This dissertation research utilizes anthropological methods to determine the degree to which the signs and symptoms female caregivers identify as causes of acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in under-fives in rural Ecuador correspond with Western biomedical categories. By employing both a semi-structured medical history questionnaire and more open-ended ethnographic methods such as in-depth informant interviews and focus group research, the researcher identifies the factors which determine timely health care-seeking behaviors of female caregivers in this case study. Economic factors such as the cost of medications and lost work hours were determined to be the primary financial obstacles for timely health care-seeking. Other barriers included limited and inconsistent hours at the health centers and transportation issues. Families of lower socioeconomic status were also more likely to have children suffering particular respiratory ailments. Childhood respiratory illness was identified as an outcome of poverty, which had the potential to reproduce itself through the negative effect of illness on household income. However, the research determined that there was an overall lack of recognition of the biomedical signs and symptoms of serious lower respiratory infections regardless of socioeconomic status. The model of ethnomedicine supports the finding that compliance with timely health care-seeking is limited without collaboration between healthcare professionals and communities to work towards beneficial and achievable goals that are joined by a common purpose. By understanding local cultural beliefs towards ARIs, healthcare professionals are in a better position to: (1) assess the accuracy or inaccuracy of ethnomedical beliefs and determine if there is a conflict in symptom recognition and care-seeking behavior with the biomedical model; (2) determine culturally-appropriate interventions or recommendations to address the health problems of the commu nity and identify barriers; and (3) work with existing community resources in order to foster effective health communication. This research finds that public health messages regarding ARIs be informed by ethnomedical knowledge of home treatments and beliefs. Moreover, health centers need to adhere to regular hours of operation and increase staff capacity to better meet the needs of their clients.

Intubated and mechanically ventilated patients are vulnerable to respiratory tract infections. In response, the Ontario government has recently mandated surveillance and reporting of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Serious respiratory infections, and the related costs of additional care can be reduced in part, through oral hygiene. However, the literature asserts that oral care is neglected in busy, high-tech settings. Despite these concerns, little research has examined how mouth care happens in the critical care unit. The purpose of this institutional ethnography (IE) was to explore the social organization of mouth care in one critical care unit in Ontario, Canada. As a reflexive and critical method of inquiry, IE focuses on features of everyday life that often go unnoticed. In paying special attention to texts, the ethnographer traces how institutional forces that arrive from outside the practice setting coordinate experiences and activities. Inquiry began in the field with day/night participant observation to better understand the particularities of nursing care for orally intubated patients. Other data sources included reflexive fieldnotes, stakeholder interviews, and transcripts as well as work documents and artifacts. Over time, the analysis shifted from the critical care unit to the larger social context of Ontario’s Critical Care Transformation Strategy. Analysis traced the discursive and translocal social relations that permeate nursing work. Findings revealed a disjuncture between the ideals of VAP prevention and the actualities of mouth care. Tensions and contradictions emerged as nurses described their location within an expansive accountability network: nursing duties now extend beyond oral care to a controversial project of epidemiological surveillance. Patient comfort and safety now rest upon a hidden nursing agenda to overcome limited time, training and tools in oral care. Nurses worried that the effectiveness of preventative oral care was inhibited by technical problems of application that remain uninvestigated and unresolved. As a counterpoint to assertions that oral care is neglected, this study demonstrates how nursing knowledge and agency is obscured. Because international infection-prevention guidelines increasingly endorse oral care, novel research investigating the practice problems nurses encounter is warranted.

Intubated and mechanically ventilated patients are vulnerable to respiratory tract infections. In response, the Ontario government has recently mandated surveillance and reporting of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Serious respiratory infections, and the related costs of additional care can be reduced in part, through oral hygiene. However, the literature asserts that oral care is neglected in busy, high-tech settings. Despite these concerns, little research has examined how mouth care happens in the critical care unit. The purpose of this institutional ethnography (IE) was to explore the social organization of mouth care in one critical care unit in Ontario, Canada. As a reflexive and critical method of inquiry, IE focuses on features of everyday life that often go unnoticed. In paying special attention to texts, the ethnographer traces how institutional forces that arrive from outside the practice setting coordinate experiences and activities. Inquiry began in the field with day/night participant observation to better understand the particularities of nursing care for orally intubated patients. Other data sources included reflexive fieldnotes, stakeholder interviews, and transcripts as well as work documents and artifacts. Over time, the analysis shifted from the critical care unit to the larger social context of Ontario’s Critical Care Transformation Strategy. Analysis traced the discursive and translocal social relations that permeate nursing work. Findings revealed a disjuncture between the ideals of VAP prevention and the actualities of mouth care. Tensions and contradictions emerged as nurses described their location within an expansive accountability network: nursing duties now extend beyond oral care to a controversial project of epidemiological surveillance. Patient comfort and safety now rest upon a hidden nursing agenda to overcome limited time, training and tools in oral care. Nurses worried that the effectiveness of preventative oral care was inhibited by technical problems of application that remain uninvestigated and unresolved. As a counterpoint to assertions that oral care is neglected, this study demonstrates how nursing knowledge and agency is obscured. Because international infection-prevention guidelines increasingly endorse oral care, novel research investigating the practice problems nurses encounter is warranted.

A retrospective study of invasive pneumococcal disease in patients from Greater Göteborg in 1964- 1980 identified 125 cases of meningitis, 305 of pneumonia, 61 of septicemia with unknown focus, and 17 with other manifestations, all verified by cultures from normally sterile body fluids. The incidence was several times higher in infants and in the elderly than in any other age-group. A wide variety of underlying conditions were present in 23% of the infants, 34% of the children, and 81% of the adults. In adults alcoholism was known in one third of the cases. The case fatality rate was 24% among patients with underlying conditions and 9% among previously healthy individuals. The case fatality rate was 50% in patients with hospital-acquired infection. Twohundred-fifteen pneumococcal strains, isolated from blood or CSF from 1971 to 1983 at the laboratories of clinical bacteriology of Göteborg, Malmö, and Umeå were serotyped by coagglutination (COA). Of all isolates, 89% belonged to serotypes represented in the 23-valent vaccine. In a separate study COA was compared with counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE). COA was found to have several advantages; rapidity, lower cost, and ability to disclose serotypes with neutral charge, which constituted 19% of all strains. In a prospective study the etiology was determined in 196 hospitalized patients with pneumonia, most of them community-acquired. Culture of specimens from blood, transtracheal aspirate (TTA), sputum, and nasopharynx, assays of antigen in sputum, urine, and TTA, and assays of pneumococcal antibodies to capsular polysaccharide, C-polysaccharide, and pneumolysin in paired sera were performed. The etiology was established in 64% of the patients. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common agent (32%). In a serological study of patients with pneumococcal infection, diagnosed by culture of CSF, TTA, or blood, IgG antibodies against C-polysaccharide and pneumolysin were determined by ELISA. The diagnostic sensitivity was only 51% and 60%, respectively. In conclusion, invasive pneumococcal disease is strongly overrepresented at tender and high age and in patients with concomitant conditions, notably alcoholism. S. pneumoniae remains a predominant causative agent of community-acquired pneumonia in adults needing hospitalization. Due to the low sensitivity and/or specificity of individual microbiological techniques, a combined use of several techniques is necessary when trying to assess the relative importance of pneumococci and other agents in pneumonia. Extended use of the currently available pneumococcal vaccine and development of improved pneumococcal vaccines seem highly warranted. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1993, härtill 5 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu.se

Vid dysfagi är pneumoni en vanlig komplikation som ger ökade kostnader för vården, ett ökat lidande för patienter samt leder till fler dödsfall. Omvårdnadsåtgärder som minskar risken för pneumoni är därför av betydelse att identifiera. Syftet med denna litteraturstudie var att i vetenskapliga artiklar identifiera omvårdnadsåtgärder sjuksköterskan kan tillämpa som minskar risken för pneumoni vid dysfagi. I tio vetenskapliga artiklar utlästes sex kategorier via databearbetning. I resultatet identifierades att vinkeln på ryggen i sittande läge var viktigt att ta hänsyn till, användningen av vätskor med låg viskositet hade en förebyggande effekt och en intervention där hakan fälldes ner mot bröstet vid sväljning skyddade mot aspiration. Ytterligare forskning kan vara av intresse gällande omvårdnadsåtgärder vid pneumoni och den forskning som förekommer vid pneumoni i akutvården kan eventuellt ha effekt även på andra former av pneumoni. I NANDA hade en omvårdnadsdiagnos för risk för pneumoni varit till fördel för sjuksköterskeprofessionen då det hade underlättat införandet av omvårdnadsåtgärder. / Pneumonia is a common complication in correlation with dysphagia, it leads to increased healthcare costs, an increase in deaths and suffering for the patient. It is significant to identify nursing interventions that decrease the risk of pneumonia. The aim of this literature review was to identify nursing interventions in research articles which a nurse can implement to decrease the risk of pneumonia in correlation with dysphagia. Ten articles where reviewed and six categories were identified. It was found in the results that at an sitting position the angle of the back was important, using liquids with a low viscosity had a preventing effect and an intervention where the neck was flexed forward and the chin was placed to the chest gave protection against aspiration. It can be interesting to do further research about nursing interventions in correlation with pneumonia and the available research about pneumonia in an emergency care setting might also be useful in other forms of pneumonia. To facilitate the introduction of nursing interventions against pneumonia a nursing diagnosis for the risk for pneumonia in NANDA would be useful for the nursing profession.

iv The present work describes the evaluation of the value of polymerase chain reaction in diagnosis of pneumonia caused by the most common three bacterial pathogens / Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis from sputum of patients with community acquired pneumonia admitted to The Department of Pulmonary Diseases of Gulhane Military Medical Academy. In this study, 107 sputa from 142 patients with suspected community acquired pneumonia were used to survey the causative agents. Identification of the pathogens was performed by sputum Gram stain and conventional microbiological methods. Polymerase chain reaction was performed to investigate the presence of S.pneumoniae, H.influenzae, and M.catarrhalis for the same sputum samples as well. PCR products were processed by electrophoresis on 2% agarose gels with visualization of the amplicon with ethidium bromide and UV illumination. The 33 of 107 samples were positive in cultures and 67 in PCR. S.pneumoniae (48.5%) was the most common etiologic agent as to PCR analysis. The incidences of H.influenzae and M.catarrhalis were determined as 18.6%, and 4.7% respectively. The incidence of S.pneumoniae in patients with CAP and control group individuals were almost the same. The sputum PCR positives were higher than those reported carriage rates for these three microorganisms. 9 of 107 patients with PCR-positive had evidence of infection with pathogens other than S.pneumoniae. The results indicated that some of the PCR results were false positive due to oropharyngeal contamination. PCR testing of sputum samples for diagnosing pneumococcal pneumonia is unable to distinguish colonization from infection in some circumstances. To distinguish the colonization from infection, sputum Gram stain should be applied to the sputum specimens. Because of being faster and easier, PCR looks like becoming more reliable technique by the using of valid specimens from patients with community-acquired pneumonia if supported by quantitative techniques.

No description available.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Tez (Tıpta Uzmanlık) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Göğüs Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, 2006. / Bibliyografya var.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.