Nursing & health sciences
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Nursing & health sciences · Mar 2011
Case ReportsMaternal mortality in Australia: learning from maternal cardiac arrest.
Cardiac arrest in pregnancy is fortunately a rare event that few midwives will see during their career. The increase in maternal age, the Body Mass Index, cesarean sections, multiple pregnancies, and comorbidities over recent years have increased the probability of cardiac arrest. The early warning signs of impending maternal cardiac arrest are either absent or go unrecognized. ⋯ The outcome is dependent on the speed of the response and the consideration of a number of crucial pregnancy-specific interventions. Staff members need to be adequately trained in order to deal with maternal cardiac arrest and have access to training packages and in-service education programs. As cardiac arrest in pregnancy is a rare event, emergency drill simulations are an important component of ongoing education.
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Nursing & health sciences · Dec 2010
Controlled Clinical TrialPsychological stress-induced changes in salivary alpha-amylase and adrenergic activity.
The aim of the study was to examine the relationships among salivary alpha-amylase, plasma catecholamines, blood pressure, and heart rate during psychological stress. This study used a pretest-post-test experimental design with a control group, using repeated measures. A total of 33 participants was divided into the experimental group (n = 16) that underwent a college academic final test as the psychological stress and the control group (n = 17) that did not undergo the test. ⋯ In conclusion, it was shown that salivary alpha-amylase was sensitive to stress throughout this study. Thus, salivary alpha-amylase may be used to measure stress uninvasively in both clinical settings and nursing research where the effects of stress might be scrutinized. Furthermore, the mechanisms of illnesses that are induced by stress could be explored.
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In a finding that reflects international experiences, nurses in Australia have been identified as the occupation at most risk of patient-related violence in the health-care sector. A search of the literature was undertaken to explore this concept, with a focus on the emergency department and triage nurses. ⋯ Nurses are entitled to a safe workplace that is free from violence under both the occupational health and safety legislation and the zero-tolerance policies that have been adopted in many countries including Australia, the UK, Europe, and the USA. Therefore, policy-makers and administrators should recognize this issue as a priority for preventative action.
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Nursing & health sciences · Jun 2010
Compassion fatigue within nursing practice: a concept analysis.
"Compassion fatigue" was first introduced in relation to the study of burnout among nurses, but it was never defined within this context; it has since been adopted as a synonym for secondary traumatic stress disorder, which is far removed from the original meaning of the term. The aim of the study was to define compassion fatigue within nursing practice. The method that was used in this article was concept analysis. ⋯ The characteristics of each of these categories are specified and a connotative (theoretical) definition, model case, additional cases, empirical indicators, and a denotative (operational) definition are provided. Compassion fatigue progresses from a state of compassion discomfort to compassion stress and, finally, to compassion fatigue, which if not effaced in its early stages of compassion discomfort or compassion stress, can permanently alter the compassionate ability of the nurse. Recommendations for nursing practice, education, and research are discussed.
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Nursing & health sciences · Mar 2010
Perspectives and experiences of elective surgery patients regarding pain management.
The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives and experiences of elective surgery patients regarding pain management. A qualitative design, based on the content analysis approach, was used to collect and analyze the experience of 20 elective surgery patients who all had abdominal surgery in surgical wards in two teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran. ⋯ During the data analysis, three main themes emerged: "perceptions of pain management goals", "patients' views of nurses' role in pain management", and "interaction in pain management". It was concluded that understanding the factors that influence pain management after surgery from the patients' viewpoint will contribute to the body of knowledge of nurses in order to promote the quality of nursing care.