It's a spiral staircase, not just two steps: An iterative approach to assessing patient capacity for medical decision-making.

The assessment of medical decision-making capacity as part of the process of clinical informed consent has been considered a bioethical housekeeping matter for decades. Yet in practice, the reality bears little resemblance to what is described in the medical literature and professed in medical education. Most literature on informed consent refers to medical decision-making capacity as a precondition to the consent process.

A Game-Based Tool for Reducing Jargon Use by Medical Trainees.

Introduction: Physicians can be unaware that many US adults have intermediate or lower health literacy. Avoiding medical jargon in patient communication can improve poor outcomes associated with lower health literacy, but physicians may struggle to do so as health literacy education is neither standardized nor universal at US allopathic medical schools. As with other skills-based proficiencies in medical education, repeat exposure and active learning help build competency.

Storylines of family medicine IV: perspectives on practice-lenses of appreciation.

is a 12-part series of thematically linked mini-essays with accompanying illustrations that explore the many dimensions of family medicine, as interpreted by individual family physicians and medical educators in the USA and elsewhere around the world. In 'IV: perspectives on practice-lenses of appreciation', authors address the following themes: 'Relational connections in the doctor-patient partnership', 'Feminism and family medicine', 'Positive family medicine', 'Mindful practice', 'The new, old ethics of family medicine', 'Public health, prevention and populations', 'Information mastery in family medicine' and 'Clinical courage.' May readers nurture their curiosity through these essays.

Medicine, emotience, and reason.

Medicine is faced with a number of intractable modern challenges that can be understood in terms of hyper-intellectualization; a compassion crisis, burnout, dehumanization, and lost meaning. These challenges have roots in medical philosophy and indeed general Western philosophy by way of the historic exclusion of human emotion from human reason. The resolution of these medical challenges first requires a novel philosophic schema of human knowledge and reason that incorporates the balanced interaction of human intellect and human emotion.

Vaccination after spleen embolization: A practice management guideline from the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Background: Angioembolization is an important adjunct in the non-operative management of adult trauma patients with splenic injury. Multiple studies have shown that angioembolization may increase the non-operative splenic salvage rate for patients with high-grade splenic injuries. We performed a systematic review and developed evidence-based recommendations regarding the need for post-splenectomy vaccinations after splenic embolization in trauma patients.

Identifying risk factors for postoperative diabetes insipidus in more than 2500 patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery: a single-institution experience.

Objective: Diabetes insipidus (DI) following transsphenoidal surgery can adversely impact quality of life and be difficult to manage. This study sought to characterize pre- and perioperative risk factors that may predispose patients to DI after pituitary surgery.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients treated at a single institution from 2007 to 2019 was conducted.

Compassion, communication, and the perception of control: a mixed methods study to investigate patients' perspectives on clinical practices for alleviating distress and promoting empowerment during awake craniotomies.

Purpose: To inquire into clinical practices perceived to mitigate patients' intraoperative distress during awake craniotomies.

Methods: This mixed-methods study involved administration of Amsterdam Preoperative Anxiety and Information Scale and PTSD Checklist prior to the awake craniotomy to evaluate anxiety and information-seeking related to the procedure and symptoms of PTSD. Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale and Depression Module of the Patient Health Questionnaire were administered before and after the procedure to evaluate generalized anxiety and depression.

Helping Mothers Survive: Program Evaluation and Early Outcomes of Maternal Care Training in the Dominican Republic.

In 2017, approximately 295,000 women died during and immediately following pregnancy and childbirth worldwide, with 94% of these deaths occurring in low-resource settings. The Dominican Republic (DR) exhibits one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean despite the fact that 99% of registered births in the country are reportedly attended by a skilled birth attendant. This paradox implies that programs to support healthcare worker knowledge and skills improvement are vital to improving maternal health outcomes in the DR.

Ways of Being in Generalist Practice: Using Five "T" Habits of Mind to Guide Ethical Behavior.

The practice of generalist medicine differs from the practice of other clinical disciplines. We postulate that the application of ethics in generalist practice similarly differs from its application in other healthcare settings. In contrast to the problem-focused practice of ethics in other medical specialties, the practice of ethics in generalist medicine blends habits of mind with behaviors applied routinely over time-an ethical way of being.

Marijuana Screening and Trauma Outcomes.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if positive marijuana toxicology screen is associated with worse outcomes following trauma.

Methods: A 3-year retrospective study was conducted on adult trauma patients using a Level II trauma registry. Patients were included if they had marijuana toxicology results available and were excluded if they tested positive for polysubstance.

Investigation of factors influencing the implementation of two shared decision-making interventions in contraceptive care: a qualitative interview study among clinical and administrative staff.

Background: There is limited evidence on how to implement shared decision-making (SDM) interventions in routine practice. We conducted a qualitative study, embedded within a 2 × 2 factorial cluster randomized controlled trial, to assess the acceptability and feasibility of two interventions for facilitating SDM about contraceptive methods in primary care and family planning clinics. The two SDM interventions comprised a patient-targeted intervention (video and prompt card) and a provider-targeted intervention (encounter decision aids and training).

Benchmarking blood sugar control in the small rural intensive care unit.

: We sought to determine a benchmark for our blood glucose monitoring and compare our data to published data.: Natividad Medical Center is a 172-bed rural hospital located in Salinas, California.Point of care blood glucose (POC-BG) data was extracted from our EMR for all ICU patients greater than 18 years of age between January 2014 and May 2018.

Bilateral Abducens Nerve Palsy after Closed Head Trauma without Acute Intracranial Pathology.

Bilateral abducens nerve palsy due to closed head trauma is exceedingly rare. We present the case of a 51-year-old woman with posttraumatic bilateral abducens nerve palsy and persistent deficits at 1-year follow-up. This case demonstrates a rare example of cranial nerve palsy in the setting of a closed head injury without intracranial pathology.

Recreational Drugs and Outcomes in Trauma Patients.

Objective: The objective of the study is to determine if marijuana, methamphetamine, or cocaine is associated with worse outcomes following trauma.

Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 731 trauma patients. Data collected from Natividad Medical Center's trauma registry were used to analyze reports of adult patients from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2017.

Designing and implementing an integrated non-communicable disease primary care intervention in rural Nepal.

Low-income and middle-income countries are struggling with a growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, their healthcare systems need to be strengthened and redesigned. The Starfield 4Cs of primary care-first-contact access, care coordination, comprehensiveness and continuity-offer practical, high-quality design options for non-communicable disease care in low-income and middle-income countries.

Empiric Stress Dose Steroids in Trauma Patients: A Case Report of Hypopituitarism in Traumatic Hemorrhage.

Trauma patients experience relative adrenal insufficiency or critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in majority of 60% of patients. It has been shown that both septic shock and trauma cause dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and, in some cases, structural damage to the adrenal glands themselves through hemorrhage or infarction. Empiric steroids are used commonly in patients with septic shock for patients who are refractory to fluids and vasopressors.

Transition to active learning in rural Nepal: an adaptable and scalable curriculum development model.

Background: Traditional medical education in much of the world has historically relied on passive learning. Although active learning has been in the medical education literature for decades, its incorporation into practice has been inconsistent. We describe and analyze the implementation of a multidisciplinary continuing medical education curriculum in a rural Nepali district hospital, for which a core objective was an organizational shift towards active learning.