Articles Tagged With:
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Difficult Cases, Unclear Boundaries Put Ethicists at Risk for Burnout
Many ethicists play an important role in addressing burnout at their organizations — by identifying moral distress, connecting clinicians with resources, or holding debriefings after difficult cases. Yet ethicists themselves are experiencing burnout.
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Pandemic Fatigue, Disinformation Stunt Uptake of Respiratory Vaccines
A vaccination malaise that has beset much of the public appears to have extended to healthcare workers as well. In addition to citing an abysmal COVID-19 vaccination rate of 17% for healthcare workers during the 2022-2023 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed to a “lack of provider recommendation” as one of four key reasons patients are skipping immunizations, with the others being concerns about serious side effects, the occurrence of minor side effects, and a lack of time or forgetfulness.
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CDC: PPE Should be Readily Available for Workers
New draft patient isolation guidelines recently approved by advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized that healthcare workers have N95 respirators, masks, eye protection, and other personal protective equipment readily available.
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As OSHA Violence Regulation Stalls, States Move to Protect Healthcare Workers
After more than a decade of urgent calls for federal labor officials to adopt a standard to prevent violence against healthcare workers, 600 determined nurses came to the massive, dome-capped Texas State Capitol in Austin in February 2023. The bipartisan bill that the TNA and the Texas Hospital Association jointly lobbied for was passed into law effective Sept. 1, 2023. Under the conditions of the legislation, healthcare facilities have until Sept 1, 2024, to enact the key provisions.
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Percutaneous Coronary Intervention vs. Placebo for Stable Angina Patients
In this randomized trial of patients with stable angina and objective evidence of ischemia, percutaneous coronary intervention resulted in a significant reduction in angina compared to a placebo procedure.
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Small-Volume Blood Collection May Reduce Transfusion Needs in the ICU
The STRATUS randomized clinical trial was a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial in 25 adult medical-surgical intensive care units (ICUs) in Canada that studied standard-volume to small-volume vacuum tubes for blood collection in the ICU. In the primary analysis, there was no significant difference in red blood cell transfusion between groups. However, in a pre-specified secondary analysis, red blood cell transfusion decreased after the transition from standard-volume tubes to small-volume tubes.
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Buprenorphine May Be an Effective Alternative to Full Opioids for Pain in the ICU
In a small, single-center, retrospective, propensity-matched cohort study examining enteral oxycodone vs. sublingual buprenorphine in a critically ill population, pain control was equivalent, indicating that sublingual buprenorphine may be an effective and appropriate alternative.
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Using Targeted Trials to Investigate Early vs. Late Intubation Strategies
Authors used a machine learning framework to show that delaying intubation in critically ill patients when compared to early intubation does not result in a greater 30-day mortality.
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Risk Factors for Atrial Fibrillation
A United Kingdom Biobank study of new onset atrial fibrillation (AF) has shown strong associations with hypertension and obesity at all ages and acute illnesses/surgery in older individuals. Genetics was less important, but in those at low genetic risk, obesity and hypertension were strong predictors of AF.
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To Stress Test or Not Post-PCI
A prespecified subgroup analysis of diabetic patients in the POST-PCI study, which randomized patients post-percutaneous coronary intervention to routine stress testing vs. standard care at one year and followed for two years, has shown that adverse cardiac outcomes and death rates were not improved by routine stress testing.