Nurses and care delivery to elderly women: a social phenomenological approach

OBJECTIVE: To understand how nurses see care delivery to elderly women. METHODS: In this phenomenological study, ten nurses working at Primary Health Care Units were interviewed between September 2010 and January 2011. RESULTS: In care delivery, nurses consider the elderly women's knowledge background and biographical situation, and also value the family's participation as a care mediator. These professionals have the acuity to capture these women's specific demands, but face difficulties to deliver care to these clients. Nurses expect to deliver qualified care to these women. CONCLUSION: The theoretical and methodological approach of social phenomenology permitted revealing that the nurse designs qualified care to elderly women, considering the possibilities in the context. This includes the participation of different social actors and health sectors, assuming collective efforts in action strategies and professional training, in line with the particularities and care needs of elderly women nurses identify.

Evaluation of pyroptosis in macrophages using cytosolic delivery of purified flagellin

Pyroptosis is a molecularly controlled form of cell death that exhibits some features of apoptosis as well of necrosis. Pyroptosis is induced by inflammasome-activated caspase-1 or caspase-11 (caspase-4 in humans), as a result of distinct pathogenic or damage stimuli. Although pyroptosis displays some morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis, it has an inflammatory outcome due to the loss of plasma membrane integrity and the consequent release of intracellular contents, reminiscent to necrosis. Here, we use cytosolic delivery of purified flagellin as an experimental tool to trigger pyroptosis and describe potential methods to study this form of cell death. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of these methods