Anaesthesia and intensive care
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Mar 2008
Job satisfaction, stress and burnout in anaesthetic technicians in New Zealand.
Anaesthetic technicians play a key role in the operating room, yet little is known about their levels of job satisfaction or workplace stress. A blinded, confidential single mail-out survey was posted to anaesthetic technicians in New Zealand. The survey consisted of demographic information, a job satisfaction survey, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Short Form 12. ⋯ High to moderate levels of emotional exhaustion (48%), depersonalisation (39%) and low levels of personal accomplishment (58%) were indicators of burnout. The Short Form 12 revealed high levels of physical impairment in 24% and emotional impairment in 35% of respondents. These data suggest that work is needed to evaluate anaesthetic assistants' job structure and actively manage their important physical and emotional sequelae.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2008
Historical ArticleThe Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History: creating a meaningful display.
There have been several displays created at the Geoffrey Kaye museum over the last 20 years. The current display is the culmination of a new professional approach to the management of the collection. A timeline has been created to enhance conducted tours and to allow self-guided tours. The creation of this display brought new challenges to those responsible for the collection but has resulted in a contemporary and exciting display that has been appreciated by many visitors.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jan 2008
Bayesian approach to predict hospital mortality of intensive care readmissions during the same hospitalisation.
No specific prognostic model has been developed for patients readmitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during the same hospitalisation. This study assesses the performance of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II predicted mortality measured at the time of ICU readmission and whether incorporating information prior to the readmission will improve its performance to predict hospital mortality of patients readmitted to ICU during the same hospitalisation. A total of 602 readmissions during the same hospitalisation between 1987 and 2002 were identified. ⋯ In the subgroups of patients readmitted within seven days of discharge, the readmission APACHE II predicted mortality was also significantly better than the first admission APACHE II predicted mortality in discriminating between survivors and non-survivors (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.785 vs. 0.676, z statistic = 2.93; P = 0.003). Incorporating the first admission APACHE II predicted mortality to the readmission APACHE II predicted mortality, either by multilevel likelihood ratios or logistic regression, did not significantly improve its discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.792 vs. 0.785, z statistic = 0.52; P = 0.603). Our results suggested that information on prior ICU admission during the same hospitalisation is not as important as the severity of illness measured at the time of readmission in determining the mortality of intensive care readmissions during the same hospitalisation.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Jul 2008
Historical ArticleHistory of analgesia and regional anaesthesia through philately.
Medical philately is the study of postage stamps commemorating events and pioneers in the field of medicine. In 1929, Dr Fielding H. ⋯ His prediction has hardly come to fruition in the years since then, with medical philatelic articles rarely seen in the medical press. The history of pain medicine is unique, diverse and extremely interesting, with many chemists, physicists, philosophers, contributing in their own way over centuries to pave the path to present day pain medicine.