Nerdy Nursing & Medical Science

And of course this bias doesn’t just go away beyond the classroom.

Male biology students consistently underestimate female peers, study finds

Female college students are more likely to abandon studies in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines than their male classmates, and new research from the University of Washington suggests that those male peers may play a key role in undermining their confidence.

Published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, the study* found that males enrolled in undergraduate biology classes consistently ranked their male classmates as more knowledgeable about course content, even over better-performing female students.

The over-ranking equated to males ranking their male peers smarter by three-quarters of a GPA point* than their equally-performing female classmates, showing what researchers say amounts to a clear and consistent gender bias. Female students, on the other hand, repeatedly showed no significant bias in whom they picked as knowledgeable.

“This shows that there is a huge inequity in who male students think is strong in the class materials,” said lead author Dan Grunspan, a doctoral candidate in the UW Department of Anthropology.

“Males were consistently nominated as being more knowledgeable by their male peers, regardless of performance.”

You can find love in the strangest of places

Clockwise, top left to center:

1. In a pancreas

2. In a Pap smear

3. In a thyroid follicle

4. In an anal canal 

5. In a lymph node

6. In a parotid gland

7. In a colonic crypt

8. In a bronchiole

9. In a lung carcinoma

i♡histo

Bacteria that resist the most common antibiotic of last resort - colistin - have been discovered in the UK.

Officials say the threat to human health is low, but is under ongoing review.

Scientists warned the world was on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era when such resistance was discovered in China last month.

Now checks have discovered the same resistance on three farms and in samples of human infections.

When all other antibiotics fail then doctors turn to colistin - that’s why it is so important.

This new painkilling patch releases Ibuprofen over 12 hours

Scientists in the UK in partnership with drug delivery firm Medherant have come up with a clear gel patch that administers the drug over the course of half a day. It’s simple, convenient, and it can be worn discreetly under clothes.

The patch is strong enough to adhere to the skin, while retaining the flexiblity it needs to avoid interfering with the natural movements of the body. For those who need pain relief quickly, slapping on one or two of these patches over the course of a day is going to be much more straightforward than remembering to take a dose of pills every 4 hours or so.

The patch can be used to administer the drug exactly where it’s needed at a consistent dose rate, and up to 30 percent of the material’s weight can be the Ibuprofen itself (most existing patches top out at 10 percent).

I Promise to be there if:

You’ve had a bad call

Its been a long shift

Your patient has taken a turn for the worse

The day is just not going your way

You feel like you could do better

For anything at all, even if its not work related

And especially for the good news and great days

I am an ER nurse and this is the best description of this event that I have ever heard. 

 FEMALE HEART ATTACKS 

 I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is description is so incredibly visceral that I feel like I have an entire new understanding of what it feels like to be living the symptoms on the inside. Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have… you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor the we see in movies. Here is the story of one woman’s experience with a heart attack: 

 "I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, ‘A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up. A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you’ve been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you’ve swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn’t have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation–the only trouble was that I hadn’t taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m. 

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. ‘AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening – we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven’t we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I’m having a heart attack! I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn’t be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else… but, on the other hand, if I don’t, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment. 

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics… I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn’t feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in. I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don’t remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?’) but I couldn’t make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery. 

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents. Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand. 

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men’s symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act). It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn’t know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they wake up… which doesn’t happen. My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you’ve not felt before. It is better to have a 'false alarm’ visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be! 2. Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.’ And if you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what’s happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor – he doesn’t know where you live and if it’s at night you won’t reach him anyway, and if it’s daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn’t carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later. 3. Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it’s unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive to tell the tale.“

Today my coworker had a beeping pump but was tied up in another room, so another nurse went in. The night nurse had forgotten to reset Volume To Be Infused when they hung the bag so it was beeping “infusion complete” even though there was 400cc left in the bag. Not looking, this nurse thought she was being helpful and turned the pump off (but didn’t disconnect the patient).

Coworker peeks her head in, hears no beeping and is told by the patient that another nurse came in and fixed it. Nurse smiles and signs her hourly rounding. Goes to lunch. Doesn’t manage to get back to the room for another 2 or so hours. Goes in to pause the IV so she can draw a PTT, because this is a heparin drip.

And suddenly finds that the heparin drip hasn’t been on for 2 hours or so. She was told another nurse took care of it, but the other nurse never mentioned shutting it off.

Do. Not. Turn. Off. Another. Nurse’s. Pump. 

(bangs head against wall and eats a sleeve of Oreos)

Wait….our policy calls for this wattage but it’s not The wattage the DOH recommended last time they inspected. There is no right answer.

(hospital admins remove all light bulbs from the hospital immediately)

(each patient room is equipped with 1 flashlight)