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.     

Innovating medication reviews through a technology-enabled process

Medication reviews are effective in improving the quality of medication use among older people. However, they are conducted to various standards resulting in a wide range of outcomes which limit generalisability of findings arising from research studies. There also appear to be funding and time constraints, lack of data storage for quality improvement purposes, and non-standardised reporting of outcomes, especially clinically relevant outcomes. Furthermore, the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has restricted many face-to-face activities, including medication reviews. This article introduces a technology-enabled approach to medication reviews that may overcome some limitations with current medication review processes, and also make it possible to conduct medication reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing an alternate platform. The possible advantages of this technology-enabled approach, legislative considerations and possible implementation in practice are discussed.     

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.     

28例原发性卵黄囊瘤患者的CT表现分析

目的分析28例原发性卵黄囊瘤(YST)患者的CT表现。方法选择2015年2月至2019年12月收治的28例YST患者的临床资料进行回顾性分析,8例YST患者入院后均予以CT检查,然后对患者的CT影像学特征和临床资料数据进行分析比较。结果本研究中28例YST患者肿瘤位于性腺的有17例(60.71%),其中位于睾丸、卵巢处的分别有7例、10例,占比分别为60.71%、41.18%,均为单侧发病;9例(39.29%)位于性腺外,其中位于骶尾部、前纵隔、阴道的分别有6例、2例、1例,占比分别为66.67%、22.22%、11.11%。CT检测可见肿瘤"浅分叶",且呈"椭网形",18例(64.29%)肿瘤边界较为清晰,9例(32.14%)呈"深分叶状"形态不规则;8例(28.57%)边界模糊,肿瘤大小分析可见,肿瘤位于前纵隔、卵巢的相对较大,位于阴道、睾丸、骶尾部的相对较小。28例YST患者中,单纯型21例YST(75.00%),混合型7例(25.00%)。结论原发性卵黄囊瘤进行CT检测尤为重要,其CT表现具有一定特征性,可为临床治疗提供一定的依据。