Improving nurse staffing measures: Discharge day measurement in adjusted patient days of care

Previous research cannot account for the discrepancy between registered nurse (RN) reports of understaffing and studies showing slight improvement. One reason may be that adjusted patient days of care (APDC) underestimates patient load. Using data from all Pennsylvania acute care general hospitals for the years 1994 through 1997, we found that APDC is underestimated by two hours. After adjusting APDC, we examined the difference in nurse staffing over the period 1991-2000 before and after the adjustment. We found a significant difference between unadjusted and adjusted measures. However, when applied to the changes in nurse staffing between 1991 and 2000, the difference was not enough to account for the discrepancy between reports and data. Other measurement and conceptual problems may exist in terms of patients\u27 increasing acuity levels, patients\u27 declining lengths of stay and the associated greater proportion of nurse time devoted to admission and discharge, and lack of recent data in some empirical studies

Use of Confocal Laser as Light Source Reveals Stomata-Autonomous Function

In most terrestrial plants, stomata open during the day to maximize the update of CO(2) for photosynthesis, but they close at night to minimize water loss. Blue light, among several environmental factors, controls this process. Stomata response to diverse stimuli seems to be dictated by the behaviour of neighbour stomata creating leaf areas of coordinated response. Here individual stomata of Arabidopsis leaves were illuminated with a short blue-light pulse by focusing a confocal argon laser. Beautifully, the illuminated stomata open their pores, whereas their dark-adapted neighbours unexpectedly experience no change. This induction of individual stomata opening by low fluence rates of blue light was disrupted in the phototropin1 phototropin2 (phot1 phot2) double mutant, which exhibits insensitivity of stomatal movements in blue-illuminated epidermal strips. The irradiation of all epidermal cells making direct contact with a given stoma in both wild type and phot1 phot2 plants does not trigger its movement. These results unravel the stoma autonomous function in the blue light response and illuminate the implication of PHOT1 and/or PHOT2 in such response. The micro spatial heterogeneity that solar blue light suffers in partially shaded leaves under natural conditions highlights the physiological significance of the autonomous stomatal behaviour

Two cases of "cannabis acute psychosis" following the administration of oral cannabis

BACKGROUND: Cannabis is the most commonly used illegal drug and its therapeutic aspects have a growing interest. Short-term psychotic reactions have been described but not clearly with synthetic oral THC, especially in occasional users. CASE PRESENTATIONS: We report two cases of healthy subjects who were occasional but regular cannabis users without psychiatric history who developed transient psychotic symptoms (depersonalization, paranoid feelings and derealisation) following oral administration of cannabis. In contrast to most other case reports where circumstances and blood concentrations are unknown, the two cases reported here happened under experimental conditions with all subjects negative for cannabis, opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, benzodiazepines and alcohol, and therefore the ingested dose, the time-events of effects on behavior and performance as well as the cannabinoid blood levels were documented. CONCLUSION: While the oral route of administration achieves only limited blood concentrations, significant psychotic reactions may occur

Improving Nurse Staffing Measures: Discharge Day Measurement in “Adjusted Patient Days of Care”

Previous research cannot account for the discrepancy between registered nurse (RN) reports of understaffing and studies showing slight improvement. One reason may be that “adjusted patient days of care”(APDC) underestimates patient load. Using data from all Pennsylvania acute care general hospitals for the years 1994 through 1997, we found that APDC is underestimated by two hours. After adjusting APDC, we examined the difference in nurse staffing over the period 1991–2000 before and after the adjustment. We found a significant difference between unadjusted and adjusted measures. However, when applied to the changes in nurse staffing between 1991 and 2000, the difference was not enough to account for the discrepancy between reports and data. Other measurement and conceptual problems may exist in terms of patients' increasing acuity levels, patients' declining lengths of stay and the associated greater proportion of nurse time devoted to admission and discharge, and lack of recent data in some empirical studies

Is Community Service Participation a Prevention Strategy for Reducing Student Health Risk Behaviors?

Youth are engaging in risk behaviors that are resulting in consequences to their health and well-being that may be immediate or long term. Many patterns of health behavior initiated during the adolescent years are associated with adult morbidity and mortality. There is limited knowledge about the impact of volunteering on health behaviors and this presentation builds on an identified gap

Understanding teacher perceptions of school safety drills: Risk mitigation, preparedness, and response.

There is a dearth in the research on perceptions of school safety drills (severe weather, fire, and active shooter) from the teachers’ perception. Classroom teachers hold the responsibility of not only educating young minds, but also ensuring their safety during crisis. Little is known about their perceptions of the influence or voice they have on the processes and policies that they are required to implement when crisis present. Our study presents teachers perspectives from one urban school district located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Utilizing case study as our qualitative methodology, semi-structured interview questions for data collection, and Braun and Clarke’s (2015) thematic analysis to attain our findings, we present to our audience the support needs of these teachers as well as an instrument that they can utilize to assess their own roles and responsibilities during safety drills. The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model and Social Ecological Model were both utilized to assess teachers’ perceptions of school safety drills and needed actions for altering school and district policy for improvement. Attendees will take away strategies for classroom management, communication with students, parents, administrators, school counselors, and their districts concerning safety drills, and practical suggestions derived from the teacher experience that are important for shaping the administration of future safety drills. It is our hope that the results of our research can help to better inform teachers, administrators, school counselors, and community members of ways to support each other in times of crisis and give voice to teachers needs and perspectives

A Physician’s Recommendation for HPV Vaccination: What Makes African American Mothers Compliant?

Background: Improving human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among African–American (AA) female adolescents to reduce the cervical cancer burden is important and cost-effective. The study objective is to identify factors most influential to AA mothers’ likelihood to comply with a physician’s recommendation to get their daughters the HPV vaccine. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey. Participants were recruited through online and community sites (ie, schools, community centers, etc.) in Alabama. A total of 280 AA mothers and their adolescent daughters completed the survey. A binary logistic regression was used to determine factors influencing mother’s likelihood to adhere with a physician’s recommendation to get their daughters the HPV vaccine. Results: The most significant factors influencing mother’s likelihood to comply with physician’s recommendation were culture: future-time orientation (P = 0.001), perceived barriers of HPV vaccination (P = 0.007), perceived susceptibility to HPV (P = 0.047) and perceived benefits of HPV vaccination (P = 0.002). Further exploration of perceived barriers and perceived benefits found mother’s perception that the HPV vaccine is a good way to protect my daughter’s health as the only significant benefit. No measures of perceived barriers were significant. Conclusions: A physician’s recommendation should advise AA mothers on the risk of HPV and the importance of HPV vaccination at an early age to reduce cervical cancer risk. It should further address mothers’ perceived disadvantages of HPV vaccination (eg, side effects). Incorporating this information in physician recommendation practices could increase HPV vaccination rates with implications in reducing the cervical cancer burden among this high-risk population