Effects of Art from the Heart on Nurse Satisfaction and Patient Well-Being

Introduction. Art programs have been shown to positively affect unit culture, quality of care, and nursing practices. Art interventions improve well-being, reduce stress, and enhance nurse-patient communication. Art from the Heart (AFTH) is an art program that provides art supplies, visual art, and patient About Me pages to patients, families and employees at University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC).Objective. Assess the efficacy of AFTH through nursing staff perceptions, understanding, and attitudes toward the program.Methods. Structured interviews were conducted on Baird 4, an adult inpatient ward, at UVMMC. A 19-question survey using Likert scales and short answer formats was administered to nursing staff. Questions assessed perceptions of effects of art on patient anxiety and pain, communication, and job satisfaction. Surveys were analyzed to extract major and minor themes.Results. Twenty-eight interviews were obtained and two major themes emerged: nurse satisfaction and patient well-being. Nursing staff satisfaction minor themes included improved productivity, promoting conversation, and creating a positive influence on the unit. Respondents reported that AFTH helped initiate conversations with patients (100% of respondents) and reduced workday stress (68%). The second major theme, patient well-being, included benefits to patients with dementia, providing comfort, and serving as an outlet or distraction. Utilizing AFTH improved perceived patient mood (100%), health (78.5%), and reduced patient anxiety (89.3%).Conclusions. AFTH provides positive benefits by reducing nursing staff stress and perceived patient anxiety; improving communication, perceived patient mood and health; and creating a sense of community. AFTH should be expanded to the entire 6 Community Agency: Burlington City Arts, Art from the Hearthttps://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1240/thumbnail.jp

The burn wound exudate—An under-utilized resource

INTRODUCTION: The burn wound exudate represents the burn tissue microenvironment. Extracting information from the exudate relating to cellular components, signaling mediators and protein content can provide much needed data relating to the local tissue damage, depth of the wound and probable systemic complications. This review examines the scientific data extracted from burn wound exudates over the years and proposes new investigations that will provide useful information from this underutilized resource. METHOD: A literature review was conducted using the electronic database PubMed to search for literature pertaining to burn wound or blister fluid analysis. Key words included burn exudate, blister fluid, wound exudate, cytokine burn fluid, subeschar fluid, cytokine burns, serum cytokines. 32 relevant article were examined and 29 selected as relevant to the review. 3 papers were discarded due to questionable methodology or conclusions. The reports were assessed for their affect on management decisions and diagnostics. Furthermore, traditional blood level analysis of these mediators was made to compare the accuracy of blood versus exudate in burn wound management. Extrapolations are made for new possibilities of burn wound exudate analysis. RESULTS: Studies pertaining to burn wound exudate, subeschar fluid and blister fluid analyses may have contributed to burn wound management decisions particularly related to escharectomies and early burn wound excision. In addition, information from these studies have the potential to impact on areas such as healing, scarring, burn wound conversion and burn wound depth analysis. CONCLUSION: Burn wound exudate analysis has proven useful in burn wound management decisions. It appears to offer a far more accurate reflection of the burn wound pathophysiology than the traditional blood/serum investigations undertaken in the past. New approaches to diagnostics and treatment efficacy assessment are possible utilizing data from this fluid. Burn wound exudate is a useful, currently under-utilized resource that is likely to take a more prominent role in burn wound management

A Rare Cause of Chest Pain Identified on Point-of-care Echocardiography: A Case Report

Introduction: Cardiac masses are a rare cause of chest pain. They can often be missed on a chest radiograph performed to evaluate non-specific chest pain and are not readily evaluated with traditional laboratory testing. However, these masses can be visualized with point-of-care ultrasound.Case Report: We present a case of a 19-year-old female presenting with intermittent chest pain, palpitations, and weakness present for two months. The patient had previously been evaluated at our emergency department one week earlier and was diagnosed with anxiety before being discharged. Besides a tachycardic and labile heart rate, physical examination and laboratory testing were unremarkable. Point-of-care cardiac echocardiography subsequently demonstrated findings concerning for a cardiac mass.Conclusion: Cardiac masses are a rare cause of chest pain and palpitations that are easily missed. The advent of point-of-care ultrasonography has afforded us the ability to rapidly assess for structural and functional cardiac abnormalities at bedside, and incorporation of this tool into the evaluation of patients with chest pain offers the ability to detect these rare pathologies

Public Health Implications of Social Media Use During Natural Disasters, Environmental Disasters, and Other Environmental Concerns

Social media allows users to share information and communicate interpersonally during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. We conducted a scoping review of the literature using the Arksey and O’Malley framework to examine how social media is used during these environmental concerns, determine what the implications are for public health officials, and identify research gaps. Thirty-four articles were retrieved for the review. From these articles, four main questions were answered: How can social media be used to disseminate information to others? How is social media used for data prediction and early warnings? How is social media used for environmental awareness and health promotion? Lastly, how can social media be used as an indicator of public participation in social media during environmental concerns? We found evidence supporting social media as a useful surveillance tool during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. Public health officials can use social media to gain insight into public opinions and perceptions. Social media allows public health workers and emergency responders to act more quickly and efficiently during crises. Further research is needed to improve the use of social media during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns

Contrast Mechanism of Osmium Staining in Electron Microscopy of Biological Tissues

Electron imaging of biological samples stained with heavy metals has enabled visualization of nanoscale subcellular structures critical in chemical-, structural-, and neuro-biology. In particular, osmium tetroxide has been widely adopted for selective lipid imaging. Despite the ubiquity of its use, the osmium speciation in lipid membranes and the mechanism for image contrast in electron microscopy (EM) have continued to be open questions, limiting efforts to improve staining protocols and improve high-resolution imaging of biological samples. Following our recent success using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) to image mouse brain tissues with a subcellular resolution of 15 nm, we have used PEEM to determine the chemical contrast mechanism of Os staining in lipid membranes. Os (IV), in the form of OsO2, generates aggregates in lipid membranes, leading to a strong spatial variation in the electronic structure and electron density of states. OsO2 has a metallic electronic structure that drastically increases the electron density of states near the Fermi level. Depositing metallic OsO2 in lipid membranes allows for strongly enhanced EM signals of biological materials. This understanding of the membrane contrast mechanism of Os-stained biological specimens provides a new opportunity for the exploration and development of staining protocols for high-resolution, high-contrast EM imaging

How Social Media Is Used During Natural Disasters, Environmental Disasters, and Other Environmental Concerns: A Scoping Review

Background: Social media is a major source for information and an important place for keeping in contact with family and friends. More recently, social media has been used during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns for a variety of reasons. We conducted a literature review to examine how social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is used during these environmental concerns and determine what the implications are for public health officials. Methods: We searched three databases (Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and PubMed) with 23 specific keywords to find relevant papers. A total of 3,198 papers were identified. After screening for relevant, English-language papers in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals and removing duplicates, 34 papers were retrieved for review. Findings: From these articles, four main questions were answered. How can social media be used to disseminate information to others? How is social media used for data prediction and early warnings? How is social media used for environmental awareness and health promotion? Lastly, how can social media be used as an indicator of public participation in social media during environmental concerns? Many themes were found among social media posts which varied by type of disaster, time of post (before, during, or after disaster), and demographic characteristics of the users. Implications for D&I Research: We found evidence supporting social media as a useful tool during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. Public health officials can use social media as a tool to not only gain insight into public opinion and perceptions, but also to more efficiently disseminate information to the general public. Social media allows public health workers and emergency responders to act more quickly and efficiently during crises. Further research is needed to improve the use of social media during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns

How Social Media Is Used During Natural Disasters, Environmental Disasters, and Other Environmental Concerns: A Scoping Review

Background: Social media is a major source for information and an important place for keeping in contact with family and friends. More recently, social media has been used during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns for a variety of reasons. We conducted a literature review to examine how social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is used during these environmental concerns and determine what the implications are for public health officials. Methods: We searched three databases (Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and PubMed) with 23 specific keywords to find relevant papers. A total of 3,198 papers were identified. After screening for relevant, English-language papers in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals and removing duplicates, 34 papers were retrieved for review. Findings: From these articles, four main questions were answered. How can social media be used to disseminate information to others? How is social media used for data prediction and early warnings? How is social media used for environmental awareness and health promotion? Lastly, how can social media be used as an indicator of public participation in social media during environmental concerns? Many themes were found among social media posts which varied by type of disaster, time of post (before, during, or after disaster), and demographic characteristics of the users. Implications for D&I Research: We found evidence supporting social media as a useful tool during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns. Public health officials can use social media as a tool to not only gain insight into public opinion and perceptions, but also to more efficiently disseminate information to the general public. Social media allows public health workers and emergency responders to act more quickly and efficiently during crises. Further research is needed to improve the use of social media during natural disasters, environmental disasters, and other environmental concerns

The Burn Wound Exudate – an under-utilized resource

INTRODUCTION: The burn wound exudate represents the burn tissue microenvironment. Extracting information from the exudate relating to cellular components, signaling mediators and protein content can provide much needed data relating to the local tissue damage, depth of the wound and probable systemic complications. This review examines the scientific data extracted from burn wound exudates over the years and proposes new investigations that will provide useful information from this underutilized resource. METHOD: A literature review was conducted using the electronic database PubMed to search for literature pertaining to burn wound or blister fluid analysis. Key words included burn exudate, blister fluid, wound exudate, cytokine burn fluid, subeschar fluid, cytokine burns, serum cytokines. 32 relevant article were examined and 29 selected as relevant to the review. 3 papers were discarded due to questionable methodology or conclusions. The reports were assessed for their affect on management decisions and diagnostics. Furthermore, traditional blood level analysis of these mediators was made to compare the accuracy of blood versus exudate in burn wound management. Extrapolations are made for new possibilities of burn wound exudate analysis. RESULTS: Studies pertaining to burn wound exudate, subeschar fluid and blister fluid analyses may have contributed to burn wound management decisions particularly related to escharectomies and early burn wound excision. In addition, information from these studies have the potential to impact on areas such as healing, scarring, burn wound conversion and burn wound depth analysis. CONCLUSION: Burn wound exudate analysis has proven useful in burn wound management decisions. It appears to offer a far more accurate reflection of the burn wound pathophysiology than the traditional blood/serum investigations undertaken in the past. New approaches to diagnostics and treatment efficacy assessment are possible utilizing data from this fluid. Burn wound exudate is a useful, currently under-utilized resource that is likely to take a more prominent role in burn wound management

Twitter Reactions to Global Health News Related to Five Different Countries: A Case Study of #Polio

Social media has become a vital tool for global health communication, given the penetration of the internet and mobile phones across the world. In addition to disseminating health information, public health professionals also monitor traditional media and social media to assess the communication environment. Prior research showed that outbreak-related social media contents were largely driven by traditional media reports. However, we hypothesized that different types of news contents could trigger different levels of reaction on social media. In this study, we retrospectively examined a 40% random sample of Twitter data containing the hashtag #polio from January 2014 to April 2015 (N=79333), from which we extracted five sub-corpora each with a co-occurring hashtag #India, #Iraq, #Nigeria, #Pakistan, and #Syria respectively. We also retrieved 104 polio-related traditional news stories from 2 newspapers, 2 television news stations, and 2 radio news stations within the same time frame. We assessed the relationship between polio-related news from traditional news sources and the Twitter content. We hypothesized that polio-specific Twitter conversations differed by the location of interest and they were reactions to traditional media news articles. Descriptive analyses and unsupervised machine learning were conducted on the 5 Twitter sub-corpora to elucidate their underlying topics. Traditional media articles were grouped according to the country of interest and were categorized into the following topics: celebrations or achievements; violence or crises; political actions; vaccinations or other programs/aid; new cases or spreading of polio; and miscellaneous. Strong Twitter reactions were observed following a few news stories published by traditional media but not the others. Our evidences suggest a nuanced relationship between outbreak-related traditional media stories and Twitter contents. Evidence from our study helps inform media monitoring and communication surveillance during global public health crises, such as infectious disease outbreaks, as well as reactions to health promotion campaigns

Twitter Conversations and English News Media Reports on Poliomyelitis in Five Different Countries, January 2014 to April 2015

Introduction: Twitter and media coverage on poliomyelitis help maintain global support for its eradication.Objective: To test our hypothesis that themes of polio-related tweets and media articles would differ by location of interest (hashtag of country name mentioned in the tweet; country name mentioned in media articles) but would be similar to each other (tweets and media articles) for each location of interest.Methods: We retrospectively examined a 40% random sample of Twitter data containing the hashtag #polio from January 1, 2014, to April 30, 2015 (N = 79,333), from which we extracted 5 subcorpora each with a co-occurring hashtag #India (n = 5027), #Iraq (n = 1238), #Nigeria (n = 1364), #Pakistan (n = 11,427), and #Syria (n = 2952). We also retrieved and categorized 73 polio-related English-language news stories from within the same timeframe. We assessed the association between polio-related English news themes and the Twitter content. Descriptive analyses and unsupervised machine learning (latent Dirichlet allocation modeling) were conducted on the 5 Twitter subcorpora.Results: The results of the latent Dirichlet allocation modeling on the specific subcorpora with country co-occurring hashtags showed significant differences between the 5 countries in terms of content. English mass media content focused largely on violence/conflicts and cases of polio, whereas social media focused on eradication and vaccination efforts along with celebrations.Discussion: Contrary to our hypothesis, our evidence suggests Twitter content differs significantly from English mass media content. Evidence from our study helps inform media monitoring and communications surveillance during global public health crises, such as infectious disease outbreaks, as well as reactions to health promotion campaigns