Travel Medicine Conferences

I've just updated the 'conferences' page on my website see here.  There are two coming up shortly from the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. The first on 12th March is being held in London jointly with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the second on the 28th March is in Leicester with the BGTHA on the 'Adventurous Traveller'.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christamas and a Happy New Year.  

Thank you for supporting this blog and using the website in 2014  Jane x

The Twelve Days of Christmas:

CONSULTATIONS OF THE TRAVEL NURSE !

For the latest article in this monthly series, published in Practice Nurse Journal and on their new excellent website see HERE  

To read the article which was a bit of fun to complete, but hopefully informative in places as well, click on my website or Facebook page, on the Practice Nurse website or on the image below!

Air Bubble in Syringes

There was a piece about expelling the air from the flu vaccine syringe in the November/December 2014 Vaccine Update and the answer given was as follows: You shouldn’t get rid of the air bubble. To try to expel it risks accidently expelling some of the vaccine and therefore not giving the patient the full dose. The air bubble is also there for a reason – the air injected into the muscle forms an airlock preventing the medication seeping out along the needle tract into subcutaneous tissue and onto the skin. The small bolus of air injected following administration of medication clears the needle and prevents a localised reaction from the vaccination.  The link to the reference is here.  

Should this apply to all vaccines including travel?  The Australian Immunisation Handbook of 2013 says for all injectable vaccine as follows: Do not extrude small air bubbles through the needle for injection. However, in the rare instance of a large air bubble in a pre-filled syringe, first draw back on the needle to ensure no vaccine is expelled along with the air, and then expel the air through the needle, taking care not to prime the needle with any of the vaccine, as this can lead to increased local reaction.  See here for the link to this statement in this excellent publication.

Bravery in Black and White!

One of the most useful tools a nurse can have in his/her collection of tricks when vaccinating children are bravery certificates.  I made a number in colour some time ago but have been looking for some images in black and white which can be coloured in by the children and are easy to print when all you have is a black ink printer!  These have also been created so that you have very little to write - saving you time, but making a little one hopefully happy with a certificate to take away.  There are ten different designs which can be downloaded from the tools page of my website - go to item number 14  click here

Malaria and Pregnancy

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) recently published a leaflet for patients regarding malaria and pregnancy.  Of course our first line of advice should be "do you really need to go?", but sometimes a trip is essential.  In this scenario we must make the traveller fully aware of the risk.  The leaflet is comprehensive, well presented and I would recommend it for all pregnant travellers considering going to a malarious area.  It also has a useful section regarding the traveller who is 'planning to get pregnant'.  Click on the image to access the copy.

Ebola awareness resources

Public Health England are gathering a significant number of resources for Ebola virus disease: clinical management guidance. These guidance publications for professionals are available here.  A number of posters may be of use in your workplace including the one below which was published online yesterday. For direct access click on the image below

and here's another one click on image again for access