October 22 Pink ribbon

 

24 hours, weeks of planning, one dreamer, that got others crazy enough to believe in a dream! A dream to use a virtual world as a means to make a difference in the real world. A virtual hospital and a virtual club,raising more as 40.000 virtual dollars were raised in 24 hours, money that directly went to American Cancer Society, for the breast (cancer) awareness, not the virtual ACS but the real one.

 

To use a virtual world to make a difference in the real world, is not new, in fact this whole website revolves around that idea. But to raise over 40.000 virtual dollars with a limited amount of people is an astonishing success!

Beside the fact that money was raised, a lot of people took a second, to think about breast cancer

 

I like to thank 3 people from the virtual club specificity, Jordy Anna and Sydney, their names in random order :-), they were the main organizers for this event/dream.

Thank you 3 very much!!

 

What also like to do is to introduce you all to a finished department a month, no surprise this month the WHC or women health center, the main focus of the WHC is:

Breast (cancer)awareness and female reproductive system problems.

The WHC was originally created to give women who have been RL diagnosed with breast cancer an opportunity to experience some of the diagnostic steps in a virtual world first, ask questions get a note card about what to ask your RL doctor.

Result they are better prepared and hopefully a bit less anxious.

 

The WHC has set up a series of numbered diagnostic tools, avatars get in each step an explaining note card from that step. There is a mailbox system, when no staff is around the can ask their questions and will be contacted a.s.a.p. Also there is a pretty good web link that allows visitors to access in SL a very good website about breast (cancer) awareness.

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AMMC illuminated in pink

AMMC in Relay for Life

Ha all

No real news about AMMC hospital, finding land etc.
But some AMMC members walked in The Relay for Life of Second life.
As earlier on this website explained Second Life is virtual world, seen by some as a game.
But this game, and all the people helping during Relay for Life in  Second life, all the people who were present  helped raise roughly 370.000 dollar for the American caner society 🙂 not bad for a game :-).
But first what is Relay for Life? I place a web link here it would take a long time to explain this wonderful event and by all means do visit that site!
Fact is that this real world event has a virtual world counter part and under here, i give you an impression of this virtual event and what it did for the real world.
http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/whatisrelay

Relay for Life in Second Life

When arriving in the Relay for Life welcome area you see 69 flags representing all the nationalities actively  participating in this event.

Explanation posters for those who never were in Relay for Life before and all were greeted by volunteers who welcomed everyone and answered questions.

Of course also the start of the track

People walk in Relay to celebrate (the survivor lap),this lap begins immediately after the opening ceremonies and during this lap only survivors of cancer or caregivers are on the track

to remember (the luminaria ceremony), lumnarias are sort of candles, people can name these candles after loved ones who lost their battle against cancer

And to fight back, this is an event were participants pledge to fight back cancer, spread awareness, or and this is my addition if you have cancer this ceremony can be a big help for you.

Along the track teams made awesome creations, to make the event a beautiful experience, but also found very creative ways to raise money.

This money is processed by “donation kiosks” , to prevent fraud.
What also was heart warming that a lot of time people cheered on those walking the track.

Again here a link to a website about Relay for Life in Second Life
http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/secondlife

Also information was available and broadcast-ed on stream people told their stories.
This event is every year in Second life, i have been part of it since i came in Second life,
and whether you are AMMC member or stumbled on this website and this article by mistake,
i hope to see you again next year during Relay for Life.

greetings Vera Zhaoying

(disclaimer this web entry is not pre approved by ACS , but i hope to edit this article later that it has been approaved

 

Ha all

Date: January 29
time: 10 AM PDT
loc. : AMMC conference/information center
by : Brede Mc Donnel

topic: Terminal care,patients with psychological distress and
new medication protocols.

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  note this speech is given in the virtual hospital AMMC,

please use the link to visit us in Second Life

 

Unless death comes quick and unexpected, dying is a process.
During 2 earlier speeches in this theme we could learn a lot about this process.
Allmedical personal from the Prof to the nursing aid, will play a role in this process of a terminal patient. No matter how many books you read or written, you are part of the last journey of a person.

This alone is i think a very good reason to attend this meeting and if you were not present during the earlier 2 ask the text of the full series.

This meeting will handle the dying patient in severe distress, mental distress.
This is a minority of the cases but where you, no matter doctor nurse, nursing aid, family or friend can make a difference for this patient. As extra point the new medical protocols for this patient group will be addressed.

Every one interested is warmly invited to attend and you don’t have to be an AMMC member to attend

regards Brede Mc Donnell and Vera Zhaoying

Happy 2011

Ha all

To everyone

from New Zealand to Samoa and everyone in between!!

 

A wonderful, healthy and happy year!!!

regards Vera Zhaoying

 

Ha All

We officially started!!! October breast aware month, breast aware month originally started in the USA and later went global. AMMC proved it was a global effort,

organizing where people from the Netherlands, Germany France, the UK and to make the circle back the USA, so even in Second Life it was a global event!!

During the kick off party a total of L$23.350 was raised, that money automatically finds it s way to: Making Strides against breast cancer.

This with thanks to American Cancer Society, who provided us with the donation kiosks

People this was an event that took from a lot of people a lot of energy to plan and organize but it was all worth it and beside the money raised it was one beep of a party!! During October, more events follow, workshops, speeches and at the end a survivors party, when you are interested in breast cancer awareness do follow this website, check out the post below this one for  program or visit AMMC in Second life

greetz Vera Zhaoying

23 nurses on tour in AMMC

Ha All,

It is the holiday season so not to much activity planned, but on July 23 AMMC was visted by a group of RL nurses and their professor,both Dr Berci Dryke as me did host the tour, i post the response of their professor under here

greetz Vera

and enjoy the summer when you can!!

I cannot thank you and Berci enough for your guidance and support in showing the students parts of the AMMC.  I know you could only cover a few locations, but the students were quite impressed with you and the work at AMMC.  I was also pleased to hear lots of laughter in the classroom–these are good students, but on a Friday afternoon they are usually pretty quiet and brain-dead.  The Second Life tour really livened them up!

Again, your help was greatly appreciated and you really helped these students see why they should be aware of virtual worlds when they’re thinking about ways to do patient and staff education.

My best regards,

Aldrif Avro

Holiday/past intern meeting

Ha all

Last intern meeting was incredible, those attending were co visiting with a hospice nurse a patient in the last stages of life. What I remember best was the moment that we were told the patient had seen her grand children after refusing to take her long time morphine, before seeing them.

The stopping of the long time morphine was a conscious decision with significance, we were asked what the significance was.

Since I think this and other meetings we had at AMMC, a system will be sought to reread these meetings, AMMC has some very talented and gifted people who had presented topics gave speeches etc. It would be a waste when they were lost. If you gave a speech at AMMC please contact me as soon as the system is up and running. A very big thanks goes out to one donator who dontated 28.000 L$ to AMMC, be assured this money will be spend really well!!

Tadaa 🙂 summer is here!! During July and August, AMMC does not organize meetings, but we are most certainly open!! For those that go on holiday, AMMC wishes you a happy holiday.

regards Vera

discussion at end of life, symptom management

Discussions at end of life

Second out of 3 Living until death

(Managing symptoms during the final Hours)

Ha all

This is the second intern meeting in a series of 3 dealing with the topic end of life. End of life for both the patient as the attending medical staff, it is a difficult subject, in the first meeting we met a patient with a terminal illness and more important no cure available.

The patient, his/her family and support system has to live through this phase and the medical staff has the responsibility to ensure for the patient, best quality of life. In this second meeting the focus is on symptom management, palliative and hospice care.

This meeting is open for both the medical professional as those interested in this topic.

date: June 26

time: 10 AM pacific time/SL time

topic: comfort care, living until death/symptom management

presented: Brede Mc Donnel

location: AMMC Conference Room-top Floor

The Ann Myers Medical Center

The Ann Meyers Medical Center

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fashion%20Boulevard%20II/69/49/22

(please select text and copy it to your browser if this link is not working automatically)

aims to educate medical students and nurses in the virtual environment of Second Life. In regular meetings, students can learn from educators through interactive and clearly visualized case presentations. Regularly there are speeches on several topics. Click here for more details and pictures.

AMMC also wants to make people more health aware, your body is your is important,AMMC wants you to become happy with your body and give it the best care possible!!

If you want to visit AMMC do use this link

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fashion%20Boulevard%20II/140/84/23

The Ann Myers Medical Center (AMMC) was founded by Doctor Ann Buchanan. The center was named for her mother, Ann Myers. Dr. Ann’s mother suffers from a rare brain tumor, which should have taken her life numerous times. Ann Myers has a zest for life and an inner strength that have been a source of inspiration for Dr. Ann her entire life.
AMMC was created to test the possibilities of virtual training for First Life medical and nursing students. The goals of the AMMC are:

• To assist students to become more proficient in initial exam history and physicals. The patient often reveals many important aspects of their disorder through their words if the physician takes the time to listen. In this fast-paced world, med students are not being appropriately trained to listen.

• A second aspect to the history and physical for Dr. Ann is attempting to train her students to truly care for their patients. Dr. Ann teaches her First Life students that they can heal simply by listening and caring. She often states to her students, “Laying a hand on a patient’s shoulder and honestly listening can heal more than any medication you can prescribe for a person.”

• AMMC is attempting to link telemetric builds (ECG, oxygen saturation machines, etc.) to real-time outputs via URLs. Thus, a student will right click on an ECG machine and be taken to a URL, where they will have to accurately diagnose the medical issue through analysis of telemetric outputs.

• In conjunction, we will be assisting students to become more proficient in the analysis of MRI s, CT and X-rays.

• AMMC will also be training Psychology students in various methodologies and treatment protocols, implementing Dr. Ann’s belief and research interest in psychoimmunobiology, the body’s ability to heal itself through the stimulation of the immune system to fight disease.

AMMC currently has a voluntary staff consisting of Psychologists, Hematologists, Oncologists, Radiologists, Cardiologists, Midwives, Emergency and Trauma Specialists, general physicians, interns, educators and several nurses. Since June 2007, AMMC teamed up with Sprott-Shaw college a Canadian college with a presence in Second life. Both AMMC as Sprott-Shaw college, have as mission to provide virtual training for First Life medical and nursing students, as well as enhance healthy living awareness and awareness for several medical conditions.