Biomedical subjects
M Gattuso
Publications and source records attributed to M Gattuso.
[Mental stress and ambulatory monitoring of arterial pressure].
The aim of this study was to validate the use of arithmetical mental stress testing as an indicator of an abnormal subject's response to stress in general. For this purpose 82 males (mean age 31 +/- 7 years, mean body surface area--BSA--1.76 m2), free from cardiovascular disease, underwent mental stress testing. In the sample examined we found 13 so-called reactive subjects, (mean age 32 +/- 7 years, mean BSA 1.8 +/- 0.1 m2), who during the test showed increases in mean blood pressure (greater than 20%) greater than mean values of the whole sample (17.8%). In any case blood pressure was higher than 150/100 mmHg. These data were compared with those of 15 subjects (mean age 32 +/- 4 years, mean BSA 1.77 +/- 0.1 m2) randomly selected among those, whose mean pressure increases were not higher than 17.8% (mean increase within sample). The 2 groups underwent blood pressure ambulatory monitoring and submaximal bicycle test. In reactive subjects, values of systolic (PAS) and diastolic pressure (PAD) were significantly higher than in controls (p less than 0.001) during blood pressure ambulatory monitoring, with a greater variability of such values as can be seen from the higher standard deviation (PAS 121 +/- 19 mmHg vs PAS 113 +/- 13 mmHg; PAD 82 +/- 11 mmHg vs PAD 75 +/- 10 mmHg). During ergometric testing, blood pressure trend was similar in the 2 groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Continuing education outcomes related to pain management practice.
BACKGROUND: Nursing practice outcomes of continuing education need to be measured and reported as one indicator of the value of nursing continuing education. This article makes the case that knowledge gain, the traditional measure of continuing education effectiveness, is not necessarily sufficient to assess changes in nursing practice. METHOD: A pretest/posttest design was used to measure nursing practice outcomes of a continuing education program about pain management. A total of 50 attendees returned both the pretests and posttests and 68 attendees returned the follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: Ninety-four percent of the respondents had improved scores on the posttest. Ninety-one percent of the follow-up evaluation respondents stated they had an opportunity to use the new information and 98% stated the use of this information has improved patient care. CONCLUSION: This study found that a continuing education program triggered practice changes. The results of this study correlate with previous research that supports the need for practice outcome measurements.