ET PROCEDURE DEMOSTRATED TO NURSES

Alhaj Alhassan Dobia  The Principal Nursing Officer demostrating Endotracheal Intubation to ICU Nurses at Tamale Teaching Hospital Ghana. The ward incharge of the department.This was part of inspiring the staff aand to equip them with the basic skills of Advance Lifes Support!.
yakubu h.yakubu
writer.

OBESITY A GROWING PROBLEM IN GHANA

It is increasely becoming a very big problem in Ghana.Obesity is excessive body fat to the point where it impairs the health of the individual and it is a leading cause of preventable illnesses and deaths worldwide.This is worrisome as a research conducted by WHO in 2007 among seven African countries indicated a lead by Ghana in obesity.
Obesity increases the risk of several conditions including diabetes, hypertension and other heart diseases.Today on GBC24 hours news edition indicated that ,there are 43million obese children in the world.Obesity among school children in Ghana has increased which is a worry to our health care system.It is estimated that,1.32per cent of school children are obesed which are mostly due to overfeeding by parents and the inactivity of school children as most schools do not have play grounds.It has also send a signal that we now have multi-double nutritional problem in Ghana.Whiles some have less to eat are malnourished some have more and do not eat well or have bad eating habit.
Research also conducted in Ghana also revealed that obesity and overweight are more common in the southern part of the country than in the northern part.
It is high in the Greater Accra with 16.1 prevalence and virtually absent in the Upper West and Upper East. The situation is more common with females than males with 7.9 percent and 2.8 percent respectively.
This revelation came to light when ELMAMUM CENTRE organised a health symposium on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Ghana, last week in Accra.
Our view as Intensive Care Unit of Tamale Teaching Hospital is that,a modification in lifestyle we should take in food that contains low fat, low carbohydrate, high fruit and vegetarian diet.
This will help reduce the heart diseases like Myocardial Infarction,Heart vessles diseases and hypertension which has a prevalence rate of about 27.5% in Ghana.
It is equally important that we do more exercise.This will give you more health and keep you fit and improve your imunity to fight dieases of all kind.

Live well and save your live.                                                  
yakubu.h.yakubu
ICU-TTH

Bedside Emergencies

Somebody asked me the other day why we were expected to take ACLS to work staff in the unit. She meant: we nurses weren’t going to be intubating anybody anytime soon, or putting in central lines, or running codes, or anything like that. I could see her point, I guess.
But I think her point is missing something. Last time around for my continuing ed I did a course on "nursing and the law", which I thought might not be very interesting. Wrong. It turns out that when you look at the legal definitions of what it is that nurses are supposed to do in the course of their nursely duties, they vary. The duties. Nurses do all sorts of things, depending on where they are, what their supervision is, etc. And are held responsible. In other words, the judge may say to me one day:
"Nurse Markie – you’ve been an ICU since the last Ice Age, isn’t that right?"

"Uh, yes ma’am, your honor. Sir."
"And so didn’t you know that you’re not supposed to shock asystole (even though they always do it on TV), or give epinephrine in the tube feeds, as has been verified by the expert witnesses during this proceeding? Aren’t those pieces of nursely ICU knowledge that you are held responsible for knowing when you are a staff nurse in the ICU?"
"Uh, yes sir, I did know those things, and it is my responsiblility to know them. Ma’am. I am supposed to know the procedures for defibrillation, and for giving meds."
"So then why did you allow those things to happen, nurse Markie, in the light of your knowledge and experience?"
"Uh… because the doctors were running the code?"
"You mean those same doctors who, over three years of residency, spend a total of three months in the MICU environment? Compared to your years of experience, spent working in the ICU since the time of the Crusades? You allowed them to tell you what to do, even though your experience told you that it might be wrong?"
Not that you should refuse orders … but are you responsible for knowing better if you’re told by a doctor to do the wrong thing? Legally responsible? Especially if you have a lot of relevant experience?
The apparent answer is yes, documented over and over again by legal case after case. You are responsible. And especially since, in the course of one year, you collect roughly four times the ICU experience that a doc does in her entire residency. So you’d better know your stuff. But play closely with the team, and get orders written!

Disclaimer:
That said, the usual disclaimer applies to this article: the opinions and experiences described here are in no way to be taken as "official" – they are meant to represent the kind of information that a preceptor might pass along to a new ICU nurse, and are not particularly objective, although they do represent a lot of experience (about 45 years!) between the author and Mrs. Author. Please let us know when you find errors (and you will), and we’ll fix them right away. Thanks.
yakubu H.yakubu

ECG LEARNING

Tamale Teaching Hospital  - ICU tit bit!







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtsklsnzXws&feature=related