GBC Tech Video News

Dog toys are essential to keep your dog occupied to stop barking problems, boredom issues and through teething times for your dog. Finding a good toy for your dog through these times is essential, leaving your dog with a bad chew toy that they don’t like will leave your dog with no option but to chew something else, there are many chew toys available so the choice is endless.

Dental health for your dog will be greatly improved by chewing toys so it is important to keep your dog interested in the toy choice you give them. Popular toys usually contain something that tastes good, smells good, some light up, and others make noises to keep you dog entertained. If the toy is fun for your dog then you can use it to reward your dog for good behavior or take it from them when they are bad.

Different Dogs enjoy different textures and tastes, you will need to find what your dog likes to chew and try your best to find a similar product but without it being as destructive to your house like their old toy, the table leg, was.

Avoiding tugging toys may be a good idea in some cases, more excited breeds of dog and puppies especially will get the message that tugging is fun for you as well as your dog, thus encouraging him to tug at you trouser legs when they’re in need of attention and curtains when they’re bored. Personally I would avoid theses toys.

When looking for a good toy for your dog, here are some good suggestions:

1. Look for a dog toy with something different like sound, taste, or lights.

2. Pick a dog toy that is tough enough to withstand your dogs chewing and biting

3. Choose dog toys that you think your dog will enjoy, using experience of what he normally chews is a good idea.

Remember that choosing a dog toy all depends on the dog in question, each dog will have different tastes and experiences of what they enjoy, something as cheap and simple as a tennis ball could be enough to keep your dog occupied for hours on end.

Nursing and computers have not always been a perfect mix. Typically, nurses try to get away from new computer systems as much as possible. However, it is an inevitable workflow evolution in today’s hospitals.

“It was so easy before when all I had to do was give it (orders) to the clerk.”

“This new computer system is such a mess. Why can’t we keep our old system?”

“It takes time away from my patient care.”

“This is never going to work.”

As an RN working on the informatics side of healthcare, such comments are commonplace when I travel on site to different facilities.

Why I wanted to do it

With billions of dollars allotted to deploy this project to multiple facilities nationwide, I wanted to be a part of it. “It’s never been done before in this scale,” stated Vicki Levario, the Director of System Solutions & Deployment at Kaiser Permanente Southern California Region. When I was offered this job, I didn’t hesitate. Here was a marriage of two things I feel comfortable with – clinical content and computers.

The magnitude of this project can be appreciated when you take into consideration the 8 million Kaiser members it will affect. By 2007, all 12,000 physicians and 150,000 employees in the Kaiser organization are expected to be fully trained and use the software in their workflows. After a few weeks of involvement in this project, I began to see what a Herculean undertaking this will be.

Resistance

“Good luck with that job. They’re just wasting their money. It’s never going to happen, ” a physician said to me one day.

Healthcare automation is an inevitable progression, but not met with resistance. There are those who are so defiant to the change that they would rather retire than work under these conditions.

This sentiment is not unique to this organization. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles met with such resistance from physicians that the implementation phase failed despite the system being two-thirds online.

I can understand where the overtone of paranoia comes from. Working on the units to support the software, I observed some users who are obviously using the computer for the first time. I saw them having difficulty using the mouse and typing their user names and passwords with painfully slow pecking style.

I try to encourage users by showing them the positive side. With the nation’s healthcare trend of medical record automation, this will make health care givers more marketable as electronic health record (EHR) experienced professionals. And, in time they will master the system, and their workflows will be more efficient.

Safer Practice

The issue of electronic system workflows in the healthcare setting adversely affecting patient care has also been a concern. However, the opposite is true. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in a report called To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (2000), “98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors. Even when using the lower estimate, deaths in hospitals due to preventable adverse events exceed the number attributable to the 8th-leading cause of death. Deaths due to preventable adverse events exceed the deaths attributable to motor vehicle accidents (43,458), breast cancer (42,297) or AIDS.

In her report, Key Capabilities of an Electronic Health Record System July 31, 2003, Dr. Carolyn Clancy, Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality stated, “There is a great deal of interest within both the public and private sectors in encouraging all health care providers to migrate from paper-based health records to a system that stores health information electronically and employs computer-aided decision support systems. In part, this interest is due to a growing recognition that a stronger information technology (IT) infrastructure is integral to addressing such national concerns as the need to improve the safety and quality of health care.”

National Mandate

Automation of records in healthcare is not only a step in modernization, but a national mandate. The following is excerpted from the United States Department of Health Services.

Mission statement:

“… to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the public and private health care sectors that will reduce medical errors, improve quality, and produce greater value for health care expenditures, and coordinates outreach and consultation by the relevant executive branch agencies with the public and private sectors.”

Vision:

“…Clinicians will have a patient’s complete medical history, computerized ordering systems, and electronic reminder.”

The implementation of electronic health records (EHR) is integral to this national mandate and it’s just a matter of time when all hospitals in the US will be fully electronic in their workflow systems.

With this daunting task ahead, I’m reminded of the words of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology National Coordinator, David J. Brailer, MD, PhD when he addressed the System Solutions and Deployment personnel. “All eyes are on you.” As an RN and healthcare provider, it’s breathtaking to see through the telescope to look beyond the horizon and be part of the mission.

The World Wide Web is filled with a diverse and exciting array of different web designs. Modern web technology has helped web designers to enjoy a wider range of options than ever before and allows for new and exciting websites. Studies show that 99% of web browsers are now JavaScript-enabled, and almost as many are Flash enabled. JavaScript and Flash offer endless possibilities to add tools and widgets and jaw dropping effects to really bring websites in to the 21st century.

There are however some basic essentials that we need to adhere to, and which are all too easy to neglect while we get carried away with all the latest gadgets. A common mistake that new web designers will make is to jump head first in to the latest gizmos and tools that they think will impress their clients, and display their technical prowess, while neglecting the basic usability of their website.

Essential item 1: Cross browser compatibility. A website needs to render correctly on all browsers. There are a range of browsers that are used by the Internet surfing public, and they all have their quirks and nuances. What looks great in IE7 for example may look disjointed in Safari. And may be completely unreadable in Google Chrome. The most popular browser at present is still Internet Explorer 7, but Mozilla Firefox is gaining ground. There has been a steep rise in Apple Mac users to which has led to a rise in Safari. Google Chrome is the new kid on the block but is gaining a great reputation, which is resulting in a higher amount of users. Opera is being used by a dedicated selection of Internet surfers. A good web design should be tested to work, look good and be effective in all of these browsers. A good way to achieve this is to ensure your website validates to WC3 guidelines, but they should still be manually checked.

Essential item 2: Accessibility. A good web design should be accessible to all. This means taking in to consideration people that may have poor vision, or may be unable to use a mouse. Text should be nice and big and contrast strongly with the background color. Black text on a white background is the best for visibility, but as long as the text has a strong contrast to the background it makes it easier for people to read. There should be a skip to main content link, which can allow visitors to tab their way around the website without using a mouse. All fonts should be resizable to allow users to make them bigger if need be. Taking the time to comply with accessibility guidelines will save you isolating any visitors with disabilities.

Essential item 3: User-friendly navigation. A good web design will provide an intuitive navigation system for people to find their way around your website. Web users are familiar with horizontal and vertical menus, so to remain safe it is best to stick with this format. It is easy to be tempted to try a unique navigation but users may not share your enthusiasm for change and leave your site with frustration when they don’t see an easy way to navigate your pages.

Essential item 4: Quick loading times. There is no use in having the latest Flash gadgets playing and huge detailed images when it takes minutes for the page to load. Surfers of the web have notorious short attention spans and low tolerance for websites that take more than a few seconds to load. If the page hasn’t loaded in over three seconds they may just hit the back button and look for a faster loading website. Ensure all your images are optimized to load fast, and use text links where possible.

Essential item 5: Contact details. You should make your contact details as available as possible for the visitors to your website. Email links and telephone details should be on every page, along with clear access to your Contact Us page. Your Contact Us page should always contain your company address, along with telephone, email and contact form. Even add a photograph of yourself or your company house to help build trust with your visitors, and make them aware that you really do exist in the real world. Anonymity is too easy on the web, and we are conditioned not to trust websites, so the more contact details you can provide the better.

These five essential items should be fundamental in the planning stage of your web design. They are easy to build in to a web design from the planning stage, but if neglected can cause a lot of work if trying to implement them at later stages. An effective web design has been proven to convert higher sales, and attract a larger volume of traffic than ineffective or unfriendly web designs. We all want to show off our skills and wow our visitors, but while doing be sure to NEVER forget the essentials of good web design. Or you will pay a high price for it later.