Nurse's Notes
2003
JUST BECAUSE IT’S NEW. . .
. . .doesn’t mean it’s better! Or as my uncle used to say, “progress
isn’t always in a forward direction”.
In order to maintain a nursing license in California, I am required
to have 30 hours of continuing education units every two years.
California is progressive in this regard—the majority of states do
not require nurses to have any further education once they get out
of school. Considering that health care is changing so rapidly that
even taking a coffee break seems to put you behind, I can’t imagine
not trying to keep up with the new stuff, mandated education or not.
One of the fun ways I get my required credits is by attending the
annual Emergency Nurses Scientific Assembly, which in 2003 was in
Philadelphia (nobody said you can’t have fun while learning!).
Classes and symposiums are offered on a whole host of subjects—many
of which pertain to my volunteer work here at St. Margaret’s. I
always return from these sessions feeling somewhat caught up with
the profession, and excited about what’s going on.
This year I heard a very fine lecture about 10 new drugs on the
market and what they add to our health and healing. The answer: Not
much. Only one of the ten is something which is an advance in
medical care, and that one is an antibiotic specific for a very
special form of pneumonia.
The rest of the drugs are “me-too’s”—drugs which are designed to
take the market away from already popular drugs and which really are
no better than the ones already in use. Drug companies market these
newer drugs to physicians (and to the rest of us via commercials),
and somehow everyone thinks newer is better. One or two of them have
some potential for very limited use by folks who have not responded
well to the older drugs—however, those same folks may not respond
well to the newer versions either.
Bottom line: Just because you see something new being advertised for
your condition, don’t automatically assume if it is newer it has
advantages. If your medicine is working well for you, think twice
about changing just for change’s sake. Newer isn’t necessarily
better and newer may be considerably more expensive.
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