longer need acute care," said Elaine Gibson, vice president complex, specialty aging and rehabilitative care at St. Joseph's Health Care, London.
"It provides restorative care to help patients maximize their potential to be cared for in their own homes with support from the South West Community Care Access Centre, or in long-term care homes or supportive housing," she said.
Friday, September 4, 2009
We Americans have chosen to leave 47 million of our citizens . . . . . .WITHOUT HEALTH COVERAGE.
| We Americans have chosen to leave 47 million of our citizens . . . . . .WITHOUT HEALTH COVERAGE. |  | Spotlight Universal Healthcare Message to Americans from Canadian Doctors & Healthcare Experts Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada; Steven Lewis, a trusted health policy advisor to Premiers and Ministers; Linda Silas, the head of Canada's nurses unions and several physicians. They tell Americans that Canadian universal healthcare works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal healthcare systems. So here it is: Universal Health Care Message to Americans From Canadian Doctors & Health Care Experts. |
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Final Issue of Nursing BC
A sign of the times
This issue marks the end of Nursing BC. I have had the privilege of editing this publication for 24 of the 41 years it has been in existence, first as RNABC News and then as Nursing BC.
Throughout those years, I have also had the privilege of talking to hundreds of nurses from all parts of the province and beyond – some who wanted to submit articles to the magazine, others who had an issue about something we published, and many who wanted to connect with a nurse who was featured in one of our stories. Overall, it’s been a great ride.
The reasons for ceasing publication of Nursing BC are not motivated by economics, as some believe. Rather, they have more to do with communicating more effectively with you about the regulatory issues that affect your practice as a nurse in B.C. If you have been a long-time reader of Nursing BC, you likely noticed that the content of the publication has changed significantly in recent years. There have been fewer articles about nurses and their practice and more emphasis on Standards of Practice, registration requirements, legislative changes that impact nursing practice and other regulatory matters. This has been necessitated in order to meet the requirements of the provincial legislation that created CRNBC as a regulatory college. Unlike the former RNABC, CRNBC is not an association.
In June, most of you received our first e-mail newsletter. Some of you thought it was informative and useful; others said they would never read it and preferred to read the printed version of Nursing BC. Those of you for whom CRNBC does not have an e-mail address may not have seen this newsletter unless you opened it from the CRNBC website.
The e-mail newsletter is now one of CRNBC’s official methods of notifying you of important regulatory information. It will be e-mailed to you 6-8 times a year. If you do not have an e-mail address or choose not to provide one to CRNBC, you can still find the information on the CRNBC website. CRNBC is currently redesigning its website to make it more user friendly and useful to you. We will let you know when the redesigned website is ready.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the nurses who submitted letters and articles to Nursing BC over the years (sorry we weren’t able to publish all the articles) as well as to CRNBC staff members who vetted and wrote articles for the magazine. Finally, thanks to all the nurses and employers who let us tell their stories.
Bruce Wells
Editor
READ CRNBC’S NEW E-NEWSLETTER ONLINE
Have you read our new e-mail newsletter? If not, you can find it on our website at www.crnbc.ca It’s one of our official methods of notifying you about important regulatory information that impacts your nursing practice.
Do we have your current e-mail address?
To receive the e-newsletter, we need your current e-mail address. You can update your e-mail address by going to the Contact Us section of the CRNBC website www.crnbc.ca and clicking Change Your Address.
If you do not have an e-mail address, please refer to the CRNBC website regularly for registration information and other information that may impact your nursing practice.
This issue marks the end of Nursing BC. I have had the privilege of editing this publication for 24 of the 41 years it has been in existence, first as RNABC News and then as Nursing BC.
Throughout those years, I have also had the privilege of talking to hundreds of nurses from all parts of the province and beyond – some who wanted to submit articles to the magazine, others who had an issue about something we published, and many who wanted to connect with a nurse who was featured in one of our stories. Overall, it’s been a great ride.
The reasons for ceasing publication of Nursing BC are not motivated by economics, as some believe. Rather, they have more to do with communicating more effectively with you about the regulatory issues that affect your practice as a nurse in B.C. If you have been a long-time reader of Nursing BC, you likely noticed that the content of the publication has changed significantly in recent years. There have been fewer articles about nurses and their practice and more emphasis on Standards of Practice, registration requirements, legislative changes that impact nursing practice and other regulatory matters. This has been necessitated in order to meet the requirements of the provincial legislation that created CRNBC as a regulatory college. Unlike the former RNABC, CRNBC is not an association.
In June, most of you received our first e-mail newsletter. Some of you thought it was informative and useful; others said they would never read it and preferred to read the printed version of Nursing BC. Those of you for whom CRNBC does not have an e-mail address may not have seen this newsletter unless you opened it from the CRNBC website.
The e-mail newsletter is now one of CRNBC’s official methods of notifying you of important regulatory information. It will be e-mailed to you 6-8 times a year. If you do not have an e-mail address or choose not to provide one to CRNBC, you can still find the information on the CRNBC website. CRNBC is currently redesigning its website to make it more user friendly and useful to you. We will let you know when the redesigned website is ready.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the nurses who submitted letters and articles to Nursing BC over the years (sorry we weren’t able to publish all the articles) as well as to CRNBC staff members who vetted and wrote articles for the magazine. Finally, thanks to all the nurses and employers who let us tell their stories.
Bruce Wells
Editor
READ CRNBC’S NEW E-NEWSLETTER ONLINE
Have you read our new e-mail newsletter? If not, you can find it on our website at www.crnbc.ca It’s one of our official methods of notifying you about important regulatory information that impacts your nursing practice.
Do we have your current e-mail address?
To receive the e-newsletter, we need your current e-mail address. You can update your e-mail address by going to the Contact Us section of the CRNBC website www.crnbc.ca and clicking Change Your Address.
If you do not have an e-mail address, please refer to the CRNBC website regularly for registration information and other information that may impact your nursing practice.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Universal Healthcare Message to Americans from Canadian Doctors & Healthcare Experts
Spotlight
Universal Healthcare Message to Americans from Canadian Doctors & Healthcare Experts. go to: http://www.longwoods.com
Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada; Steven Lewis, a trusted health policy advisor to Premiers and Ministers; Linda Silas, the head of Canada's nurses unions and several physicians. They tell Americans that Canadian universal healthcare works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal healthcare systems.
Universal Healthcare Message to Americans from Canadian Doctors & Healthcare Experts. go to: http://www.longwoods.com
Canadian Doctors for Medicare hosted a celebration of Medicare in Canada. The speakers included Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan Premier and Commissioner on Health Care in Canada; Steven Lewis, a trusted health policy advisor to Premiers and Ministers; Linda Silas, the head of Canada's nurses unions and several physicians. They tell Americans that Canadian universal healthcare works and encourage Americans to implement a single payer universal healthcare systems.
Monday, August 24, 2009
5 Myths About Health Care Around the World
From the Washington Post:
By T.R. Reid | Sunday, August 23, 2009
As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do.
I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:
1. It's all socialized medicine out there.
Not so. ….
2. Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.
Generally, no.
3. Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies.
Much less so than here.
4. Cost controls stifle innovation.
False.
5. Health insurance has to be cruel.
Not really.
This fragmentation is another reason that we spend more than anybody else and still leave millions without coverage. All the other developed countries have settled on one model for health-care delivery and finance; we've blended them all into a costly, confusing bureaucratic mess.
Which, in turn, punctures the most persistent myth of all: that America has "the finest health care" in the world. We don't. In terms of results, almost all advanced countries have better national health statistics than the United States does. In terms of finance, we force 700,000 Americans into bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero.
Given our remarkable medical assets -- the best-educated doctors and nurses, the most advanced hospitals, world-class research -- the United States could be, and should be, the best in the world. To get there, though, we have to be willing to learn some lessons about health-care administration from the other industrialized democracies.
T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, is the author of "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care," to be published Monday.
To read the whole column click below (or click the title).
By T.R. Reid | Sunday, August 23, 2009
As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do.
I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:
1. It's all socialized medicine out there.
Not so. ….
2. Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.
Generally, no.
3. Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies.
Much less so than here.
4. Cost controls stifle innovation.
False.
5. Health insurance has to be cruel.
Not really.
This fragmentation is another reason that we spend more than anybody else and still leave millions without coverage. All the other developed countries have settled on one model for health-care delivery and finance; we've blended them all into a costly, confusing bureaucratic mess.
Which, in turn, punctures the most persistent myth of all: that America has "the finest health care" in the world. We don't. In terms of results, almost all advanced countries have better national health statistics than the United States does. In terms of finance, we force 700,000 Americans into bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero.
Given our remarkable medical assets -- the best-educated doctors and nurses, the most advanced hospitals, world-class research -- the United States could be, and should be, the best in the world. To get there, though, we have to be willing to learn some lessons about health-care administration from the other industrialized democracies.
T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post reporter, is the author of "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care," to be published Monday.
To read the whole column click below (or click the title).
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Canadian government will soon place an order for 50.4 million doses of the influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.
Canadian public health officials announced recently that the Canadian government will soon place an order for 50.4 million doses of the influenza A (H1N1) vaccine.
The officials, Leona Aglukkaq, Canada’s Minister of Health, and David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said they expect the vaccine will be available in time for the winter influenza season.
“The government of Canada will ensure sufficient H1N1 vaccine is available to immunize every Canadian who needs and wants protection from the H1N1 virus,” Aglukkaq said in a press release. “We are pleased to have worked together with provinces and territories in implementing a coordinated, pan-Canadian response to all elements of the H1N1 outbreak, including decisions around vaccines.”
“We are confident the 50.4 million vaccine doses we plan to purchase will be sufficient to meet the needs of every Canadian likely to need and want protection,” said Butler-Jones.
Aglukkaq and Butler-Jones also said that although the delivery of immunization typically falls under the jurisdiction of Canadian provincial and territorial governments, the federal Canadian government is making an exception in this case and plans to cover 60% of the costs.
The officials, Leona Aglukkaq, Canada’s Minister of Health, and David Butler-Jones, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, said they expect the vaccine will be available in time for the winter influenza season.
“The government of Canada will ensure sufficient H1N1 vaccine is available to immunize every Canadian who needs and wants protection from the H1N1 virus,” Aglukkaq said in a press release. “We are pleased to have worked together with provinces and territories in implementing a coordinated, pan-Canadian response to all elements of the H1N1 outbreak, including decisions around vaccines.”
“We are confident the 50.4 million vaccine doses we plan to purchase will be sufficient to meet the needs of every Canadian likely to need and want protection,” said Butler-Jones.
Aglukkaq and Butler-Jones also said that although the delivery of immunization typically falls under the jurisdiction of Canadian provincial and territorial governments, the federal Canadian government is making an exception in this case and plans to cover 60% of the costs.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
17 percent of Canadians subject to medical, medication, or laboratory errors. Commonwealth Study
17 percent of Canadians subject to medical, medication, or laboratory errors. Commonwealth Study
20 percent of Americans and Australians report that they were subject to medical, medication, or laboratory errors.
Evidence of patient safety risks and their impact on patients continues to emerge, both in hospitals and community settings.
HEALTHCARE LAGGING IN CREATING EFFECTIVE SAFETY LEARNING SYSTEMS. Seven Country Study
G. Ross Baker, co-author of The (2004) Canadian Adverse Events Study. Can. Med. Assoc. J., May 2004) calls for "deeper capacity" to deal with ongoing changes in healthcare.
In his editorial to the fourth special issue of the journal Healthcare Quarterly dedicated to patient safety, he quotes a colleague's words: "safety is a dynamic and emerging state that is continually renegotiated as things change. And in healthcare everything changes all the time ... so [we need] to develop a deeper capacity to deal with these issues so we can understand the complexity that we are working in."
May 2009 marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of the Canadian Adverse Events Study. He now writes:
• Evidence of risks and their impact on patients continues to emerge, both in hospitals (where the evidence is considerable) and community settings (where it is not).
• New technologies that improve diagnostic capabilities or offer therapeutic benefits often carry risks.
• Even if these risks are carefully calibrated, this knowledge is not always widely shared.
• Methods and tools alone may be insufficient to create an environment supporting safer care.
• Hand hygiene is "widely recognized as a critical practice for reducing healthcare-associated infections, many audits find only modest levels of acceptable practice."
Many experts, he writes, believe that healthcare has lagged in creating the types of effective safety learning systems seen in other high-risk industries.
Full issue available here:
http://www.longwoods.com/home.php?cat=604.
Self reported errors discussed here:
http://www.longwoods.com/product.php?productid=20967&cat=604&page=1
To contact the Editor please write G. Ross Baker (ross.baker@utoronto.ca).
PDF formats available here
Download article PDF here: http://www.longwoods.com/view.php?aid=20967&cat=604
Download Full Issue PDF here: http://www.longwoods.com/view.php?aid=604&cat=604
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