A discursive exploration of nursing work in the hospital emergency setting

Emergency nurses apply specialist knowledge to the practice of emergency care. This paper discusses the ways in which three emergency nurses understand the nature of their care from their own frames of reference and experiences and presents some of the data collected in a larger study. Various discourses, which compete to inform emergency nurses' understandings of practice, are linked with the notion of nurses as subjects; that is, each discourse may inform, shape and constitute the practice of the nurse and, in turn, the ways in which the patient comes to be known and understood. I will examine the ways in which emergency nurses come to experience or position themselves vis-à-vis extant forms of knowledge of emergency care and the extent to which they articulate new or distinctive formulations of emergency care. This paper illuminates the commonalities that constitute the discourses of emergency nursing care, and also analyse nurses' language which demonstrates that within each discourse variations, contradictions and resistances exist. Emergency nursing care occurs in a context of a biomedical discourse that dominates, or tends to dominate, the work of the emergency setting and so to determine acceptable or possible practices. Nevertheless, nurses contest in various ways the 'truths' that they understand to underpin their practice. Challenges to biomedical discourses are revealed, to some extent, by drawing attention to specific situations and particular struggles encountered in emergency nurses' everyday practice.     

Language, research and nursing practice

AIM OF THE PAPER: This paper highlights the centrality of language in constructing knowledge. It aims at making us sensitive to the political nature of knowledge production and the complex power relationships that may emerge as a result of our efforts to create new knowledge. BACKGROUND: Science, as understood here, is a linguistic construction, rather than a mirror reflection of reality. A number of examples are presented, demonstrating the complex ways in which language is central in shaping all our attempts to know, science included, and nursing practice. CONCLUSION: Based on the analysis presented in this paper an argument is made for a substantial re-thinking of nursing research and its relationship to nursing practice. Research needs to be an integral part of everyday nursing practice, a way of posing questions and reflecting on answers. Further, nurses need to be aware of the potentially coercive nature of knowledge as well as its liberating effect.     

The last post? Defending nursing against the postmodernist maze

Is postmodernism in many ways the empiricist-liberal tradition at the inevitable end of its intellectual and political tether? Or is postmodernism the ‘laughter of genius’ that art and argument in their traditional forms are dead? Can postmodernism be applied to social and economic issues whilst carrying a denial of the manner by which Western thought has shaped these issues? Can postmodernism provide moral pathways to help us with contemporary ethical issues? How can postmodernist thought encompass the activities of nurses, particularly in the area of psychiatric care? Can nurses afford postmodernist suppositions in the face of suffering and pain? If postmodernism exists, does it exist everywhere (as does nursing) or is it a more localized event?     

Interprofessional communication between surgery trainees and nurses in the inpatient wards: Why time and space matter

Optimal interprofessional communication (IPC) is broadly viewed as a prerequisite to providing quality patient care. In this study, we explored the enablers and barriers to IPC between surgical trainees and ward nurses with a view towards improving IPC and the quality of surgical patient care. We conducted an ethnography in two academic centres in Canada totalling 126 hours of observations and 32 semi-structured interviews with trainees and nurses. Our findings revealed constraints on IPC between trainees and nurses derived from contested meanings of space and time. Trainees experienced the contested spatial boundaries of the surgical ward when they perceived nurses to project a sense of territoriality. Nurses expressed difficulty getting trainees to respond and attend to pages from the ward, and to have a poor understanding of the nurses’ role. Contestations over time spent in training and patient care were found in trainee–nurse interactions, wherein trainees perceived seasoned nurses to devalue their clinical knowledge on the ward. Nurses viewed the limited time that trainees spent in clinical rotation in the ward as adversely affecting communication. This study underscores that challenges to enhancing IPC at academic health centres are rooted in team and professional cultures. Efforts to improve IPC should therefore: identify and target the social and cultural dimensions of healthcare team member relations; recognise how power is deployed and experienced in ways that negatively impact IPC; and enhance an understanding and appreciation in the temporal and spatial dimensions of IPC.     

Perspectives of Elderly People on Advance Directives in Japan

PURPOSE: To examine perspectives of Japanese elderly people on advance directives (ADs) and factors related to positive attitudes toward ADs. METHOD: The data were collected by a structured questionnaire from 313 of 565 older adult members of senior citizens' centers in two cities in Japan. Survey items pertained to demographic characteristics, terminal care preferences, and personal values, including autonomy, family function, and religious piety. FINDINGS: Of the 313 elderly people who completed questionnaires, 72.9% had positive preferences for executing living wills. With regard to durable power of attorney for health care, 62.2% approved of it. The supporters of ADs were more likely to have had discussions about terminal care with family members or physicians, experience of a family member hospitalized for terminal illness or injury, preferences for life-sustaining treatments that were self-determined, and personal values such as religious piety. The relationship between positive preferences toward durable power of attorney for health care and sex, marital status, and living arrangements were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Most Japanese older adults in this study approved of ADs, and family structure was important to the acceptance of designating a proxy. Discussion about end-of-life care and respect for life-sustaining treatment preferences are important decisions, about the end of life.     

Use of three‐dimensional power doppler sonography in the diagnosis of uterine arteriovenous malformation and follow‐up after uterine artery embolization: Case report and brief review of literature

Arteriovenous malformations (AVM) of the uterus can cause life‐threatening hemorrhage. Unexplained, heavy vaginal bleeding in a reproductive age woman should raise suspicion for an AVM. Here a 37‐year‐old woman had increasingly severe vaginal bleeding for 15 days. Serum β‐hCG was elevated. Two‐dimensional transvaginal ultrasound suggested retained products of conception. Before dilation and curettage (D&C), color Doppler and three‐dimensional (3D) power Doppler demonstrated findings indicative of uterine AVM. A bilateral uterine artery embolization was performed without complications. Three months after uterine artery embolization, 3D power Doppler ultrasonography found complete resolution of the AVM. This case illustrates the importance of assessing both gray‐scale and 3D power Doppler, and the ability of postprocedure Doppler to assess resolution. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 43:327–334, 2015     

早期卧位功率性自行车训练对格林巴利患者步行能力的影响

目的:观察早期卧位功率性自行车训练对格林巴利患者步行能力的影响。方法:格林巴利患者30例随机分为2组各15例,对照组采用常规康复训练,观察组在此基础上增加卧式功率性自行车踩踏训练。治疗前后评定2组患者的平衡功能(BBS)、日常生活能力评分(MBI)、下肢徒手肌力检查(MMT)、步行能力(10m步行时间,6min步行距离)及Holden步行功能。结果:治疗4周后,2组患者的MBI﹑肌力﹑BBS评分及步行能力均较治疗前明显提高(P<0.05),且观察组更高于对照组(P<0.05)。结论:卧位功率性功率性自行车训练能有效改善亚急性期格林巴利综合症患者的步行能力。     

经阴道三维超声对LUFS患者卵泡期卵巢血流灌注的评价

目的 利用经阴道三维超声定量分析LUFS患者卵泡期卵巢血流参数,探讨LUFS发生的卵泡期血流灌注特点.方法 选择在卵泡早期、卵泡中期、围排卵期行经阴道三维超声检查,应用VOCAL软件定量分析两组患者优势侧卵巢能量多普勒血流参数VI、FI、VFI.结果 对照组优势侧卵巢血流参数VI、FI、VFI在卵泡3个时期呈上升趋势(P＜0.01); LUFS组优势侧卵巢VI、VFI在各期逐渐升高(P＜0.05),FI则无明显周期性波动(P＞0.05);LUFS组与对照组比较,卵泡中期及围排卵期VI、FI、VFI明显降低(P＜0.05).对照组成熟卵泡血流分级以3～4级为主,LUFS组多呈1～2级.结论 成熟卵泡新生血管数量少,血流量低可能是LUFS发生的血流灌注特点.     

Power‐law dynamics in neuronal and behavioral data introduce spurious correlations

Relating behavioral and neuroimaging measures is essential to understanding human brain function. Often, this is achieved by computing a correlation between behavioral measures, e.g., reaction times, and neurophysiological recordings, e.g., prestimulus EEG alpha‐power, on a single‐trial‐basis. This approach treats individual trials as independent measurements and ignores the fact that data are acquired in a temporal order. It has already been shown that behavioral measures as well as neurophysiological recordings display power‐law dynamics, which implies that trials are not in fact independent. Critically, computing the correlation coefficient between two measures exhibiting long‐range temporal dependencies may introduce spurious correlations, thus leading to erroneous conclusions about the relationship between brain activity and behavioral measures. Here, we address data‐analytic pitfalls which may arise when long‐range temporal dependencies in neural as well as behavioral measures are ignored. We quantify the influence of temporal dependencies of neural and behavioral measures on the observed correlations through simulations. Results are further supported in analysis of real EEG data recorded in a simple reaction time task, where the aim is to predict the latency of responses on the basis of prestimulus alpha oscillations. We show that it is possible to "predict" reaction times from one subject on the basis of EEG activity recorded in another subject simply owing to the fact that both measures display power‐law dynamics. The same is true when correlating EEG activity obtained from different subjects. A surrogate‐data procedure is described which correctly tests for the presence of correlation while controlling for the effect of power‐law dynamics. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2901–2914, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.