How Will Planet Fitness Handle This?

After I read this the first time I couldn't believe what I had just read and had to go back through and re-read.  I know that newspaper reports don't necessarily always get the news 'correct', but this one was rather shocking.  In the article, we learn that a 22 year old female had come to complete her morning work-out at Planet Fitness.

Once she was finished, she went to the locker-room, then went to the rest-room.  One of the other female club members heard her fall to the floor in the bathroom and was able to see her body laying on the floor under the stall.  The club member ran to the front desk to report another club member was in trouble and needed assistance.  The response that was given by the male front desk attendant was rather alarming.  He basically let the club member know he was the only club worker on site and couldn't leave the front desk but had to wait for another worker to arrive.

The article moves on to discuss that the attendant did not call 911 until coaxed by a second member (why the members didn't call themselves isn't made clear).  The female worker finally reports to work and finds the young lady with a 'weak' pulse.  An ambulance is called, but unfortunately,  she dies.  We also find that that Planet Fitness was to have an AED on site as well as someone credentialed to use it - again, these standards were not met by Planet Fitness. I hope the paper will follow the case so that we can find the legal outcome.  In any case, my hope would be that common sense would have prevailed and that the attendant would have left the front desk to check on the club member or at the least, called 911.  We cannot be sure if the outcome would have been different if this occurred, but we will never know as this did not take place.

Technology Assists 3 Year Old to Hear

This story and video demonstrates technology at its' best.  Grayson Clamp was born without nerves to allow him to hear.  Technology and physicians step in and Grayson had an implant placed directly into his brain stem, which now allows him to hear.

The article also has a 'priceless' video in which he is able to hear his dad's voice for the first time.  What I appreciated when seeing the video was that the dad was also using sign language - which meant he took the time to learn another language so that he could communicate with his son.  Take the time to have a look - I hope you enjoy it as I did.

Burned Out Nurses = More Patient Infections?

This article suggests a link between Burned out nurses linked to more infections in patients. The authors describe how researchers have found a correlation to burnout with nurses and the number of infections seen in the patients they care for.

Specifically, the research has suggested that when a nurses' workload increases, so too, does the number of infections that are seen within the patients who are under their care.  This could be due to not practicing good sanitary methods of care between patients; it could be due to fatigue (both physical and mental); it could be due to burn-out.

This article got my attention as I am curious to see if there is any similar relationship within the profession of athletic training.  We know the hours an AT will place in the worksite will almost always be more than a traditional 40 hour week.  Most ATs during preseason will accrue 40 hours working M-W alone!  Studies within the profession of AT have identified burn-out in the profession, but have not linked medical mistakes to the burn-out or job related fatigue.  I can only assume that many ATs have made mistakes when they are consistently putting in 12-14 hour days.  The mistakes may not be that which will be a matter of life and death, but I am curious if the decisions, like the nurses identified in this article, increase our patients health outcomes negatively.

Of course, much more to be looked at regarding this subject and our profession, but thought there may be some connection with our profession and this article.

Smokers Beware!

If there haven't been enough studies published to discuss the negative effects of smoking to help sway a smoker into quitting, perhaps this article will.

The authors identify the 'cost' of smoking a respective employer will have to incur should they have an employee who chooses to smoke.  This will range from actual 'hard money' in the form of  covering medical bills to 'soft money' -- ie. days lost at work, lower productivity.

With this article and the many studies which have preceded it, we have observed many changes with smoking 'rules' including smoke-free  restaurants, clubs and bars.  It seems to be more difficult today than has been in the past to be a smoker with regard to when and where one can smoke.  If we look back to advertisements, movies and even news casts from the 1960's - 1970's we see that smoking seemed to be the 'cool' thing to do.  Today, the culture of smoking is changing to that of a negative rather than a positive as it had been.

The future will tell us how prospective employers will look on hiring an individual who is a smoker.  Perhaps it will not make a difference, but perhaps to some employers this may have them think twice before hiring the individual.  My hope would be that we can attempt to have individuals lead a healthier life by not smoking - and certainly, for those individuals who are employed in a health care industry, I think we need to actually demonstrate healthy behaviors and not just speak about them.