Gauze versus solid skin barrier for tracheostomy care: a crossover randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare gauze and a solid pectin-based skin barrier to evaluate clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of care for tracheostomy wounds.

Methods: A randomized clinical trial with crossover design was conducted to compare gauze to a solid skin barrier for management of patients with tracheostomies. The main study outcomes were skin integrity, dressing change frequency, time required for dressing changes, product costs, and nurses' satisfaction.

Improvement of optical transmittance and electrical properties for the Si quantum dot-embedded ZnO thin film.

A Si quantum dot (QD)-embedded ZnO thin film is successfully fabricated on a p-type Si substrate using a ZnO/Si multilayer structure. Its optical transmittance is largely improved when increasing the annealing temperature, owing to the phase transformation from amorphous to nanocrystalline Si QDs embedded in the ZnO matrix. The sample annealed at 700°C exhibits not only high optical transmittance in the long-wavelength range but also better electrical properties including low resistivity, small turn-on voltage, and high rectification ratio.

Optical properties and sub-bandgap formation of nano-crystalline Si quantum dots embedded ZnO thin film.

In this study, we fabricate ZnO thin films with nano-crystalline Si (nc-Si) quantum dots (QDs) using a ZnO/Si multilayer deposition structure and a post-annealing process, and the formation of high crystallinity of Si QDs embedded in the crystalline ZnO matrix is demonstrated. For optical properties, the essential features of ZnO material, high transmission in long-wavelength and high absorption in short-wavelength ranges, are preserved. We observe significantly enhanced light absorption and an unusual photoluminescence emission peak contributed from the nc-Si QDs in the middle-wavelength range.

[Promoting the use of the nasopharyngeal airway to treat watery diarrhea].

Using the nasopharyngeal airway to promote stool drainage is currently limited in general clinical practice. This situation has led to periannal skin care administered by nursing staff not meeting patient expectations for treatment efficacy and speed of recovery. According to previous statistics, the incidence of perianal excoriation was 60.

[Nurse's experience caring for a patient with malignant fungating wound with enterocutaneous fistula].

This report describes a nurse's experience treating a metastatic skin lesion with draining enterocutaneous fistula located in the right posterolateral abdominal wall. The period of nursing care ran from April 22nd through June 25th, 2006. In studying the nursing process, Gordon's assessment tools were used to gather subjective and objective data to establish critical care issues, which included chronic pain, sleep pattern disturbance, impaired tissue integrity, and disturbed body image.

[Elevating the accuracy rate for nurses' changes of patients' positions].

The incidence of pressure sores among inpatients had increased in our ward month by month. Clinical checklists and data analysis showed that the accuracy rate for nurses' changes of patients' positions was 12%. The investigation of reasons for this low accuracy rate included: (1) A flawed nursing standard for position changes.

[Evaluation of the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit].

This study was designed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM) of mental disorders written by Ely et al as a confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit (CAM-ICU) for diagnosing delirium. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 31 patients in a southern medical center ICU. Data were collected by two interviewers who used CAM-ICU to test inter-rater consistency.