At work, you perform many tasks every day that could cause back injury. These include repetitive lifting, prolonged standing, bending, reaching, pushing, and pulling. Protect your back by using good body mechanics to maintain the 3 natural curves of your spine. A balanced spine A…

Whether you’re moving a patient, lifting a box of supplies, or pushing a cart or wheelchair, your back is always working. Use the tips below to help you reduce your risk of back injury. Reaching Reaching for records, files, or supplies, especially in high places,…

There’s only so much you can do in a typical office visit. Use these tips to help you maximize each patient encounter so you can get your message across quickly and clearly without wasting time or having to repeat explanations. You can apply most of…

In this era of the empowered patient, you may have some patients who come to you with stacks of printouts from the Internet. But as you know, the quality of content is critical when choosing and using medical information from online and other media sources….

How can you improve patient compliance? Clinical outcome data supports the three theories below as predictive models for behavior. The self-efficacy, health beliefs, and stages of change models can all be helpful in determining a patient’s readiness to change. Self-efficacy: Is the change doable? Self-efficacy…

Patient information extends your office visit beyond the few minutes you can spend face-to-face. You can increase compliance and cooperation even further by using patient education materials in ways that help patients learn and remember more of your advice. How to choose print materials Try…

During each clinical encounter, there are moments that arise naturally as ideal “teaching moments.” Here’s a quick summary of how to apply the ideas to a typical patient encounter to build trust and compliance. As you say hello As you enter the room, greet the…

Think of ways you can decrease friction to make this move more comfortable for the patient and to reduce the stress on your back. It is easier to slide a patient up in bed by using a draw-sheet and two people. Step 1. Grasp the draw-sheet…

Patient safety is often the main concern when moving patients from bed. But remember not to lift at the expense of your own back. This transfer often requires the patient’s help, so clear communication is essential. If the patient can’t help much, you’ll need two…

Patient safety is often the main concern when moving patients from bed. But remember not to lift at the expense of your own back. And, never move a patient by yourself. Two people usually can do this move safely. The leader, who pulls, should be…

Once the momentum has started, it’s almost impossible to stop a patient from falling. By trying to do so, you can injure your back. Instead, guide the patient to the ground; then get help to move the patient back to a bed or stretcher. Guiding…

The heartbeat is the rhythmic contraction of the heart muscle’s 4 chambers. The heart muscle has a special system that creates and sends electrical signals to activate these 4 chambers. First, a signal generated in the right upper chamber of the heart tells the 2…

The middle ear is an air-filled chamber that lies behind the eardrum. Pressure in the middle ear changes to match air pressure outside of the eardrum. When inside and outside pressures are balanced, the eardrum is flexible and normal hearing is more likely. Problems happen…

There are two parts of the inner ear. One part (hearing canal) is for hearing. The other part (balance canal) is for balance. The canals are filled with a fluid called endolymph. The level of this fluid is maintained by a small organ called the endolymphatic sac….

The ear is a complex and delicate organ. It collects sound waves so you can hear the world around you. The ear also has a second function—it helps you keep your balance. Your ear can be divided into 3 parts. The outer ear and middle…

Healthy kidneys clean the blood. Two normal kidneys can filter wastes and excess fluid from hundreds of pints of blood each day. This helps maintain the chemical balance the body needs to stay healthy and alive. The kidneys also carry out many other vital functions….

The kidneys may fail from reduced blood supply, damaged blood vessels or filtering units (nephrons), or a blocked urinary tract. Illnesses that affect the entire body, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, are the most common cause of kidney damage. Illnesses that harm the…

The lungs’ job is to get air into and out of the body. Inside the lungs, air travels through a network of branching airways (tubes) made of stretchy tissue. Each airway is wrapped with bands of muscle that help control the width of the tube….

Wisdom teeth are very much like your other permanent teeth. The main difference is that they are the last to develop and grow in (when you’re “older and wiser”). Most people have 4 wisdom teeth, 1 in each corner of the mouth. Some people naturally lack…

The thyroid is a gland in the neck, just below the voicebox. It is an endocrine gland. Endocrine glands make hormones. These are chemicals that carry messages through the bloodstream to other parts of the body. The thyroid gland makes thyroid hormones. The thyroid gland…