Brady Pregerson, MD, a returned Peace Corps volunteer and winner of the 1995 Wise Preventive Medicine Scholarship, completed his medical school at the University of California, San Diego, and his residency at Los Angeles County General Hospital. He has authored three medical pocket books for nurses and doctors, as well as the educational web sites erpocketbooks.com and gotsafety.org.
Dr. Pregerson currently works as an emergency physician in Southern California. He writes, "Although the ED environment may be quite different from working on the hospital floor or in an office setting, I am hopeful that you can take these tips and apply them to your own specific work situation." You can buy his books on lessons from the ER, including Don't Try This At Home: Lessons from the Emergency Department and Think Twice: More Lessons from the ER, at amazon.com.
Brady Pregerson, MD, and Rebekah Child, RN, may disagree about a lot of things, but they do agree about this: One way to lose your job is to violate patient privacy.
Vaccines sometimes inspire as much fear as the diseases they’re meant to prevent. Yet think of what would’ve killed you by now if you hadn’t gotten that shot…
Want to see a bunch of people get up in arms? Recommend a new vaccination. With a ton of scary stories linking vaccinations with autism (never mind the fact that numerous scientific studies have debunked the link), how do you deal with patients who refuse immunization?
“I’m your nurse, not your waitress!” How many times have you thought this? Or even muttered it under your breath? Here’s how to put the stress of dealing with an unhappy patient into perspective.
Is MRSA the most repulsive epidemic to find its way into the ER? Here, the causes, the seriousness and the scope of the MRSA problem. Plus, some easy tips for nurses to help fight the spread of it.
Nurses wear ponytails when their patients have lice. Why? Because you can see lice. Now, think about microbes. They’re there, too, and they’re getting on your long hair.
Patients and the public still judge us, in part, by what we wear. Dr. Brady and Nurse Rebekah conclude our “Perils of Beauty” series with a reflection on the practicality of your work wardrobe.
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