A life without knowing about our vital signs

Have you thought about the importance of knowing your vital signs? Well let me tell you that I was thinking about it because in this moment I am studying obstetrics and thanks to this I realized that it is a really important thing in the life of everyone. But the knowledge of these would be nothing if there were no specific objects to measure each of the vital signs (temperature, blood pressure). Vital signs are essential to know how our body is functioning, if any value of these is abnormal, it means that something is wrong in our organism.

If I start talking about technology related with vital signs, obviously I have to talk about the temperature: measuring body temperature determines whether a person has a fever. It may also be useful in monitoring to see if a person is ill or if a treatment is working, especially the treatment of infections with antibiotics, for measure this, we use a thermometer, and there are different kinds of these: glass thermometer filled with mercury, electronic thermometer, and plastic strip thermometers that change color to indicate temperature. According to the place where you measure temperature (mouth, armpit or rectum), will be form of it.

Other important vital sign is the blood pressure; it is a measure of the force applied on the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood through the body. To measure this we use a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. There are aneroid manometers and others that use mercury (it has a column of mercury to measure pressure). Nowadays exist automatic tensiometers that now are more used in hospitals and in houses by persons that want or need to know the values to control some pressure problem. I think that although the automatic is the most modern equipment, the traditional method with the mercury manometer is the safest form to measure and to give values, because technology sometimes misleads.

Well, once knowing what these vital signs are and what mean their normal or abnormal values, we can realize the importance of the existence of objects that allow us to measure them. Once the technology becomes more essential to people especially for those responsible for the health of them. However it is very important to know how to use these objects because although them not possess complex mechanisms, who use them must possess precision, good hearing (in the case of having to take the pressure) and good eye (to check the temperature of the thermometer).

Challenges in my discipline.

Hello, I was thinking about the career I am studying (as you know, I am studying obstetrics to be a midwife) and I realized that in the future I will have to face some challenges in the different tasks I will have to do so as to take care and concern for the health of women.

But now there also exist challenges in this discipline. One of these are related to social matters, I mean, they affect the way we are appreciated by the people because a midwife has a very important role to play in the community. However, there are people who have no idea what our career is like and they say what is that? Is it like a nurse? So sometimes it is a little embarrassing to mention the career I am studying because I have to say all the things like what it is, what things the midwives do, the different functions, etc. and then I think about this and I believe that to resolve this in the hospitals and health centers the hospital authorities should promote the role of the midwife and highlight its importance and the differences between midwives and nurses. Another challenge is about education because depending on the university in which you study, you will have a prestige, I do not have problems or challenges to face in this area, because the University of Chile is a collaborating center of the World Health Organization (specifically my career), so I know that I will have facilities and recognition, but there are people that study in the other universities (specially the private ones) that do not have much prestige because maybe there are not highly qualified teachers, or they do not have all the resources and opportunities we have (for example). This is a critical challenge because the country needs good professionals, so is difficult to say how to resolve it because is a problem up to university authorities and the minister of health with the minister of education have to take care about that and look for a solution for this challenge because the future of the students of this career and the health of the future patients are in game.

Improving my faculty

Hello, today I am going to talk about my second home, my faculty: the medical faculty of the University of Chile. I like this place but there are some things that I would like to change. In general it is a nice place, without very flashy colors (that is good), with a front part which is not very modern; that brings it a traditional style.
I said I would like to change some things, for example:
-The library: it is an orderly and pleasant place, BUT it has no toilets, so it is very uncomfortable for the students to have to go to another place (the toilets are far from there) and leave the study, that desconcentrates anybody. So I would build a toilet inside the library (on the second level for example), that would help students to better use the time they have to do their job.
-The CES (health student center): this is a place to recreate and organize faculty topics, BUT the office is literally a mess, so you can not find anything if you do not spend time there, also there are toilets but they are very dirty. I would reorganize the place and I would paint it again to give it life, and the most important thing, clean the toilets, this changes would help us to give it a better use and to enjoy staying there.
Another changes more generals are in the auditoriums improve the illumination and the microphone’s audio to help us to see and hear better the classes.
I do not know what else I would improve, because I am happy with the whole faculty… until I have a problem with something.
Bye.

HOBBIES!

Hello!! Today my blog will be about my hobbies, I have three:
First my favorite hobby is to sing karaoke, I started with it about four years ago, and this helped me a lot because now I have more personality than before, because I sing the karaoke song and sometimes I record it and then I share the video in Facebook or in YouTube so my friends can watch my videos and this not ashamed me. For sing karaoke I need a lot of concentration, I need to feel the music to know when I have to start singing and to know which rhythm and tone I have to use. This hobby is very funny because I have accounts in three Internet pages and there I can record the songs and make videos and then share them with the communities, so I am in contact with persons of other countries who like this hobby too.
Another hobby is to surf the Internet the most of my free time, although when I have to make investigations for my subjects I do it too, but is easily for me because I know the way I have to search for the information. I’ve made it since I have Internet in my house and I learned by myself, now I am surprised when someone does not know how to surf the Internet, I think to myself Oh my God, this is so easy! You must to be crazy. I do not exactly which skills I need to do this, but I think that maybe I need some patience; I need to identify what I need to know how and where to search for… I don’t know which more.
And the last hobby that now I done less frequently than before is to read. I do it since I know how to read, and I love it because helps me to develop my imagination, to improve my spelling and my vocabulary. For this I need concentration, comprehension and time (this is what I need now). I develop this hobby individually but it helps me to have another topics to talk with my friends that like to read too.
That’s all for today, bye.

Holiday destinations

Hello, today I will talk to you about the kind of places that I like to go in summer, for example if I could I would like to go to Iquique, because I think that in the north of the country the water on the beach must be tempered because now that I am bigger than before I do not like the cold water of the southern beach (when I was a child I used to go to Concepción, and there the water of the beach is very cold); also I would like to go to another country, like Brazil, specially to Rio de Janeiro, because it would be fun to share with people as happy as Brazilians, and obviously I would like to learn a little of them language and travel by plane (although I would die of scare).

This summer I went to Las Cruces (a beach in the central coast) with my family (my mother, my father and my brother) and then arrived my grandmother, my aunt Cecilia and my cousins Esteban And Cristian to pass some days with us. I had so much fun, because I rested a lot, although I helped my mother in some home works. I like to go there because is a very quiet beach, and special to share in family (this was the third time that we go there). I remember when arrived my cousins, my father made a barbecue with a lot of ribs (that is my favorite kind of barbecues) and then we went to a beach (I do not remember the name but it was near Las Cruces) and I stayed swimming and playing on the beach until seven p.m., after at night we used to stay playing cards, but I never won.

The next summer I planning to go to Chiloé with my father, my mother and my brother because my father wants us to travel to the south of the country, because we always go to the fifth region, and because is a place that I would like to know. There we can know about the popular mingas and eat some curanto, almost we would know about the legends of the area. I think that we would stay in some residential or I do not know because with my father I never know nothing.
Well I hope that this trip to Chiloé is as good as the previous one.

The beatnik turned natural birth expert

Hello, I read a new about a woman that asist natural births in the USA in a "farm" (as she call it) in where live a community of 300 people. This farm was found for a group of beatniks wich like to have a naturistic life, so Ina May became in a midwife that asist naturally the births of the women in the community, she attended a lot of births even of the Amish community, so she obtained so much experience as a midwife with hundreds of years working (she atended a loto f high risk births, breech births, twin births and even feet births). This helps her to write a book with all her knowledge about natural births (Spiritual Midwifery). That book made her known in all the world and now go to the farm women of other countries who wants that Ina assist their childbirth, once Demi Moore called she because she wanted to have a natural birth, but Ina did not know who was Demi, so she said that if some woman wants that she attend her childbirth, she must to travel to the farm.

Bonnie Reed (a woman that have two natural births) told to the reporter that she worked as a birthing advocate in New York helping women to have natural births because in some states of the USA this practice is ilegal. Ina hopes that Obama helps creating a health ministry for help with this problem.

This is the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/26/natural-birth-expert

A sporting life

Hello… well you can see that the name of this blog is about sport, but ironically I do not practice no sport, it is funny I know, but letting aside my sedentary life I think that the physical activity is very important in the life of people because it helps to maintain a good health and to prevent some diseases (that is the reason why I must to do physical activity for half an hour three days in the week, but I think that I will start with this the next Monday) but the problem is that the most of people have no time (or say they do not have) often not knowing the importance of this for them life . I imagine if all the people in a country playing some sport or do physical activity, the obesity rate would decrease a lot, also heart diseases and the quality of life of them would be better; also the physical activity helps to feel better with yourself and to be more happy.

I would encourage the people delivering information about the importance of the sport in them life depending the age of each person it will be different because in a children is easily to teach good habits for them health (in the school they have to do physical activity as a subject), in teenagers is a little difficult, because the most of them become in sedentary persons with the technology (the internet, television, play stations and other consoles) so I do not know, I am a teen and I like to dance sometimes watching videos on internet or I follow exercises videos (is funny) and there I am using the technology, so my idea is that this things includes activities for young people so them are interested and they would learn that physical activity is important. In adults is more difficult because they have works, so I think that in their jobs the boss would give them a little time to go to the gym.
Bye.