How Google Glass Could Be a Boon for Nurses?

The moment you step in to a medical facility for treatment, a nurse wearing Google Glass will have all your information right in front of her eyes, from your personal medical history to current health issues, name of the doctor you are consulting, treatment & medication, real-time stats of blood pressure, heart beat, blood sugar and more such related information.

Easy access to patient information is considered as the biggest benefit a nurse could have from Google Glass. A nurse can quickly locate and see health history of a patient without having to take her hands off a patient or excuse herself from a procedure.

Think about if all the nurses are wearing Google Glass and is integrated with the hospital's database system, communication and interaction among them will be done in the blink of an eye. If the nurse's hands are gloved and dirty, it’s not a good idea to pick up and answer the phone. However,with the help of Google Glass, nurses could easily interact and complete the conversation without leaving the work they are doing. Google Glass can also show text messages and updates via the screen.

Since the introduction, Google Glass works best for information purposes. With continuous development, other medical procedures could be integrated so long as there was a perfected way to make sure that patient information goes to the right place on the hands of right person.

On the other hand, when new technology is introduced into patient care, there is always a concern of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) because Google Glass are devices for personal use primarily. However, such concern could be resolved if these are owned by the healthcare organization and are encrypted on the hospital network.

As technology leaps ahead in future, it will become increasingly available to the mass and technologies like Google Glass won’t be a peculiarity at the bedside, but rather the anticipation. If you are a nurse practicing in a healthcare facility, let us know what your thoughts on Google Glass are.

Vein Viewer - A Technology that Helps to Visualize Veins of a Patient

There’s no one in this world who enjoys poking their veins with needles and healthcare professionals too feels the discomfort in prodding or injecting needles in to the veins of the patients. To ease botheration and help nursing staff in finding the vein, there is a device that illuminates the vein beneath the layer of the skin – it’s the Vein Viewer.

Vein Viewer provides an x-ray like view to allow a nurse or clinician to inject needles in order to withdraw blood from person’s vein. The infrared light used in Vein Viewer makes it easier to see through the layer of skin up to 10mm to 15mm deep. The hemoglobin in the blood absorbs the infrared light and the surrounding tissue reflects it. Vein Viewer then use this information to create a digital HD image, sprucing up the vasculature of the patient.

This technological breakthrough empowers healthcare professionals with benefits pertaining to vein detection and visualization in the most convenient ways. Thereafter, it becomes quite easier to identify the actual point of injecting a needle and in selecting the suitable needle gauge according to the size of the patient’s vein. Eventually, it helps patient care providers to refrain from any potentially problematic structures.

The top most advantage of Vein Viewer is that it provides live visual feedback that helps to confirm the flow both in and out of the veins and monitored before any problems arise. Another advantage of this technology is in being able to navigate a catheter around difficult curves, the ability to see a rolling vein and the ability to confirm proper IV flow.

Additionally, Vein Viewer can easily identify a hematoma and can provide confirmation of peripheral IV situation that helps to avoid medically preventable central lines like PICC or CVC. Healthcare facilities like hospitals, physician’s clinics, aesthetics, emergency, trauma and outpatient centers are gearing up to utilize the benefits of Vein Viewer while providing medical services to the patients.

4 Things That an Employer Doesn't Want in a Nurse

Most probably, you gave all the correct answers to the questions asked in the interviews you've been through till date to get selected as a nursing professional. But an employer searches for a nursing professional who will give the 'most correct' answers to the questions he/she asks. Not only this, a nursing professional is not merely confined to give the 'most correct' answers but also to be an all-rounder and a responsible human being. Moreover, when it comes to nursing, nobody wants their near and dear ones getting treatment and care from any random person. So, a nursing professional has to know certain hacks and tips to get through an interview. Here are things that your potential employer DOESN'T want to see in you being a nurse -

Ignored Hygiene and Improper Attire

It's not even something to be told over, or is it? Well, it is. Be it any job, the employer will get impressed by your hygiene. Yes, cleanliness does definitely cast level five spell of charm and so does your crisp, sharp and clean professional attire. It's important to have your scrub properly fit. Untrimmed facial hair and dirty nails are distracting things so get them trimmed and manicured regularly. Moreover, it'd be great if you'll be smelling good, even without those splashes of perfume. All that you need is some spit and polish!

Overconfidence - Basically, Over of 'everything'

No doubt, confidence is a person's billboard. However, how unpleasant is to encounter a person with pride, be it even in our normal lives. Learning is a never-ending process. Moreover, who doesn't like people who are always open to learn about new things? A successful nursing professional will always be striving to learn the best out of all ways of doing something they might already know how to do. An employer would not like to see a nurse's human resources going from confident to over-confidently arrogant.

Not Having Any Other Interests

Let it be any profession, how much do you like a person drown into theoretical knowledge and being confined to such a limited periphery that he/she doesn't have any other hobbies. Well, we don't actually like such individuals. No offenses, but why would even an employer like a boring person? Nursing as a profession gets quite stressful, emotional and even tragic at times. Don't let it dry your sense of humor. Nurses have to have certain outside interests in order to cope up with the tragedy and pain they might experience. Of course, nurses with no outside interests do not really interest an employer.

Short-term Potential

No boss likes a person with short-term potential. Nursing as a profession includes situations with taxing work hours, or working at nights. Well, it might get your sleeping schedule ruined to no way back to repair, but it gets you under pressure of a well-analyzed time-management under your control once you get used to it. An employer sitting to interview for the post of a nurse would surely ask about your willingness to work at nights or working at weird schedules or even at emergencies. Not being willing to work on weekends, night shifts, off-shifts will eventually decrease your possibilities or chances to get the job of a nursing professional. After all, a successful nurse would make her/himself available anytime, anyhow and that's the way he/she will make a difference every day.