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The Consumer--Professional Partnership Program CPPP) was developed to increase patient participation in the education of nurses and other health care professionals. Its goal is to inform nurses about disability and health issues from the perspective of people with spinal cord injury. This article discusses the development of this program and the first experiences with its implementation. Forty-three nursing professionals took part in CPPP training. Initial participant responses were positive, especially with regard to hearing from consumers about care preferences, barriers to care, and ways to improve patien--provider interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HYPOTHESIS: A sedation service staffed by pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians can sedate children during imaging, with a low adverse event risk and minimal sedation failures. DESIGN/METHODS: We reviewed 1042 PEM-administered sedations during a 12-month period, collecting data regarding demographics, presedation evaluation, medications used, sedation length, adverse events, corrective measures, and postsedation disposition. Successful image completion without patient awakening defined effective sedation. Minor adverse events included hypoxia (<93%), malaligned airway, self-resolving transient bradycardia, and atypical reactions to sedation agents. Cardiorespiratory incidents requiring resuscitation were considered major events. RESULTS: Of 923 sedation episodes, 92 (10.0%) experienced adverse events; 7 (0.76%) were major. Sedation failed in 17 (1.8%). No sedation resulted in an increased level of care or permanent injury. CONCLUSIONS: A PEM-staffed sedation service provided sedation to children undergoing imaging with a low adverse event risk, minimal failures, and no residual morbidity. However, all sedating clinicians should possess critical airway skills.Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heretofore, the existence of membrane receptors for biologically active fragments of ammalian complement proteins has been confined to mammalian cells, where these receptors serve to protect the host by triggering multiple aspects of the phagocytic response to microbial invasion. In this study, we show that surface receptors for the C3 fragment iC3b are present on the yeast Candida albicans, where they promote the pathogenicity of this organism by inhibiting phagocytosis. These receptors share homology with the α-chain, but not with the β-chain, of neutrophil receptors for iC3b, as determined by the binding of monoclonal antibodies, and are induced by mycelial transformation of the yeast and by high concentrations of glucose. Blockade of these receptors by monoclonal antibodies significantly augments phagocytosis for those strains studied. By binding iC3b noncovalently, these receptors impair phagocytic uptake of C. albicans by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]