The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC
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J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care · Jul 2009
ReviewSelenium supplementation in HIV-infected patients: is there any potential clinical benefit?
In HIV-infected patients undergoing antiretroviral therapy, the question of whether selenium supplementation has any therapeutic benefit is still open. With recent popular coverage of this issue, many patients have considered using selenium. Clinicians have a duty to ensure that the recommendations they make to their patients are evidence based. ⋯ To definitively answer this clinical question, the overall effect of selenium supplementation would need to be evaluated in a large randomized, controlled trial with solid methodology and strong internal validity. Although the available evidence for selenium supplementation is weak, its low toxicity and side effect profile seem to pose minimal risks, especially at low doses. For patients who want to add selenium to their regimen, discussing the potential risks and benefits as well as close follow-up is warranted.
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J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care · Jan 2008
Women's voices: the lived experience of pregnancy and motherhood after diagnosis with HIV.
The objective of this study was to explore the meaning of pregnancy after diagnosis with HIV. Study design was a qualitative analysis of individual informant interviews conducted in two academic health centers in metropolitan New York. ⋯ The author concluded that the experience of pregnancy for a woman with HIV is one fraught with isolation, anxiety, and distrust, but it is also one of hope for the normalcy that motherhood may bring. Further research is needed to determine best practice for care delivery as women with HIV enter the health care system, especially for perinatal services.
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A number of theoretical fatigue frameworks have been developed by nurse scientists with the intention of guiding research, practice, and education in fatigue. However, there is a significant gap between theory development and research utilization of fatigue frameworks in clinical and intervention trials. The purpose of this report is to assess an example of an inductive fatigue framework and a deductive symptom management model: The Integrated Fatigue Model (IFM) and the revised University of California, San Francisco, Symptom Management Model (UCSF-SMM), to investigate their potential to guide future nursing research projects on fatigue. ⋯ The IFM is an important development in the understanding and conceptualization of fatigue in cancer and in HIV/AIDS. However, it does not reach the level of integration of the UCSF-SMM in taking fatigue research a significant step forward by integrating symptom impact, symptom management, and symptom outcomes. Both models have significant weaknesses because of their complexity.