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Aim To solve problems concerning patient equipment with emphasis on patient care, nursing quality and better nursing management. Methods A monitoring system, designed to follow the patient around in the hospital was discovered. Based on this concept a special, standardized pool system managed by the Clinical Engineering Department was developed. Results An all-department standardization of monitors and pumps was tried. With pumps it was a success. With monitors, two of 21 departments preferred non-standardized equipment. The equipment pool has successfully been run for 5 years. Conclusions An evaluation showed that nursing care is better and that only 2% of those asked disapproved of the system. The pool eliminated problems like lack of equipment when needed, the wrong type of equipment found, lack of fitting disposables, the items that could be found being out of order or too dirty to be used. Nurses no longer waste time searching for equipment ready for use. Bedside equipment in working order can always be found in one of the storerooms. As a result, patient safety was greatly enhanced. We also show that this is economically a good system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blister-skin and warts have been studied as possible sources of 'pure' stratum corneum without sweat ducts. The purpose of the study was to assess whether the DC electrical conductance measured on human skin is totally dominated by the sweat ducts, or is also significantly contributed to by the stratum corneum itself. By means of galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements, these tissues were found to be unrealiable as sources of 'pure' stratum corneum. This is because they displayed significant GSR waves, and hence should have some form of active pores. However, measurements on blister-skin and nail in situ revealed a substantial frequency independent electrical conductance at frequencies typically below 10 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternating current methods have the potential to improve the measurement of electrodermal activity. However, there are pitfalls that should be avoided in order to perform these measurements in a correct manner. In this paper, we address issues like the choice of measurement frequency, placement of electrodes and the kind of electrodes used. Ignoring these factors may result in loss of measurement sensitivity or erroneous measurements with artifacts that contain little or no physiological information.