Identifying pediatric malnutrition using STRONGkids: A quality improvement initiative.

Pediatric malnutrition can impact a patient's length of hospital stay, rates of infection and complications, cognitive development, and overall quality of life. This article compares nutritional screening tools to determine their efficiency and reliability in identifying patients with increased malnutrition risk at the time of hospital admission.

Bringing Dying Out of the Hospital's Closet.

Why is the transition from "living" to "dying" not socially marked in the same way that death is marked? This question is addressed using classical anthropological theory, which highlights the significance of liminality, the transitional period during a rite of passage. Seriously ill and dying patients are subject to social vulnerabilities as they approach the end of life. Clinicians' awareness of these factors may improve their patients' care.

Neurofibromatosis and a Portrait of 1 in 3000.

Neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that occurs in 1 in 3000 births, can cause tumors to grow anywhere on or in the body. The first author (RM), an artist-researcher and mother of a son living with neurofibromatosis, has painted and exhibited more than 200 portraits of people living with neurofibromatosis to raise awareness of and resources for this little-known disorder. Among many stories shared through RM's works is the story of Ashok, a Nepali man who has undergone 3 surgeries to remove facially disfiguring tumors that developed as a result of neurofibromatosis.

Five Things Students and Clinicians Should Know About "Biocontainment".

was one way that Western, affluent, allopathic cultures tended to respond and make meaning during the 2013-2015 Ebola virus disease (EVD) pandemic. It became a pathway to restore trust in biomedicine itself, which had been shaken by unease across the globe when the EVD threat was at its height. Yet biocontaining barely qualifies as a public health measure.

Does a Patient's Trauma History Ethically Justify a Discriminatory Clinical Referral?

This article analyzes a child psychiatrist's referral approach when the patient's care must be transferred to an adult psychiatrist and the otherwise best adult psychiatrist has "accented" language, which is associated with the patient's prior trauma. The analysis considers the value of simplicity and a related "simplicity strategy," revealing that many ethical factors lay behind the simplicity approach. The inquiry then addresses simplicity regarding practical wisdom and context.

Clinical Momentum as One Reason Dying Patients Are Underserved in Acute Care Settings.

"Clinical momentum" refers to the curious expansion of interventions applied to patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) without pause or design, leading to extensions of care that can violate patient wishes and distress clinicians. In this article, clinical momentum is placed in a wider context that includes ritual, reimbursement patterns, and actor network theory. These contextual features help motivate understanding of one way in which dying patients are underserved in intensive care settings.

Cultivating Humility and Diagnostic Openness in Clinical Judgment.

In this case, a physician rejects a patient's concerns that tainted water is harming the patient and her community. Stereotypes and biases regarding socioeconomic class and race/ethnicity, constraining diagnostic frameworks, and fixed first impressions could skew the physician's judgment. This paper narratively illustrates how cultivating humility could help the physician truly hear the patient's suggestions.