JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association
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Review
Surgical Education and Training during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Strategies and Solutions for Pakistan.
The coronovirus disease-2019 pandemic has severely impacted surgical education and training in Pakistan and worldwide, causing problems, such as risk of infection, limited hands-on training, examination delays, and trainee redeployment to non-surgical specialties. The current review was planned to describe innovative strategies adopted by surgical training programmes worldwide in order to suggest comprehensive recommendations at the level of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan and individual institutions to counter the challenges presented by the pandemic in Pakistan. ⋯ Moreover, examination boards and residency programmes must appropriately tailor their eligibility criteria and assessment processes to the current situation. Lastly, it is vital to safeguard trainees' mental wellness during the pandemic and after by ensuring readily available professional psychological support when needed.
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Inferior vena caval (IVC) injuries are uncommon and challenging to treat. Less than 5% of patients with penetrating abdominal trauma and less than 0.5% of patients with blunt abdominal trauma have this injury. Patient can present with intraperitoneal haemorrhage or with a contained retroperitoneal haematoma. ⋯ Retrohepatic and suprahepatic injuries need infrequent exposures. Mortality remains high and range between 31-51% for the patient brought alive to the operative room. Glasgow coma scale, level of injury, haemodynamic status at presentation and free blood in the peritoneal cavity are some of the predictive factors for mortality in these patients.
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COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease, which has human-to-human transmission through droplet and contact. It is commonly manifested as fever, dry cough, myalgia, and dyspnoea; the severity of this disease may range from mild, severe to a critical-illness. ⋯ Therefore, nurses have a pivotal role to play in its management. This evidence-based comprehensive literature review provides the role of nurses in the management of patients with COVID-19, which starts from the initial assessment and triaging, sample collection, care of patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms, care of the critically-ill patient, and care of the dead body.
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The world has experienced pandemics worse than the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which resulted in great loss of life and economy. However, the global effect of this pandemic has been devastating. Billions of people are in lockdown and isolation on six continents around the world. ⋯ However, information overload during the current COVID-19 pandemic has posed a set of challenges not encountered before. There is an "infodemic" in which false news, conspiracy theories, magical cures and racist news are being shared at an alarming rate, with the potential to increase anxiety and stress and even lead to loss of life. This review highlights some of these challenges and suggests general measures to avoid information overload and infodemic in the connected world of 21st century.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced clinical care in unprecedented ways. There is an urgent need to share best practice in providing diabetes care services in areas affected by COVID. This is a brief review for clinicians managing diabetes in low-income countries based on currently available data. ⋯ We discuss glucovigilance in COVID-19, the challenges and the opportunities. We put a spotlight on investigational new drugs for treatment of COVID medications and virtual care. Diabetologists and clinicians handling high-volume diabetes clinics are at increased risk for contracting COVID-19.