Framework for creating an incident command center during crises.

The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) is an incident management system specific to hospitals based on the principles of Incident Command System (ICS), and it includes prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. It plays a crucial role in effective and timely response during the periods of disasters, mass casualties, and public health emergencies. In recent times, hospitals have used a customized HICS structure to coordinate effective responses to public health problems such as the Ebola outbreak in the US and SARS epidemic in Taiwan.

Lamotrigine and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome Prevention.

Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) is a rare life-threatening condition characterized by severe mucocutaneous epidermal necrolysis and detachment of the epidermis. The condition centers around a delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction with a complex etiology stemming from a variety of causes. The number one cause is medication-related-common ones including sulfonamides, antiepileptics, allopurinol, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Rehabilitation of emergent awareness of errors post traumatic brain injury: A pilot intervention.

Impaired awareness of errors is common following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and can be a barrier to successful rehabilitation. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a computer-based intervention programme aimed at improving error awareness in individuals with TBI. A further aim was to explore its effects on metacognitive awareness and variability of performance.

Reconsidering Olanzapine as a Possible Culprit for Drug Fever, defying "Incomplete Neuromalignant Syndrome".

This case is important because it is the first time Olanzapine-induced fever has been described in the absence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome. In the context of the available antipsychotics with the atypical agents dominating the pool, only few of those are known to be well tolerated among the patients. Fever may be looked at by the physicians as a minor problem yet, it can be disabling to the large set of patients.

Strengthening nursing and midwifery capacity in rural New South Wales, Australia.

A small rural health service and two university schools of nursing joined forces to establish a rural clinical school to advance clinical education and research. The collaboration, while in its infancy, has given rise to outcomes that strength the capacity of nursing and midwifery services in the community.

Connecting Self-Awareness and Error-Awareness in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury.

Impaired self-awareness after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often seen in stark contrast to the observations of significant-others, who are acutely aware of the difficulties experienced by patients. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between metacognitive knowledge in daily life and emergent awareness of errors during laboratory tasks, since the breakdown of error detection mechanisms may impose limitations on the recovery of metacognitive knowledge after TBI. We also examined the extent to which these measures of awareness can predict dysexecutive behaviors.

Updates in Psychosomatic Medicine: 2014.

Background: The amount of literature published annually related to psychosomatic medicine is vast; this poses a challenge for practitioners to keep up-to-date in all but a small area of expertise.

Objectives: To introduce how a group process using volunteer experts can be harnessed to provide clinicians with a manageable selection of important publications in psychosomatic medicine, organized by specialty area, for 2014.

Methods: We used quarterly annotated abstracts selected by experts from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine in 15 subspecialties to create a list of important articles.

Perioperative bowel habits of women undergoing gynecologic surgery: a pilot study.

Objectives: To describe perioperative bowel habits of women undergoing gynecologic surgery.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included women undergoing gynecologic surgery. Before surgery, participants completed the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS), a validated instrument describing stool characteristics consistent with transit categories: slow (BSFS 1-2), normal (BSFS 3-5), and fast (BSFS 6-7).

Urgent and emergent psychiatric disorders.

In the emergency department, neurologists regularly evaluate patients exhibiting behavioral abnormalities that stem from underlying neurologic diseases. This behavior may be the initial presence of a neurologic illness or may indicate the deterioration and progress of the disease process. In addition, many neurologic patients present with acute and potentially dangerous psychiatric symptoms that demand rapid and accurate management.

Quality clinical placements for undergraduate nursing students: a cross-sectional survey of undergraduates and supervising nurses.

Aim:   This article is a report of a mixed method study of the quality of clinical placements for second year undergraduate nursing students in an acute care hospital.

Background:   In response to the current and predicted workforce shortages, greater numbers of nursing undergraduate places are being offered at tertiary institutions. This means that requests for clinical places in hospitals to support undergraduate students has risen.

The impact of dispositional optimism on symptoms and treatment choices in patients with pelvic floor disorders.

Introduction And Hypothesis: The objective of this study is to evaluate dispositional optimism, pelvic floor disorder symptoms, and treatment decisions.

Methods: Scores of the Life Orientation Test-Revised were used to categorize women seeking clinical treatment for pelvic floor disorders as pessimists (scores in lowest third) or optimists (scores in highest third). Participants also listed their treatment goals and quantified pelvic floor symptom severity by completing the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20).

Early termination of a trial of mycophenolate mofetil for treatment of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome: lessons learned.

Purpose: We evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of mycophenolate mofetil in patients with treatment refractory interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome.

Materials And Methods: A total of 210 patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome were to be randomized into a multicenter, placebo controlled trial using a 2:1 randomization. Participants in whom at least 3 interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome specific treatments had failed and who had at least moderately severe symptoms were enrolled in a 12-week treatment study.

Preoperative voiding detrusor pressures do not predict stress incontinence surgery outcomes.

Introduction And Hypothesis: The aim of this study was to determine whether preoperative voiding detrusor pressures were associated with postoperative outcomes after stress incontinence surgery.

Methods: Opening detrusor pressure, detrusor pressure at maximum flow (p (det) Q(max)), and closing detrusor pressure were assessed from 280 valid preoperative urodynamic studies in subjects without advanced prolapse from a multicenter randomized trial comparing Burch and autologous fascia sling procedures. These pressures were compared between subjects with and without overall success, stress-specific success, postoperative detrusor overactivity, and postoperative urge incontinence using independent sample t tests.

Investigation of febrile passengers detected by infrared thermal scanning at an international airport.

Objective: To determine the best approach for the evaluation of fever, detected by infrared thermal scanning, at an international airport.

Methods: Arriving passengers with fever were divided into three groups: community evaluation by a GP, with or without cost compensation, or evaluation at the airport by a health practitioner. Uptake of offered evaluations was measured, diagnoses were recorded, and region-specific rates of fever measured.

An integrative literature review of interventions to reduce violence against emergency department nurses.

Aim: To critique the evidence that underpins interventions intended to minimise workplace violence directed against emergency department nurses, to inform researchers and policy makers regarding the design, development, implementation and evaluation of emergency nursing anti-violence and counter-violence interventions.

Background: Workplace violence perpetrated against emergency department nurses is at least continuing and at worst increasing. Occupational violence has detrimental effects on job satisfaction, retention and recruitment, and the quality and cost of patient care.

Nocturia research: current status and future perspectives.

This review summarizes the status of nocturia research, highlighting the condition's distinct nature, as well as areas where further studies are needed. Unlike other LUTS, nocturia has a specific and detrimental effect on the sleep period, and when >or=2 voids per night are experienced it is associated with various sequelae including reduced QoL and productivity, and increased morbidity and perhaps mortality. Many sources suggest that nocturia is associated with chronic medical illness, but little evidence demonstrates that successful treatment of these conditions results in normalization of nocturia, or that improvement in nocturia improves QoL and overall health.

Effect of amitriptyline on symptoms in treatment naïve patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome.

Purpose: Amitriptyline is frequently used to treat patients with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. The evidence to support this practice is derived mainly from a small, single site clinical trial and case reports.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial of amitriptyline in subjects with interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome who were naïve to therapy.

Patients' experiences of absconding from a psychiatric setting in Indonesia.

Absconding from psychiatric institutions is a relatively common phenomenon. Yet patients' experience of absconding is a perspective that has received little attention in the West and none in Indonesia. A case study using mixed methods was undertaken in order to provide a profile of absconding events over a 1-year period in a psychiatric setting in Indonesia.

Measuring urgency in clinical practice.

Introduction: The study of urinary urgency is challenging for a number of reasons, including our lack of understanding of the normal physiology of urinary sensation and the pathophysiology of abnormal sensation. Issues with nomenclature and lack of agreement about the nature of the experience of normal and abnormal urinary sensation add to this difficulty.

Materials And Methods: Review of published literature and critique.

Randomized multicenter feasibility trial of myofascial physical therapy for the treatment of urological chronic pelvic pain syndromes.

Purpose: We determined the feasibility of conducting a randomized clinical trial designed to compare 2 methods of manual therapy (myofascial physical therapy and global therapeutic massage) in patients with urological chronic pelvic pain syndromes.

Materials And Methods: We recruited 48 subjects with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome or interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome at 6 clinical centers. Eligible patients were randomized to myofascial physical therapy or global therapeutic massage and were scheduled to receive up to 10 weekly treatments of 1 hour each.

Transabdominal uterosacral suspension: outcomes and complications.

Objective: The objective of the study was to report outcomes and complications following abdominal uterosacral suspension (AUSS) for treatment of pelvic organ prolapse.

Study Design: This was a surgical case series of consecutive women who underwent AUSS between 2002 and 2005.

Results: One hundred seven women underwent AUSS using permanent suture (mean age, 55 years; range, 32-83; and mean follow-up, 21; range, 3-74 months).

Observations relating to urinary sensation during detrusor overactivity.

Aims: To describe the temporal relationship between increases in lower urinary tract (LUT) sensation and changes in detrusor and/or urethral pressures measured in real time.

Methods: We reviewed 33 multichannel urodynamic tracings that included a continuous recording of LUT sensation and that demonstrated detrusor overactivity incontinence (DOI) or detrusor overactivity (DO). Four physicians reviewed each urodynamic tracing and reached agreement about the temporal relationship between LUT sensation and detrusor contraction.

Evaluation of urgency in women, with a validated Urgency, Severity and Impact Questionnaire (USIQ).

The objective of this study is to develop a validated, patient-oriented questionnaire to assess urgency and associated life impact. We interviewed six urogynecologists and urologists and five patients with overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms about urinary urgency. Based on this data, we composed the first draft of our Urgency Severity and Impact Questionnaire (USIQ).