(BPT) - A new survey reveals Americans are not aware of what to report prior to a blood test. Only half (52 percent) believe it is very important to report use of supplements to their healthcare provider before getting a blood test.

With recent interest in the use of supplements like biotin as beauty treatments, it’s especially critical for consumers, doctors and lab personnel to talk before blood tests because very high doses of supplements could interfere with some test results.

The possibility of interference in blood testing is low, but if you’re taking high-dose biotin for hair, skin or nail health, for example, it is best to inform your doctor before a blood test. Just as you may need to fast before certain types of tests, you may need to hold off on taking supplements like biotin for at least eight hours before blood work.

The survey, commissioned by Roche Diagnostics, also found that most Americans (85 percent) expect their physician to provide complete instructions on how to prepare for a blood test.

“Many factors — from stress, to prescription medication, to vitamins — can affect blood test results, so it’s important to be proactive in communicating about medicines or supplements you’re taking rather than waiting to be asked,” said Dr. Emily Jungheim, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Ask your healthcare provider about ways to prepare for blood tests. Here are some simple tips to follow:
* Write down all your prescription medicines the night before a blood test so you can share up-to-date information with the lab technician or your doctor.
* Also report vitamins, supplements, nutraceuticals and any over-the-counter medications.
* Know the doses of the medicines and supplements you are taking. The dose matters. You may not be aware that 5 mg of biotin per day, for example, is equal to the amount of biotin in 100 capsules of a typical daily multivitamin.

Is your workplace a nurturing professional environment, or does competition and rank often override camaraderie and support?(BPT) - In order for nurses and other health care staff to do their jobs as best as possible, a culture of care can make a big difference. This means creating a workplace that fosters growth, supports professionals' needs and brings teams closer together. When health care teams feel cared for and supported, they are more inclined to provide their best care of patients and families, which improves outcomes all around.

Chamberlain University president Susan Groenwald, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN just released a book that addresses this topic. “Designing & Creating a Culture of Care for Students and Faculty: The Chamberlain University College of Nursing Model” serves as a guide for any organization seeking to make cultural and structural changes to improve student or employee satisfaction, engagement and achievement. The book describes the unique organizational culture — Chamberlain Care -- in which students and colleagues thrive, students are cared for in a way that can improve their chances of success, and that provides an advantage in attracting and retaining high-quality and effective health care faculty and staff.

What are the possibilities when an organization takes such big steps toward revolutionizing its culture? Groenwald (2017) provided evidence that enhanced services and support provided to students and faculty improved employee satisfaction, engagement and academic outcomes. Groenwald’s theory is that by providing extraordinary care to students and colleagues, they are more likely to provide extraordinary care to patients and family. For example, an independently administered survey of international employee engagement in various industries benchmarked Chamberlain faculty against employees worldwide. Since 2013, Chamberlain’s faculty engagement scores have remained above the benchmark for the best U.S. companies and continue to rival benchmark scores for the best companies in the world.1

“While many books and articles have advocated for care and caring in nursing education, what truly distinguishes this text and the work it describes throughout Chamberlain University is its thorough coverage of how caring can be operationalized — and made tangible — in all aspects of an organization's mission, vision, people, processes and practices,” said National League for Nursing President Anne L. Bavier, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovations at the University of Texas at Arlington. “In nursing education, a strong and positive culture that permeates throughout the institution not only helps nursing students stay in school and graduate, but ultimately provides the support needed for them to truly learn and develop the knowledge, skills and values today’s nurses truly need,” said Groenwald.

To learn more about creating a culture of care and to order the book, visit the National League for Nursing website at http://nln.lww.com.

1 Groenwald, S. (2017). Designing & Creating a Culture of Care for Students and Faculty: The Chamberlain University College of Nursing Model.

(BPT) - People are more connected now than ever before thanks to the globalization of technology, international travel, commerce and industry. But this interconnectedness also means that health concerns, which were once limited to a community, can have a global impact. The Zika virus, the outbreak recently declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the latest example of a foreign health issue that quickly raised concern within our borders.

Nurses are using the technology that connects us to prepare for this new reality. Through virtual simulation education, they are learning to care for diverse populations and practicing global health scenarios including epidemics, rare illnesses and other infectious diseases.

"Globalization has changed our approach to health care. Viral diseases can spread rapidly, so we have to be ready," says Dee McGonigle, professor in Chamberlain College of Nursing's Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree program. "Virtual learning environments provide valuable, interactive education on best practices for patient safety and disease containment in a real-time scenario that mimics real life."

Dr. McGonigle heads up the college's 3-D Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, she and several colleagues built the Virtual Ebola Treatment Center (VETC) in Second Life, a virtual world created by its global community of users. In Second Life, users - known as residents - are represented by avatars that can walk, run, sit, stand, fly and interact with other residents.

Chamberlain students learned how to admit and care for Ebola patients by practicing scenarios in the VETC within Second Life. Faculty from the MSN Informatics specialty track facilitated and mentored students through the risk-free virtual learning experience.

Like the Zika virus, the Ebola crisis was a wake-up call that proved how quickly disease can spread and how important it is to be prepared. Seemingly overnight, health care professionals and students nationwide were tasked with developing expertise on a disease that was previously of little concern to U.S. citizens.

"Nurses around the world were looking for answers," says Dr. McGonigle. "We knew we had the opportunity to build a critical training tool to prepare our students to treat Ebola patients."

Chamberlain alumna Kellany Cadogan-Noland, now a clinical learning lab specialist at Chamberlain, utilized Second Life for her MSN Informatics Specialty Track nursing project. Second Life nursing projects are designed to help those who cannot complete them in a real-world situation because of geographic or other limitations.

Cadogan-Noland used the VETC to test potential responses to an Ebola outbreak in the United States. She collaborated with mentors around the country to determine which infrastructures and clinical processes - such as clinical dressing locations for hospital staff - were most effective at disease containment. Within weeks of completing her project, the West African outbreak had spread to the United States. Cadogan-Noland and her team adjusted their VETC strategy to implement and test containment plans as they were announced by the WHO.

"I benefitted more from Second Life than I would have through an onsite project because we could adapt the virtual environment to our learning needs so quickly," Cadogan-Noland says. "I was able to quickly test scenarios through simulations. We couldn't have accomplished this within such a short timeframe in a brick and mortar facility."

Chamberlain faculty and students can easily adapt their model of virtual simulation education to address other emerging global health issues like the Zika virus, giving nurses like Cadogan-Noland an extraordinary window to the rest of the world. Dr. McGonigle and other Chamberlain leaders behind the VETC are planning more interprofessional collaboration in the future to explore new innovative applications of the virtual learning experience for their students.

"The quality of virtual learning is continually evolving with enhanced technology and feedback from putting simulation methods into practice," says Dr. McGonigle. "We have so much more to discover with virtual learning. We are just getting started as we use it this to educate nurses who will go on to transform health care worldwide."