Caring for yourself and others in the new year

By Carol Lindsay, RN
Janurary 12, 2004

Sponsored by Duke University, the Women's Health Site is designed for health professionals and contains in-depth information about an assortment of women's health issues, including heart disease. The cardiology link includes updates on studies such as the risk of cardiovascular disease in women with Type 2 diabetes and the relationship of the heart rate at rest and mortality in women. Downloadable slide presentations include "Heart Disease Prevention in Women" and "Insulin Resistance, Heart Disease and Estrogen."

Long-term care

Long Term Care Link is an extensive resource for long-term care information. Many sites charge for the information that is available for free by going through this site. For example, under the heading "Find a Nursing Home, an Assisted Living Facility or a Home Health Agency," you can access the Consumer Reports nursing home watch list, health grades, Medicare Nursing Home Compare and the family national watch list. Other resources are designed to find help for caregivers, obtain long-term insurance quotes and find your state's aging service and long-term care ombudsman. The site also requests visitors participate in a study on long-term care issues.

Healthy tickers

The Difference in a Woman's Heart is designed for the public by Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging. It provides simply written explanations of the differences in men's and women's hearts and what women need to know about their risk of heart disease.Fact sheets on heart disease provide detailed yet simple definitions of all medical terms used and descriptions of the various types of cardiac testing that can be performed. Risk factors, both modifiable and unmodifiable, also are identified. This reference site should stimulate discussion with your patients about heart disease and risk factors.

Geriatrics education

Medscape offers an assortment of free continuing education courses for nurses. Topics of interest to nurses who work with the geriatric population include risky behaviors in older adults, the use of complementary therapies in long-term care facilities, palliative care for older adults, improving function and quality of life for older adults through pain assessment and management, managing Alzheimer's disease, clinical management of agitation and aggression management from childhood to old age. In addition, Medscape provides intensive information pages about specific diseases such as Parkinson's, arthritis, cancer and heart failure.