Patient Awareness Under Anesthesia Handout

The American Society of Anesthesiologists has a plethora of patient education handouts, in English with some in Spanish at their patient education website.

One of these handouts, created by the ASA and the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, is Patient Awareness Under Anesthesia - What Is It?

"The brochure explains what awareness under general anesthesia is and isn¹t, and why it can happen. It discusses what researchers and health care providers are doing to lessen the chance of this rare event and offers guidance to patients for discussing concerns about awareness with their anesthesia professional."

This brochures is available in .pdf format and is also available in Spanish.

New National Sudden Infant Death Resource Center

The National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health at Georgetown University is pleased to announce the new National Sudden Infant Death Resource Center (NSIDRC), funded by a 3-year cooperative agreement with the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

NSIDRC is co-located with the Maternal and Child Health Library and draws on the library's extensive resource capacities and public health perspective. The new NSIDRC will continue the work of the National SIDS/Infant Death Resource Center, serving as a central source of information on sudden infant death (including sudden infant death syndrome, miscarriage, stillbirth and other sudden infant deaths), on bereavement, and on promoting healthy outcomes for infants from the prenatal period through the first year of life and beyond.

The website provides access to this information in an easy-to-use format. Searchable databases and special issues of the MCH Alert with a focus on infant mortality will be available soon.

NSIDRC is also accessible by calling (866) 866-7437 (toll-free) or (202) 687-7466 (local), or by e-mailing info@sidscenter.org

How to Quit Smoking Fact Sheet in 16 Languages

The Inova Health System, along with other hospitals in the DC Metro area, has recently gone smoke-free. A related fact sheet, "How to Quit Smoking" is available from Health Information Translations, a fabulous resource sponsored by several institutions including Nationwide Children's Hospital and Ohio State University Medical Center.

"How to Quit Smoking" is available in 16 languages including Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese Brazilian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

The fact sheets are in .pdf format and include the foreign language and the English translation. Fact sheets are also copyright free so you may make additional copies as needed! Woohoo!

Prevention and Treatment of Pressure Sores (Spanish)

The ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners website is featuring a patient education sheet in Spanish on preventing and treating pressure sores. The handout is available in .pdf format and is titled, "La Prevención y el Tratamiento de las Úlceras por Presióndes"

The fact sheet covers causes, risk factors, types of pressure sores, treatment, and prevention. There is no English counterpart to this document.

Caring for Cancer Caregivers

A new resource from the National Cancer Institute, "Caring for the Caregiver: Support for Cancer Caregivers," is now available for order from the Cancer Information Service. This booklet is an easy-to-read version of the existing booklet, "When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer". It provides the basics of practical and supportive information for cancer caregivers, and is written at the 4th-5th grade reading level.

"Chapters" include:
"Who is a caregiver?",
"Your feelings",
"Asking for help",
"Caring for yourself",
"Going with your loved one to medical visits", and
"Talking with others".

This document is available in html and/or .PDF format This booklet can also be ordered for free in print.

Updated Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy Booklets Now Available

It wasn't that long ago when the National Cancer Institute was looking for reviewers to help update their chemotherapy and radiation therapy brochures. The revised editions are now available and it is estimated
that nearly half a million copies of each will be distributed to Cancer Centers and health professionals annually.

The booklets focus on the most common treatment side effects and ways to manage them. Each side effect has its own section describing what it is, why it occurs, ways to manage and ways to obtain more information. the new formats are user-friendly. Written in plain language, they feature a larger font size and contain more white space for readability. They have also been resized for easier photocopying.

These documents can be viewed in html and/or downloaded in .PDF format.

Women's Health Fact Sheets in Spanish

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health consumer health fact sheets are now available entirely in Spanish. OWH recently released 42 new Spanish-language publications on a range of topics including depression, generic drugs, heart disease, cosmetics, arthritis, mammography, HIV, and food safety. These easy-to-read fact sheets complement OWH's other Spanish language materials on diabetes, menopause, and safe medication use.

Copies of these fact sheets can be viewed in html or downloaded in .PDF format. They can also be ordered for free in bulk quantities.