Modern technology continues to develop and medical science also adapts to these changes. John Hopkins medical guide is one of these advancements. Let us paint a picture, a nurse is preparing for his 7am to 3pm duty. He is assigned to the medical ward in a public tertiary hospital in which the census is a whopping 89 patients. As a medicine nurse, he is supposed to give all the medications of the patients in his area.
There are only two of them assigned for this task as usual as most undermanned hospitals are nowadays. Now, the burden of medication administration is always the presence of errors. Nurses are expected to give the medications to the right patient, the right route and at the right time. After that, they are required to document it and etcetera.
That is why nurses need to know, like any other health professionals, what the drug is for, how it works, what drugs are usually given for this kind of disease, the drug or food interactions of the drug to administer and the side effects to anticipate the patient’s reactions, questions about the drug and not to wrongfully give a drug not intended for the patient. Because if the doctor gives a wrong prescription and the nurse did not double check it and administered it anyway, the nurse is held liable.
Because of this, nurses, doctors and other healthcare personnel must be careful of medication administration and doctors must diagnose the patient’s disease correctly. The problem is, with advancements of medicine and thousands of new drugs, how can these health care professionals keep up with drugs? Many health care professionals prefer to open up a book if they encounter a new drug that’s why the international MIMS and the Nursing Drug Handbook by Lippincott was made.
But these books take time. Imagine seeing a drug then skimming each of their names on the contents page or the index when the life in the hospital demands fast pacing work done. Catering to the demands of hospital life with a little twist of modernization, Johns Hopkins antibiotic guide made an answer. Taking advantage of technology, Johns Hopkins Medicine designed a software that takes all up-to-date medicines, particularly antibiotics, into one single application that also automatically updates!
You can use Pads and Smartphones. All iOS (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone devices are supported. It’s like a book with one touch inside your pocket. You can search into drugs quicker with a convenient option. You can search by drug classification or diagnosis. Let’s say you are searching for drugs used for diabetes. Just type in diabetes and the description of the disease, symptoms and drugs used for this disease are all laid up to you. If you want to search by drug classification then you can type in antibiotics and drug classifications such as cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, glycopeptide and penicillins are in order for you. Just choose and click.
This application can make need-to-know information easier to obtain. If you want the application, you can just login to their website. Also, the Johns Hopkins antibiotic guide can be bought by cover in amazon.com. Aside from the antibiotic guide, John Hopkins also has diabetes and HIV guides and a 5-minute clinical consult for mobile and web. The care for patients is a never ending crusade for betterment and convenience. Health care will never cease to improve if there is a new disease or problem. Advancements of technology will always be an ally of health science and health professionals will always seek ways to improve themselves for the betterment of their patients.
