BIBLIOTHERAPY

Bibliotherapy is the use of literature to help heal. It can be an effective intervention for nurse-midwives to use with clients. Presented is a discussion of how to do bibliotherapy and an annotated bibliography of resources.     

Incontinence pad use in patients admitted to medical wards: an Italian multicenter prospective cohort study.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence of incontinence pad use among patients admitted to medical wards, the reasons why nurses decide to use an incontinence pad, the extent to which the use of pads is avoidable, and the outcome of inappropriate pad use after discharge from the hospital. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted; patients admitted to medical wards were observed during hospitalization and a 7-day follow-up period after discharge. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: The study was conducted in 2 acute-care units in Northern Italy. All new patients admitted to the units were recruited. RESULTS: At the time of admission to the hospital, in addition to the 120 patients who already used incontinence pads, there was a 34% incidence of new cases (98/286). The most frequent reason why nurses decided to use this aid was incontinence caused by space-time disorientation, followed by limited mobility, incontinence, patient request, nursing shortage, and involuntary urine leakage not perceived by patient. Seventy patients out of 208 used incontinence pads unnecessarily for a total of 544 days. CONCLUSIONS: Decisions about the use of the incontinence pads are not always consistent with research-based or literature-based suggestions. Nurses should develop clinical guidelines or protocols for the appropriate use of incontinence pads.     

Weighing the evidence: energy determinations across the spectrum of kidney disease.

Evidence based guidelines for medical nutrition therapy (MNT) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) recommend a range of caloric levels, dependent on age and level of kidney function. Recent literature has explored whether current research findings still support these earlier conclusions, and if new energy determinations for CKD are warranted. This review will take a brief look at the history of the controversy, examine the research evidence at the time of practice guideline development, investigate emerging research, and discuss implications for additional scientific inquiry.