The Ochsner journal
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The Ochsner journal · Jan 2012
All the World's a Stage: Integrating Theater and Medicine for Interprofessional Team Building in Physician and Nurse Residency Programs.
To facilitate the delivery of excellent patient care, physician-nurse teams must work in a collaborative manner. We found that venues for the joint training of physician-nurse teams to foster collaboration are insufficient. ⋯ The learners felt the physician-nurse team training experience was exceptionally valuable for its authenticity.
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The Ochsner journal · Jan 2012
Specialized ambulatory anesthesia teams contribute to decreased ambulatory surgery recovery room length of stay.
Many institutions have organized specialized groups of ambulatory surgery anesthesiologists with the aim of improving ambulatory surgery patient care and efficiency. We hypothesized that specialized ambulatory anesthesia teams produce better patient outcomes such as lower postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) rates, lower postoperative pain scores, and shorter postanesthesia care unit (PACU) lengths of stay (LOS). ⋯ The decreased PACU LOS for the study group's patients occurred despite the increased incidence of PONV. Ambulatory anesthesiologists contributed to decreased PACU LOS while practicing evidence-based anesthesia with regard to PONV and pain control. Ambulatory subspecialization may benefit institutions as a way to increase perioperative efficiency and improve surgeon and patient satisfaction.
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Over the past decade, the number of procedures performed in office-based settings by a variety of practitioners-including surgeons, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists, radiologists, dermatologists, and others-has grown significantly. At the same time, patient safety concerns have intensified and include issues such as proper patient selection, safe sedation practices, maintenance of facilities and resuscitation equipment, facility accreditation and practitioner licensing, and the office staff's ability to deal with emergencies and complications. An urgent need exists to educate practitioners about safety concerns in the office-based setting and to develop various educational strategies that can meet the continued growth of these procedures. This review outlines educational needs and possible solutions such as simulation exercises and education during residency training.
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The Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious group of 7 million people in more than 200 countries, teaches its followers to not accept blood, resulting in potentially challenging and ethical dilemmas for anesthesiologists. In recent years, Jehovah's Witnesses changed certain elements of their approach to blood transfusion practice, including accepting autologous transfusions in certain circumstances. We examine mechanisms to resolve ethical conflicts, such as additional medical consultations with other involved physicians, surgeons, and anesthesiologists; short-term counseling or psychiatric consultation for patient and family; case management conferences; consultation with individuals trained in clinical ethics or a hospital-based ethics committee; and discussions with hospital administration. We also discuss treatment options, including certain blood products, anesthetic techniques, and pharmacological interventions.
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The Ochsner journal · Jan 2012
Teaching palliative care in the intensive care unit: how to break the news.
Palliative care education is often lacking in graduate medical education curricula. Studies show that many physicians are uncomfortable discussing end-of-life issues with patients and providing palliative care to dying patients and their families. We used a case-based approach to improve resident confidence in delivering bad news, discussing poor prognoses, explaining the dying process, and providing palliative care in the intensive care unit. ⋯ Using a multidisciplinary team to teach a structured curriculum that includes a case-based debriefing improves house officer confidence in discussing end-of-life care and providing palliative care to patients in the intensive care setting.