Hu li za zhi The journal of nursing
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About one-third of cancer patients who receive opioid drugs to control pain experience constipation. While clinical healthcare personnel often deal with constipation problems by adopting professional suggestions, effective evidence-based solutions remain lacking. Thus, cancer patient constipation problems are often not effectively solved. ⋯ Eliminating stool impaction enhances medication effectiveness. Nurses should advise doctors regarding preventive measures related to commencing treatment with opioid drugs. Further, nurses must evaluate degree of constipation and educate patients on following non-pharmaceutical strategies to alleviate constipation to improve quality of life.
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Hemorrhagic shock is the most important cause of early death following major trauma. Aggressive fluid resuscitation therapy is an important treatment approach for hemorrhagic shock, and nurses in critical care units must be adept at the skills to administer such. ⋯ While the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training program has provided fluid resuscitation therapy guidelines since 1997, resuscitation volume, rate and time as well as crystalloid and colloid ratios remain uncertain. Therefore, we hope this article can provide evidence-based knowledge related to fluid resuscitation therapy in order to avoid secondary organ damage in critical care.
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Used as biomarkers of heart failure (HF), BNP and NT-proBNP may be considered as the 'fatal finish line' for all cardiovascular disorders. The incidence of heart failure has increased steadily over the past several decades. High readmission rates for patients with acute decompensated heart failure have led to a search for biomarkers able to predict future clinical outcomes that would facilitate HF patient monitoring and help guide therapy. ⋯ From among several promising markers, the family of natriuretic peptides, especially B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and NT-proBNP, have been identified as potentially valuable diagnostic and prognostic tools. Not unexpectedly, BNP/NT-proBNP fails to fulfill all the criteria of an ideal biomarker. The development of additional biomarkers will be an important step toward improving diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic and acute decompensated heart failure.
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The aim of hospice palliative education care is to train nurses in hospice philosophy, terminal care skills, nursing care competencies, and professional reliability. Student nurses, staff nurses, and advanced practice nurses must be taught through a proper sequence, from novice to expert. Working together with patients and their families, nurses can educate and care for the physical, social and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients. ⋯ The current overdependence on traditional nursing education models, which hinders student nurse originality and delays staff nurse growth. Faced with the present issues, self-reflection, localization, and multiple teaching strategies should be the critical developmental directions of hospice palliative education. In order to improve terminal care quality, it is also important to integrate practice, education, and research in order to train more hospice palliative nurses.
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An ideal triage system should accurately and quickly sort patients according to seriousness of diseases, and ensure that patients in emergency departments (EDs) get adequate management in an appropriate medical environment. Recently, EDs throughout the world have been confronting overcrowding, and are developing a five-level triage system to solve the problems that this presents. ⋯ This article reviews the literature about emergency triage systems, and describes the differences between the four-level and five-level systems, exploring the reliability, effectiveness, and outcomes of triage systems. Taiwan nurses might treat this article as a basis for reflection on the importance of the five-level triage system.