Prevent Hair Loss During Chemotherapy Treatments Get the Facts on the Penguin Cold Cap R.N.s in oncology and med/surg jobs figure prominently into the care and treatment of breast cancer survivors; keeping patients’ morale high during chemotherapy is an absolute must—and that’s why compassionate professionals in registered nurse and travel nurse jobs should prioritize keeping up with the latest in alopecia solutions, recognized worldwide. The Penguin Cold Cap is such a solution, and grabbed the interest of the healthcare community at large, recently, when its related non-profit, The Rupunzel Project, which subsidizes the cost of cold caps for women with breast cancer, was featured on Good Morning America. The reason Cold Caps are increasing in popularity; It’s good news for your patients!      Cold caps have been around for decades, but are only recently achieving success and popularity. First introduced in 1994, with FDA support pending until more studies are run on the risk of developing scalp metastasis, Penguin cold caps recently calculated a miniscule 1.1% risk. These studies were on women with cancer in the early stages, and further showed an 80 to 90% success rate among patients whose treatments allowed them to use the caps correctly.

[+]

Checklists are Promoting Safer Standards in US Hospitals Travel nurse jobs give R.N.s the distinct advantage of exposure to a wide variety of charting systems, familiarizing many with what has today become a popular practice in surgical jobs: making checklists. Surgical checklists are creating a sizeable dip in errors and patient mortality—and it’s not just their content changing patient outcomes and hospital efficiency for the better—it’s also the teamwork required from everyone on the surgical team committed to seeing checklists work. Borrowing a strategy from the aviation industry, healthcare is also using teamwork and briefings, to improve safety and efficiency during operations. Surgical checklists are a component in this, so effective they are becoming a new standard in healthcare; even the most highly regarded US hospitals are improving thanks to checklists. Surgical checklists document every step of a patient’s surgery and hospitalization, from admission to discharge, and are reducing the risk of dying after surgery and suffering other types of complications. In one study that addressed a pool of 7,600 patients, surgical checklists decreased mortality by half and morbidity by one-third; these statistics were generated in six different Netherlands hospitals, on 11 separate checklists comprised of [+]

Studies show that using safety techniques from the aviation industry may be the answer According to a study based on surgical teams from hospitals around the country, safety techniques—similar to ones used by the aviation industry—cut death rates from surgery by an astounding 18%. This is compelling news for those in operating room nurse jobs and other healthcare professionals in med surg jobs, interested in the benefits of teamwork. Known as "briefings" in the airline industry, the meetings are conducted before and after each flight, so that crews can anticipate and prepare for potential and/or future safety hazards. In a healthcare setting, "briefings" aided surgical teams in making important discoveries about the specifics of each patient's illness or condition prior to and after each surgical procedure. Checklists are a Must for Team Building in Surgical jobs The aviation industry doesn’t like surprises and either should operating room nurses and professionals in med/surg jobs. So what kinds of tactics are being used to eliminate surprises, and strengthen professional relationships among the operating room team? Operating room nurses are asked (to learn) to recognize red flags Med surg and OR nurses are expected to challenge colleagues should safety risks come up Operating room nurses are expected to develop [+]