Violent death and the South African emergency nurse

A violent death is the sudden and unexpected loss of life due to a violent means, and in South Africa, violent death due to interpersonal violence appears to be a huge problem with the majority of these clients being young adults in the prime of their life (Trauma Rev. 5(1) (1997) 1).The objective of the study was to explore the influence that the confrontation of violent death of their clients had on the emergency nurses' daily personal and professional lives. The participants described a number of physical and emotional ways in which their lives had been affected.     

The life and impact of Florence Nightingale.

All nurses learn about Florence Nightingale sometime during their academic studies. Miss Nightingale, even though she lived over a century ago, still impacts current nursing care. This article provides a brief biographical review of her life and her impact on present day patient care.     

The questionnaire "Profile of the subjective quality of life". First data of validation

The questionnaire "Profile of the Subjective Quality of Life" (in french, PQVS) is devoted to the assessment of quality of life in therapeutic trials. On a sample of 588 subjects, factorial analysis confirm that it is not restricted to the assessment of the health, as most of the instruments actually available for that purpose. Its internal consistency is high. Correlations clearly show that its specific questions assessing the degrees of a) satisfaction and b) involvement (concerning each item) are clearly understood as having different meanings. Multiple regressions demonstrate that these specific questions strongly contribute to the explanation of the global quality of life or of the satisfaction concerning each item. Its reliability is good. It is very well accepted, and completed in no more than 15 to 30 minutes. This questionnaire is thus matching the criteria defining an effective assessment of the quality of life.