Parents' and nurses' affective perception of a pictorial intervention in a pediatric hospital environment: Quasi-experimental design pre-post-testing.

Background/aim: The humanization of the hospital environment of pediatric departments represents an area of research and intervention on improving the quality of life for hospitalized patients, but also that one of relatives and health professionals. The aim of the study was to test, in a sample of nurses and hospitalized children's parents, whether the pictorial intervention impacted the perceptions of affective qualities of hospital environment.

Methods: This quasi-experimental design study investigated the effects of a pictorial humanization intervention which consisted of some naturalistic and colorful illustrations in the corridor of two pediatric wards of an Italian hospital.

Virtual psychoeducation for improvement of pain catastrophizing in pediatric presurgical patients and caregivers: a proof-of-concept study.

Purpose: Pain catastrophizing (PC) is the tendency to magnify the threat value of pain sensations and is associated with greater postsurgical pain intensity, functional disability, and pain chronicity. Higher parental PC predicts higher chronic postsurgical pain in youth. Treating PC in caregivers and youth prior to surgery may improve recovery and surgical outcomes.

Enhancing the impact of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: A joint AIFM-INFN Italian initiative for a dedicated cloud-based computing infrastructure.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been implemented in the field of Medical Imaging for more than forty years. Medical Physicists, Clinicians and Computer Scientists have been collaborating since the beginning to realize software solutions to enhance the informative content of medical images, including AI-based support systems for image interpretation. Despite the recent massive progress in this field due to the current emphasis on Radiomics, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, there are still some barriers to overcome before these tools are fully integrated into the clinical workflows to finally enable a precision medicine approach to patients' care.

A Quality Improvement Project on Pain Management at a Tertiary Pediatric Hospital.

Unlabelled: To assess and improve pain management practices for hospitalized children in an urban tertiary pediatric teaching hospital.

Methods: Health Quality Ontario Quality Improvement (QI) framework informed this study. A pre (T1) - post (T2) intervention assessment included chart reviews and children/caregiver surveys to ascertain pain management practices.

Convex plumbings in closed hyperbolic 4-manifolds.

We show that every plumbing of disc bundles over surfaces whose genera satisfy a simple inequality may be embedded as a convex submanifold in some closed hyperbolic four-manifold. In particular its interior has a geometrically finite hyperbolic structure that covers a closed hyperbolic four-manifold.

Be Sweet to Hospitalized Toddlers During Venipuncture: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Sucrose Compared With Water.

Objectives: High-quality evidence demonstrates analgesic effects of sweet-tasting solutions for infants during painful procedures. However, evidence of the analgesic effects of sucrose beyond 12 months of age is less certain. The aim of this study was to ascertain the efficacy of oral sucrose in hospitalized toddlers (ages 12 to 36 mo) compared with placebo (water) during venipuncture.

Development and Pilot Evaluation of an Educational Tool for the FLACC Pain Scale.

Background: The FLACC (Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability) pain scale is commonly used for pediatric pain assessment; however, no online educational tool exists to facilitate the use of the scale.

Aims: This study aimed to develop an online educational tool and evaluate its effect on nurse knowledge, user confidence, and scoring accuracy.

Design And Methods: In phase 1, semistructured interviews were conducted to identify preferred educational features and content.

Improved practices for safe administration of intravenous bolus morphine in a pediatric setting.

Postoperative pain control is a clinical imperative, for which morphine is a preferred opioid. However, interpatient variability and drug accumulation with repeated doses, as well as medication errors, may result in respiratory arrest with this medication. Early detection of respiratory depression is essential for safe use of morphine, following both initial and repeated doses.

Review of prescribing practices for intermittent bolus administration of morphine.

Background: Several changes to medication safety practices were proposed in a pediatric hospital, including changing the period of patient observation after administration of opioids and limiting the availability of various concentrations of morphine in the patient care unit.

Objective: To document and review postoperative pain management for children on a surgical ward, specifically with regard to intermittent IV bolus administration of morphine, to help in assessing the impact of the proposed nursing practice changes.

Methods: Data were collected from records for narcotics and controlled drugs for the surgical ward over a 3-month period (April to June 2006).

[The assessment of nurses satisfaction for an organization that values posts and professional responsibilities].

Unlabelled: To assess the effectiveness of a new organizational model for professional development, that assigns and financially rewards 12 positions that encompass specific responsibilities (such as responsible of Evidence based Nursing; expert in pressure ulcers, responsible of the newly employed nurses), nurses' satisfaction was measured.

Method: From November to December 2003 the MC Closey Muller Satisfaction Questionnaire was administered to all the nurses in service in the wards. Levels of satisfaction of nurses with and without specific responsibilities were compared.

Evaluation of a continuous epidural analgesia program for postoperative pain in children.

A continuous epidural analgesia (CEA) program was developed for pediatric patients cared for outside of a critical care environment. Stable patients can be successfully monitored in the inpatient areas provided sufficient education and support is offered to allow for safe administration, monitoring, and evaluation of patient outcomes. The CEA program was developed in collaboration with the departments of nursing, anesthesiology, and pharmacy and was introduced on a 1-year trial basis on the surgical patient service unit.

The first cell cycle after transfer of somatic cell nuclei in a non-human primate.

Production of genetically identical non-human primates through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can provide diseased genotypes for research and clarify embryonic stem cell potentials. Understanding the cellular and molecular changes in SCNT is crucial to its success. Thus the changes in the first cell cycle of reconstructed zygotes after nuclear transfer (NT) of somatic cells in the Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) were studied.

Leucocyte typing, cytokine expression, and epithelial turnover in the ileal pouch in patients with ulcerative colitis and familial adenomatous polyposis.

Background/aims: Conventional histopathology, leucocyte typing, cytokine mRNA expression, and crypt cell turnover were compared in ileal pouch biopsy specimens from patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP).

Methods: Biopsy specimens were taken from 17 patients with UC and seven with FAP at a median interval of 19 months (range 2-120) after ileostomy closure. All contained both epithelium and lamina propria.