An intervention to manage patient-reported symptoms during cancer treatment

Patients with cancer receiving therapy may face a variety of complicated and stressful symptoms. Oncology nurses can advocate for patients by performing their roles as educators and comanagers of cancer-related side effects. In addition, symptom-focused education provided by oncology nurses can enable patients to administer self-care more effectively.     

Caring for Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder: Factors Associating with Health- and Care-Related Quality of Life of the Caregivers

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - This study investigated the association of child, caregiver, and caregiving measurements with the quality of life (QoL) in 81 caregivers (mostly...     

Return to work after low voltage electrical injury

Low voltage electrical injury is associated with minor or no cutaneous burns and its symptoms rarely appear on initial examination. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability to return to work among patients with low voltage electrical injury. A retrospective hospital chart review was conducted among patients with low voltage electrical injury admitted to the outpatient burn clinic of a rehabilitation hospital between January 1, 2002 and March 21, 2006. Symptoms at follow-up visits and return to work status were compared between patients with electrical contact injuries and those with electrical flash injuries using Student's t-test and chi analysis with a P < 0.05 considered significant. Values are presented as mean +/- SD. Forty patients were treated for low voltage electrical injury, and all injuries occurred at work. There were 34 men (85%) and 6 women (15%) with a mean age of 37.3 +/- 11.2 years and a mean total body surface area burned of 13.0% +/- 17.6%. Most patients had neurological (92.5%), psychological (90.0%), and musculoskeletal (72.5%) symptoms, which were documented on average 303.7 days after injury. Twenty-five (62.5%) patients had electrical contact injury and 15 (37.5%) patients had electrical flash injuries. Patients with electrical contact injuries were younger (34.2 +/- 9.9 years vs 42.4 +/- 11.6 years, P = 0.030), complained of more psychological symptoms (25 vs 11, P = 0.006), more neurological symptoms (25 vs 12, P = 0.020), and more fatigue (10 vs 1, P = 0.022) than patients with electrical flash injuries. Twenty-three patients (57.5%, 14 electrical contact and 9 electrical flash) attempted to return to work on average 107.7 days after injury, but only 13 patients (32.5%, six electrical contact and seven electrical flash) successfully returned to work 59.38 days after injury. Of them 7 (53.8%) return to the same job, 5 (38.5%) returned to a modified job, and 1 (7.7%) to a new job. Low voltage electrical injury can significantly impact a patient's ability to return to work because of the psychological, neurological, and musculoskeletal symptoms, which are observed. Recognition of low voltage injury as a potentially permanent source of symptoms is important and has to date not been well established. More effective preventive measures should be implemented at work to reduce the risk of these injuries.     

Tailoring a Pediatric Formulation of Artemether-Lumefantrine for Treatment of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

Specially created pediatric formulations have the potential to improve the acceptability, effectiveness, and accuracy of dosing of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) in young children, a patient group that is inherently vulnerable to malaria. Artemether-lumefantrine (AL) Dispersible is a pediatric formulation of AL that is specifically tailored for the treatment of children with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, offering benefits relating to efficacy, convenience and acceptance, accuracy of dosing, safety, sterility, stability, and a pharmacokinetic profile and bioequivalence similar to those of crushed and intact AL tablets. However, despite being the first pediatric antimalarial to meet World Health Organization (WHO) specifications for use in infants and children who are ≥5 kg in body weight and its inclusion in WHO Guidelines, there are few publications that focus on AL Dispersible. Based on a systematic review of the recent literature, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the clinical experience with AL Dispersible to date. A randomized, phase 3 study that compared the efficacy and safety of AL Dispersible to those of crushed AL tablets in 899 African children reported high PCR-corrected cure rates at day 28 (97.8% and 98.5% for AL Dispersible and crushed tablets, respectively), and the results of several subanalyses of these data indicate that this activity is observed regardless of patient weight, food intake, and maximum plasma concentrations of artemether or its active metabolite, dihydroartemisinin. These and other clinical data support the continued use of pediatric antimalarial formulations in all children <5 years of age with uncomplicated malaria when accompanied by continued monitoring for the emergence of resistance.     

Nursing, healthcare, and culture: a view of the year 2050 from Germany and the United kingdom

This column presents a dialogue with German nurse scholar Gerd Bekel and United Kingdom nurse scholars, Francis C. Biley and Kirstin Fragemann, who share their respective visions and understanding of each country's vision of nursing, healthcare, and quality of life in the year 2050.