Median compensation for U.S. primary care physicians increased by 2% to 171,519 in 2006, compared with a 3.2% increase in the inflation rate, according to an annual survey released on Monday by the Medical Group Management Association, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. [click link for full article]

Well over half (58 per cent) of professional nurses have admitted they wouldn't report abuse of an older person in their care for fear of misinterpreting the situation. Two thirds say that responsibility for too many patients prevents them from giving the best possible care, according to a major new survey carried out for Help the Aged. [click link for full article]

in fact its a very happy day for me ... they have let me free ... yippee :) (more...)

Ikey is three months old today. Man I wish I had a birthday every month. That'd be so cool. So now I guess I fill you in on all things Ikey. Right now he's sitting in his bouncy chair in a stripped onsie that his cousin Cornelius wore 10 years ago. The bouncy chair almost touches the ground under the weight of his pudgy body. Silas just tried sitting on him. In the last 10 minutes Silas has also laid on him (gently) for a cuddle, tried to pick him up, kissed him, stroked his head...etc. He's a very gentle and loving big brother, it's amazing.

Isaac is around 18 pounds now. He's so stinking fat and I love it. We're switching to 9 month clothes soon...my goodness. He's also recently found his fist and he consentraits very hard to get it into his mouth. He usually brings his hands together and then slowly raises them towards his mouth. A few days ago they usually hit somewhere around his forehead but now he's getting it right. They learn so fast. I stick him in his bumbo chair with the tray on and a toy and he focusses SO hard on the toy and tries to get it. He'll get it in a few weeks no doubt.

Isaac is a VERY social boy. It's unreal how much he loves to just sit and talk to you. He's very different from Silas in that way, Silas wouldn't make a lot of eye contact and he wouldn't chat either. Ikey likes my face most (another thing that Silas was different about...Silas didn't care if it was me or Satan) and his eyes will light up brighter and he will smile bigger if he sees me. I love that. He just gave Silas a big bright smile. Silas is now smelling his hair. Now he has his head on Ikey's chest and saying "cuddle cuddle". Darling boy.

Ike follows people around the room now which is nice to see...good to know he can see well now. I always feel so bad for them when all they can see is blur and faces coming in and out of focus.

Isaac can giggle now and he does it when I bounce him or when he gets tickled. He's very ticklish and ever since birth he's really loved bouncing, it's how he's best soothed. (Silas is now saying "hellooo Ikey, boogey boogey,") I love his giggles, they make me melty. My face usually hurts after Ikey is giggling because I'm smiling so hard.

Nursing him still sucks but I'm dilligent. I'm going to try and train him to take a bottle so I can have a break and have dates and whatnot. I think it's best for me. I'll still nurse most of the time...he just needs to learn the bottle for all of our sanity.

Anyway, I've grown to completely adore my Isaac. He's such a darling, I love him with all of me. He's such a happy boy. I need to rock him to sleep now. He's been asking for it for a bit now.

It certainly seems that everyone calls each other by their first names these days. This seems to have been perpetuated by the email where formality seems pretty taboo. Even people you neither know nor want to know address you by your first name. There is a great risk in this approach, as what is listed as your name on your email address is not necessarily what you wish to be called by.

 

Life was so much simpler in the good (or bad old days). As young nurses we were in awe of the more senior nurses, particularly the ward sister and nursing officer (as the matrons had turned into) and of course the doctors. Sometimes the junior doctors and staff nurses addressed each other more informally, but then there was always the possibility they were sleeping together (but then that is a whole different topic for another time).

 

As a more senior nurse I generally conversed with my doctor colleagues on first name terms, but in front of patients I always preferred to be more formal. So what do you think?

Nursing voices is a forum for nurses all over the world, where people can get together to discuss topics that are important and interesting to them. Why do you tell us what you think?

Do you call the docs you work with by their first names?

Hello all,

The HSJ website - http://www.hsj.co.uk/ - has been relaunched with some new features which you might want to take a look at! However, you need to log in to reap the full benefits, so contact ILS for details.

Features include:

• A new 'Inside Knowledge' section, including barometers, data briefings and policy briefings
• Links to related stories and documents alongside each article
• More email newsletters - keep up-to-date!!
• Searchable archive of articles, going back to May 2006
• Best practice features and columns

Enjoy!

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, countless numbers watched, and listened, to the growing chaos in disbelief. Thousands of registered nurses from across the nation, frustrated in their efforts to volunteer through government or private relief agencies turned to the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association to do what they do best provide hands-on, front line care to the sick and injured. [click link for full article]

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the UK regulator for nurses and midwives, has published its latest annual fitness to practise report for 2005-2006. [click link for full article]

A 33 year-old nurse from Newtownards has been struck off the register after sexually harassing colleagues and two students. A panel of the Nursing and Midwifery conduct and competence committee found Jonathan Gourley, who was employed as an F grade senior nurse and mentor at Ulster Hospital, Dundonald at the time the incidents occurred, guilty of misconduct and removed him from the register. [click link for full article]

In response to the 2.7 billion dollars cuts to Medicare that were passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act), the long term care provider community today initiated an aggressive TV and print campaign in Congressional districts across the country. [click link for full article]