(no subject)

[novapsyche]

Mob kills up to 50 at Kenya church: 'They were hacking people and then setting them on fire,' survivor says -- Horrific. This is in response to the election returns from last week.

Pakistan elections delayed until February -- NPR reported that some suspected the government feared a sympathy vote.

Prescribing gap may leave blacks in more pain: Study shows minorities are less likely to get narcotics from ER doctors -- "'It's time to move past describing disparities and work on narrowing them,' said Dr. Thomas L. Fisher."

Rare purple pearl served up in plate of clams

Comments

[johanna-hypatia.livejournal.com]

Shades of Steinbeck. The purple pearl people better start watching behind them...

[sarahsmiles.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this will be a year unlike the previous ones...

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

The prescribing gap is real.

One of the things standardized orders do is prevent that. It's cookbook medicine but it gives me the tools I need to relieve pain. Interestingly this pattern persists with foreign-born foreign-educated physicians, not just American ones.

Not too long ago I had a patient with pain that wasn't responding the way the residents thought it ought to. Some will blame the patient, it seems. "He'll just have to wait till the next dose," I got told.

He doesn't have a history of drug abuse or prescription drug misuse. Can we operate from the assumption that pain is what the patient says it is???? He's in pain. You need to make it get to a level he can stand to live with.

He grumbled, but he gave me the order and even said yes when I asked if he wanted to consult the pain management service (which is what should have been done in the first place). Twenty minutes later the crease between his eyebrows is gone. Four hours later he's walking in the hall instead of curled into a ball because he got a PCA (patient controlled anesthesia- small frequent doses instead of big blasts every two hours).

Finally we're starting to think of pain as the 5th vital sign.