Climate Change: Effects on the Older Adult

The effects of climate change include floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and fires; these natural disasters can result in respiratory, cardiovascular, and psychological harm in older adults, who experience the highest morbidity and mortality during heat waves. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) need education on preparing, assessing, and treating older adults for climate-change disasters, especially heat waves. This article will help APRNs understand the effects of climate-change events on the vulnerable older adults and advocates for the need to integrate health effects of climate change into curricula, practicums, policy, and research agendas.     

Principles of environmentally-sustainable anaesthesia: a global consensus statement from the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists

The Earth’s mean surface temperature is already approximately 1.1°C higher than pre-industrial levels. Exceeding a mean 1.5°C rise by 2050 will make global adaptation to the consequences of climate change less possible. To protect public health, anaesthesia providers need to reduce the contribution their practice makes to global warming. We convened a Working Group of 45 anaesthesia providers with a recognised interest in sustainability, and used a three-stage modified Delphi consensus process to agree on principles of environmentally sustainable anaesthesia that are achievable worldwide. The Working Group agreed on the following three important underlying statements: patient safety should not be compromised by sustainable anaesthetic practices; high-, middle- and low-income countries should support each other appropriately in delivering sustainable healthcare (including anaesthesia); and healthcare systems should be mandated to reduce their contribution to global warming. We set out seven fundamental principles to guide anaesthesia providers in the move to environmentally sustainable practice, including: choice of medications and equipment; minimising waste and overuse of resources; and addressing environmental sustainability in anaesthetists’ education, research, quality improvement and local healthcare leadership activities. These changes are achievable with minimal material resource and financial investment, and should undergo re-evaluation and updates as better evidence is published. This paper discusses each principle individually, and directs readers towards further important references.     

An Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Environmental Education

Climate change education in advanced practice registered nursing curricula prepares nurse practitioners to respond to the health effects of climate change. Knowledge of the relationship between human and environmental health is essential for nurse practitioners to identify, teach, and respond to the health effects of climate change in clinical and community settings. This article describes a webinar hosted by the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in partnership with the Duke University School of Nursing. Our webinar provided an opportunity for attendees to understand how gardening can mitigate climate change, the important relationship between human and environmental health, and nurses’ role in climate crisis.     

Methods improvement for diagnostics and treatment of inflammatory diseases in the temporomandibular joint

PurposeThe article subject relevance is conditioned by poor knowledge of the aetiology and pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases in this area. The purpose of this study was to identify the most rational approach to solving the issues of improving methods for treating arthritis and arthrosis.MethodsThe leading approach was the combination of the analysis results concerning the clinical examination of dental patients of various age groups with the logical construction of conclusions drawn from the research results. The paper presented the clinical examination data of patients with TMJ pathologies of various age groups and described the methods of their treatment.ResultsThe results include the main effective methods identification for the diagnostics and treatment of inflammatory diseases in the temporomandibular joint and the main prospects for improving these methods in the future, with the aim of a general expansion of ideas regarding the possibilities of diagnostics and treatment of such diseases.ConclusionThe study value lies in the possibility of using its results in practical dentistry to bring practical improvements to the currently available methods for diagnostics and treatment of inflammatory TMJ diseases.