Think men are more prone to heart disease? Try again. More women than men die of heart disease each year. In fact:

• Nearly 39% of all female deaths in the United States occur from cardiovascular disease (American Heart Association).
• Heart attack, stroke, and related cardiovascular diseases are responsible for almost twice as many deaths among women as all forms of cancer combined (American Heart Association).
• Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death among U.S. women. It affects 1 in 10 women over the age of 18 (National Institute on Health).

While awareness of heart disease as the leading cause of death has increased from 30% in 1997 to 46% in 2003, only 20% of women consider it to be their own greatest health risk. National Wear Red Day, celebrated on Friday, February 1, is a day when Americans nationwide will wear red to show their support for women's heart disease awareness and bring well-needed attention to this killer. 

 "Women need to realize that making even one lifestyle change reduces their risk for heart disease," says August Stieber of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates (BDA), a national EAP firm. In fact, the risk of heart disease can be lowered by as much as 82% just by leading a healthy lifestyle, according to The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Stieber offers these lifestyle suggestions:

• Exercise: Regular physical activity--even as simple as walking 30 minutes a day--can lead to improved blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and cardiovascular fitness.
• Nutrition: A diet low in fat and high in fiber can help reduce the risk for heart attack by lowering cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
• Stress Reduction: Stress management reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and cholesterol--all of which improve heart health. 

National Wear Red Day was launched in partnership with The Heart Truth, a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information on National Wear Red Day, click here.

Editor's note: For additional information, Stieber can be reached at 1-800-227-8620. Courtesy of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates. Reprinted with permission.

Documentation is a serious business. It demonstrates excellent patient care and can be your saving grace when legal issues occasionally rise to the surface. But sometimes, a chart can make you laugh. From entries as bizarre as a patient refusing an autopsy to a woman being numb from her toes down, you can find some funny stuff on a chart. A friend sent us this list of 25 gut-busters and we had to pass them along. Enjoy.

And, in case you were wondering, these were (allegedly!) taken from actual hospital charts.

1. The patient refused autopsy.
2. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.
4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
9. Discharge status: Alive but without permission.
10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful.
11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
12. She is numb from her toes down.
13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated, and sent home.
14. The skin was moist and dry.
15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.
17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.
19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.
20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
23. Skin: somewhat pale but present.
24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.
25. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.

Are there any others you've stumbled upon during your time as a nurse? Feel free to add your own comment--and share the laughter.

In search of a simple way to let someone know you are thinking about them this holiday season? Just want to give a quick "thank-you" for all the hard work they do?

Here's a quick and easy way to do it: Send some fellow nurses a holiday card here.

It's no secret that nursing can do a number on your health. Sore backs from lifting patients and poor eating habits because of strange schedules and lack of time, to name a couple examples, can have a detrimental effect on your health. Add driving under the influence of drowsiness to the list.

According to a new study published in the December 1 issue of SLEEP, staff nurses who work extended hours, work at night, struggle to remain awake at work, or obtain less sleep are more likely to experience a drowsy driving episode. The data was compiled during a four-week span and focused on 895 nurses, who reported, on average, one drowsy driving episode out of every four shifts worked. Additionally, 281 accidents or near car accidents were reported during the study.

Sleep restriction and sleep fragmentation are listed as the two main causes of drowsy driving. To combat the problem, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends getting enough sleep, taking breaks while driving, consuming caffeine, avoiding alcohol, and avoid late-night driving.

Here is a link to the full press release with further information: Sleep Study

Here we go again. All of a sudden, like an enormous stack of papers covering your desk on a Monday morning, the holiday season has arrived. Ugh! But hey, look at the bright side: You made it through Thanksgiving and you didn't eat too much. Okay, maybe you did. And you weren't one of those people who got up at 3 a.m. to shop on Black Friday. Okay, maybe you were. Either way, now is the time when shopping, eating, and stress really pick up. Here are seven tips to get you through the holidays in one piece.

Whether you're getting ready to celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, or Kwanzaa, these tips will help you save time, money, and even the hair you want to pull out when the person in front of you at the grocery store clearly has more than 10 items in his or her plastic basket! Phew. Okay, breathe. Relax. Here we go:

Shop in spurts. Lots of people like to pick a day, get up at the crack of dawn, and plow through their holiday shopping in one, crazy 12-hour stretch. Why put yourself through it? Shop a little at a time, chip away here and there, and you'll be done in no time.

Love to log on. A decade ago, shopping online was a bizarre idea meant for only the highest of high-tech gurus. Now, your cat can do it. If you're sick of the long lines and your car is sick of finishing last in the parking space game, get a comfortable chair, a nice cup of tea, and shop away.

Less is more. Are you having a tough time deciding which new gaming system to get your kid? Or which cruise package to get your parents for helping you through nursing school? Here's a thought: Don't get any of it. Get simple, thoughtful gifts. Spend more time together during the holidays. You (and your wallet) will be happier come January.

Take some vacation. We know, we know, there's too much going on at the end of the year to take some time off. You've got new projects to finish, new people to train, and new ideas to implement. Relax. Take a break. Give yourself a long weekend or take a random Wednesday afternoon off.

Treat No. 1. Guess who that is? You've been running around all year, catering to family, friends, and yes, patients. When do you get a break? Now. Go buy those shoes you've been looking at for two months. Go to a spa for a few hours.

Early resolutions. Instead of waiting until January 1 to make your New Year's Resolution, do it now. Do you want to drop 10 pounds? Do you finally want to kick that nicotine habit? Do you want to send at least one thank-you note each week to someone in your life? Start now! You'll feel much better about yourself through the holidays and you'll laugh at those people who are racking their brains for a resolution next year.

Smile more. It sounds simple, doesn't it? But have you ever consciously tried to do it? If you're standing in a check-out line that starts and ends in two different states, smile. If your roast is drier than the Sahara Desert in the middle of summer, smile. If your shovel snaps like a twig in the middle of an ice storm, smile. It won't make your problems go away, but it will make everything seem a lot better. Then, (gasp) maybe you can actually enjoy the holidays.

How do you get through the craziness of the holidays? Share your thoughts with your peers.

by Diana Lang, relaxation expert

I like to think of life's momentous experiences like beads on a string. Those moments that are important, valuable, or rare are like beautiful colored beads that we lovingly thread onto this string of beads. Each bead symbolically represents a moment, an experience, a special person. As life goes on, a gorgeous necklace of our lives is created, full of these moments that have meant something to us.

This little metaphor is a way to imagine making our lives more conscious. By recognizing these moments more often, we become more fully alive to our experience. It is easy to see how a marriage or a birth of a child would be a bead on our string, but what about today? What about right now?

One of the ways I make my moments conscious is by using my breath. When I awake in the morning or go to sleep at night, I take a conscious breath. In between daily rituals like my morning tea or meditation, or taking a walk or going to the grocery store, I take a breath to establish myself in the place where I am.

This is one of the most valuable tools I have. I use it all day long. Between every client and every class, between every activity in my day, I take a conscious breath. These aware moments then are indelibly written in my consciousness. They become part of me. They are beads on my string.

A conscious breath is a physical/spiritual acknowledgement of the moment. My inhalation and exhalation establish me in the new moment I am in. When we use the breath like this, life becomes a living meditation, seamlessly connecting the dots of our experience, one to another, like beads on a string, and soon we have a collection of moments that is an acknowledgment that this life, and everything in it, is sacred.

Breathe your life in deeply. Live your life completely. Recognize that this moment, right now, is special and add it to your life's string of magical moments.

For more information on Diana, visit her Web site at www.DianaLang.com.

by Pat Maguire, RN, MN, CNAA

It's the time of year when everything has a tendency to get chaotic--either the budget year is ending and you are worried about your final numbers, or you are putting the final touches on next year's financial plan and are concerned that your requests may not be approved. The newly licensed nurses are nearing the end of orientation and some feel they aren't competent to fly solo. One of your expert nurses is contemplating a transfer to a critical care unit and someone who behaves like "poor pitiful Pearl" most of the time has been in your face one more time about her seniority and expectation that she will be off Christmas and New Year's Eve and day.

You've only held your position for a year or two and the stress of the 24-hour accountability and responsibility is starting to take its toll. Where do you turn for support? How do you manage the daily conflicts that tend to pop up regardless of the effort you put into modeling collaboration and teamwork?

Several years ago, a wise colleague who'd seen it all helped me through a particularly tough time. She asked me if I knew what my trigger points were. What made me vulnerable to a self created "pity party?" What part of the chaos did I own? Was I willing to step up to the plate just as I expected my staff to? Wow, those are pretty intense questions, especially if you are willing and able to do some soul searching before you flip back into high gear and try to solve world hunger.

What was the last novel or mystery book you read? What about your friends and family, when did you do something fun with them? Have you had any "retail therapy" lately? How about professional publications--either clinically focused journals or management texts--do you have a favorite? There are so many that offer a world of insight about your team and more importantly, about you and your style. I have found three publications to be most useful:

• Michael Henry Cohen's What You Accept Is What You Teach
• Jim Collin's Good To Great
• Carly Fiorina's Tough Choices

I pick one up whenever I'm down and learn something new about myself each and every time.

Commit to lifelong learning. And at the end of every day, pause and think about the things you did that made a difference for your patients, your staff, and your colleagues. Keep a journal and for heaven sake, don't be critical and say, "I didn't do anything." You and I both know that isn't true. Above all, be true to yourself. Don't compromise your values. Know who and what your resources are so you can seek them out whenever the need presents.

The bottom line is make time for yourself every week--both personally and professionally. And never forget, your position is intended to be your job--not your life.