jnette

Lovely. In the end, more powerful than medicine, more meaningful than "proper" technique. And universal.. isn't that what we ALL want? Just be good to me. CARE.. and you'll do everything perfectly.

Ouch !!! Agree with all the above advice. And do be careful. Document EVERYTHING and make copies. Get this resolved ASAP. NO ONE should have to put up with this nonsense. EVER. What a dirtball.

I work in Home Health. No longer a road warrior, have been in charge of providing patient education materials for our road nurses for the past year. I spend a LOT of time online searching for the best available patient education handouts to send out to the home. Here are a few links to those which I have found to be not only informative, but easy to read and understand: Interactive Health Tutorials: MedlinePlus ... click on the condition or subject of your choice and it will bring up a page which has several options.. click on the "text summary" option and voila! A lovely, pdf format printable handout. Here is a link as an example of what it looks like: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: MedlinePlus Interactive Health Tutorial from the Patient Education Institute then THIS is what you'll see after choosing "text summary": http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/abdominalaorticaneurysm/vs049103.pdf I use these a lot, and there are quite a few to choose from. Some do not have the text summary version, but most do. For those of you in HH or geriatrics, this site has some awesome printable materials as well : NIHSeniorHealth Home Page This site, too, is a good one (once open click on "publications") http://www.nia.nih.gov/health/publication Lots of good material there.. love their "Age Page" handouts. I will copy some more saved links I have at work and try to include them here this week.. I've found some really nice material out there, including Hispanic versions ! :)

Thanx, Trauma ! I'll add more in time as I come across them. For patients with computer savvy, I also give them links to helpful websites. These patients unfortunately don't get much initial information from their nephrologist, and while we had handouts and provided education at the dialysis clinic, the info provided in the links above are far more in depth, so they can enjoy reading up on the materials later in the comfort of their homes rather than while feeling poorly during treatment.

here's another article that might be helpful: Understanding How Fluid Gains Affect Dialysis :)

Having been a dialysis nurse several years ago, and now a HH nurse with patients who also are on dialysis, I have spent hours online finding helpful educational materials to send out to the home.. especially for those patients new to dialysis. I will list some of these links for your use...most are print ready, and I have found our patients are most appreciative of anything we can offer them to help them with gaining a greater understanding of dialysis and their restrictive diets. Hope this will be helpful to both nurses and your patients ! :) http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/eatright/ http://www.kidneyschool.org/ http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/hemodialysis/ http://www.kidneytimes.com/ http://www.google.com/search?q=hemodialysis&hl=en&sa=G&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=LvwJT-_9Gsnf0QGrt7CLAg&ved=0CHIQsAQ&biw=1030&bih=504 And this site is quite interesting and enjoyable... gives some real perspective and insight to our patients on dialysis.. their concerns and struggles... and shared recipes !!! http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?board=32.0

here's a great link I like to use to print off renal diet/fluids for our HH patients who are on dialysis: Eat Right to Feel Right on Hemodialysis - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse Our patients have really enjoyed this information as it is explained clearly and in large print :)

As always !

Well, actually, I'm so thrilled to have power back on, I'm not sleepy now.. haha ! So I'll touch on this a bit, and we can continue more over the next couple days... My first and only grandson was dx'd with HFA (high functioning autism) in Feb. on his third B'day. Needless to say, we were (initially) devastated. Up 'til then, I had heard only the usual "horror stories" and knew only very little about the autism spectrum.. only what I had heard on the news or read in a few articles. We had no idea what to expect. To spare you all the lengthy details, and myself from having to retype it all again, I'll include a link to my blog, and you can take your time reading through everything as it all developed.. I haven't written anything more since May/June or so, as it's been a busy summer... hope to begin writing again this fall. http://jnettlee.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/the-reflecting-pool/ I want to offer you encouragement, however.... since his diagnosis in Feb, Gavin has made HUGE strides !!!! It is AMAZING how far he has come in just a few short months! From being nearly non-verbal and spinning the wheels on his toy cars, no eye contact... etc., etc, etc... he now is laughing, verbally COMMUNICATING (not just echolalia, but making his wants/needs known) in real SENTENCES, is nearly fully potty trained, and has recently begun to not just TOLERATE (which he never even did before) having children around him, but actually is now beginning to interact with them, sharing his toys, and the other day even HELD HANDS with a little friend.... unthinkable and unimaginable only a month or two ago ! I could go on for hours.. truly... at the changes we have seen this summer. He started special ed preschool in April, then went to Summer Camp for Autism locally for a week (AWESOME!) in July, and just started back in sp. ed preschool last week. His teacher is amazed at the progress he has made and says he is like a totally different child. Believe me when I say I know the roller coaster of emotions one experiences when receiving the diagnosis. And yet now, I can also totally relate to Palemoon's post as well. My daughter and I have spent innumerable hours online researching everything we could on autism, and have connected with a HUGE autism community... parents of children on the spectrum... every level of the spectrum. There is a wonderful autism Twitter community.. they have been a wealth of information and support. There is an awesome Facebook community as well... I have all kinds of links to just about anything you might want or need. From every position/perspective on this topic. And there are MANY. We, too, have chosen to go with the biomedical approach. We unfortunately do not have any DAN doctors anywhere near us, but are utilizing everything we have available to us along those lines. Please feel free to pm me at any time of you choose. I'll do my very best to help out in any way possible, or direct you to those I feel can do so. There is so MUCH to learn, and we continue to learn more every day. Be encouraged. As Palemoon stated so very well, ..." a disability like deafness, in that we don't consider ourselves to be "sick" and in need of "correcting," or "curing," instead we need help to live in our communities fully and communicate with neurotypical people..." I am now able to fully agree.. no longer see it as the unknown monster in the dark. One more suggestion for you.. get that sweet child an iPad if at all possible !!! There are sooooooo many WONDERFUL apps out there for autistic kiddos, and they are INVALUABLE teaching tools. SO MUCH of Gavin's progress has come from his iPad. I can guide you in choosing the most helpful apps as well. OK.. I could go on and on... will wait to hear back from you and go from there. I was a wreck when we first knew for sure about Gavin..... and now.... wow ! It has been such an amazing, fascinating, and WONDERFUL journey! :heartbeat

OK.. promised to get with you today, but got home from work yesterday and we had a small tornado tear through our area and lost power at 5 pm yesterday and only now just came back on. Crazy weather these days !!!! Will have plenty of time to get on this tomorrow, though. Sorry for the delay ! :hug:

Hi here from VA as well ! At t work right now but will be happy to discuss things with you this evening after work and/or over the weekend :)

Here's a really good link for some WONDERFUL print friendly patient tutorials ! https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html The ones that have the X-Plain tutorials are really, really good. You'll have to click on the "text summary" tab at the top for these, then print. Love that they are easy for our patients to read, yet well explained, and thorough. :)

I have found some truly AWSOME websites which provide great teaching materials to download, PDF or regular web version, and most of these also include spanish translations. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, Uptodate.com, Medlineplus.gov and the CDC website, also had some great teaching materials ! Most of them are in easy-to-read large print, especially nice for our elderly patients. As you learn to navigate the sites and the tab scroll bars on the left, you will find an absolute wealth of teaching materials for your HH patients !!! :)

Kudos to all with these helpful links and beaucoup kudos to NrsKaren for the link to NIH Senior Health ! Thanx to her I have now found the Holy Grail of senior HH teaching materials !!! :up: In particular, I LOVE the large, bold type AND the built in "quizzes".... very useful for reaching required goals of teaching.. having our patients be able to answer questions relating to their condition. Medicare auditors do ask the patients questions like these when they go into the homes. Teaching is not enough... they want to know if the patients are learning something. With these simple, yet effective built in mini-quizzes, this facilitates the nurse's job tremendoulsly. At the end of the visit, the nurse can document the teaching provided and that "patient was able to name 1-2 causes of home falls", ie., or "was able to name 2-3 benefits of lowering cholesterol".... etc. I LOVE it ! I am now in charge of providing education/teaching packets for our road nurses.. to save them time in the mornings before going out. I have file cabinets full of categorized teachings, but this was EXACTLY what I was looking for !!! THANK YOU !!! :) Please keep the good links coming... for free, web based printable teaching guides for HH patients. Will be checking back here often for any new or updated material. Will be looking into the Spanish teaching materials tomorrow, as this will be a huge benefit to us as well. Again, keep up the good work, and Thank You !

Ditto ! :)