Advancing the Care Experience for patients receiving Palliative care as they Transition from hospital to Home (ACEPATH): Codesigning an intervention to improve patient and family caregiver experiences.

Background: Returning home from the hospital for palliative-focused care is a common transition, but the process can be emotionally distressing and logistically challenging for patients and caregivers. While interventions exist to aid in the transition, none have been developed in partnership with patients and caregivers.

Objective: To undergo the initial stages of codesign to create an intervention (Advancing the Care Experience for patients receiving Palliative care as they Transition from hospital to Home [ACEPATH]) to improve the experience of hospital-to-home transitions for adult patients receiving palliative care and their caregiver(s).

Implementation of the Synergy Tool: A Potential Intervention to Relieve Health Care Worker Burnout.

(1) Background: Healthcare workers experienced rising burnout rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A practice-academic collaboration between health services researchers and the surgical services program of a Canadian tertiary-care urban hospital was used to develop, implement and evaluate a potential burnout intervention, the Synergy tool. (2) Methods: Using participatory action research methods, this project involved four key phases: (I) an environmental scan and a baseline survey assessment, (II), a workshop, (III) Synergy tool implementation and (IV) a staffing plan workshop.

Using video-based surveillance for monitoring hand hygiene compliance according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Five Moments framework: A pragmatic trial.

Objective: To examine the utility of video-based monitoring systems (VMSs) for auditing hand hygiene compliance according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Five Moments.

Design: Pragmatic quasi-experimental observation trial.

Setting: The New South Wales Biocontainment Centre, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.

Health care workers' experiences of video-based monitoring of hand hygiene behaviors: a qualitative study.

Background: Hand hygiene is key to preventing health care-associated infections. Human observation is the gold standard for measuring compliance, but its utility is increasingly being questioned with calls for the use of video monitoring approaches. The utility of video-based systems to measure compliance according to the WHO 5 moments is largely unexamined, as is its acceptability amongst health care workers (HCW) and patients.

New-Onset Atrial Arrhythmias Are Independently Associated With In-Hospital Mortality in Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Objective: To explore if atrial arrhythmias are associated with in-hospital mortality in veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) patients.

Design: Retrospective observational cohort study.

Setting: Quaternary care academic medical center.

"We will have to learn to live with it": Australian dentists' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Australian dentists are among the frontline healthcare workers providing dental and oral health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore have been affected in multiple ways. In this study, we explore their experiences of practising and living in this pandemic.

Methods: A qualitative study analysed responses of 333 Australian dentists' who participated in a survey with open-ended questions about the challenges and positive outcomes of practising during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australian dentists' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: COVID-19 is a global health crisis. Close contact with the mucous membranes and respiratory secretions of patients and aerosol-generating procedures renders dentists and other oral health professionals at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. We examined dentists' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences of managing COVID-19 in Australia.

Australian critical care nurses' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences of managing SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has again highlighted the crucial role of healthcare workers in case management, disease surveillance, policy development, and healthcare education and training. The ongoing pandemic demonstrates the importance of having an emergency response plan that accounts for the safety of frontline healthcare workers, including those working in critical care settings.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore Australian critical care nurses' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences of managing patients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19.

Infection control professionals' and infectious diseases physicians' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences of managing COVID-19 in Australian healthcare settings.

Background: COVID-19 has placed unprecedented demands on infection control professionals (ICPs) and infectious disease (ID) physicians. This study examined their knowledge, preparedness, and experiences managing COVID-19 in the Australian healthcare settings.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of ICPs and ID physician members of the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control (ACIPC) and the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) was conducted using an online survey.

Emergency clinicians' knowledge, preparedness and experiences of managing COVID-19 during the 2020 global pandemic in Australian healthcare settings.

Background: Emergency clinicians have a crucial role during public health emergencies and have been at the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the knowledge, preparedness and experiences of Australian emergency nurses, emergency physicians and paramedics in managing COVID-19.

Methods: A voluntary cross-sectional study of members of the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, and the Australasian College of Paramedicine was conducted using an online survey (June-September 2020).

Low-Dose Ketamine Infusion as Adjuvant Therapy during an Acute Pain Crisis in Pediatric Patients.

Recent studies in pediatric patients have suggested that ketamine, an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA) antagonist, given at sub-anesthetic doses can effectively decrease pain scores, provide analgesic effects, and in some cases, reduce opioid requirements. Our study aims to assess impact of low-dose ketamine on reducing pain scores and total opioid requirements during an acute pain crisis in pediatric patients. From November 2016 to December 2018, eight patients between the ages of 2 and 17 years admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) were treated with LDK infusions to manage severe, opioid-refractory, acute pain crises.

General practitioners' knowledge, preparedness, and experiences of managing COVID-19 in Australia.

Background: COVID-19 has brought unprecedented demands to general practitioners (GPs) worldwide. We examined their knowledge, preparedness, and experiences managing COVID-19 in Australia.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of GPs members of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) was conducted between June and September 2020.

Air travel in a COVID-19 world: Commercial airline passengers' health concerns and attitudes towards infection prevention and disease control measures.

Background: COVID-19 and its associated travel bans have reduced international passenger traffic by over 80% below 2019 levels. If airlines are to resume flying at commercially sustainable levels, they must work to restore passengers confidence and sense of security. This study examined commercial airline passengers' health concerns and attitudes towards infection prevention and control measures for travel health and safety in the current COVID-19 global pandemic.

COVID-19 in Australia: our national response to the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the early biocontainment phase.

Background: On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization recognised clusters of pneumonia-like cases due to a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). COVID-19 became a pandemic 71 days later.

Aim: To report the clinical and epidemiological features, laboratory data and outcomes of the first group of 11 returned travellers with COVID-19 in Australia.

IP-SPX Domain Interaction Controls Fungal Virulence by Stabilizing Phosphate Signaling Machinery.

In the human-pathogenic fungus , the inositol polyphosphate signaling pathway is critical for virulence. We recently demonstrated the key role of the inositol pyrophosphate IP (isomer 5-PP-IP) in driving fungal virulence; however, the mechanism of action remains elusive. Using genetic and biochemical approaches, and mouse infection models, we show that IP synthesized by Kcs1 regulates fungal virulence by binding to a conserved lysine surface cluster in the SPX domain of Pho81.

SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19: The lived experience and perceptions of patients in isolation and care in an Australian healthcare setting.

Background: Isolation and quarantine are key measures in outbreak management and disease control. They are, however, associated with negative patient experiences and outcomes, including an adverse impact on mental health and lower quality of care due to limited interaction with healthcare workers. In this study, we explore the lived experience and perceptions of patients in isolation with COVID-19 in an Australian healthcare setting.

Monitoring Glycolysis and Respiration Highlights Metabolic Inflexibility of .

is a human fungal pathogen that adapts its metabolism to cope with limited oxygen availability, nutrient deprivation and host phagocytes. To gain insight into cryptococcal metabolism, we optimized a protocol for the Seahorse Analyzer, which measures extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) and oxygen consumption rate (OCR) as indications of glycolytic and respiratory activities. In doing so we achieved effective immobilization of encapsulated cryptococci, established Rotenone/Antimycin A and 2-deoxyglucose as effective inhibitors of mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis, respectively, and optimized a microscopy-based method of data normalization.

Nursing Care Delivery Redesign: Using the Right Data to Make the Right Decisions.

Background: In British Columbia, the Nursing Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Health recently issued a series of priority nursing recommendations, including team-based care delivery models.

Aim: This paper will describe the data collection and analysis phase of a quality improvement initiative focused on care delivery redesign within three healthcare organizations. The focus of the care delivery redesign was a transition from total nursing care to team-based nursing care.

Global burden, point sources, and outbreak management of healthcare-associated infections: An integrative review.

Objective: To examine the global burden, associated point sources, and successful prevention and control measures for documented outbreaks of Burkholderia cepacia healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

Design: Integrative review.

Methods: A review of all outbreaks of Burkholderia cepacia HAIs published in the peer-reviewed literature between January 1970 and October 2019 was conducted to identify the global burden, associated point sources, and successful prevention and control measures using the Guidelines for Outbreak Reports and Intervention Studies of Nosocomial Infections (ORION).

Global commercial passenger airlines and travel health information regarding infection control and the prevention of infectious disease: What's in a website?

Background: Air travel has never been easier, cheaper or faster, with large volumes of people travelling around the world. These factors increase the risk of the spread of infectious diseases by air travel. Little is known, however, about the extent to which airlines provide information to passengers on infection control and measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Fungal Kinases With a Sweet Tooth: Pleiotropic Roles of Their Phosphorylated Inositol Sugar Products in the Pathogenicity of Present Novel Drug Targeting Opportunities.

Invasive fungal pathogens cause more than 300 million serious human infections and 1.6 million deaths per year. A clearer understanding of the mechanisms by which these fungi cause disease is needed to identify novel targets for urgently needed therapies.

Acute Care Utilization and Place of Death among Patients Discharged from an Inpatient Palliative Care Unit.

Discharging patients from inpatient palliative care units to the community is aligned with patients' desires to be cared for and die at home. However, there is little research examining patient outcomes after discharge. To describe the outcomes of patients discharged from an inpatient palliative care unit.

IP kinase Arg1 regulates cell wall homeostasis and surface architecture to promote Cryptococcus neoformans infection in a mouse model.

We previously identified a series of inositol polyphosphate kinases (IPKs), Arg1, Ipk1, Kcs1 and Asp1, in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Using gene deletion analysis, we characterized Arg1, Ipk1 and Kcs1 and showed that they act sequentially to convert IP to PP-IP (IP), a key metabolite promoting stress tolerance, metabolic adaptation and fungal dissemination to the brain. We have now directly characterized the enzymatic activity of Arg1, demonstrating that it is a dual specificity (IP/IP) kinase producing IP.