Gerontology in the developing Brazil: Achievements and challenges in public policies

Aim:   In the last three decades, the segment of population aged 60 years and older has more than doubled in Brazil. People aged 80 years and older are expected to be the fastest-growing segment in the near future. This aim of this study was to analyze the legal structures currently in place in Brazil and to provide a framework for care policies and practices towards older-adults.
Methods:   This article focuses on past and present major socioeconomic burdens on this segment of the Brazilian population as well as on public achievements to overcome inequities.
Results:   Both the public health and the social security systems have been directed to provide preferential assistance to the aged. Nonetheless, the elderly remain the most impoverished segment of Brazil and carry the burden of an overall lack of specialized services. Moreover, socioeconomic inequalities and population diversity in Brazil affects elderly care, adding complexity to this unique scenario.
Conclusion:   Brazil has adopted legal hallmarks that substantially shifted public practices towards the elderly segment from a philanthropic status to a legitimate right for care and assistance. The demographic transition that took place provides an opportunity for innovative solutions in public policies for older adults in a developing economic environment.     

Just-in-Time Evidence-Based E-mail “Reminders” in Home Health Care: Impact on Patient Outcomes

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of two information-based provider reminder interventions designed to improve self-care management and outcomes of heart failure (HF) patients. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Interview and agency administrative data on 628 home care patients with a primary diagnosis of HF. STUDY DESIGN: Patients were treated by nurses randomly assigned to usual care or one of two intervention groups. The basic intervention was an e-mail to the patient's nurse highlighting six HF-specific clinical recommendations. The augmented intervention supplemented the initial nurse reminder with additional clinician and patient resources. DATA COLLECTION: Patient interviews were conducted 45 days post admission to measure self-management behaviors, HF-specific outcomes (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire-KCCQ), health-related quality of life (EuroQoL), and service use. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Both interventions improved the mean KCCQ summary score (15.3 and 12.9 percent, respectively) relative to usual care (p< or =.05). The basic intervention also yielded a higher EuroQoL score relative to usual care (p< or =.05). In addition, the interventions had a positive impact on medication knowledge, diet, and weight monitoring. The basic intervention was more cost-effective than the augmented intervention in improving clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the positive impact of targeting evidence-based computer reminders to home health nurses to improve patient self-care behaviors, knowledge, and clinical outcomes. It also advances the field's limited understanding of the cost-effectiveness of selected strategies for translating research into practice.     

群体损伤院前急救转运风险与防范（附547例报告）

目的探讨群体损伤院前急救转运存在的风险与防范对策。方法通过547例群体损伤转运,分析影响安全转运存在的风险,正确评估和判断风险,制定有效的防范措施和对策。结果 547例伤员安全转运入院治疗,入院率100%。结论预见转运存在风险,采取有效防范对策,是确保成功转运的关键因素。     

The clinical encounter as local moral world: Shifts of assumptions and transformation in relational context

In this study we consider the process of the clinical encounter, and present exemplars of how assumptions of both clinicians and their patients can shift or transform in the course of a diagnostic interview. We examine the process as it is recalled, and further elaborated, in post-diagnostic interviews as part of a collaborative inquiry during reflections with clinicians and patients in the northeastern United States. Rather than treating assumptions by patients and providers as a fixed attribute of an individual, we treat them as occurring between people within a particular social context, the diagnostic interview. We explore the diagnostic interview as a landscape in which assumptions occur (and can shift), navigate the features of this landscape, and suggest that our examination can best be achieved by the systematic comparison of views of the multiple actors in an experience-near manner. We describe what might be gained by this shift in assumptions and how it can make visible what is at stake for clinician and patient in their local moral worlds—for patients, acknowledgment of social suffering, for clinicians how assumptions are a barrier to engagement with minority patients. It is crucial for clinicians to develop this capacity for reflection when navigating the interactions with patients from different cultures, to recognize and transform assumptions, to notice ‘surprises’, and to elicit what really matters to patients in their care.     

用护理工时量化法考核ICU护士的绩效

目的探索一种适合ICU护理工作特点的管理模式，提高管理效应。方法用护理工作量、ICU护理质量标准奖惩考核、职称系数三部分综合考评护理工时，与护士的绩效工资分配直接挂钩。结果护理工时量化法实施后，护理质量考核评分，患者？医生对护理质量满意率显著高于实施前（P〈0．05，P〈0．01）。结论护理工时量化绩效分配克服了经验式管理的弊端，建立了有效的激励机制，体现了多劳多得、优劳优得的分配原则，挖掘了护理人员的自身潜力，提高了护理质量。     

护理干预对2型糖尿病患者康复作用的研究

目的 探讨护理干预在2型糖尿病患康复中的作用。方法 对80例2型糖尿病患，随机分成干预组和对照组，干预组实施全程护理干预，对照组实施常规的治疗护理。结果 干预组血糖控制良好，并发症发生率明显降低。结论 护理干预是2型糖尿病康复治疗的有效方法。     

数据库技术新进展及其在医疗系统中的应用

论述了关系型数据库的革命性贡献与发展中的矛盾,实现医疗系统中的数据管理功能需要解决的问题,以及对临床数据输入系统的需求。