[Empowerment and power: their relationship in the proces of caring for the chronically ill in primary care]. / Empoderamiento y poder: su vinculación en el proceso de cuidar al enfermo crónico en atención primaria.

The concepts of "power" and "empowerment" are used in various disciplines, both political and social. Now are these terms frequently in the field of health. Our goal is to know its meaning as a synonym of expressions: "energy", "force", "domain", "vigour", "power", "capacity", "authority" and "control", which have been always within our practice nurse's own lexicon. Semantically analyzing them will help us in the understanding of its nuance. The literature review facilitates their understanding and allows us to link these words within the management of care. In this way we can propose diagnoses, interventions and outcomes specifically related to these concepts, which will help us optimize the efficiency in the management of care plans. The purpose of various collective nurses from different institutions is that the person is able to not generate dependencies and have the option of choosing your own lifestyle according to their culture and environment, independently or with the help. Generate knowledge is to generate power. The person should be educated and informed, to be expert and active and taking action to help control and minimize the progression of your health problem chronic and its possible complications. We are in the process of reformulation of the health system, whether it is private or public, and is necessary to know the power of the various actors involved in the management of the care to us. Each of these main actors--person ill, family/caregiver or nurse--has to know what is his role in this process.

[Pocket computers. Applications for personal digital assistants, PDAs]. / Ordenadores de bolsillo. Aplicativos informáticos para asistentes personales digitales.

In the sanitary environment there is a constant flow of all types of information; this fact obliges professionals to have at this disposition the tools which permit them to store, update, and have easy consultation access to this information. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) form part of these technologies which can improve both access to and storage of this information. In this article, the authors review some general techniques these PDAs have, as well as data bases which can be useful to professional practices in nursing. The authors carried out a bibliographical search over the years 1999-2006 and an Internet search for sites which describe the uses of PDAs. The authors found 94 useful applications which include: planning and management of nursing practices; nursing techniques and procedures; filing clinical data or clinical histories; surgical nursing care, pediatric nursing and geriatric nursing; pharmacology calculating and administration of drugs and fluid therapy; reference values for diagnostic tests; medical guides and treatment (diagnostic and treatment) and for surgical nursing; medical dictionaries; medical specialties; miscellaneous. For each reference, the authors provide a description of the content, bibliographical sources, operating system, memory requirements, cost, website, and the possibility to download a test version or a demo. The authors conclude that PDAs make available a wide range of useful applications in the distinct phases where nurses perform their duties, offering many possibilities to the user.