Space Medicine

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How do astronauts keep safe and healthy during long trips through the solar system? That was a question many of us were asking ourselves as we watched the Space X Falcon 9 launch on May 30th, 2020. This is the Dragon´s second mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; onboard the Dragon spacecraft were astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

If you think about travel in general and how you feel once you get on a plane and travel from the east coast to the west coast, you begin to realize how difficult it must be to be in a space shuttle for an extended period. On a plane or driving for a long time, your muscles ache, you might suffer mild dehydration, your hands cramp, and your back hurts. Now imagine you are traveling through space. Not only will you experience the challenges you face during travel on earth, but you will also experience, low gravity, radiation exposure, and muscle cramping. Without any countermeasures, you could suffer muscle loss, weakening of the bones, gene mutation, to mention a few side effects.

The most prominent challenges astronauts have as they travel through space are staying fit and healthy physically and psychologically. The director of Space and Life Sciences at the Johnson Space Center, Dave Williams, stated that muscle atrophy and bone loss are the best-known alterations caused by space travel. However, there are many more, such as loss of blood volume, balance, proprioceptive, weakened immune system, radiation exposure, and slower wound healing.

Williams has stated that the best-known countermeasure recommended by space doctors is exercise, but there are several more. In the international space station, astronauts workout at least two hours a day. They utilize exercise bikes, treadmills, and a unique device developed for astronauts to accomplish strength training. Some medications help with bone loss, bisphosphonates. For radiation exposure, hydrogen works as a countermeasure. Frank Cucinotta, astronaut radiation health office and manager for Space Radiation Health Research at Johnson Space Center, states a shield cannot be made out of pure hydrogen, however, materials with high hydrogen content like polyethylene work well. The challenge with this is that it only blocks 30-35% of radiation. Medication is necessary to prevent radiation damage. Antioxidants help in absorbing radiation produced particles before they do harm. NASA scientists are also looking at ways to help the body once the damage is done by studying the cell division cycle. When cells divide, they stop to see to check the genes and detect errors. With pharmaceuticals that can lengthen the cycle, it can be possible for cells to identify if any kind of damage has been done, and it can then destroy or repair itself.

Even with these countermeasures in place, there is another component of health in space, that is the treatment of disease. During long missions, a medical problem could come up. If this occurs, and even if a medically prepared astronaut was part of the mission, there is a possibility they would have to treat themselves for any illness or accident that might happen with tools and medications they bring on the mission. Space doctors have the medical technology to perform small surgeries, diagnose, and treat illness. Some solutions that currently exist are robots with smart medical systems and telemedicine. The latter has become very popular during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jim Logan, who is the Johnson Space Center’s manager for the Medical Informatics and Health Care Systems, states that an external defibrillator is an excellent example of a smart medical system. The defibrillator can decide where it has been set up correctly and whether a patient needs to be defibrillated.

Space health is the next frontier as we see a recharged interest in exploration. The upcoming years will be crucial in developing new ways to stay healthy in space, so missions can be longer and safer.

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Males in Nursing and the Stereotype Struggle

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There are a total of 3.3 million nurses in the US workforce, and around 9.1% are male nurses. You can quickly deduce that nursing is a female-dominated field. However, the 9.1% number demonstrates a steady increase of male registered nurses. This promotes the stigma that nursing is a ¨female profession¨. Due to this stigma, men in nursing can often face many stereotyping and roll traps. Men entering the workforce should be aware of this, and there are some actions they can take to combat them.

One of the first stereotypes in the United States that is often heard is that most, if not all, male nurses are gay. The interesting thing is that men have been a significant actor in nursing throughout history. India established an all-male nursing school in 250 BC. In times of conflict throughout world history, like in the 11th century with the Crusades or in the late 1800s in the Franco Prussian War, it is men who have nursed the troops.

The Nurse Registration Act of 1919 in the UK supported males in nursing, although it allowed segregation between men and women. This segregation was consistent until after World War II. Upon returning from the war, men did pursue nursing careers. But, even in the 1970s, only 3.7% of nurses were male.

The current significant imbalance, in terms of gender, can reinforce this stereotype against male nurses. George Zangaro, RN, FAAN, Associate Dean at Walden University School of Nursing, states this often stems from insecurities, prejudices, and the generation of the patients. Historically, especially in the last 100 years, there has been an underlying social environment where gender issues were not as progressive as the direction they are taking now.

Gender bias is another issue male nurses face. Male nurses have to deal with female patients that might misinterpret certain actions as ¨sexual assault¨. Les Rodriguez, MSN, MPH, RN, ACNS-BC, APRN, clinical nurse specialist at Methodist Richardson Medical Center argues this by saying that there is no reason someone would go into nursing for such a purpose. It is natural for male nurses to find themselves in these unfortunate moments as they are ingrained in socio-cultural and even religious norms. In the current environment, male nurses should be prepared to be refused by patients because of gender.

Another prevalent stereotype is that nursing is not a ¨man’s job¨, unlike male-dominated careers like law enforcement, armed forces, engineering, etc. This misperception can lead to the notion that females are more caring, considerate, and less threatening, so, therefore, are better equipped to be nurses. There is possibly some historical basis (warranted or not) in regards to skill level. As mentioned above, men were segregated from women in the profession. This often meant that male nurses worked in mental health facilities versus general hospitals. The perception here is they did not have the same level of training or experience (which may or may not be true as a holistic view). The perception may have added to the argument that women are better nurses. This simply is not the case in today’s world but this stereotype remains pervasive in many cultures and is harmful to the entire nursing profession.

All of the stereotypes mentioned have existed for years, decades, and centuries. And, unfortunately, will exist for years to come; however, it is everyone’s duty to combat these, especially male nurses entering the profession. They must always strive to be the best nurse possible and concentrate on each patient and be their advocate. Robert Whigham, RN, a nurse at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, advises male nurses to ¨keep your noses to the grindstone and surpass all negativity¨. Avoiding negativity and performing all tasks with excellence will allow male nurses to rise through the ranks based on merit. This will in turn challenge public perception and combat stereotypes.

It is exciting to see that more men have decided to go into the nursing profession in the last decades, and we hope more continue to pursue this in the future. In doing so, this will help dispel the male nurse’s myth and eliminate the stereotypes that have existed for so many years.

We will leave you with this one last thought: It is the duty of everyone to educate themselves and others on the evolution of the gender-related misconceptions surrounding any profession.

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We need more healthcare professionals – How can we train them all?

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Rising growth in demand for services within the healthcare industry prevails over contentious policy debates. In an industry already showing signs of a shortage, the growth is expected to continue and exponentially increase the need for more healthcare workers including not only nurses and physicians but technologists, allied health professionals, and support workers. Not to mention leasers and educators.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown since 2013 healthcare employment has had month after month of growth. And in one month 45,000 new healthcare jobs were filled and averaged 24,000 jobs per month. Clearly the demand for professionals is evident. And, for the foreseeable future, the growth is expected to continue.

New openings have historically outpaced hirings in this industry. The cap is widening quickly due to the Affordable Care Act and an aging population of retirement age healthcare practitioners. With the need for workers spiking in this time of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare employment is booming.

We are looking at over a million job openings per year in healthcare, with 204,000 of those being new RN job openings according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

People are trying to take the steps to get schooling and enter the healthcare industry. the AACN reports that in 2018 there was nearly a 4 percent increase in baccalaureate program enrollment. The dilemma is that nursing schools also turned away more than 75,000 qualified applicants because they didn’t have enough staff or resources to provide proper education.

This lack of resources means there has been a heavier lean toward online classes for the healthcare industry. With the stay at home orders across the US due to the COVI-19 pandemic, online education definitely seems like the future. We will require new strategies to cope with workforce shortages and any systemic issues that need to be resolved to better online healthcare education.

To learn more about the current status of healthcare professional job opening demands and the various pathways to enter a career in the industry, consider attending this webinar.