Sustainability in nursing : a concept analysis

Aim. The aim of this study was to describe, explore and explain the concept of sustainability in nursing. Background. Although researchers in nursing and medicine have emphasised the issue of sustainability and health, the concept of sustainability in nursing is undefined and poorly researched. A need exists for theoretical and empirical studies of sustainability in nursing. Design. Concept analysis as developed by Walker and Avant. Method. Data were derived from dictionaries, international healthcare organisations and literature searches in the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases. Inclusive years for the search ranged from 1990 to 2012. A total of fourteen articles were found that referred to sustainability in nursing. Results. Sustainability in nursing involves six defining attributes: ecology, environment, future, globalism, holism and maintenance. Antecedents of sustainability require climate change, environmental impact and awareness, confidence in the future, responsibility and a willingness to change. Consequences of sustainability in nursing include education in the areas of ecology, environment and sustainable development as well as sustainability as a part of nursing academic programs and in the description of the academic subject of nursing. Sustainability should also be part of national and international healthcare organisations. The concept was clarified herein by giving it a definition. Conclusion. Sustainability in nursing was explored and found to contribute to sustainable development, with the ultimate goal of maintaining an environment that does not harm current and future generations' opportunities for good health. This concept analysis provides recommendations for the healthcare sector to incorporate sustainability and provides recommendations for future research.

Older people's experience of utilisation and administration of medicines in a health- and social care context

BACKGROUND: People living at home who lack ability to manage their medicine are entitled to assistance to improve adherence provided by a home care assistant employed by social care. AIM: The aim was to describe how older people with chronic diseases, living at home, experience the use and assistance of administration of medicines in the context of social care. DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study. METHODS: Ten participants (age 65+) living at home were interviewed in the participants' own homes. Latent content analysis was used. FINDINGS: The assistance eases daily life with regard to practical matters and increases adherence to a medicine regimen. There were mixed feelings about being dependent on assistance; it interferes with self-sufficiency at a time of health transition. Participants were balancing empowerment and a dubious perception of the home care assistants' knowledge of medicine and safety. Physicians' and district nurses' professional knowledge was a safety guarantee for the medicine process. CONCLUSIONS: Assistance eases daily life and medicine regimen adherence. Dependence on assistance may affect self-sufficiency. Perceived safety varied relating to home care assistants' knowledge of medicine. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: A well-functioning medicine assistance is crucial to enable older people to remain at home. A person-centred approach to health- and social care delivery is efficient and improve outcome for the recipient of care.

Quão romance é minha vida amorosa! : namoro virtual e narrativas

This research aims to acknowledge the virtual dating phenomenon. The research deals with this phenomenon in Orkut, a social networking website. Thus, it considers debates and forums that were present in a Brazilian Orkut online community called Conheci meu amor pela internet (I met my love through the Internet). As a staring point the research dealt with issues such as: what are the debates about? How can we deal with practices that question their own dating process? According to the initial hypothesis, these debates reveal different contemporary social aspects: 1) they emerge as a response to demands on behalf of a society that is rather reflexive. This reflexive element is fundamental for the constitution of the self 2) these debates work as support elements in social relations that are built upon this sphere. In this context, individuals write about themselves and constitute themselves as real individuals that acquire a sense as subjects; and 3) people discuss online dating as form reconstructing former experiences. Empirical analysis demonstrates that these forums and polls present themselves as a social phenomenon that allows a particular form of self presentation on the internet. In order for these subjects to present themselves they built their own self narratives. What is possible to acknowledge considering these narratives is that there is a predominance of the element of intrigue that is further solved and demonstrate a satisfactory result. These narrators then choose online dating situation that present happy endings and happiness that are associated to romantic ideals that are worthwhile being shown. The contents present in these narratives are dealt with by the research. Thus, this work defends the thesis that the online dating narratives are a mixture of facts and fiction once all experiences deal with romantic imaginary as well as personal dating experience. Thus, the research is an attempt to understand what goes on the forums and debates that deal with the fictionalized and dramatized daily experiences in the performances that are similar to games. This is possible due to the fact that there is use of romantic fables and concrete experiences realized by online dating

A leitura de literatura na escola: por uma educação emocional de crianças na educação infantil

This dissertation examines the contributions of juvenile literature reading for the problematization of the emotional experiences and conflicts of children at infant education. Its importance consists in providing useful information for the pedagogic work orientated to literature reading at the initial series of basic education, in order to increase the teacher s ability to explore the literary text from its instigating and enriching nature in view of the child s emotional experiences and conflicts. It is methodologically based on the principles of the qualitative research, what characterizes it as a case study. The research focused a level V-infant education class with 28 students in 5-6 age group, at a public school of Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil). The used resources were: audio recording, field diary, and interviews. Seventeen classes were carried out and they consisted in reading sessions of classic and contemporaneous tales, fables, and legends which used different didactic strategies. These sessions were developed in accordance with the reading experience through scaffolding instructions as it was described by Graves & Graves. The theoretical references were the studies of Amarilha (1997/ 2006), Bettelheim (2004), Coelho (1987/2000), Damásio (2005), Del Nero (2003), Eco (1994/2006), Held (1980), Iser (1996), Jauss (2002), Stierle (2002), Wallon (2007), Telles (2006), Yunes (2003), and Zilberman (1987). The analyses showed that literary reading in class is a special environment for inclusion of the reader s subjectivity; as well as the inclusion of their emotional experiences and their conflicts within the story by way of helping children think and become suitable for dealing with their inner feelings. The literary reading is presented as an experiential and formative activity which helps children understand their emotions through a process of identification, exteriorization, and catharsis; what implies that the esthetic experience from the text makes possible the reader s self-knowledge and increases the perception of his inner feelings and objective reality so that this reader has emotional capital to deal with life difficulties. It is important to highlight that the discussions carried out in the class represented a field of sharing experiences through which each reader had the chance to present their experience of life to the others, including their sorrows and sufferings, in order to help them to develop best strategies to deal with the social environment

Susceptibility to Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Infection is Linked to the Pattern of Macrophage Activation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Sporothrix schenckii lipid inhibits macrophage phagocytosis: Involvement of nitric oxide and tumour necrosis factor-alpha

The role of cell-wall compounds in the immune response to sporotrichosis is unknown. The effect of cell-wall compounds and exoantigen obtained from Sporothrix schenckii in macrophage/fungus interaction was analysed with respect to nitric oxide (NO) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). The lipid compound of the cell wall plays an important role in the pathogenesis of this mycosis and was found to inhibit the phagocytic process and to induce high liberation of NO and TNF-alpha in macrophage cultures in the present study. This is a very interesting result because it is the first report about one compound of the fungus S. schenckii that presents this activity.

Guerra e identidade: um estudo da marcialidade no Heimskringla

The goal of our dissertation is to study how the Scandinavian writings produced a Norwegian identity of warlike ideals in a compilation of Icelandic sagas known as Heimskringla and has parts of its content focused on storytelling about a troubled time of Scandinavian monarchies rising between the 8th and 11th centuries, which is called the Viking Age. The Heimskringla, also known as The Circle of the World is a set of writings based on Icelandic oral memory about the Norwegian kings and the conception of a Norwegian territory. While we investigated the relationship between the members of royalty, their companions and the Scandinavian people, we delineate the relationship between memory, identity and war. Our study points out how the Scandinavian war produces, in its storytelling, proper spaces, in socio-political relations among the participants, in the organization of its conflicts or the location of war activities, where places are transformed into essential points in these narratives. The war is both a place of identity statements and a space of practices, necessary for the strengthening of royal power

Effect of Helicobacter pylori infection on IL-8, IL-1 and COX-2 expression in patients with chronic gastritis and gastric cancer

Objective. Helicobacter pylori infection is related to gastric cancer development, and chronic inflammation is presumed to be the main cause. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of H. pylori cagA, vacA, iceA, and babA genotypes on COX-2, IL-1, and IL-8 expression. Material and methods. of the 217 patients included in the study, 26 were uninfected, 127 had chronic gastritis and were H. pylori-positive, and 64 had gastric cancer. Bacterial genotypes were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the expression values were determined by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results. An association was found between the infection with cagA, vacA s1m1 strains and gastric cancer development. Regarding the 3' region of the cagA gene, we also found an association between the infection with cagA EPIYA-ABCCC strains and clinical outcome. Higher levels of IL-8, IL-1, and COX-2 were detected in gastric mucosa from infected patients with chronic gastritis, and they were also associated with the infection by cagA, vacA s1m1 strains. The IL-8 and IL-1 levels decrease significantly from chronic gastritis to gastric cancer, while the relative expression remained unaltered when COX-2 expression was analyzed among patients with gastritis and cancer. Conclusions. Since inflammatory response to H. pylori infection plays an important role in cellular proliferation and gastric mucosal damage, the up-regulation of IL-1, IL-8, and COX-2 in patients with chronic gastritis has an important clinical implication in gastric carcinogenesis.

Factors predictive of inappropriateness in requests for parenteral antimicrobials for therapeutic purposes: A study in a small teaching hospital in Brazil

Background: The identification of patterns of inappropriate antimicrobial prescriptions in hospitals contributes to the improvement of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study to identify predictors of inappropriateness in requests for parenteral antimicrobials (RPAs) in a teaching hospital with 285 beds. We reviewed 25% of RPAs for therapeutic purposes from y 2005. Appropriateness was evaluated according to current guidelines for antimicrobial therapy. We assessed predictors of inappropriateness through univariate and multivariate models. RPAs classified as 'appropriate' or 'probably appropriate' were selected as controls. Case groups comprised inappropriate RPAs, either in general or for specific errors. Results: Nine hundred and sixty-three RPAs were evaluated, 34.6% of which were considered inappropriate. In the multivariate analysis, general predictors of inappropriateness were: prescription on week-ends/holidays (odds ratio (OR) 1.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20-2.28, p = 0.002), patient in the intensive care unit (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.11-2.23, p = 0.01), peritoneal infection (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.27-3.65, p = 0.004), urinary tract infection (OR 1.89, 95% CI 1.25 -2.87, p = 0.01), combination therapy with 2 or more antimicrobials (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.15-2.57, p = 0.008) and prescriptions including penicillins (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.39-3.25, p = 0.001) or 1(st) generation cephalosporins (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.01-3.00, p = 0.048). Previous consultation with an infectious diseases (ID) specialist had a protective effect against inappropriate prescription (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.24-0.50, p < 0.001). Factors independently associated with specific prescription errors varied. However, consultation with an ID specialist was protective against both unnecessary antimicrobial use (OR 0.04, 95% CI 0.01-0.26, p = 0.001) and requests for agents with an insufficient antimicrobial spectrum (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.03-0.30, p = 0.01). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the importance of previous consultation with an ID specialist in assuring the quality of prescriptions. Also, they highlight prescription patterns that should be approached by ASP policies.

Physical exercise on the rat ventral prostate: Steroid hormone receptors, apoptosis and cell proliferation

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Role of TLR2 and TLR4 in Human Neutrophil Functions Against Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Exposure to Mycobacterium avium Decreases the Protective Effect of the DNA Vaccine pVAXhsp65 Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Induced Inflammation of the Pulmonary Parenchyma

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)