Populations vulnerable to the ethics of caring

This paper presents the argument that any patient population which can be perceived as being culpable for the pain they are in is vulnerable to the ethics of caring First, both the ethics of caring and justice are reviewed, and the inadequacies of each, with regard to nursing, are discussed The problems of the ethics of caring are demonstrated empirically and with interviews done by the author Then the impacted populations are reviewed The conclusion presents an emerging vision of synthesis between the moral concepts of caring and justice     

Early diagnosis of nonviable pregnancy with endovaginal US

The mean diameter of the gestation sac and the presence or absence of a yolk sac or embryo and/or cardiac pulsations on endovaginal ultrasound (US) images were correlated with normal and abnormal outcomes of pregnancy. Sixty-two patients who were less than 10 weeks pregnant (menstrual age) underwent endovaginal US. In 59 patients with gestation sacs greater than or equal to 8 mm, the absence of a yolk sac predicted a nonviable pregnancy with a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 100%. In 35 patients with gestation sacs greater than or equal to 16 mm, the absence of an embryo predicted a nonviable pregnancy with a sensitivity of 50% and a specificity of 100%. When the absence of cardiac pulsations was added to the latter group of patients, the sensitivity was 100% and the specificity was 100%. The combination of these criteria (gestation sac size; demonstration of yolk sac, embryo and/or cardiac pulsations) enabled the early (less than 10 weeks menstrual age) diagnosis of a nonviable pregnancy with endovaginal US.     

Power and Leadership in Psychiatric Nursing. Directions for the Next Century: Part I

topic . Power and leadership in psychiatric nursing
purpose . To describe power, leadership, and their relationship to psychiatric nursing, with suggestions for the future of the discipline
source . Review of literature and author's observations of the discipline
conclusions . The relationship of power and leadership focuses on leader qualities, a model for the interrelationship of leaders and colleagues, and the leader's achievement of a power position.     

Expression of Dog Microdystrophin in Mouse and Dog Muscles by Gene Therapy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is characterized by the absence of dystrophin. Several previous studies demonstrated the feasibility of delivering microdystrophin complementary DNA (cDNA) into mouse and normal nonhuman primate muscles by ex vivo gene therapy. However, these animal models do not reproduce completely the human DMD phenotype, while the dystrophic dog model does. To progress toward the use of the best animal model of DMD, a dog microdystrophin was transduced into human and dystrophic dog muscle precursor cells (MPCs) with a lentivirus before their transplantation into mouse muscles. One month following MPC transplantation, myofibers expressing the dog microdystrophin were observed. We also used another approach to introduce this transgene into myofibers, i.e., the electrotransfer of a plasmid coding for the dog microdystrophin. The plasmid was injected into mouse and dog muscles, and brief electric pulses were applied in the region of injection. Two weeks later, the transgene was detected in both animals. Therefore, ex vivo gene therapy and electrotransfer are two possible methods to introduce a truncated version of dystrophin into myofibers of animal models and eventually into myofibers of DMD patients.     

Environmental Influences on the Developing Premature Infant: Theoretical Issues and Applications to Practice

The neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) environment may interfere with the maturation and organization of premature infants' central nervous systems and may fail to meet these infants' developmental needs. In particular, immature distance receptors (i.e., hearing and vision) may receive overwhelming stimulation, whereas more mature tactile and vestibular pathways receive little stimulation. Furthermore, research on fetal learning suggests that the NICU environment should sensitively address requirements for learning by providing contingent experience. Nurses are ideally suited to reorganize the NICU and intervene to optimize infants' growth and development.     

Achieving Linguistic Clarity: A Model to Aid Translations

An international validation study of selected NANDA nursing diagnoses prompted the development of a linguistic model for standardizing and operationalizing the defining characteristics. The translation of NANDA-approved defining characteristics into Portuguese illuminated problems related to the way that sentences, phrases, and words are used. Defining characteristics were reduced into the simplest linguistic components—words. In Portuguese translation, all of the major NANDA-defining characteristics were classified into two alphabetized lists as single-word phenomena/states or qualifiers. Linguistic standardization permitted similar expressions of the defining characteristics in Portuguese and English.