Author's articles

Breathing Tubes

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

The act of connecting most people to ventilator machines requires that a plastic tube be placed in the upper airway (endotracheal tube). The presence of the throat tube places the patient at high risk for ...

The Life Care Plan

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

I have written extensively in the past about inappropriate discharge planning from the hospital. Whether the third party reimbursement is based on cost plus (CP) or diagnostic related groupings (DRG), all hospitals have a financial ...

Seizure Precautions: The Standards of Nursing Practice

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

The most immediate concern when it comes to grand mal epileptic seizures is to prevent traumatic injury and/or choking. Because of the uncontrolled violent movements of the entire body, aside from the danger of choking, ...

C-Diff: The Newest Hospital Acquired Scandal

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

The hospital acquired C-diff is a new strain of the bacteria normally found in the human bowels and has become virulent, causing severe diarrhea. Of course the elderly and newborns are the most susceptible because ...

The Battle of the Bedsores: Avoidable versus Unavoidable

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

I have always maintained that there is no such thing as an unavoidable pressure ulcer, although now the Federal Government seems to be saying otherwise. Or, are they really? We shall now examine this more ...

Hospital Mistakes, the Root Causes and the Cures

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

It has been nine years since the first news of the Institute of Medicine reporting that 100,000 people were being killed unnecessarily in hospitals each year. Moreover, it has been almost three years since Healthgrades, ...

The Standards of Care with Patient Controlled Analgesics (PCA)

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

Part I Fall Prevention During the last fifteen years of hospital care in the United States we have seen the proliferation of patient-controlled analgesics (PCA) given to post operative patients. PCA is the delivery of ...

Truth in Advertising for Hospitals?

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

Failure to Disclose A number of states have already passed laws requiring hospitals to disclose medical and nursing errors to patients or their next of kin. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations ...

Post Traumatic Stress and the Nursing Diagnosis Part 2 The Recovery Phase

By Thomas Sharon, R.n. M.p.h. · 15 years ago

Emotional Responses vs. Responsive Pathology It is important for an attorney to note that the key to determine whether or not a client is malingering to enhance the potential damage award is to review the ...