Death and Dying in the Emergency Department: A New Model for End-of-Life Care.

Background: Death and dying remain taboo subjects in society today and therefore people may come to the end of their life without having thought about what death and dying might be like and what it is to have a good death. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the experience of death and dying in a hospital emergency department. Culturally, some individuals are unprepared for death, and when death occurs in an emergency setting it can be particularly shocking.

Overcoming the barriers to optimal end of life care in the emergency department.

The focus of care in the emergency department (ED) is on saving or sustaining life, but some patients admitted to the ED die in the ED. Nurses whose focus is on saving lives may therefore find themselves providing end of life care to patients and their families in a stressful and distressing environment. Providing optimal end of life care involves reflecting on what a good death looks like and how patients can be supported to have a good death.

Spontaneous remission of idiopathic minimal change disease in a cat.

Case Summary: A 5-year-old female neutered domestic mediumhair cat presented with acute onset hyporexia, lethargy, ascites, hypoalbuminaemia and ventral subcutaneous oedema. Further investigations revealed a bicavitary effusion, myocardial injury, hypercholesterolaemia and concurrent marked proteinuria. A panel of infectious disease tests yielded negative results.

Reflections on recruiting healthcare professionals as research participants: Learning from the ONSPres Study.

The involvement of healthcare professionals (HCPs) as research participants is essential to generate high quality evidence for enhancing health services and practice.  Research teams face many challenges in recruiting HCPs for research, and barriers and enablers for interdisciplinary research are not well described in the literature.  The Oral Nutritional Supplement Prescribing Malnutrition Research Study (ONSPres Study) examined malnutrition identification, management, and appropriate oral nutritional supplement prescribing in primary care in Ireland.

A Wearable Wideband Analog Bio-Impedance Analyzer for Real-Time Monitoring of Human Physiology.

Continuous monitoring of electrophysiological activities of the human body is a significant step toward the effective prognosis, diagnosis, and management of functional disorders and cardiovascular diseases. This paper presents the development of a wireless system for the real-time acquisition of hemodynamics data and ambulatory monitoring of body composition based on electrical bio-impedance (Bio-Z) analysis. The developed system is composed of a low-power wearable unit and a stationary unit connected to a computer.

Evaluation of symmetric dimethylarginine in cats with acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease.

Background: Serum symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) concentrations are considered a biomarker for renal dysfunction in dogs and humans with acute kidney injury (AKI). No studies have assessed SDMA in cats with AKI.

Hypothesis/objectives: SDMA correctly identifies cats with azotemic AKI.

The association of fetal acidemia with adverse neonatal outcomes at time of scheduled cesarean delivery.

Background: Fetal acidemia at the time of a scheduled cesarean delivery is generally unexpected. In the setting of reassuring preoperative monitoring, the duration of fetal acidemia in this scenario is presumably brief. The neonatal sequelae and risks associated with brief fetal acidemia in this setting are unknown.

A multicenter retrospective study assessing progression of biliary sludge in dogs using ultrasonography.

Background: Biliary sludge (BS) frequently is identified on ultrasonographic examination and is described as incidental. It is hypothesized that biliary stasis and hypersecretion play a role in both BS and gallbladder mucocele (GBM) formation. Recent studies have documented similarities in composition of BS and GBM, and there are several examples of progression from BS to GBM in the veterinary literature.

Obstructive pancreatolithiasis in a cat with triaditis and concurrent hypercalcaemia.

Case Summary: A 7-year-old neutered female domestic longhair cat was presented for further investigation of suspected hepatobiliary disease. Increases in serum 1,2-o-dilauryl-rac-glycero-3-glutaric acid-(6'-methylresorufin) ester lipase and hepatobiliary enzymes, with concurrent hypoalbuminaemia, were documented on blood biochemistry. Abdominal ultrasonography findings were consistent with acute pancreatitis with multiple pancreatoliths visualised within the pancreatic duct.

Clinical features and outcomes in 38 dogs with cholelithiasis receiving conservative or surgical management.

Background: Ursodeoxycholic acid is used in human medicine for litholytic management of choleliths, but the efficacy of medical management in dogs with cholelithiasis is unknown.

Objectives: To describe the clinical features and outcomes of dogs with cholelithiasis, focusing on cases that received medical treatment, and to identify patient factors that influenced decision-making for surgical or medical management.

Animals: Thirty-eight dogs with cholelithiasis identified on abdominal ultrasonography (AUS).

Urinary incontinence secondary to a suspected congenital urethral deformity in a kitten.

Case Summary: A 5-month-old entire male domestic shorthair kitten was referred for investigation of a month-long history of urinary incontinence. Clinical examination, baseline blood work and imaging (plain radiography and ultrasonography) were unremarkable. Urinalysis documented a urinary tract infection and a retrograde urethrocystogram revealed an outpouching of the pelvic urethra.

Healthcare professionals' perceptions of malnutrition management and oral nutritional supplement prescribing in the community: A qualitative study.

Background & Aim: Protein-energy malnutrition is under-recognised in the community despite being common in older adults due to physiological and social changes which are often compounded by chronic disease. This qualitative study aimed to explore the opinions of healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in the primary care and community settings about the management of malnutrition and the prescription of oral nutritional supplements (ONS), often included in the treatment of malnutrition.

Methods: Twelve healthcare professional (HCP) focus groups with 75 participants were conducted: community dietitians (n = 17), registered dietitians working in industry (n = 5), community and residential care nurses (n = 22), physiotherapists (n = 12), pharmacists (n = 9), occupational therapists (n = 6) and speech and language therapists (n = 4).

Malnutrition: A Misunderstood Diagnosis by Primary Care Health Care Professionals and Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Ireland.

Background: Language and communication have an impact on how a clinical condition is treated and experienced, from both the health care professional (HCP) and patient perspective. Malnutrition is prevalent among community-dwelling older adults, yet perceptions of patient understanding of the term malnutrition to date remain underexplored.

Objective: This qualitative study explored the use and perceptions of the term malnutrition among HCPs and older adults at risk of malnutrition.

Psychopathy Profiles and Personality Assessment Inventory Scores in a Sex Offender Risk Assessment Field Setting.

A growing body of research suggests there are identifiable psychopathy subtypes among offenders scored on Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003). We used latent profile analysis to examine the generalizability of these subtype findings to PCL-R scores ( = 615) assigned in a sex offender risk assessment field setting and to examine how offender subtypes differ on measures of comorbid psychopathology, risk, and treatment amenability from the Personality Assessment Inventory. Consistent with prior research, we identified four subtypes when using PCL-R scores from all offenders: Prototypic psychopathy ( = 239, 38.

Self-care while undertaking qualitative nursing research.

Background: Nursing research is usually carried out by registered nurses with some experience of practice. However, nurses may find that the role of the nurse researcher is very different from that of the practising clinical nurse and has its own challenges.

Aim: To explore the differences between the two roles and offer some guidance to nurses carrying out qualitative research, particularly research into sensitive topics.

Tipping the scales of justice: the role of forensic evaluations in the criminalization of mental illness.

An unprecedented number of individuals with mental illness are represented in the criminal justice system. The unending growth of mentally ill populations in the justice system has led to jails and court dockets being increasingly overwhelmed with cases involving mental illness, state hospitals devoting far more beds and resources to forensic cases, and people without a criminal commitment left waiting for mental health services as forensic cases are prioritized. Although a forensic mental health evaluation is only one component of this larger system, common problems with forensic mental health evaluations can exacerbate the criminalization of persons with mental illness in many ways.

Myoclonus and hypercalcemia in a dog with poorly differentiated lymphoproliferative neoplasia.

A 1-year, 8-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback was presented with obtundation, ambulatory tetraparesis, and myoclonus. Initial clinical findings included ionized hypercalcemia with an apparent marked increase in parathyroid hormone, thrombocytopenia, and nonregenerative anemia. Low numbers of circulating atypical cells were noted on blood film evaluation.

Hepatic leptospiral infections in dogs without obvious renal involvement.

Background: Reports of chronic hepatitis in dogs caused by Leptospira spp. are confined to small case series. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) allows the identification of spirochetes in liver samples.

How television moved a nation: media, change and Indigenous rights.

This article examines the role of television in Australia's 1967 referendum, which is widely believed to have given rights to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It presents an analysis of archival television footage to identify five stories that moved the nation: Australia's shame, civil rights and global connections, admirable activists, 'a fair go' and consensus. It argues that television shaped the wider culture and opened a channel of communication that allowed Indigenous activists and everyday people to speak directly to non-Indigenous people and other First Nations people throughout the land for the first time.

Exploring the quality of the dying and death experience in the Emergency Department: An integrative literature review.

Aim: The aim of this integrative literature review was to explore the quality of the dying and death experience in the Emergency Department from the perspective of staff and carers.

Background: Death in the Emergency Department is common. Understanding the quality of the death and dying experience of patients and their family members is crucial to building knowledge and improving care.

Detection and seroprevalence of morbillivirus and other paramyxoviruses in geriatric cats with and without evidence of azotemic chronic kidney disease.

Background: Feline morbillivirus (FeMV) is associated with the presence of tubulo-interstitial nephritis (TIN) in cats, however the seroprevalence of FeMV in the UK and the association between the presence of FeMV and renal azotemia is unknown HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To identify whether paramyxoviruses are present in urine samples of geriatric cats and to develop an assay to assess FeMV seroprevalence. To investigate the relationship between both urinary paramyxovirus (including FeMV) excretion and FeMV seroprevalence and azotemic chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Animals: Seventy-nine cats (40 for FeMV detection; 72 for seroprevalence).

Diagnostic field reliability in forensic mental health evaluations.

How likely are multiple forensic evaluators to agree on defendants' diagnoses in routine forensic mental health evaluations? A total of 720 evaluation reports were examined from 240 cases in which 3 evaluators, working independently, provided diagnoses for the same defendant. Results revealed perfect agreement across 6 independent diagnostic categories in 18.3% of cases.