Intracranial pressure monitoring in childhood meningitis with coma: a national survey of neurosurgeons in the United States.

Objectives: To describe the beliefs and attitudes of U.S. neurosurgeons regarding the use of intracranial pressure monitors among comatose children with meningitis.

Pediatric nurse practitioners: roles and scope of practice.

Background: There are ∼ 13,000 pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs) in the United States. PNPs have been suggested as professionals who could provide care to the growing cadre of children with chronic illnesses and expand the pool of subspecialty care providers. Little is known about current roles of PNPs in primary or subspecialty care.

Pediatric physician assistants: distribution and scope of practice.

Background: Physician assistants (PAs) are licensed to practice with physician supervision. PAs do not specialize or subspecialize as part of their formal standard training; consequently, their license is not limited to a specific specialty. As such, PAs can, and do, change their practice settings at will.

Neonatal nurse practitioners: distribution, roles and scope of practice.

Objective: We sought to determine the distribution and scope of practice of the neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) workforce across the United States.

Methods: To determine distribution, we used counts of certified NNPs from the National Certification Corp (Chicago, IL). We calculated state NNP/child population ratios as the number of NNPs divided by the state population 0 to 17 years of age.

Hospitalists' involvement in pediatrics training: perspectives from pediatric residency program and clerkship directors.

Purpose: To explore the use and perceived impact of pediatric hospitalists as teaching attendings among pediatric residency and clerkship programs.

Method: Between November 2007 and February 2008, the authors conducted a mail-based survey of all pediatric residency program directors (170) and pediatric clerkship directors (131) in the United States as identified by the Association of Pediatric Program Directors and Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics. The surveys focused on the responsibilities of pediatric hospitalists in training programs and their perceived impact on the roles of pediatric residents and medical students.

Permanent pediatric diplomate awareness of and perspectives on maintenance of certification.

Objective: Since diplomates of the American Board of Pediatrics with permanent certificates will not be required to participate in the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program, we determined the perceptions of permanent certificate holders about MOC and their degree of interest in participation.

Study Design: We conducted a 12-item mail survey of 1693 diplomates with permanent certificates. Frequency distributions were calculated for all survey items.

Basis for immunization recommendations among countries of the worldHealth Organization European region.

Despite World Health Organization (WHO) goals to reduce the incidence of several vaccine preventable diseases across the European region, the adoption of new vaccines has been slower than expected. To identify factors that influence the decision to recommend new vaccines, especially hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae, type b (Hib) vaccines, we studied the factors used in immunization decision-making across this region. A structured questionnaire was sent to the Immunization Program Manager of each country with the option to return the completed survey by e-mail, fax or complete a web-based survey.