Physician's assistants (PA) are an integral part of hospital teams. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of a multidisciplinary hospital-wide communication skills training (CST) workshop on PAs. From November 2017 to November 2019, all participants in the CST workshop were sent a web-based retrospective pre-post survey to measure self-reported attitudes and behaviors related to communicating with patients, CST, and specific skills taught.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID Nursery Follow-Up Clinic at our academic medical center in New York City was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide care to infants born to SARS-CoV-2 positive mothers. We describe a novel dual-visit model utilizing telehealth and an in-person visit to provide timely, inclusive and relationship-centered care to the mother/infant couplet in a situation where the mother was unable to come to a traditional in-person visit, but the infant needed medically necessary in-person evaluation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, infection prevention and control (IP&C) for women in labor and mothers and newborns during delivery and receiving post-partum care was quite challenging for staff, patients, and support persons due to a relative lack of evidence-based practices, high rates of community transmission, and shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). We present our IP&C policies and procedures for the obstetrical population developed from mid-March to mid-May 2020 when New York City served as the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Limited data on vertical and perinatal transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and health outcomes of neonates born to mothers with symptomatic or asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are available. Studies are needed to inform evidence-based infection prevention and control (IP&C) policies.
Objective: To describe the outcomes of neonates born to mothers with perinatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and the IP&C practices associated with these outcomes.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread worldwide, it is crucial that we determine populations that are at-risk and develop appropriate clinical care policies to protect them. While several respiratory illnesses are known to seriously impact pregnant women and newborns, preliminary data on the novel SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus suggest that these groups are no more at-risk than the general population. Here, we review the available literature on newborns born to infected mothers and show that newborns of mothers with positive/suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection rarely acquire the disease or show adverse clinical outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Latinas have high breastfeeding initiation rates that decrease significantly in the first postpartum months. Little is known about the effects of self-efficacy and sociocultural factors on early breastfeeding among low-income Latinas. This study quantifies early breastfeeding rates and identifies factors associated with breastfeeding at 4-6 weeks postpartum in our community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring a 16-week period in late 1969, 11 cases of diphtheria (three fatal) were reported from Miami, Dade County, Florida. For each of ten previous years, two cases at most had been reported. All patients resided in a predominantly black, low socioeconomic community within the 7-square-mile Model City area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBetween January 1 and March 15, 1974, approximately 1200 cases of acute gastrointestinal illness occurred in Richmond Heights, Florida, a residential community of 6500 in south Dade County. Over one-third of all families in the area had at least one member affected. The findings of 10 culture-proven cases of shigellosis among those who became ill and clinical signs and symptoms in the others suggest that most of the other cases that were not cultured may have been shigellosis also.
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