Innovative Ways Doctors are Reducing Patient Pain

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The vast majority of surgeries successfully treat patients for their illnesses. Knowing this can make you feel better about an upcoming operation. You may still worry that pain will disrupt your life for years to come. Luckily, doctors have found several innovative ways to reduce patient pain. As long as your surgeon understands the latest research on reducing pain, you should find that you have a positive experience that doesn’t disrupt your life for very long.

Here are three of the most successful ways your doctor may use to reduce your pain.

Minimally Invasive Procedures

Surgery often causes a lot of pain because doctors have to make large incisions in your body. Surgeons have been trained to minimize damage while operating, but they still cut you with knives. That will leave some pain that can linger for weeks or months.

Minimally invasive surgery uses smaller incisions, so it doesn’t cause as much pain. Most minimally invasive surgeries rely on robotic assistance, so you may need to find a doctor who has been trained to use sensitive tools. Other benefits of minimally invasive surgery include lower risk of infection, reduced blood loss, and a faster recovery time, so it’s worth finding a doctor who knows how to use smaller incisions.

Better Post-Op Care

What happens after your surgery can also reduce the amount of pain that you feel during your recovery. Better post-op care can shorten your recovery time and keep you more comfortable. The best surgeons work closely with their patients to make sure they have the services they need to stay healthy after they go under the knife.

Many medical facilities now use force-air warming to minimize pain and encouraging fast healing. The benefits of forced-air warming systems like Bair Hugger have been documented in more than 170 studies. The research shows that Bair Hugger creates a healing environment for the body without increasing the risk of infection at the surgical site. When you’re choosing a doctor to perform your surgery, you may want to ask if he or she uses the Bair Hugger system to reduce post-op pain.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness Meditation

Image via Flickr by riabaeck

Pain affects more than specific areas of your body. People who experience pain for long periods of time often develop mental health problems that exacerbate the problem. When you have long-term pain, you may start to wonder if you’ll ever feel healthy again or if you can withstand the discomfort.

Mindfulness meditation helps patients keep pain in perspective. This type of meditation teaches you to experience your body in non-judgmental ways. You may feel a lot of pain in one area, but you eventually learn to accept the discomfort instead of letting it dominate your life.

Some people dismiss mindfulness meditation as New Age nonsense, but studies show that it can reduce chronic pain by 57 percent. Try the techniques for a few weeks to see if it works well for you.

It’s impossible to predict exactly how a patient will respond to treatments, but doctors have access to a lot of research showing that these methods reduce pain in most people. Take advantage of them to have a more comfortable experience.

Want a Career in Health Care? Respiratory Therapy Might Be Your Best Bet

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Careers in health care require a lot of hard work, but they are rewarding and provide job security. Health is a precious luxury that everyone wants to protect, so there is always a demand for knowledgeable health care professionals. Plus, you learn a lot about your own personal health and how to take proper care of your body.
If you’re not sure which area of health care to enter, you might want to consider respiratory therapy. This specific form of therapy is in high demand due to the abundance of patients who need individualized care. Here’s an overview of the field and what it takes to get your foot in the door as a professional respiratory therapist.

What Is Respiratory Therapy?

Respiratory therapy is administered to patients who suffer from both chronic and acute diseases such as bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and cancer. Pulmonary physicians diagnose the patients then prescribe a therapy plan. Therapy methods vary based on the patients’ specific needs and can include the use of artificial airways, ventilators, and inhalant medications. Therapy programs can also involve disease management and healthy lifestyle guidance.
Professionals who administer respiratory therapy are responsible for monitoring symptoms, performing diagnostic tests, collaborating with physicians, administering treatment, and teaching patients how to use respiratory devices. Therapists typically work in hospitals or assisted living residences. They can also provide home services for patients with limited mobility or transportation and to help patients develop daily routines to support and mitigate chronic illnesses.

Are There Enough Jobs for Therapists?

The need for respiratory therapists is on the rise as the population of elderly individuals continuously increases. Elderly individuals are more susceptible to respiratory disease, which is one of the major causes of death in the U.S. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that about 8.7 million adults were diagnosed with chronic bronchitis and about 3.4 million adults were diagnosed with emphysema in 2014. There were also 147,101 deaths due to chronic lower respiratory disease in the same year.
As far as employment goes, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 120,700 employed respiratory therapists in 2014 and expects that number to increase by 12 percent through 2024. Health care facilities are in continuous need of respiratory professionals who can administer therapy for a variety pulmonary conditions.

Do Therapists Need a College Degree?

Though some health care facilities accept an associate’s degree, it is wise for an aspiring professional to earn a Bachelor of Science in respiratory therapy. A bachelor’s degree provides a well-rounded learning experience and addresses all the challenges facing graduates of a respiratory therapist school. Students also receive in-depth training on electronic records systems and study the importance of technology in the public health sector. In fact, the field of health information technology is a crucial component of individualized care and global public health, as summarized in this infographic about health IT.

Need More Information?

Check out the prerequisites for entering a program and evaluate whether it makes sense to go full or part time. If you have questions, call the admissions department about tuition, registration dates, and how to apply.

Examinations At An Emergency Clinic

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If you or a family member have any kind of medical emergency through the day or at night, you might not know whether you should go to a hospital emergency room or an urgent care location. There are benefits of both, but you might find that it’s easier to be seen at an urgent care facility. The same services are offered as well, and if there is an issue that the doctors can’t handle, then you can be sent to a hospital for further treatment.

An urgent care office is ideal for those who don’t have a regular family doctor. You can walk into the office without an appointment and be seen on a first come, first serve basis in most cases. Making an appointment with a physician can sometimes take a few weeks, especially if you haven’t been to the office. An urgent care facility can see you whether you have been there one time or 100.

There are sometimes more services offered than you would find at a doctor’s office. They are comparable to an emergency room, but they are on a smaller scale. You can get x-rays taken of any area of the body, and most offices have access to a CT machine or an MRI if there is further testing needed. Doctors can perform blood tests as well as other diagnostic testing to determine the illness that has caused the visit. Since there are services offered at the office, it’s usually not necessary to go to other locations just to get treatment for the illness or injury.

The urgent care office is a way for children to get the help they need if they are sick in the middle of the night. You can get prescriptions for illnesses as well as samples of medications until you are able to get to a pharmacy. Offices can treat injuries that take place at school or while on the job. Sports physicals can be performed as well as any testing that is required by an employer. A 24 hour emergency clinic Cypress TX offers can provide almost all of the services that you need in order to be as healthy as possible.

Compensation for People with Sickness

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One of the most annoying situations you face in your life is getting sick. Perhaps, whenever you are healthy, you do not really realize how important your health actually is. You are too busy dealing with other matters in your life that you don’t give it any real consideration. As a result, you become sick when you least expect it. Look at the ways you are living an unhealthy life style. You smoke, you eat junk food, and you seldom do sports. These are the factors that will bring illnesses to you later on.

Whenever the illness starts, you become regretful because you know that your ability to deal with the daily matters of your life has been taken away. If the illness is not really that serious, you might not feel all that worried. But what if you face a serious disease that makes you unable to do anything? You will start to become dependent on your loved ones which will negatively affect their lifestyle as well. You should not assume that just because you’re young, that you’re immune to illness because those traits will not last forever. Another annoying fact is how you need to spend a large amount of money on medications in order to feel better. It is indeed a terrible situation. There have been so many people who become bankrupt because they need to use most of their money to pay for their medical treatments. The more serious the illness gets, the more money you need to spend. That is why it is definitely accurate to say that your health is your biggest asset. Whenever you are healthy, you have the freedom to do anything and you can earn money instead of spending as opposed to when you are sick.

However, it is really fortunate for sick people that there are institutions and organizations that are aware of these conditions. They can give some kind of charity to people who are ill. Take the example of the compensation for pleural thickening. People with this kind of health problem are really troubled and the situation can be really depressing. What is even worse is how they might not have enough money to take care of themselves. Compensation is only one of multiple ways to give relief to those who need it. Therefore, if you are suffering from a certain sickness and you really need to get some financial assistance to deal with the medical treatments and cost, you might want to register yourself to certain organizations or ask someone to help you with the process. That way there will be more hope for you and others who become sick.