The red hat - designating leadership using visual and verbal cues: a mixed-methods study.

Background: During a critical event in the labor and delivery operating room, it is crucial for team members responding to the situation to be aware of the designated leaders. Visual and verbal cues have been utilized to designate leadership in various healthcare settings; however, previous research has indicated mixed results using visual cues for role designation.

Methods: The purpose of this study was to explore the use of the red surgical hat as a visual cue of leadership during obstetric emergency simulation training.

Integrating simulation and interpretive description to explore operating room leadership: critical event continuing education.

In Obstetrics and Gynecologic operating room emergencies, the surgeon cannot both operate and lead a suddenly expanded and redirected team response. However, one of the most often used approaches to interprofessional continuing education designed to improve teams' ability to respond to unanticipated critical events still emphasizes surgeon leadership. We developed Explicit Anesthesia and Nurse Distributed (EXPAND) Leadership to imagine a workflow that might better distribute emergency leadership task responsibilities and practices.

Improving Aztreonam Stewardship and Cost Through a Penicillin Allergy Testing Clinical Guideline.

Background: Patients reporting penicillin allergy often receive unnecessary and costly broad-spectrum alternatives such as aztreonam with negative consequences. Penicillin allergy testing improves antimicrobial therapy but is not broadly used in hospitals due to insufficient testing resources and short-term expenses. We describe a clinical decision support (CDS) tool promoting pharmacist-administered penicillin allergy testing in patients receiving aztreonam and its benefits toward antimicrobial stewardship and costs.

Baseline Air Quality Assessment of Goods Movement Activities before the Port of Charleston Expansion: A Community-University Collaborative.

As the demand for goods continues to increase, a collective network of transportation systems is required to facilitate goods movement activities. This study examines air quality near the Port of Charleston before its expansion and briefly describes the establishment and structure of a community-university partnership used to monitor existing pollution. Particulate matter (PM) concentrations (PM and PM) were measured using the Thermo Fisher Scientific Partisol 2000i-D Dichotomous Air Sampler, Thermo Scientific Dichotomous Sequential Air Sampler Partisol-Plus 2025-D, and Rupprecht & Patashnick TEOM Series 1400 Sampler at neighborhood (Union Heights, Rosemont, and Accabee) and reference (FAA and Jenkins Street) sites.

Implementing a Tech-Check-Tech Program at a University Health System.

Tech-Check-Tech (TCT) allows a pharmacy technician to perform the final check of medications prepared by another technician. The effect of a TCT program on the time required to process medications in a hospital pharmacy has not been previously reported. To evaluate the effect of implementing a TCT program on the time required to prepare, check, and deliver medications to automated medication supply systems (AMSS) located throughout an academic medical center.

A Proactive Approach to Penicillin Allergy Testing in Hospitalized Patients.

Background: Penicillin allergy testing is underutilized in inpatients despite its potential to immediately impact antibiotic treatment. Although most tested patients are able to tolerate penicillin, limited availability and awareness of this tool leads to the use of costly and harmful substitutes.

Objective: We established an inpatient service at a large academic hospital to identify and test patients with a history of penicillin allergy with the goals of removing inaccurate diagnoses, reducing the use of beta-lactam alternatives, and educating patients and clinicians about the procedure.

The Effect of Model Fidelity on Learning Outcomes of a Simulation-Based Education Program for Central Venous Catheter Insertion.

Introduction: Simulation-based education for central venous catheter (CVC) insertion has been repeatedly documented to improve performance, but the impact of simulation model fidelity has not been described. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of the physical fidelity of the simulation model on learning outcomes for a simulation-based education program for CVC insertion.

Methods: Forty consecutive residents rotating through the medical intensive care unit of an academic medical center completed a simulation-based education program for CVC insertion.

Correlation study of knowledge and behavior regarding breast care among female undergraduate students in China.

Background: This study aimed to understand the relationship between knowledge level and behavior on breast care in Chinese students, so as to provide strategies for improving the health education of breast care and subsequently for aiding in breast cancer prevention.

Materials And Methods: A self-designed questionnaire was used to evaluate breast care knowledge level and characterize related behavior. Correlation analysis was conducted for the knowledge level and behavior.

Evaluation of fast food behavior in pre-school children and parents following a one-year intervention with nutrition education.

A community-based intervention study was conducted to assess a nutrition education intervention on western style fast food consumption among Chinese children and parents. Eight kindergartens from three district areas of Hefei City (a total of 1252 children aged 4-6 years and their parents) were randomly selected. Descriptive and analytical statistical methods were used to evaluate the baseline, midterm, and final western style fast food knowledge, attitude, and practice in both parents and children were used to identify and compare the knowledge, attitude, and practice in the parents and children.

Modification of a smoking motivation questionnaire for Chinese medical students.

Introduction: Smoking prevalence among the medical students is high in China. Therefore, understanding the smoking motivations of medical students is crucial for smoking control, but currently there are no scales questionnaires customized for probing the smoking motivations of medical students. This aim of study was to test and modify a questionnaire for investigating smoking motivations among medical students.

Evaluation of anesthesia residents using mannequin-based simulation: a multiinstitutional study.

Background: Anesthesia simulators can generate reproducible, standardized clinical scenarios for instruction and evaluation purposes. Valid and reliable simulated scenarios and grading systems must be developed to use simulation for evaluation of anesthesia residents.

Methods: After obtaining Human Subjects approval at each of the 10 participating institutions, 99 anesthesia residents consented to be videotaped during their management of four simulated scenarios on MedSim or METI mannequin-based anesthesia simulators.

In rabbits, landiolol, a new ultra-short-acting beta-blocker, exerts a more potent negative chronotropic effect and less effect on blood pressure than esmolol.

Purpose: To compare the cardiovascular and sympathetic effects of a new ultra-short-acting, highly cardioselective beta- blocker, landiolol, with esmolol, using an in vivo rabbit model.

Methods: Different bolus doses of landiolol (0.3, 1.

Stress responses in three different anesthetic techniques for carbon dioxide laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Study Objective: To evaluate and compare the stress hormone responses during laparoscopic cholecystectomy during general anesthesia, general anesthesia supplemented by fentanyl, and general anesthesia combined with epidural anesthesia.

Design: Prospective, randomized clinical study.

Setting: Operating rooms at a municipal hospital.

Effects of certain vasoactive agents on the long-term pattern of blood pressure, heart rate, and motor activity in cats.

Objective: To determine whether a diurnal pattern exists in cardiovascular variables and motor activity, and whether pharmacologic agents that decrease (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor) or increase (N omega-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester [L-NAME]) blood pressure alter the pattern.

Animals: 6 clinically normal cats.

Procedure: Radiotelemetric implants were used to measure systemic arterial pressure, heart rate, and motor activity in conscious cats maintained in cages.

Fentanyl-induced rigidity and unconsciousness in human volunteers. Incidence, duration, and plasma concentrations.

Background: Muscle rigidity frequently accompanies induction of anesthesia with opioids. The authors sought to determine whether unconsciousness and amnesia occur when humans develop rigidity and apnea after intravenous fentanyl (without other concomitant anesthetics).

Methods: The incidence and duration of rigidity and level of consciousness were evaluated and associated plasma concentrations of fentanyl were measured in 12 healthy adult male volunteers given only intravenous fentanyl.

Absorption and bioavailability of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate.

Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) is a novel, noninvasive dosage form of fentanyl used to provide children and adults with sedation, anxiolysis, and analgesia. In order to determine the bioavailability and absorption of fentanyl from OTFC, 12 volunteers were given intravenous fentanyl citrate or OTFC 15 micrograms/kg on each of two occasions. On a third occasion, the authors assessed oral administration (gastrointestinal absorption) by giving eight of the same volunteers the same dose of a solution of fentanyl citrate to swallow.

Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate for premedication in paediatric outpatients.

Two doses (10-15 micrograms.kg-1, Group I, and 15-20 micrograms.kg-1, Group II) of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) plus a placebo (Group III) were evaluated for premedication in 105 healthy children, aged 2 to 13 yr, undergoing short (less than 1 hr) operations in the hospital short-stay unit.

Comparison of dyslexic and nondyslexic adults on decoding and phonemic awareness tasks.

This study was conducted to determine if the phonemic awareness skills of college-aged dyslexic students (n=10) differ from those of their nondyslexic peers (n=10). Both groups were tested on reading of real and nonsense words and a phoneme reversal task. Although the dyslexic subjects had received considerable language remediation and were all succeeding at their college studies at a level that did not significantly differ from the nondyslexic subjects, they performed significantly poorer on two measures of phonemic awareness: reading of nonsense words and increased error rate and response time on reversal of common three phoneme words.

Locus of control and learning disabilities: a review and discussion.

It has been widely reported that an external locus of control is associated with children who experience failure. A review of the relevant literature indicates that learning disabled children, like other groups of children who have experienced failure, are more likely to exhibit an external locus of control than their normally achieving peers. In particular, learning disabled children have been found to be more likely than normally achieving students to attribute their successes, but not their failures, to external factors.