Baseline Knowledge Attitudes Satisfaction and Aspirations With Advance Care Planning: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Studies have consistently demonstrated low rates of adoption of Advance Care Planning in the community.

Methods: We studied Medicare enrollees age 65 and over and non-Medicare patients using a cross-sectional survey undertaken in February and March 2019 using questionnaires completed by out-patients attending a teaching hospital clinic in East Tennessee USA. We evaluated patient knowledge, attitudes, satisfaction and aspirations towards Advance Care Planning.

Comparison of Industry-Leading Energy Devices for Use in Gynecologic Laparoscopy: Articulating ENSEAL versus LigaSure Energy Devices.

Study Objective: To compare 2 laparoscopic bipolar electrosurgical devices used in total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH). An articulating advanced bipolar device (ENSEAL G2; Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Cincinnati, OH) and an electrothermal bipolar vessel sealer (LigaSure; Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) were analyzed for differences in surgeon perception of ease of instrument use and workload using the NASA Raw Task Load Index (RTLX) scale. A second objective was to examine differences in operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), and perioperative complication rates between the 2 devices.

Spontaneous Tumor Lysis Syndrome in a Patient with Metastatic Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Case Report.

Tumor lysis syndrome is an oncologic emergency that usually occurs after chemotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies. Tumor lysis syndrome is rare in cases of solid tumors, especially when it occurs spontaneously. Herein, we present a case of spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome in a 55-year-old woman who presented with dyspnea and was found to have extensive metastatic small cell lung cancer.

Valacyclovir-associated neurotoxicity in peritoneal dialysis patients.

Valacyclovir is an oral antiviral agent being used more frequently than acyclovir because of the ease of administration and efficacy. Serious neuropsychiatric side effects have been demonstrated with the use of valacyclovir in renal failure patients. We report a case of valacyclovir neurotoxicity to emphasis the importance of dose adjustment in patients with chronic kidney disease and on dialysis.

A case study: using social tagging to engage students in learning Medical Subject Headings.

In exploring new ways of teaching students how to use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), librarians at Boston University's Alumni Medical Library (AML) integrated social tagging into their instruction. These activities were incorporated into the two-credit graduate course, "GMS MS 640: Introduction to Biomedical Information," required for all students in the graduate medical science program. Hands-on assignments and in-class exercises enabled librarians to present MeSH and the concept of a controlled vocabulary in a familiar and relevant context for the course's Generation Y student population and provided students the opportunity to actively participate in creating their education.

The rotating hospitalist: a solution for an academic internal medicine practice.

Background: Concerns have been raised about the role that hospitalists may have in changing the educational process for medical students and residents, especially with regard to the primary care specialties.

Methods: We implemented rotating hospital and office duties within our five-physician group.

Results: Resident and student satisfaction increased, and additional faculty members could be added without expanding office space.

The northeast Tennessee Spirituality and End of Life Issues Survey.

We developed the northeast Tennessee Spirituality and End of Life Issues Survey and randomly distributed it to 1,000 patients in our internal medicine practice. We received 568 surveys at least partially completed. Most of the participants demonstrated a spiritual interest and at least half believed it appropriate for their physician to share their diagnosis and prognosis with their spiritual leader.

Canadian nurses' views on assignment of publication credit for scholarly and scientific work.

A total of 184 Canadian nurses who were expected to publish scholarly and/or scientific work or whose roles provide for socialization of nurses in academic endeavours, research, and publication were asked to respond to 42 scenarios. This study replicated, with some modifications, surveys conducted in 1981, 1985, and 1987 to determine the views of American nurses on assignment of publication credit. The scenarios in the present survey required judgements about how authorship and footnote credit should be allocated among groups involved in research and academic writing; in some scenarios all the individuals were nurses (in both clinical and academic settings), while other scenarios featured collaboration between nurses and other health-care professionals or focused on interactions between nursing professors and students.

Moving toward policy development on assigning publication credit for oncology nurses' contributions to scholarly and scientific work.

The policy implications of a 1996 national nursing survey on the allocation of publication credit form of this paper. An earlier article (Butler & Ginn, 1997) describes and analyzes the outcome of the survey; the purpose here is to draw on that analysis, and on the relevant literature, to propose a starting place for discussion within the specialty of oncology and the nursing profession regarding assignment of credit for various contributions to collaborative scholarly work. After identifying the growing need for such a discussion and briefly highlighting the findings of the survey, the paper goes on to examine unacceptable practices in scholarly work and identify issues which should be resolved before collaborative work is undertaken.

Absence of acute cocaine interactions with the MAO-B inhibitor selegiline.

Selegiline, an irreversible monoamine oxidase-B (MAO-B) inhibitor, is under investigation as a treatment for cocaine relapse prevention. To evaluate its safety, human volunteers (n = 5) received intravenous cocaine (0, 20 and 40 mg, 1 h apart) following treatment with placebo or selegiline (10 mg, p.o.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Not for all terminally ill patients.

Where there are clear clinical indications that a patient suffering from a terminal illness would not benefit from cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there is no legal or ethical requirement that CPR be discussed with the patient as a treatment option or that CPR be administered if the patient stops breathing or suffers cardiac arrest.

Integration of information-seeking skills and activities into a problem-based curriculum.

Recent trends in medical education include a shift from the traditional, didactic, lecture-oriented approach to a more student-driven, problem-based approach to learning. This trend provides librarians with an opportunity to develop programs to teach information-gathering skills that support and are integrated into problem-based learning (PBL). In 1992, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine implemented the initial phase of a curriculum revision that emphasizes PBL.

Genetic analysis of alpha 2-adrenergic receptors and blood pressure using Dahl salt-sensitive rats.

Objective: To evaluate the role of alpha 2-adrenergic receptors in genetic hypertension by cosegregation analysis using Dahl rats.

Design: Inbred Dahl salt-sensitive (SS/Jr) rats were crossed with inbred Dahl salt-resistant (SR/Jr) rats; also, SS/Jr rats were crossed with several control strains, and large F2 populations were subsequently produced from each cross. All F2 populations were raised on a high-salt diet.

Providing medical care to methadone clinic patients: referral vs on-site care.

Objectives: Intravenous drug users are at high risk for medical illness, yet many are medically underserved. Most methadone treatment programs have insufficient resources to provide medical care. The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of providing medical care at a methadone clinic site vs referral to another site.

Estimate of the genetic divergence between inbred Dahl salt-sensitive and salt-resistant rats.

Objective: The genetic divergence of inbred Dahl salt-sensitive (SS/Jr) rats from inbred Dahl salt-resistant (SR/Jr) rats and various other inbred strains was measured.

Design: Structural differences in DNA between strains were evaluated.

Methods: Genetic variants were sought (1) by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, using 19 DNA probes, (2) by the polymerase chain reaction around microsatellites and (3) by DNA sequencing.

Quality filtering of the clinical literature by librarians and physicians.

A study was conducted at the University of Pittsburgh to determine the effectiveness of the selection process by clinical medical librarians and to identify the criteria used by librarians and physicians to select relevant articles. The study analyzed the similarity between librarian and physician selections, the decision-making processes used by librarians and physicians, and the utility of librarian selections versus those of physicians. No significant difference in utility between librarian and physician selection was found, suggesting that librarians can recognize and select useful articles as effectively as physicians.