Hu li za zhi The journal of nursing
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Heroin addicts admitted to the hospital for surgery should be treated as high-risk patients because these patients face a significantly higher risk of experiencing severe drug withdrawal symptoms and of pain management complications during hospitalization. The lack of proper pain management often suffered by heroin addicts during hospitalization has been attributed to care providers' insufficient knowledge regarding opioid medications and their addicting effects as well as fears that opioid medications may cause addiction symptoms to reemerge. ⋯ This process includes management of the heroin-related physical and psychological reactions from surgery, of the mechanism of pain induced specifically from surgery, and of the heroin addiction during the surgical procedure and subsequent clinical management and nursing care. It is hoped that this article assists healthcare providers to better understand the need for the proper pain management and care of heroin-addicted surgical patients over the entire period of hospitalization and thus the enhancement of the overall quality and safety of patient care management procedures.
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Peripheral venous catheter (PVC) is commonly used to provide nutrition and medicine to pediatric inpatients. Phlebitis is a common side effect of PVC insertion. Over 90% of pediatric patients in the paedi-atric medical ward at the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH) receive PVC insertion, with an incident rate of phlebitis of 5.07%. Common cause factors of phlebitis are: insufficient sterilization time, inappropriate methods used to fix the PVC, the use of fixtures that loosen easily, high re-fix rates, and inadequate wound care after catheter removal. ⋯ The application of 2% chlorhexidine reduces the waiting time for sterilization; the purpose-designed splint strengthens the fixation of the PVC; and the development of the SOPs for PVC insertion and post-removal catheter care reduces the risk of phlebitis. The combination of these strategies effectively reduces the incidence of phlebitis and improves the nursing care quality.