The politics of interprofessional working and the struggle for professional autonomy in nursing

This study of interprofessional work relations in a Canadian mental health team examines how nursing deployed different forms of power in order to alter the mental health division of labour, to gain administrative, organizational and content control over its own work, expand its jurisdictional boundaries by expropriating the work of other professionals, and exclude others from encroaching on its old and newly acquired jurisdictions. This is set against the context of nursing's long-standing professional project to consolidate and expand its professional jurisdiction. Using an ethnographic study of a single interprofessional mental health team in a psychiatric hospital in Canada, the paper attempts to understand the politics and paradoxes involved in realizing nursing's professional project and how the politics of professional autonomy and professional dominance are actually conducted through micro-political struggles. The data demonstrates the effects of the political struggles at the organizational and work process levels, particularly in the forms of collaboration that result. Nurses gained substantial autonomy from medical domination and secured practical dominion over the work of non-medical professionals. New forms of interprofessional collaboration were accomplished through both simultaneous and sequential micro-political struggles with psychiatrists and non-medical professionals, and the formation of political alliances and informal agreements. Nursing solidarity at the elite level and substantial effort by the elite nurses and their committed colleagues to mobilize their less enthused members were fundamental to their success. The nurses deployed political (power) strategies and tactics to organize and reorganize themselves and other professionals on multiple levels (politically, organizationally, ideologically, socially and culturally). This study reveals the complexity and robustness of micro-political dynamics in the constitution of professional and collaborative interprofessional work relations.     

Lung Cancer and COPD: a Common Combination

Background and objectiveTo analyse frequency, characteristics and patient survival with lung cancer (LC) and Common Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), comparing them with patients that do not have COPD.Material and methodsA retrospective study, of patients diagnosed by means of cytohistology. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 15.0.ResultsA total of 996 patients were diagnosed, 39.8% with COPD. Mean age70±9.19 years. GOLD stages: I 18.2%, II 53.6%, III 24%, IV 4.2%. The histological types: squamous cell carcinoma 48.2%, adenocarcinoma 22%, and small cell carcinoma 22.5%. Survival was longer in the COPD group.ConclusionsLC and COPD are combined in 39.8%. Squamous cell type is more frequent and survival was longer in the COPD group.     

Association between the HOXA1 A218G polymorphism and increased head circumference in patients with autism.

BACKGROUND: The HOXA1 gene plays a major role in brainstem and cranial morphogenesis. The G allele of the HOXA1 A218G polymorphism has been previously found associated with autism. METHODS: We performed case-control and family-based association analyses, contrasting 127 autistic patients with 174 ethnically matched controls, and assessing for allelic transmission disequilibrium in 189 complete trios. RESULTS: A, and not G, alleles were associated with autism using both case-control (chi(2) = 8.96 and 5.71, 1 df, p <.005 and <.025 for genotypes and alleles, respectively), and family-based (transmission/disequilibrium test chi(2) = 8.80, 1 df, p <.005) association analyses. The head circumference of 31 patients carrying one or two copies of the G allele displayed significantly larger median values (95.0th vs. 82.5th percentile, p <.05) and dramatically reduced interindividual variability (p <.0001), compared with 166 patients carrying the A/A genotype. CONCLUSIONS: The HOXA1 A218G polymorphism explains approximately 5% of the variance in the head circumference of autistic patients and represents to our knowledge the first known gene variant providing sizable contributions to cranial morphology. The disease specificity of this finding is currently being investigated. Nonreplications in genetic linkage/association studies could partly stem from the dyshomogeneous distribution of an endophenotype morphologically defined by cranial circumference.     

A philosophical yet user-friendly framework for ethical decision making in critical care nursing.

Nurses must frequently make ethical decisions. These decisions require judgment, knowledge, and skills. This article will provide one framework for ethical decision making and provide several examples of the process.