An examination of critical care nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management in hospitalized patients.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an educational intervention focused on pain management. The sample consisted of 30 medical/surgical intensive care nurses (age range, 23 to 62 years) employed in a large metropolitan hospital in the southeastern United States. McCaffery and Ferrell's Nurses' Knowledge and Attitude Survey Regarding Pain was administered at 2 points in time: before and after the educational program.

[Circulatory insufficiency in the light of neuroendocrine and metabolic disorders].

Certain metabolic disorders characterizing disturbances both in neuroendocrine control and in metabolic processes at the cell and tissue levels were revealed in 472 patients with rheumatic heart disease, atherosclerotic cardiosclerosis, and cor pulmonale. The disturbance in the adrenal function was of a dissociated character, manifested by increase in sympathoadrenal and decrease in glucocorticoid activity. The indices of pentosophosphate cycle and erythrocyte and blood serum enzymes studied testify to deep changes in the state of the erythron, marked both by breaks and by adaptation to hypoxia caused by circulatory insufficiency.