Education

A pharmacobezoar, otherwise known as a medication bezoar is a persistent concretion of pharmaceutical products within the gastrointestinal tract14. They are commonly found following the intentional overdose of sustained-release medications. A bezoar is a concretion of foreign material that can form and persist within the gastrointestinal tract. A bezoar should not be confused with a pseudobezoar, which refers to an indigestible object intentionally introduced into the gastrointestinal tract3. …

Congestive heart failure (CHF), otherwise known simply as heart failure (HF) is the medical term that describes the heart's inability to pump sufficiently to maintain blood flow and meet the body's metabolic needs. This ineffective pumping leads to congestion of the venous circuit on both the pulmonary and systemic sides, leading to poor tissue perfusion and fluid overload. Congestive heart failure results from changes in either the left or right side of the heart. This could be for example; the right side of the…

Anyone who's ever had a long commute to work knows the feeling of driving along the highway while drifting into your own thoughts. You're contemplating life and what's been troubling you lately, thinking of god knows what. Then, suddenly, you've arrived at your destination with no recollection of how you got there. This phenomenon is colloquially known as White Line Fever, or otherwise, Highway Hypnosis, first coined in 1963 by G. W. Wiliams (Williams, 1963). It is described as a mental state in which a person can…

An inguinal hernia is a protrusion of the abdominal contents through the inguinal canal, often into the groin or scrotum. They are a very common problem and patients may complain of pain or discomfort when coughing, exercising or during bowel movements. Inguinal hernias are so common, they are often one of the first surgical procedures postgraduate surgical residents are trained in​​. The protrusion may not be visible, particularly in overweight patients, however, a bulging area may occur in the area of the hernia, and may…

Hand hygiene is a vital part of any infection control practice. Nurses are constantly disinfecting their hands hundreds, if not thousands of times per day (or at least they should be) but this mentality has spread to the greater public, with antibacterial soaps becoming more readily available, and to some, a necessity. You would expect this to be good news, but it's not. Recently emerging evidence has shown that this over-use of antibacterial soaps outside of the healthcare setting may actually be doing more damage…

Traditionally, western medicine has been centred around the biomedical model and its underpinning philosophies to best determine a person’s health status. The biomedical model has allowed medicine to advance in leaps and bounds over recent decades, improving our understanding of the human body while also maintaining a superior standard of care through the evidence-based practice approach. Through this approach, we were able to isolate body systems and understand disease processes and how they impacted upon the individual…

Over the last decade or so, health care has shifted focus from treatment of symptoms and disease processes, to more emphasis on prevention of disease, such as living an active lifestyle and exercising regularly. Healthy diet and personal habits have also seen an increased emphasis in recent health promotion campaigns. Through these new approaches modern medicine has slowly moved away from the biomedical model as its sole foundation, and has moved towards a more holistic approach to healthcare, while using the solid…

Nursing is a broad profession within the healthcare system, which deals with the caring and support of sick is injured people, promoting recovery and wellbeing. Nursing is often what we envision when we think about hospitals and healthcare in general. The caring nurse with her gentle touch and soft voice is what we all think would best aid in our recovery, and indeed this has been shown to be the case on many occasions. Nurses focus not only on supporting individuals in need, but rather focus their skills…

Yesterday was certainly an interesting day. I only had one class, Bioscience, but it was an incredible experience nonetheless. I should warn any of you that are a little squeamish; you might want to skip over this one. I started out on Tuesday night not feeling all too well and contemplating not attending the practical class the next day, but only due to a quiz at the end of the class worth a mere 3% (I know it's not much but every mark is a good mark, right?) I decided it would be best for me to attend. It turned out to…

The young team of Franziska Hildebrand, Franziska Preuss, Vanessa Hinz and Dahlmeier clocked 1 hour, 11 minutes, 54.6 seconds to beat France