Interprofessional Teamwork During Family Meetings in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Context: Parents of children in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) report inadequate communication and a lack of empathy during conversations with their clinicians.

Objective: To assess quantitatively and qualitatively the contributions made by team members of different professions in communicating with parents during family meetings.

Methods: Prospective observational study.

Optimizing pain treatment interventions (OPTI): A pilot randomized controlled trial of collaborative care to improve chronic pain management and opioid safety-Rationale, methods, and lessons learned.

Veterans seeking care in VA medical facilities have high rates of chronic pain, which often co-occur with mental health and substance use disorders, including prescription opioid misuse. The overall goal of the Optimizing Pain Treatment Interventions (OPTI) study was to pilot a 12-week Collaborative Care intervention to improve opioid safety, chronic pain disability, and use of non-pharmacological pain management strategies in veterans in VA primary care. Between November 2014 and January 2017, 100 veteran patients with chronic pain and high-risk prescription opioid use (e.

Pediatric continuity care intensivist: A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Long-stay critically ill patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) may be at risk for inconsistencies in treatment plan, delay in plan progression, and patient/family dissatisfaction with communication. This article describes the development and evaluation of an intervention designed to improve continuity and communication delivered by continuity PICU attendings.

Methods And Analysis: A randomized controlled trial of an intervention in one PICU that was randomized at the patient level.

Gender and growth variation in palatal bone thickness and density for mini-implant placement.

Background: The objective was to compare the palatal bone thickness (PBT) and palatal bone density (PBD) in the anterior, middle, and posterior part of the palate in males and females.

Methods: This retrospective study reviewed cone beam computed tomography scans of 359 patients. The scans were divided into 99 growing males, 105 growing females, 74 non-growing males, and 81 non-growing females.

Comparison of cephalic and jugular plasma lactate concentrations in sick cats: a pilot study.

Objectives: To compare plasma lactate concentration (PLC) in paired cephalic and jugular blood samples from sick cats. An additional objective was to determine whether hypotensive cats (Doppler blood pressure < 90 mm Hg) have a significant difference between cephalic and jugular PLC.

Design: Prospective observational pilot study performed from December 2013 to August 2014.

On sinking and swimming: the dialectic of hope, hopelessness, and acceptance in terminal cancer.

For terminally ill cancer patients, hope and hopelessness are constructs that significantly impact quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between hope and hopelessness in advanced cancer and to identify factors that maintain hope and increase vulnerability to hopelessness. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 22 terminally ill cancer patients.

Assessing hopelessness in terminally ill cancer patients: development of the Hopelessness Assessment in Illness Questionnaire.

Hopelessness has become an increasingly important construct in palliative care research, yet concerns exist regarding the utility of existing measures when applied to patients with a terminal illness. This article describes a series of studies focused on the exploration, development, and analysis of a measure of hopelessness specifically intended for use with terminally ill cancer patients. The 1st stage of measure development involved interviews with 13 palliative care experts and 30 terminally ill patients.

Entering exile: trauma, mental health, and coping among Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India.

Each year thousands of Tibetans escape Chinese-controlled Tibet. The authors present findings on the experiences, coping strategies, and psychological distress (depression, anxiety, somatization, and posttraumatic stress disorder) of 769 Tibetan refugees arriving in Dharamsala, India (2003-2004). Distress increased significantly with greater trauma exposure.

Traumatic experiences and psychological distress in an urban refugee population seeking treatment services.

While a growing literature has addressed the psychological consequences of torture and refugee trauma, most studies have focused on homogeneous samples drawn from a single region. Thus, relatively little research has attempted to identify demographic or experiential factors that might help explain different levels of distress in these individuals. We measured depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a convenience sample of refugees and survivors of torture seeking treatment in a torture treatment program (N = 325).

Mental health of detained asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers arriving in the USA are likely to be held in detention for months or years pending adjudication of their asylum claims. We interviewed 70 asylum seekers detained in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We used self-report questionnaires to assess symptoms of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The impact of detention on the health of asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers arriving in the United States are often imprisoned for months or years while their asylum claims are processed. Recently, Physicians for Human Rights and the Bellevue/New York University Program for Survivors of Torture released the findings of the first systematic study examining the health of detained asylum seekers. The study found that the mental health of asylum seekers interviewed was extremely poor, including high levels of symptoms for anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder, which worsened the longer individuals were in detention.