CBCradio

Hospitals: September 2010 Archives

Bookmark and Share

Tuesday September 21, 2010

My Book: 'The Night Shift - Real Life in the Heart of the ER'

I wanted to let you know about something very exciting that is happening to me.  My first book, 'The Night Shift - Real Life in the Heart of the ER', published by HarperCollins, is out in hard cover.  It's my attempt to show you hour by hour what happens in the ER during a typical night shift, and to pull back the curtain to reveal the culture of emergency medicine. 

I'm in Edmonton right now giving a speech at the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses' annual conference (around 2:10 pm at the Shaw Conference Centre if you're there).  And I'll be on CBC's Radioactive with guest host Mark Scholz later this afternoon to talk about the book.  Then tonight I'll be at Friends of Medicare's new digs in Edmonton to say hello and sign copies of my book.

I feel very fortunate and I want to thank you for listening to WCBA and making it a success.  It's all because of the show that I've been given an opportunity to put my views on the world of medicine into hard cover. 

Thank you so much for your support! 

To learn more about 'The Night Shift - Real Life in the Heart of the ER' 

Click to listen to CBC's Radioactive in Edmonton

Categories: Blog Archives, Communication, Health Professionals, Hospitals

Bookmark and Share

Tuesday September 21, 2010

Where the environmental rubber hits the road....

...nurses, that's where. So writes WCBA listener Fiona Hanley:

"Nurses are the ones on the ground with their patients or clients, in the hospital and in the community and have a huge role to play in changing practices to make hospitals places that do not aggravate or provoke health problems They are also, by the way, the health care workers who actually suffer the worst health effects from the toxins in the hospital, next to cleaning staff."

Some great links for how nurses are working toward green health care:

Canadian Nurses for Health and the Environment

Canadian Nurses Association: Nursing and Environmental Health

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (in the US) 

Categories: Blog Archives, Green Health Care, Hospitals, Patient Safety, Technology & Innovation

Bookmark and Share

Friday September 17, 2010

Hospitals Go Green on WCBA

You may not know this, but hospitals are among the most environmentally unfriendly places on the entire planet.  In the United States, hospitals account for 8% of the entire country,  On this side of the border, just one hospital in Vancouver has an ecological footprint nearly 740 times its physical size.  Health care has lagged behind when it comes to going green one good reason - your safety.  Trouble is, the double-gloving and triple packaging we do to protect your health is also killing the environment.

But hospitals are beginning to realize they've got to do their bit to prevent or slow down climate change.  This week on WCBA, I spend a day with Ed Rubinstein, an environmental and energy officer at University Health Network -- which is made up 3 hospitals in downtown Toronto.  He's one of just a handful of hospital employees who work full time on the environmental file.  Rubinstein takes me to an operating room where a patient is undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to find out what supplies and equipment went into the operation and to follow the waste out the door to recycling or landfill.

I also speak to Geoffrey Kelley Quebec Liberal Member (MNA) for Jacques-Cartier and Chair of the Select Committe on the issue of the right to die with dignity.  Kelley is co-Chair of public hearings in Quebec on the controversial issue of euthanasia, which got underway last week.

You can listen to the show here, or download the podcast and listen on the go. 

 

Download Flash Player to view this content.

 

And if you'd like to find out more about the effort to green medicine, check out these excellent resources:

Health Care Without Harm

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Healthy Building Network

Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care

Categories: Green Health Care, Health Professionals, Hospitals, Technology & Innovation