Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Jordan.
The nurse's role in the administration of antibiotics involves more than just giving medication to patients. Sue Jordan and Mike Tait describe how antibiotics work, their side effects, and the important aspects of nursing care for patients on these powerful drugs.
In this case, the nurse/midwife was quick to recognise the significance of the hand pain Lynn developed. She was aware of the risk of CTS in pregnancy. The nurse used her knowledge of the condition to probe for additional details and to test for clinical signs of the condition. This allowed for an early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
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Bionursing is a series of 12 articles looking at how biological theories should integrate with practice. In the fourth article, the authors describe the case study of an elderly, bereaved woman suffering from incontinence and lack of motivation. They argue that with a physical assessment, the woman's underlying problem of diabetes mellitus would have been diagnosed earlier.
The fifth article in our series on bionursing uses a case study based on fact, with personal details altered to maintain confidentiality, to illustrate the importance of biological theories underpinning nursing care. The authors describe how perceptions of the ageing process can cloud nurses' judgement. They emphasise the need for staff to include physiological factors in their assessment of patients.
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This article examines the current position of the biological sciences in relation to nursing theory and practice. The authors suggest that current nursing practice places too great an emphasis on behavioural approaches to practice and not enough on biological sciences. The introduction to the series reiterates the reasons why nurse education has highlighted the importance of these sciences in the past, and suggests that the trend away from them could be detrimental to care.
In the second article in our series on bionursing, the authors focus on the integration of theory and practice. Using a case history to illustrate the point, the authors look at how bionursing can help nurses identify the causes of unexplained falls in elderly people, and avoid further harm occurring to the patient.
In the third article in our series on bionursing, the authors again focus on the integration of theory and practice. In this case, they emphasise the need for nurses to understand the pharmacology of medications as a facet of bionursing.
As nursing has striven to acquire professional autonomy, the biological sciences have been marginalized in the teaching and practice of nursing. The authors of this article argue that with the expected expansion of nursing roles--including nurse prescribing--the need to consider the place of the biosciences in nursing has become more acute.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) include aspirin, ibuprofen and diclofenac. They are widely prescribed to control pain and inflammation associated with disease or injury affecting joints and other tissues. The authors describe the clinical uses, mechanism of action and potential side effects. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is included in this discussion, although it is not an NSAID.
Beta2-adrenoreceptor agonists are the most widely prescribed bronchodilators and are used for symptomatic control and as 'rescue' medication for people with asthma and other chronic conditions affecting the airways. The authors describe the clinical uses, mechanism of action and potential side effects of these agents, emphasising the nurse's role in monitoring therapy.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Patients with severe sinus-node dysfunction that required pacemaker implantation after orthotopic heart transplantation were reviewed. During a 21-month period, 42 transplantations were performed in 41 patients. Five patients (12.2%) required a permanent pacemaker because of severe dysrhythmias. Three patients had moderate-to-severe cellular and/or humoral (vascular) rejection, and two of the five patients (40%) died. In the remaining two patients, bradyarrhythmias were due most likely to trauma to the sinus node during harvesting of the donor heart, and these patients have shown no evidence of significant rejection on repeated biopsies. A strong relationship was found between moderate or severe rejection and the development of significant bradyarrhythmias that required the placement of a permanent pacemaker. The development of severe dysrhythmias during the early or late posttransplantation period should be considered a manifestation of an ongoing rejection episode until proven otherwise. In our experience this evidence of rejection may imply a poor prognostic sign because it is associated with high mortality rates.