Photo: Wikimedia / Remy Steinegger CC BY-SA 2.0

Angelina Jolie has attracted much attention for revealing her recent experience of a double mastectomy. But her personal attractiveness draws attention to a neglected aspect of cancer treatment and survival – sexuality.

As a carrier of the BRCA1 gene, Jolie reduced her risk of breast cancer from an unusually-high 87% to less than 5% through the preventative procedure. And as a woman who has frequently been voted the “most sexy woman alive”, she directly challenges the myth that cancer surgery means the end of sexuality.

Photo: iStockphoto

There are various technical terms that are used to describe rashes. There is no need for parents and carers to know these technical words in detail. It is quite sufficient for a parent or carer to be able to describe a rash in relatively simple terms -- for example: ‘This child has small, slightly raised, red spots on the chest and abdomen’.

If parents or carers can accurately describe a rash in this way, this indicates that they have observed carefully and closely. And this sort of information is quite sufficient to help a doctor or nurses make a diagnosis.

Photo: Flickr Christopher Lance CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

What do newborn babies, children who have been severely deprived of human contact, people with autism, and blind mothers have in common? On the surface, not much. But they provide a common theme for understanding how social and communication skills develop in early life.

We are born with basic visual biases, which make us look at faces, as if by reflex (nature). By regularly looking at a parent who talks, smiles, and looks back affectionately at us, we come to understand more about each of these things (nurture). Through this combination of brain-wiring and early experiences, we are set up to become the adults we will be.

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Recently released government figures show levels of childhood vaccination have fallen to dangerously low levels in some areas of Australia, resulting in some corners of the media claiming re-ignition of “the vaccine debate”.

You can check how your postcode rates here.

Well, scientifically, there’s no debate. In combination with clean water and sanitation, vaccines are one of the most effective public health measures ever introduced, saving millions of lives every year.

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As healthcare professionals, we know that it is very difficult to quantify pain. In nursing school, we are taught that pain is present when the patient says it is, and we use various tools in an attempt to 'rate' a patient’s level of pain, such as numeric rating scales.

We are also taught that our own personal opinions and judgments have no place in treating our patients’ pain. We become skilled at reading non-verbal cues that may mean that pain is present, such as facial grimacing, moaning and body positioning.

Photo: iStockphoto

Australians are increasingly drinking alcohol to get drunk but just one in five believe they drink too much.

The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s annual alcohol poll, released recently, found that 40 per cent of Australians say they drink to get drunk, up from 35 per cent in 2011, with half of those defining being drunk as slurring speech or losing balance.