Surgery Robots Mean More Education And Training For Both Nurses And Doctors

More and more hospitals in the developed world are employing robots in surgery, including Japan, for example. Iseikai Hospital in Osaka and Nagoya Kyouritsu Hospital in Nagoya are just two Japanese hospitals that use these labor-saving surgical automation systems.

However, despite their success in the surgery room, these robots also had unintended consequences like creating issues in the way the insurance companies are billed for "services rendered." Billing for operations performed by robots are already a topic of controversy in Japan since they are not categorized as "regular surgical operations."

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In British Columbia, Canada, a "Da Vinci" brand robotic system will start operating this Fall (2007) to help doctors during surgeries that require accessing tight areas like the pelvis or the chest. Vancouver General Hospital is planning to use Da Vinci in urological (e.g., Radical Prostatectomy), cardiac (e.g., Mitral Valve Repair) and gynecological (e.g., Hysterectomy) surgeries.

Canadian news reports claim that "robot-assisted surgery offers patients fewer surgical complications, less post-operative pain, faster recovery times, shorter hospital stays and improved health outcomes." Purchasing Da Vinci, installing it, training the personnel and maintaining it for three years will cost the hospital somewhere around .5 million.

Here in the United States, did you know that robots are performing cancer surgeries in Charlotte, North Carolina? CyberKnife, a .7 million knifeless robot, is operating on cancer patients with precision radiation at the NorthEast Medical Center. CyberKnife is also used in Mission Health and Hospitals in Asheville and UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

Other "radiosurgery" machines used in surgery include the Gamma Knife in Winston-Salem and Greenville and the XKnife and a Varian device in Durham.

This irreversible trend of course requires both surgeons and nurses require new technical skills to allow them work with such computerized and programmable wonders. Our healthy future will demand even a higher level of training and technical competence from our nurses and healthcare providers.

Surgery Robots Mean More Education And Training For Both Nurses And Doctors

U. Akinci is the Editor of the monthly “Nurse Recruiter Newsletter” published by http://www.nurse-recruiter.com, the nation's premiere travel nurse staffing agency.

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Charlotte - Mecklenburg Schools Lead the Nation in Preschool Education Programs

One program in Charlotte Schools is focusing on the littlest learners. Recognizing that good learners begin early, education officials have developed an award winning preschool program called Bright Beginnings.

Bright Beginnings

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The Bright Beginnings program involves full day, literacy based programs for four year olds in the Charlotte - Mecklenburg area. More than 3000 students benefit from the program at five education centers and fourteen elementary schools. Over time the program has spread beyond the public school system and has been integrated into preschool classrooms throughout the community by partnering with the Smart Start, Child Care Resources, Child Care Centers, and More at Four programs, which all target the education needs of preschool students.

Developing Pre - K Experiences

Teachers and program developers recognize the need for enriching experiences at the preschool level. Students at this age have very limited opportunities to explore the world around them, and the Bright Beginnings Program hopes to change that. By exposing children to new and different things, program developers believe that they can strengthen student vocabulary, a skill that they hope will carry over when the students learn to read. While many of these new experiences take place in the classroom, Bright Beginnings also encourages students with field trips to local learning centers, such as Discovery Place and ImaginOn.

Aligning Pre - K with Elementary Education Curriculum and Instruction

Bright Beginnings has recently been incorporated under the North Carolina State Elementary Education Curriculum and Instruction area. Teachers hope to build connections between what they do in the Bright Beginnings program and what students will need to do when they enter kindergarten. The new partnership seeks to produce students entering kindergarten who are better prepared to learn and kindergarten teachers with a clearer idea of what their students have been exposed to and how they can build on that knowledge as they move through kindergarten. The program has the potential to raise student achievement at every grade level, as better prepared students advance year to year. Bright Beginnings recognizes that as Elementary Education Standards increase, preschool student curriculum must as well. As the director of the program explains, "(Children) are expected to learn more. The standards have increased, not just in college and high school but in kindergarten too."

Professional Development for Teachers

As part of Bright Beginnings commitment to preschool education, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools has used federal and state grant money to ensure that the teachers working in the program are highly trained and qualified. All teachers must be certified in early child development, meaning that they have studied children from birth to kindergarten.

National Recognition for Bright Beginnings

Several years ago, Bright Beginnings sold its award winning curriculum to Pearson Publishing. Through this partnership, the curriculum has been distributed nationwide and continues to grow in neighborhoods far from the Charlotte - Mecklenburg area. The director of the program credits Bright Beginning's success to the continued dedication of teachers and developers to work towards better learning practices. She comments, "We've started some new things and we're going to continue to build them. We have gotten great marks for our curriculum for years. (Charlotte - Mecklenburg Schools) is a leader in the nation."

Charlotte - Mecklenburg Schools Lead the Nation in Preschool Education Programs

Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Stacy has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more on Charlotte schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/North-Carolina/Charlotte/index.html

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