Search

Background and Purpose: Nurses' attitudes play an important role in the consistent practice of safe patient handling behaviors. The purposes of this study were to develop and assess the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument measuring attitudes of nurses related to the care and safe handling of patients who are obese., Methods: Phases of instrument development included (a) item generation, (b) content validity assessment, (c) reliability assessment, (d) cognitive interviewing, and (e) construct validity assessment through factor analysis., Results: The final data from the exploratory factor analysis produced a 26-item multidimensional instrument that contains 9 subscales., Conclusions: Based on the factor analysis, a 26-item instrument can be used to examine nurses' attitudes regarding patients who are morbidly obese and related safe handling practices.

Purpose: The pilot study purpose was to determine the effects of a new standardized oral care protocol (intervention) to usual care practices (control) in poststroke patients., Design: This study is a randomized controlled clinical trial., Method: Fifty-one subjects were enrolled. Subjects in the intervention group received oral care twice a day including tooth brushing, tongue brushing, flossing, mouth rinse, and lip care while control patients received usual oral care., Findings: Subjects in the control and intervention groups showed improvement in their oral health assessments, swallowing abilities and oral intake. There were no significant differences between the two groups. Although not statistically significant, overall prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus colonization in the control group almost doubled (from 4.8% to 9.5%), while colonization in the intervention group decreased (from 20.8% to 16.7%)., Conclusions/clinical Relevance: These findings demonstrate the importance of oral care in the poststroke patient with dysphagia., (© 2014 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.)

Spinal cord tumors (SCT) are a diverse group of uncommon neoplasms that develop from tissues in and around the spinal canal. They often have an indolent onset and progression of signs and symptoms, which may include back pain, extremity weakness, sensory alterations, and bowel or bladder incontinence. The most common SCTs are located in the extramedullary space and include meningiomas and neurofibromas. Intramedullary SCTs, for example ependymomas and astrocytomas, occur less frequently. The most useful screening test for diagnosis of a SCT is enhanced magnetic resonance imaging; myelography and computed tomography also can be helpful. The majority of SCTs are amenable to surgical therapy and can be partially or completely resected. Radiation therapy is reserved for incompletely resected low-grade tumors, malignant tumors, and recurrent tumors. The rehabilitative process should be initiated early on following diagnosis, if possible, in patients with neurologic deficits to minimize long-term disability.