"You don't even know what you don't know yet". A blog on social media and health.

This ‘Improving Public Health’ social media project was started for numerous reasons.  Realizing most people now interact utilizing social media/internet, and many are accessing this information at the fingertips of their smart-phones, made me realize we can impact our society by educating via social media.  Someone once told me when I was a new nurse, “you don’t even know what you don’t know yet”.  Sounds elementary and simple, but so much truth to that statement.  How are we to know all there is to know about our health and bodies until someone explains it to us?  Utilizing facebook and twitter, along with numerous other social media websites, can give people those links to educate them on any and every topic.  People also need access to information from reliable sources.  All too often we hear patients or family say they’ve read something on the internet, and we have to now correct their way of thinking and that false information they’ve received from an unreliable source.   

This project is just starting, and will be ongoing throughout the remainder of my graduate program, but it is not solely for school, hopefully it will grow so I can continue once school is done. 

·         The blogging and sharing gives me that outlet to express myself and share my feelings in public health related topics.  Facebook  is sharing important information and links to a community.  Twitter is sharing links and educational information globally.

·         This project is also for every patient who has been admitted to the hospital and not understand why.  It’s for the patients with a-fib and cannot explain to me what that is and what that means or why they take Coumadin.   It’s about the person who takes “a water pill” and doesn’t know much more than that.  It’s for every time members of my family, or my patients,  say  to me “my blood pressure is good”, “my sugar is good”, and when I ask them to “define good, what is normal to you”,  I get the silent treatment.

·         This is about prevention and feeling like I’m participating in my own small way to that.  It’s about the social responsibility I feel working in health care to share what we know, learn, or what we think is beneficial information to the public, to improve public health.

Here is more information on my project below.  Please join me, not only with my project, but also in your own everyday practice.  If you read something educational, informative, and beneficial to the lives of others, share it. 

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IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH

A SOCIAL MEDIA PROJECT

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Welcome to Improving Public Health!

Integrating social media into health communication helps spread key messages, influence health decision making, and improve health outcomes. My goal is to educate people on public health related topics through the use of facebook and twitter, and writing blogs relating to public health, posting them to Blogger, GoogleBuzz, Google+, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, HubPages, etc.. My blog website will also have links and widgets for additional health information  The Center for Disease Control list Healthy People 2020 goals, one being:  "Use health communication strategies and health information technology (IT) to improve population health outcomes and health care quality, and to achieve health equity."   According to the CDC, using social media tools has become an effective way to expand reach, foster engagement, and increase access to credible, science-based health messages.

Please share in my goal of improving public health by sharing and educating via social media.  Let's do our part in achieving all Healthy People 2020 goals. Join me through the following sites:

WEBSITE:   www.improvingpublichealth.com                                             

TWITTER:  @imppublichealth

FACEBOOK PAGE:  Improving Public Health:  https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Improving-Public-Health/243934568959974
IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH DAILY NEWSLETTER:  http://paper.li/imppublichealth/1314553941

Improving Public Health:  A Social Media Project

Amy Keenan, RN

Master of Science in Nursing program, Public Health Nursing

Worcester State University, Worcester, MA

Faculty Advisor:  Stephanie Chalupka, EdD, RN, PHCNS-BC, FAAOHN

"Why Public Health Nursing?"

“What made you decide to focus on public health nursing?”, What can you do with that?” The questions I hear so frequently. 

Public health and nursing go hand-in-hand, promoting health, outcomes, and prolonging life, on all levels:  individual, community base, and globally.  It’s not just what I can do, it’s what we all can do to achieve these goals.  It’s no longer just focusing on the selected individuals assigned to our care for our assigned hours of work.  It’s about making a difference on the larger scale as well.  Public health nursing encompasses individual health, community health, environmental health, occupational health, epidemiology (studying/researching disease and its effect on the population), health policy, behavioral health, health education, health management, access to healthcare, health promotion, and the list goes on.  Public health nursing is about taking your clinical and educational knowledge of health, illness, and healthcare, and integrating that into the community, to improve health outcomes to populations. 

There is my answer to the question of “what made me decide to focus on public health nursing”.   As for the question, “what can you do with that?”, as you can see, the possibilities are endless.  What can't I do?

website:  http://www.improvingpublichealth.com/

twitter:  @imppublichealth

facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Improving-Public-Health/243934568959974

What else can possibly be said to get you to quit smoking?

What will it take for you to quit smoking?  A lesson in tough love?  We all read the warnings about smoking.  Everyone knows that smoking is not good for us.  I can tell you all of the facts that you may or may not already know:

Tobacco use leads to disease and disability.

·         Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction).

·         For every person who dies from a smoking-related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death.

·         Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.

·         In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure).

·         On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers

• Source:  CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm

But what about the facts that you don’t hear about, or that you don’t want to hear about?   If all of the facts and warnings don’t get you to change your behaviors, maybe a trip into reality will.  I’m a registered nurse, and I tell you this because I want you to hear the reality of what your future could hold if you keep smoking.  If you’re one of the fortunate ones to dodge cancer, your respiratory health will be poor.  If you become ill and go into respiratory distress or failure, you’ll probably end up on a ventilator (a.k.a. breathing machine) in a critical care unit.  You’ve all seen the pictures, but let me give you a vivid reality of what will happen.  You’ll have difficulty breathing, you’ll be anxious, you’ll feel like your drowning, unable to breath.  The hospital staff will sedate you, physician will tilt your head back and shove a large metal object to open your airway ((laryngoscope).  A tube will be placed between your vocal cords and into your airway/trachea.  You’ll then be hooked up to a breathing machine (ventilator).  Another  tube will then be placed down your throat and into your stomach (oral gastric tube-OGT).  Your first reaction may be to pull that tube out, so your hands may end up restrained/tied down.  You’ll have to have secretions suctioned out of your lungs and mouth.  You’ll probably get another tube, a catheter placed to collect your urine.  You’ll most likely be sedated, so you’ll be incontinent of your bowel movements, having to be cleaned around the clock.  If you don’t improve, you could end up with either a tracheostomy (breathing tube in your neck), along with a feeding tube placed into your stomach,  or your distraught loved ones may be sitting in the family room with a doctor discussing end of life options for you. 

Picture yourself in the above scenario.  Don’t say it won’t happen to you, because this happens to people every single day. 

So if the warnings and facts you’ve seen about smoking so far don’t bother you, maybe these facts will. 

For information on how to quit smoking, follow this link below:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/quit_smoking/how_to_quit/index.htm

Bullying: what to look for

“We are all either bullies, bullied, or bystanders.”  Richard L. Gross, MD, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology

Have you ever been bullied?  Bullying can happen in all stages in life, but for this blog I will be focusing on child and adolescent bullying. 

Bullying is a behavior that has been going on for many years but has finally caught the attention of school departments, media, government, and every home.  Sadly, bullying has caught everyone’s attention because it was ignored for too long, with harmful , or fatal consequences.  Bullying is not just the direct teasing, threatening, or physical contact.  It many times comes in the non-verbal, non-physical form of spreading rumors, excluding others from a group, manipulation of friendships, threatening email, or in today’s world of social media (e.g. facebook, twitter), comes in the form of teasing and tarnishing one’s name online. 

The effects of bullying take a toll on the person psychologically, academically, and physically.  Children bullied have feelings of isolation, depression, report more headaches, anxiety, some reported suicidal thoughts, and  higher absenteeism from school, which can affect academic performance. 

Possible warning signs of bullying victims:

·         Returns from school with torn, damaged, or missing articles of clothing, books, or belonging

·         Has unexplained cuts, bruises, and/or scratches

·         Has few, if any, friends

·         Appears afraid of going to school

·         Has lost interest in school work

·         Complains of headaches, stomach aches

·         Has trouble sleeping and/or has frequent nightmares

·         Appears sad, depressed, or moody

·         Appears anxious and/or has poor self esteem

·         Is quiet, sensitive, and passive

Studies have found that despite the high prevalence of bullying, many children and adolescents will not report bullying to a parent, teacher, school staff, or adult.  Boys and older children were reported to be less likely to report bullying.

Talk openly with your children about bullying.  Report any form of bullying immediately to your child’s teachers and school system, including cyberbullying.  Many teachers report they are not aware of the bullying taking place, so  make them aware, even if you suspect it, so teacher’s can have their radar on.   Many schools have ‘zero-tolerance’ to bullying, so work closely with your child’s school.  Although bullying many times develops and occurs in the school setting, the responsibility cannot be placed entirely upon the school system.  As parents, we need to monitor our children very closely outside of school.  With social media websites such as facebook and twitter, this is where a lot of the bullying is occurring today.  Monitor your child’s internet activity.  If you allow your child to have a facebook account, insist upon monitoring.  Get to know the technology your child is using.  If a child feels as if you’re violating their privacy to be a part of their internet activity, remind them we as parents, are here to protect our children, and that the internet and social media is not a right, it’s a priviledge.  This will allow us as parents to not only detect who’s being bullied, but also who is bullying.  Remember many of your children have social media available to them on their cell phones, so be mindful of their phone activity, as well as texting activity.  I realize this is a fine line with children and parents, and the topic of trust will come up, but it is our job to protect children. 

Do not be a bystander to bullying.  For more information on bullying, you can go to www.stopbullying.gov

References:

American Medical Association (2002), Educational Forum on Adolescent Health:  Youth Bullying.  Retreived on August 4, 2011 on http://www.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/ad-hlth/youthbullying.pdf

Welcome to Improving Public Health!

Welcome to my blog 'Improving Public Health'. 

The Center for Disease Control list Healthy People 2020 goals, one being:  "Use health communication strategies and health information technology (IT) to improve population health outcomes and health care quality, and to achieve health equity."   What does that mean, and how does this relate to my blog?  I will be writing this blog, with hopes to educate people via internet & social media on public health related topics.  According to the CDC, using social media tools has become an effective way to expand reach, foster engagement, and increase access to credible, science-based health messages. Integrating social media into health communication helps spread key messages, influence health decision making, and improve health outcomes. 

Please share in my goal of improving public health by sharing blogs via social media.  Let's do our part in achieving all Healthy People 2020 goals. 
 
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=18