Bethany Nock's Recent Posts

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Should Your Hospital Hire a Certified Child Life Specialist?

By: Bethany Nock | On: February 11, 2016

Keeping your youngest patients happy can pose a significant challenge for you and your staff. No matter how welcoming your pediatrics unit may be, it’s just not home. Anxiety about medical procedures, coupled with the unfamiliar sights and sounds of a busy hospital, can lead to an unpleasant experience for some children. Nurses and other staff members can’t always spend as much time as they would like calming scared or anxious children, but certified child life specialists can fill the gap.

Although child life specialists have long been employed at children’s hospitals, administrators of other healthcare facilities are now realizing the value of hiring these specialists.

3 Ways Physicians Can Improve Their Work-Life Balance

By: Bethany Nock | On: February 3, 2016

When your entire job centers on caring for others, it’s easy to let your own health and wellness fall by the wayside—especially when it comes to maintaining a work-life balance. Overseeing a practice means managing a staff and business finances, providing services to your patients and keeping them fully satisfied. Given everything on your shoulders, it’s easy to fall into the habit of working long hours with little or no break. However, burnout can (and will) eventually rear its ugly head.

There’s a common misconception in the medical field that to be successful, you must make extreme personal sacrifices. While getting to where you are certainly required a great deal of discipline and dedication, it doesn’t mean you have to give up the idea of a balanced life.

Here are a few tips to help you achieve harmony in work and life while still meeting goals for your practice.

How to Help Patients Keep their New Year's Health Resolutions

By: Bethany Nock | On: January 28, 2016

Ahh, New Year’s resolutions. Everyone begins the year so committed, so hopeful and so diligent. According to Nielsen, the two most popular resolutions in the United States are “staying fit and healthy” and “losing weight.” As a physician, that’s likely music to your ears.

Now for the not-so-great news: Research also says 25 percent of people who make health resolutions can’t even make it through the first two weeks. Given that we’re already nearly a month into the new year, 1 in 4 have likely already thrown in the towel.

Luckily, there’s still time to get your patients back on track and committed to preventive care in 2016. Here are a few ways you can increase their success rate.

4 Tips for Handling Misinformed Patients

By: Bethany Nock | On: January 26, 2016

Thanks to unlimited access to healthcare information online, today’s patients are more informed than ever before. With a few strokes of a keyboard, anyone can search their symptoms and instantly access page upon page of health and wellness advice. Unfortunately, this proliferation of health resources also leads to an increase in the opportunity for misinformation and incorrect self-diagnosis.

Misinformed patients can be a patient communication challenge for healthcare teams. Luckily, because nurse leaders and their staff are frequently the first to interact with patients and their families, they can immediately start the process of clearing up misconceptions and help increase the likelihood of better outcomes.

Here are four tips to foster better communication with misinformed patients, quell unnecessary anxiety and ensure improved patient comfort and satisfaction.

5 Private Practice Goals Physicians Should Commit to in 2016

By: Bethany Nock | On: January 21, 2016

Can you believe we’re already three weeks into 2016? Like many business owners, you likely spent the beginning of the year reflecting on previous successes and setting new goals. What are you doing to ensure your practice continues to be successful this year? To help you get on the right track, we’ve put together a list of five private practice goals you should focus on to help you improve and strengthen your practice in the coming year.