Papanicolaou testing: when does more become less?
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Recently, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) implemented new national core measures, including tobacco-cessation interventions for patients hospitalized because of pneumonia or other pulmonary-related illnesses, acute myocardial infarction, or heart failure. All interventions performed for such patients must be documented in the patient's chart. Because the JCAHO standards for tobacco cessation are implemented hospital-wide, acute and critical care nurses must take an active role in their execution. This article discusses the challenges to integrating tobacco cessation in daily acute and critical care nursing practice and makes recommendations regarding cessation approaches designed to improve health outcomes for tobacco-dependent patients.
Nurses are increasingly incorporating complementary therapies into their practices. Aromatherapy is one of the most popular therapies. The basis of aromatherapy is essential oils, which are chemically active substances with a long history of safe traditional use and a growing evidence base to support their use in nursing care. In Australia, essential oils are classified and regulated under the same policies as conventional medicines such as the National Medicines Policy and the Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) framework applies. QUM is a framework for selecting and using medicines safely and effectively if medicines are indicated. The key elements of QUM are a systems-based approach to using medicines based on relevant evidence, partnerships, and informed client consent. Clients are placed at the centre of a QUM medication management process, which is consistent with holistic care. Applying a QUM approach to essential oil use, Quality Use of Essential Oils (QUEO), involves developing effective systems for managing essential oils from an holistic perspective that includes structured assessment and diagnostic processes to enable effective essential oil prescribing and outcome monitoring. In a QUEO approach, essential oils are integrated into the client's overall medication regimen and care plan rather than being used as 'add-ons'. Adopting QUEO is consistent with the current national focus on the quality use of therapeutic substances, increases the profile of aromatherapy in nursing care and provides important information to guide future aromatherapy practices.
Today, the busy clinician benefits from a philosophy of practice that brings together the best applicable evidence and the experiences of clinical work in an effort to provide the best care for individual patients. EBM provides a structured approach that recognizes the contributions of evidence and clinical experience. An EBM practice is efficient and effective in meeting the goal of assuring optimum care. The concepts of EBM make sense for veterinary medicine (even if there are limited numbers of randomized, blinded studies), and clinicians in all types of practice can apply them.
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BACKGROUND: Beta-blockers are underused in HF patients, thus strategies to implement their use are needed. OBJECTIVES: To improve beta-blocker use in elderly and/or patients with severe heart failure (HF) and to evaluate safety and outcome. METHODS: Patients with symptomatic HF and age>/=70 years or left ventricular EF<25% and symptoms at rest were enrolled, including those already on beta-blocker treatment. Patients who were not receiving a beta-blocker were considered for carvedilol treatment. All patients were followed up for 1-year. RESULTS: Of the 1518 elderly patients, 505 were already on beta-blockers, and carvedilol was newly prescribed in 419 patients. At 1-year, patients treated with carvedilol had a lower incidence of death [10.8% vs. 18.0% in already treated (adjusted RR 0.68; 95%CI 0.49-0.96) and 11.2% in newly treated patients (adjusted RR 0.68; 95%CI 0.48-0.97)]. Of the 709 patients with severe HF, 38.4% were already on beta-blockers, and carvedilol was newly prescribed in 189 patients. Patients not treated with carvedilol showed the worst clinical outcome. Total rate of discontinuation (including adverse reaction and non-compliance) was 14% and 9%, respectively, in elderly and severe patients. CONCLUSIONS: In a real world setting, beta-blocker treatment was not associated with an increased risk of adverse events in elderly and severe HF patients.
Oral mucositis (OM) is a distressing toxic effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It can increase the need for total parenteral nutrition and opioid analgesics, prolong hospital stays, increase the risk of infection, and greatly diminish a patient's quality of life. Nurses play a critical role in the assessment and management of OM. However, nurses face several significant challenges in effectively managing OM. First, the assessment and management of OM is inconsistent across Europe. Second, available treatment options for OM are largely ineffective, aimed at palliation of symptoms, and do not target the underlying pathophysiology. Nursing care has focused primarily on symptom management and pain control. With recent advances in the understanding of the pathobiology of OM and the development of interventions, it is hoped that the quality of care provided to patients will improve dramatically as new agents should allow the goal of OM management to shift from symptom relief to protection and prevention. Nurses should be educated about these novel options for the management of OM.
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Difficult clinical decisions are a part of every emergency practitioner's life. Dealing with difficult patients and recalcitrant consultants is seldom enjoyable, but can be made more palatable through the use of some of the clinical strategies contained in this article. Knowledge of the current best evidence and a willingness to discard outdated practice ideas will help ensure that emergency practitioners continue to provide state-of-the-art medical care. Expressions of care, concern, and respect for patients' problems, and development of a therapeutic alliance with these patients will maximize patient, and ultimately physician, satisfaction.
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Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) has been used with increasing frequency in Europe and is viewed with increasing interest by allergists in the United States. To address this interest, a Joint Task Force of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's Immunotherapy and Allergy Diagnostic Committees reviewed the available literature on SLIT and prepared this report. The task force concluded that despite clear evidence that SLIT is an effective treatment, many questions remained unanswered, including effective dose, treatment schedules, and overall duration of treatment. Until these have been determined, an assessment of the cost/benefit ratio of the treatment cannot be made. SLIT does appear to be associated with few serious side effects, but it has not been administered in high-risk asthmatic patients, nor in the studies reviewed has it been administered as a mixture of non-cross-reacting allergens. Furthermore, there is currently no allergy extract approved for this use in the United States, nor is there a Current Procedural Terminology code for billing purposes. All of these factors should be given careful consideration by anyone contemplating initiating SLIT treatment for their allergic patients.
OBJECTIVE: To validate food frequency analysis as a predictor of metabolic status in persons with type 2 diabetes and to identify psychosocial factors affecting dietary adherence. METHODS: Three hundred forty-seven subjects with stable, insulin-treated type 2 diabetes completed a food frequency questionnaire and six instruments measuring different psychosocial attributes. Eight metabolic parameters were used as principal endpoints. Data from the food frequency questionnaires were used to estimate daily energy intake and determine each subject's adherence to seven dietary standards derived from the 2003 Dietary Recommendations of the American Diabetes Association. We excluded 105 subjects reporting daily energy intake <1,000 kcal because these results were considered unreliable. Subjects were then categorized into three groups depending on their adherence rates to American Diabetes Association dietary standards. RESULTS: Subjects with the lowest dietary adherence had the poorest metabolic control. Adherence to dietary standards was particularly poor among subjects with metabolic syndrome (2.1%) and/or obesity (4.1%). The most important determinants of following recommended dietary practices were positive attitudes, fewer social barriers, and a conviction that diet could control diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: For subjects with type 2 diabetes reporting a dietary intake of >1,000 kcal/day, food frequency questionnaire data could identify those with poor metabolic control. Nutrition interventions to improve metabolic control should focus on reducing fat intake and emphasizing the importance of diet. Multidisciplinary efforts should be directed at overcoming social barriers to recommended dietary practices and to treating depression.
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