Feeding premature babies breast milk could reduce heart damage caused by an early birth, scientists say. Babies born before full-term - 37 weeks - are thought to have weaker hearts due to smaller chambers that help pump the blood.  But giving premature babies breast milk, instead of formula, could alleviate the problem, a review of evidence suggests. The researchers believe breast milk can help regulate hormones and growth factors and strengthen the infant's immune system, reducing inflammation.     About 60,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK every year - one in every 13. They are more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases as adults than their full term peers. One of the long-term health complications young adults born prematurely may have is unique heart characteristics. These can include smaller heart chambers, relatively higher blood pressure and a disproportionate increase in muscle mass in the heart. Lead author Professor Afif E...

Nigeria - Nurse Vivian Akudo Nwogu, popularly known as The Alpha Nurse (@thealphanurse), is a Registered Nurse with a speciality training in Fertility Nursing. She's a media savvy, marriage and lifestyle blogger, an inventor of 7keema - a mobile application for nurses, and founder of Nurse Hub Africa. As much as she is a passionate nurse, her mission is to positively influence the wives and wives-to-be in stabilizing their relationships. Nurse Akudo Nwogu received a meritorious award for her passionate and selfless service towards women. The award was presented by African Leading Women Awards, 2019 edition. The reward is to encourage her to do more. Meanwhile, another lady of virtue and humor was also awarded for her dedications and steadfastness in women affairs. Fadila Saleh Bade (a.k.a. Lady-bade) is a graduate, registered nurse. She's an activist and a public speaker. She's the founder of Let's Talk Nursing. She  also received a meritorious award at the just...

                Image: minoritynurse.com Monday I’m a nurse on an inpatient psychiatric ward in an inner-city hospital. Our patients have a variety of mental health difficulties, and are mostly at the beginning of their recovery journey. I tend to work three days a week because shifts are 14 hours long. After morning handover, I check medication for a patient being discharged today. I don’t think he’s well enough yet: he’s still disturbed by voices in his head and can become very frightened when out on the street. After he’s discharged he’ll only see a nurse twice a day to make sure he takes his medication, and those visits will probably stop after a week or so. I think he will be back here, even more unwell, before long. But because of the demand for beds, as soon as a patient gets anywhere near the threshold for discharge, we are under constant pressure to make room for someone more unwell. My patients need to trust that I’m there...

Medical Negligence is substandard care that's been provided by a medical professional to a patient which has directly caused injury or caused an existing condition to get worse ( Irwin Mitchell 2019). Medical Negligence or Malpractice isn't just a term, it costs someone's life, damaged family tree, rendered vegetative, impotent, miserable and lifeless. This error is catastrophic and destructive, it destroyed new and old family ties. This act is only perpetrated by healthcare practitioners. This error isn't numerical nor engineering, not an error you can easily correct through a pen, computer, balancing, nor a machine. No technology advancement can mitigate medical errors. Let me give you a typical and valid example. You can cross check, this isn't a make up story, you can access it through google. Few days ago I came across a touching and emotional article of a young, dynamic, promising and dedicated athlete. 37 years ago, Jean-Pierre Adams, had a minor surgery...

Nigeria -  An international non-governmental organisation, WaterAid Nigeria, has said that 50 per cent of all schools in Nigeria do not have basic water and sanitation facilities. According to the organisation, this implies that the brunt of challenge of poor access is borne by people in the lowest economic quintile and those living in rural areas and small towns. Country Director of WaterAid Nigeria, Dr. ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye, disclosed this during the unveiling of a report which analysed the situation of sanitation in Kano, Warri and Enugu state, in Abuja, on Wednesday. She said: “This poor access has significant implications on education, health and developmental outcomes. For instance, Nigeria loses 60, 000 children under the age of five yearly to diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor access to water and sanitation. “Poor water supply and sanitation also costs the Nigerian economy 1.3 per cent of its gross domestic product which is about $4.8 million annually. “Nigeri...