Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences Resources

Study Finds Good Intentions Ease Pain, Add To Pleasure

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:37:00 +0000

A nurse's tender loving care really does ease the pain of a medical procedure, and grandma's cookies really do taste better, if we perceive them to be made with love - suggests newly published research by a University of Maryland psychologist. The findings have many real-world applications, including in medicine, relationships, parenting and business.

Natural Standard Database

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:22:00 +0000

Natural, integrated and complementary medicines are becoming increasingly important for students in all areas of Health, and we now have a subscription to Natural Standard, a suite of databases and electronic resources that look at:

Foods, Herbs & Supplements

Health & Wellness

Comparative Effectiveness

Charts & Tables

Brand Names

Medical Conditions

Sports Medicine

Genomics & Proteomics

Environment & Global Health

Animal Health

You can keep up with new items added to the Natural Standard, as well as highlighted features, by following their blog: http://blog.naturalstandard.com/.

Q Fever Information Night - Townsville

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:17:00 +0000

An information night on Q Fever this Thursday is aimed at educating the public and furthering the research being conducted at James Cook University and Townsville Hospital on the disease. The research has found that Queensland has the highest number of Q Fever cases in Australia, with a significant number in residential areas around Townsville. The information night will be held on Thursday, December 1, from 6 - 7pm, building 45 - Medical Lecture Theatre, JCU Townsville. For more information, see here.
Source: @JCU

Research in nursing & health is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 best paper awards

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:42:00 +0000

Winner for the best paper on Research Methods and the winner for the best Research Article in the journal Research in Nursing & Health have been announced.

Survey Calls For Greater Clinical Consensus On Diagnosis And Treatment Of Breakthrough Cancer Pain

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:16:00 +0000

The results from a European Survey of Oncology Nurse Breakthrough Cancer Pain Practices were presented for the first time at The European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress in Stockholm. Details are discussed in the article on Medical News Today of Oct 3.
The survey which collected 1,164 completed responses among nurses from 12 European countries is the first European survey to look at oncology nurse perception of breakthrough cancer pain and its management.

Movember

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:17:00 +0000

"Each year Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men's faces in Australia and around the world, with the sole aim of raising vital funds and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men." Click here for more information, to register or to make a donation.
Source: http://www.healthier.qld.gov.au/healthy-living/event-calendar/movember

Occupational Therapy Week Australia 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:58:00 +0000

OT Week runs from the 23rd till the 29th of October and aims to promote an understanding of the roles of Occupational Therapists within the community. The tag line "promoting better living" sums up the goals of OTs and their work in creating a better quality of life for people with varying disabilities and helping people to regain skills and abilities lost as a result of sickness or injury.

The Mabo Library Townsville will feature a display of OT resources available through our libraries for the duration of OT Week - feel free to browse and borrow.

For more information about Occupational Therapists click here.
Or, to visit the JCU Occupational therapy site, go here.

APA Physiotherapy Conference 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:37:00 +0000

The 2011 APA Physiotherapy Conference will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th October. Thirteen national groups are participating in this year's conference, including the National Neurology Group, Sports Physiotherapy Australia and Gerontology Physiotherapy Australia, to name a few. Click here for registration and further information.

Walk for Daniel

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:39:00 +0000

The latest issue of JCNN features an interview with Denise and Bruce Morcombe, with details of the second Townsville Walk for Daniel to be held at Riverway on 28 October. This year the walk will also feature face painting, a jumping castle and sausage sizzle. Read here for more information.

Researcher Sees Spring-Like Protein as Key to Muscle Behavior

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:08:00 +0000

An idea with its origins in ballistic prey catching -- the way toads and chameleons snatch food with their tongues -- may change fundamental views of muscle movement while powering a new approach to prosthetics. It is discussed in ScienceDaily article of Sept,11.

After a decade of work, lead author Kiisa Nishikawa, Regents' professor of biology at Northern Arizona University, and an international team of collaborators have published their hypothesis about spring-loaded muscles. Their paper, "Is titin a 'winding filament'? A new twist on muscle contraction" appears online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Mental Health Week

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:37:00 +0000

Mental Health Week runs from the 9th to 15th October. MHW aims to educate and engage Australians in activities that promote good mental health. Join the JCU Psychology Club on Tuesday 11th October at a BBQ to promote MHW and help raise funds for Headspace Townsville. For more information click here.

Free conflict coaching for students

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:26:00 +0000

From the latest edition of jcnn, a story featuring the launch of the new Student Conflict Support Service (SCSS). This is a free service for JCU students, providing assistance with issues such as share houses and individual or group conflict. Click here for more.
Source: Katelyn Cartwright, jcnn.

Micromedex Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:59:00 +0000

If I said the words "drug database", the first thought that would pop into the minds of many practitioners and students is "Martindale".

Martindale is, along with DRUGDEX, part of the Micromedex suite of drug information databases. When you consult Micromedex 2.0, you get a range of results from across all of the drug summaries and tools available.

And all of these tools are available on your smartphone, PDA, iPod, or any other device that runs Mobile browsing technology.

If you browse to the link to Martindale or DRUGDEX from either our databases page or the Drug Databases tab on the LibGuide, you can get into Micromedex 2.0 the way you would as if you were normally using the web page. Then you can click on the link to the Mobile version at the top of the page.

From here, you can download the App for your mobile operating system. You can also get this App from the various App stores for each platform, but going direct to the Micromedex Mobile page may be quicker.

Plus, the page contains important information about how to access the systems if the authentication process doesn't work smoothly.

Once upon a time, people used to keep a copy of Martindale in their pocket. Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, you can keep a copy of Martindale in your pocket...

ANF Concerned About Aged Care Workforce Issues, Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:11:00 +0000

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) expressed concern over workforce issues raised in a TV report with George Negus about Australia's under-resourced aged care sector. The licensing of all aged care workers was among a raft of reforms the ANF was fighting for as part of its ongoing Because We Care campaign - aimed at fixing Australia's aged care system.

Because We Care Campaign Featured At International Nursing Conference, Australia

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:02:00 +0000

The Australian Nursing Federation’s (ANF) ongoing campaign for better aged care – “Because We Care” – has been officially recognised at aninternational nursing conference earlier this year. More information is available under the Campaigns section of this website.

Intensive Care Nurses Have Doubts About Method For Establishing Brain Death

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:57:00 +0000

More than half of Sweden's intensive care nurses doubt that a clinical neurological examination can establish that a patient is brain dead. This uncertainty can affect relatives when the question of organ donation is raised, as reveiled in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden as discussed in Medical News Today.

Color atlas of diseases and disorders of cattle

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 06:08:00 +0000

This book is chock full of disgusting images, so it must be useful:

Color atlas of diseases and disorders of cattle 3rd Edition, by Blowey and Weaver.

Chapters include:

1 Congenital disorders
2 Neonatal disorders
3 Integumentary disorders
4 Alimentary disorders
5 Respiratory disorders
6 Cardiovascular disorders
7 Locomotor disorders
- Lower limb and digit
- Upper limb and spine
8 Ocular disorders
9 Nervous disorders
10 Urinogenital disorders
- Urinary tract
- Male genital tract
- Female genital tract
11 Udder and teat disorders
12 Infectious diseases
13 Toxicological disorders

Which all sounds fascinating. And disgusting. This book is full of pus, tumours and strange fungal things - in glorious colour and on cows of all shapes and sizes.

Vet students will probably love it.

It's on the New Books display in Townsville until Friday 12th August, but you can put a hold on it if you want to know the minute it is available for you to take home.

Back-To-Basics Intensive Effort Reduces Bloodstream Infections In Critically Ill Patients

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:52:00 +0000

Medical News Today article notes that Nurses on a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at a large academic medical center cut bloodstream infections to zero and saved more than $200,000 during a six-month period. To address the problem of higher-than-average CLABSI rates on a 19-bed unit, the hospital appointed dedicated infection control nurses (ICNs) to oversee central line catheter insertions.

Standards Required For Healthcare Ethics

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:47:00 +0000

"It's time for healthcare ethicists to have some formal practice guidelines, a governing code of ethics, and uniform education and certification standards," says Cheryl Cline, Director of the Office of Bioethics in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Clinical Ethicist at Kingston General Hospital, Medical News Today. The field of healthcare ethics practice is relatively new. The field has grown exponentially over the last 20 years and many hospitals now have ethicists on staff. Yet, unlike other professionals who work in healthcare, the qualifications of ethicists vary across Canada and there is no certification process.

Nursing Research Focuses On Health Trajectory Research

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:34:00 +0000

Medical News Today details a special collection of articles on health trajectory research that is now available in a supplement to Nursing Research. Articles in the special issue present the nursing science perspective on health trajectory research and important theoretical considerations in studying health and illness over time including advances in statistical modeling that support this area of research. The supplement also includes a series of original studies illustrating the health trajectory perspective in health and illness; in community, hospital, and laboratory settings; and across time scales ranging from seconds to years.

Australian Injectable Drugs Handbook - Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 00:08:00 +0000

Over on the Library News Blog, Neil R has told us about a new trial we have running at present: Australian Injectable Drugs Handbook

"The Australian Injectable Drugs Handbook offers concise, referenced information commonly sought by nurses and pharmacists at ward level when preparing drugs for administration by injection."

Do we want to keep this resource? We need your feedback to decide. Take a look at the trial and tell us what you think.

Standards Required For Healthcare Ethics

noreply@blogger.com (Margaret M) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:29:00 +0000

A Queen's University professor is helping standardize practices for healthcare ethicists who consult and give guidance on medical ethics issues to doctors, nurses and patients across the country. Details in Medical News Today article.

The Virtual Museum of Bacteria

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 06:26:00 +0000

Bacteria are incredibly useful things - especially if you want to get rid of an invading army of Martians.

Just ask the narrator of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. No, not that rubbishy thing with Tom Cruise, the original book:

"In another moment I had scrambled up the earthen rampart and stood upon its crest, and the interior of the redoubt was below me. A mighty space it was, with gigantic machines here and there within it, huge mounds of material and strange shelter places. And scattered about it, some in their overturned war-machines, some in the now rigid handling-machines, and a dozen of them stark and silent and laid in a row, were the Martians--dead!--slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth." (from the Project Gutenberg version).

The Society for Applied Microbiology is also rather fond of "the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth", and have created a virtual museum dedicated to bacteria:

The Virtual Museum of Bacteria.

Unfortunately, they forgot one of the primary functions of a museum - the depiction of physical artefacts. I was hoping for pictures, instead they have short descriptions with a lot of links to other webpages.

Now, some of those links are a little bit dead (possibly killed by "minute, invisible bacteria*"), but others would still be of interest to anyone studying bacteria, bacteriophages and applied microbiology.

And some of those pages have pictures.

*That was from Jeff Wayne's concept album. I managed to avoid putting reference to any of the other adaptations of the book, like the classic radio play by Orson Wells (you should listen to it if you get the chance - it's really interesting). I figured this post was getting flippant enough as it was - but, really, the website is kind of dry, and War of the Worlds just brightens things up a bit.

Disaster Preparedness and Management

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Fri, 27 May 2011 01:36:00 +0000

This is a slightly different nursing book:

Disaster Preparedness and Management, by Michael Beach.

The book is specifically designed for nurses and covers concepts like violent weather, pandemics and terrorist actions. There's even a section on weapons of mass destruction.

With the inclusion of this book, we now have enough books on Disaster Nursing to make it worth our while saying: "hey, look at our small collection of books on Disaster Nursing."

Of course, we've always had a larger collection on Emergency Nursing, which no doubt covers Disaster Nursing as well.

Beach's book is currently on the New Books display in Townsville, but you can put a hold on it if you would like to have it set aside for you when it becomes available.

Dosage Calculations!

noreply@blogger.com (Sharon B) — Fri, 06 May 2011 02:14:00 +0000

Okay, now that I've got your attention, allow me to direct it towards a new book we have in our collection:

Pharmacology (Schaum's Outlines) by James Keogh.

The Schaums Outlines books are designed to give basic overviews of topics that can be applicable to a wide variety of subjects. They are particularly well suited for students who want a quick, clear and concise recap of the main points in order to brush up for exams - or even to help them better understand the topic.

This book is suitable for any subject that involves pharmacology and dosage information, from nursing through to clinical pharmacology.

Chapters include:

Medical Actions and Interactions
Pharmacology and Nursing Practise
Principles of Medication Administration
Dose Calculations
Herbal Therapy
Nutritional Support Therapies
Narcotic Agonists
Skin Disorders
...And many more

Handy, useful stuff that is about as practical as it can be (for a book that focuses on theory).

It's on the New Books display in Townsville this week, but you can put a hold on it, if you wish.