This letter responds to the essay "Language Matters: The Semantics and Politics of 'Assisted Dying,'" by Anna M. Elsner, Charlotte E. Frank, Marc Keller, Jordan O.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is a compassion crisis in healthcare negatively impacting patient outcomes. Little is known about the relationship of love as a motivating factor in healthcare. Our research exploring physician and nurse perspectives on what it means to love their patients elucidated substantive themes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGait speed and timed-up-and-go (TUG) predict cognitive decline, falls, and mortality. Dual-tasks may be useful in cognitive screening among people living with dementia (PWD), but more evidence is needed. This cross-sectional study aimed to compare single- and dual-task performance and determine the influence of dementia severity on dual-task performance and interference.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physical activity preserves cognitive function in people without dementia, but the relationship between physical activity and cognitive domains among people living with dementia is unclear.
Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the association between physical activity and cognition domains among people living with dementia.
Methods: Participants living with dementia in residential care facilities (complete case analysis: n = 24/42) completed a battery of cognitive tests (global cognition: Montreal Cognitive Assessment; executive function: Trail-Making Test, Digit Span Forward Test; perception and orientation: Benton Judgement of Line Orientation Test; language: Boston Naming Test; learning and memory: Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test; complex attention: Digit Symbol Substitution Test).
Background: Exercise may improve executive function among people living with all-cause dementia (PWD), but more evidence is needed. The aim of this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to examine whether exercise plus usual care improves the primary outcome of executive function, and secondary physiological (inflammation, metabolic aging, epigenetics) and behavioral (cognition, psychological health, physical function, and falls) outcomes compared to usual care alone among PWD.
Methods And Study Design: The strEngth aNd BaLance exercise on Executive function in people living with Dementia (ENABLED) protocol is a pilot parallel, 6-month assessor-blinded RCT (1:1) in residential care facilities, including n = 21 receiving exercise plus usual care and n = 21 usual care alone [NCT05488951].
Little research systematically explores healthcare professionals' understanding of what it means to love their patients. The authors hypothesized that nurses and physicians would describe a language of love relevant to health care. Researchers conducted structured interviews with 29 physicians and 32 nurses at an academic medical center through a combination of purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Training of compassionate and empathetic physicians requires commitment by educators to make it a priority. Chaplains typically have time and training to effectively demonstrate compassionate care in the clinical setting. This qualitative study aims to explore perceived benefits among medical students from pastoral care shadowing in integrating compassion and spirituality into education curricula.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is continued need for enhanced medical ethics education across the United States. In an effort to guide medical ethics education reform, we report the first interprofessional survey of a cohort of graduate medical, nursing and allied health professional students that examined perceived student need for more formalized medical ethics education and assessed preferences for teaching methods in a graduate level medical ethics curriculum.
Methods: In January 2018, following the successful implementation of a peer-led, grassroots medical ethics curriculum, student leaders under faculty guidance conducted a cross-sectional survey with 562 of 1357 responses received (41% overall response rate) among students enrolled in the School of Medicine, College of Nursing, Doctor of Physical Therapy and BS/(D) MD Professional Scholars programs at The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
J Hosp Manag Health Policy
September 2019
Background: Increasing efforts have been made in primary care settings to screen for a broad array of social determinants of health including inadequate food and nutrition, lack of education, unemployment, and inadequate housing, and to refer patients to community resources. Core tenets of primary care include integration with community resources.
Methods: In the course of designing a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of a social determinants of health intervention aimed at adult, at-risk, African American primary care clinic patients, our research team developed a logic model to assist with the evaluation of the intervention.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a partly double-stranded DNA virus that causes acute and chronic liver infection. Screening for hepatitis B is recommended in pregnant women at their first prenatal visit and in adolescents and adults at high risk of chronic infection. Hepatitis B vaccination is recommended for medically stable infants weighing 2,000 g or more within 24 hours of birth, unvaccinated infants and children, and unvaccinated adults requesting protection from hepatitis B or who are at increased risk of infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrimary Objective: The objective was to compare symptoms in service members diagnosed with a blast-related mTBI (mild traumatic brain injury) with a loss of consciousness (LOC) to those without LOC.
Research Design: Clinicians saw US military personnel within 72 hours of sustaining a blast-related mTBI and at a follow-up visit 48-72 hours later (n = 210).
Methods And Procedures: Demographics, post-concussive symptoms, diagnosis of acute stress reaction (ASR) and simple reaction time data from the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric (ANAM) were collected.
The Concussion Restoration Care Center has used the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics version 4 Traumatic Brain Injury (ANAM4 TBI) battery in clinical assessment of concussion. The study's aim is to evaluate the prognostic utility of the ANAM4 TBI. In 165 concussed active duty personnel (all ultimately returned to duty) seen and tested on the ANAM4 TBI on days 3 and 5 (median times) from their injury, Spearman's ρ statistics showed that all performance subtests (at day 5) were associated with fewer days return-to-duty (RTD) time, whereas concussion history or age did not.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDietary supplements are implicated in an increasing number of minor and serious adverse events, including death. A series of adverse events in deployed Marines using multiple supplements prompted medical officers to investigate the prevalence of supplement use among Marines stationed on Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. The investigators developed a survey to identify the types of supplements used, patterns of supplement use, reasons for taking supplements, perceived benefits from using supplements, and self-reported adverse effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To compare the cardiorespiratory, gastrointestinal, analgesic, and behavioral effects between IV and IM administration of morphine in conscious horses with no signs of pain.
Animals: 6 healthy adult horses.
Procedures: Horses received saline (0.
Concussions are the most frequent battle injury sustained in Afghanistan. The Concussion Restoration Care Center provides multidisciplinary care to concussed service members in theater. The Concussion Restoration Care Center has managed over 500 concussions, the majority being from improvised explosive device (IED) blasts.
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