Internal medicine journal
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Internal medicine journal · Apr 2021
'Code-95' rapid response calls for patients under airborne precautions in the COVID-19-era: a cross-sectional survey of healthcare worker perceptions.
To allow better allocation of staff and resources, rapid response teams attending to acutely deteriorating or aggressive patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection were pre-warned with the announcement of 'Code-95' with calls. ⋯ Most surveyed HCW supported Code-95 announcements pre-warning them of potential COVID-19 exposure when attending a RRC. However, the majority of HCW reported anxiety when attending these calls. Medical and efferent team HCW perceived greater anxiety compared to nursing and afferent team HCW. The Code-95 system to pre-warn rapid response teams may be a useful addition to protecting HCW from infectious diseases, although broader implementation will require greater resourcing, training and support.
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In 1993, the Internal Medicine Journal published 'Chemotherapy made easier', outlining developments in supportive care of patients undergoing chemotherapy. This described the contemporary state of anti-emetics, colony stimulating factors, cardiac toxicity, neurotoxicity, development of drug analogues and venous access devices. ⋯ This state of the art update summarises advances in supportive care therapies relating to improving the patient experience during and after anti-cancer treatment, including new anti-emetics, hair preservation techniques, bone marrow support and improved venous access devices; the ongoing challenge of neurotoxicity; and the advent of multidisciplinary sub-specialised fields such as cardio-oncology and oncofertility. Supportive care medications for immuno-oncology therapies is a new section; these highly effective (although not universally so) agents were a mere illusion in 1993.
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Internal medicine journal · Apr 2021
Medication use and cognitive impairment among residents of aged care facilities.
Potentially inappropriate polypharmacy is common in residential aged care facilities (RACF). This is of particular concern among people with cognitive impairment who, compared with cognitively intact residents, are potentially more sensitive to the adverse effects of medications. ⋯ Our findings highlight the need for optimising prescribing in RACF residents, with particular attention to medications with anti-cholinergic effects.
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Internal medicine journal · Apr 2021
Australia's problem with obtaining consent for psychotropic use in older people.
Frequent use of psychotropic medicines in people with dementia is a significant concern globally, doing this without informed consent is a violation of human rights, ethics and law. Capacity Australia piloted an intervention to address several hypothetical barriers to obtaining consent for psychotropic use in aged care and has developed a suite of resources to improve rights and health literacy for clinicians, patients and community alike.