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National Nurse Practitioner Week – Nov. 13-19

Li Lu Library Grand Opening

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University of Washington mascot Dubs attending the Li Lu Library opening on September 28, 2022.
University of Washington mascot Dubs attending the Li Lu Library opening on September 28, 2022.
The Li Lu Library's grand opening party on September 28th was a huge success! The Health Sciences Library planned the event which attracted over 350 students, staff, and faculty members. Health Sciences Library staff answered questions and provided information on library services. Library vendors in attendance included the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM),  EBSCO, McGraw Hill, the Odegaard Writing + Research Center (OWRC) and Harborview's EthnoMed program, who connected with students to share and educate about their resources. Dubs himself made an appearance for photos, drawing a large crowd who were able to learn about the Li Lu Library and library resources. Attendees stopped by for cookies, giveaways, photos with Dubs, and to chat with our librarians and vendor partners. The Li Lu Library space will be a collaborative space for students in all health sciences programs to learn and study together.
Staff from the NNLM Region 5 provide information to a user aboutPubMed
Photo from the opening of the Li Lu Library on September 28, 2022
A Health Sciences Library staff member provides information to a user at the Li Lu Library,
Photo from the opening of the Li Lu Library on September 28, 2022

The Rise of Telemedicine in the Age of Covid-19

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The Rise of Telemedicine in the Age of Covid-19
The Rise of Telemedicine in the Age of Covid-19
Telehealth services have been used for years to provide healthcare to underserved communities such as patients in rural settings. As defined by the Health Services and Resources Administration, telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, health administration, and public health. While telehealth and more specifically telemedicine is not new, the COVID-19 pandemic created an environment where remote clinical services were needed more than ever before. Practitioners made use of video chat programs with patients in place of in-person office visits to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Due to the need to keep patients safe while providing healthcare during the health crisis, federal and state government regulators made changes to telehealth policies allowing a greater number of people to make use of these types of services. Though some rule changes are temporary, other changes to policy may be permanent as the increased use of telehealth brought to light the value of remote clinical services in a broad range of medical fields. Still, along with the realization that telehealth tools help patients, some consider concerns and issues that may need to be addressed in order to ensure telehealth and telemedicine is used responsibly and that underserved patients continue to benefit from its use.  

Ebooks

Cover of Telehealth Nursing : Tools and Strategies for Optimal Patient Care Telehealth Nursing : Tools and Strategies for Optimal Patient Care (2016 eBook) Including all of the information necessary for safe, competent practice, this is a practical, hands-on educational and training resource for nurses working in telephonic health care settings. –from book description
Cover of Telemedicine, Telehealth and Telepresence: Principles, Strategies, Applications, and New Directions (2020 eBook)Telemedicine, Telehealth and Telepresence : Principles, Strategies, Applications, and New Directions (2020 eBook) The aim of this book is to bring all aspects of telemedicine and e-health to the reader, in a simple, make-sense approach, in one tome. –from book description
Cover of Telerehabilitation : Principles and Practice (2022 eBook, includes videos) Telerehabilitation : Principles and Practice (2022 eBook, includes videos) …provides quick access to information on common rehabilitation diagnoses and practices and how you can best use telerehabilitation to provide timely, effective care to every patient. --Publisher's description.
The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary (2012 eBook, includes chapter 4: Challenges in Telehealth)

Videos

Podcasts

Image credit: National Public Radio. (2022). Patients say telehealth is OK, but most prefer to see their doctor in person. Retrieved September 2, 2022 from NPR.

Resource Spotlight: Violence Against Indigenous Women and Girls

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Woman with red handprint on her mouth, a symbol of solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
Woman with red handprint on her mouth, a symbol of solidarity with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls
The World Health Organization reports that violence against women is a global public health problem. This includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by intimate partners as well as non-partner violence and coerced sexual violence. One particularly alarming crisis is the violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls of North America. American Indian and Alaska Native women experience higher rates of violence than non-Native women. This issue is further compounded by the difficulties over the years in bringing non-Native perpetrators to justice due to the complexities of tribal courts versus federal court jurisdiction in these cases; this is a concern because interracial violence is more common than intraracial violence in Native American communities. Progress has been made this year with President Biden’s Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act which includes the expansion of Tribal courts criminal jurisdiction over non-Native perpetrators of stalking, child abuse, sex trafficking and sexual assault. This change, along with more coverage on the topic, will hopefully make a difference in Native communities where many cases of missing or murdered women and girls remain unsolved.

UW Indigenous-Focused Resources

Maze of Injustice : The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA (2007 print)   A Broken Trust (2019). “A harrowing deep dive into the racial group most likely to be raped in the U.S. - American Indian and Alaska Native women...”   U.S. Administration for Children & Families: Keeping us Whole : Preventing Missing and Murdered Indigenous People - podcast series   Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and girls: A Case for Abuse Screening in At-Risk Paediatric Populations (2020 article)   Cover of Forever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in CanadaForever Loved: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada. (2016 eBook)    

Local, State and National Resources

Logo for the Washington State PatrolState Launches M.I.P.A. – Missing Indigenous Person Alert System   Logo for the Indian Health ServicesIndian Health Service: The Federal Health Program for American Indians and Alaska Natives: Intimate Partner Violence Prevention.   Microsoft logoMicrosoft Feature Stories: A Newspaper shines a light on missing Indigenous women with the help of technology. (2022 article)   Logo for the National Indigenous Women's Resource CenterNational Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.   Logo for the WomenSpirit CoalitionWomenSpirit Coalition. Washington State Native American Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.   Logo for the Harvard International ReviewHarvard International Review article: Indigenous Women: The Invisible Victims of Femicide in Mexico. (2020)  

Image credit: Wikipedia entry. (2022). Red handprint.

Resource Spotlight: World Sickle Cell Day – June 19

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The United Nations designated June 19 as the day to raise awareness of sickle cell anemia across the globe. To celebrate this annual observance, the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA) sponsors a national campaign Shine the Light on Sickle Cell.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited group of blood disorders which includes sickle cell anemia, a specific form of SCD. With SCD, there is an abnormality in the protein, hemoglobin, found in red blood cells which carries oxygen to bodily organs and tissues. The normally disc-shaped red blood cells are instead sickle-shaped, stiff, and can stick together so do not easily move through blood vessels. This causes blood clots and a disrupted blood flow which can cause pain and a host of serious health problems like anemia, infections, and stroke. Another complication of SCD is damage to organs such as the liver and especially the spleen. In the U.S., sickle cell disease most commonly affects African-Americans, but also affects people from Hispanic, southern European, Middle Eastern, and Asian Indian backgrounds.

 

Local Resources and Events

  • Metropolitan Seattle Sickle Cell Taskforce’s Sickle Cell Podcast. From the website: In this special series we will bring together sickle cell patients and healthcare providers and use SC as a lens to explore racial bias in the U.S. healthcare system.
  • Metropolitan Seattle Sickle Cell Taskforce event: Virtual Walk World Sickle Cell Day June 17, 2022 – June 19, 2022.
  • Camp Korey: A SeriousFun Camp for children with serious medical conditions and their families. Session 6: Sickle Cell July 24-28 2022.
  • Northwest Sickle Cell Collaborative calendar of events.
 
 

National Resources

  • The NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s webinars on sickle cell disease (2019)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "What You Should Know About Sickle Cell Disease and Pregnancy" (factsheet)

2021-2022 Common Book: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

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Each year, an open group within the UW Health Sciences schools select, from a list of titles nominated by the Health Sciences community, a Common Book that we hope will serve as a platform for health sciences students, staff, and faculty…

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