Ensuring effective infection prevention and control in the community.

Managing community-acquired infections remains an ongoing challenge for community nursing teams. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic meant that community nurses had to ensure they were using evidence-based infection prevention and control measures to limit the effects of the pandemic and maintain patient safety. Community environments can be unpredictable, and compared with acute settings nurses will often lack the appropriate resources when visiting patients in their homes or in residential care. This article outlines effective infection prevention and control measures that nurses can implement in the community, such as the appropriate use of personal protective equipment, optimal hand hygiene, safe waste management and adherence to an aseptic technique.

A Protocol to Understand the Implementation and Experiences of an Online Community-Based Performance Arts Programme Through and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic, Brain Waves

Introduction Individuals living with acquired brain injury experience numerous psychological, physical, and social challenges. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many have experienced additional isolation, mental health issues and have had limited access to social and physical activities otherwise available in the community. Materials and Methods Brain Waves is a 12-week online performance arts programme developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, for people with acquired brain injury (ABI). The research component of Brain Waves is a qualitative study, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and ethnographic methods (Observations and Interviews). The study will recruit two distinct populations: individuals living with acquired brain injury (including people who have experienced traumatic brain injury and stroke who are participating in the programme) and stakeholders (facilitators, involved in the delivery of Brain Waves). This paper presents the protocol for a project which aims to gain an understanding of the implementation and experiences of creating and participating in an online community-based performance arts programme.

Annual review of selected scientific literature: A report of the Committee on Scientific Investigation of the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry.

The Scientific Investigation Committee of the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry offers this review of the 2021 dental literature in restorative dentistry to inform busy dentists regarding noteworthy scientific and clinical progress over the past year. Each member of the committee brings discipline-specific expertise to coverage of this broad topical area. Specific subject areas addressed, in order of the appearance in this report, include COVID-19 and the dental profession (new); prosthodontics; periodontics, alveolar bone, and peri-implant tissues; implant dentistry; dental materials and therapeutics; occlusion and temporomandibular disorders; sleep-related breathing disorders; oral medicine and oral and maxillofacial surgery; and dental caries and cariology. The authors focused their efforts on reporting information likely to influence daily dental treatment decisions with an emphasis on future trends in dentistry. With the tremendous volume of dentistry and related literature being published daily, this review cannot possibly be comprehensive. Rather, its purpose is to update interested readers and provide important resource material for those interested in pursuing greater details on their own. It remains our intent to assist colleagues in negotiating the extensive volume of important information being published annually. It is our hope that readers find this work useful in successfully managing the patients and dental problems they encounter.

Life After COVID-19: What if We Never go Back to the Office?

[...]some tasks will become increasingly difficult to perform. [...]female employees will suffer. [...]organizations will thrive, particularly organizations that are already rich and powerful. There is evidence that many companies are simplifying their performance appraisal and performance management systems.4 It is likely to the elaborate systems that have been used for developing goals and evaluating progress toward their accomplishment will become less relevant, and sometimes impossible to implement, as the distance between the manager and the rest of the workforce becomes larger and more permanent.

COVID-19 Open-Data a global-scale spatially granular meta-dataset for coronavirus disease.

This paper introduces the COVID-19 Open Dataset (COD), available at goo.gle/covid-19-open-data . A static copy is of the dataset is also available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5399355 . This is a very large "meta-dataset" of COVID-related data, containing epidemiological information, from 22,579 unique locations within 232 different countries and independent territories. For 62 of these countries we have state-level data, and for 23 of these countries we have county-level data. For 15 countries, COD includes cases and deaths stratified by age or sex. COD also contains information on hospitalizations, vaccinations, and other relevant factors such as mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions and static demographic attributes. Each location is tagged with a unique identifier so that these different types of information can be easily combined. The data is automatically extracted from 121 different authoritative sources, using scalable open source software. This paper describes the format and construction of the dataset, and includes a preliminary statistical analysis of its content, revealing some interesting patterns.

Cannabis-related allergies: An international overview and consensus recommendations.

Cannabis is the most widely used recreational drug in the world. Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica have been selectively bred to develop their psychoactive properties. The increasing use in many countries has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cannabis can provoke both type 1 and type 4 allergic reactions. Officially recognized allergens include a pathogenesis-related class 10 allergen, profilin, and a nonspecific lipid transfer protein. Other allergens may also be relevant, and recognition of allergens may vary between countries and continents. Cannabis also has the potential to provoke allergic cross-reactions to plant foods. Since cannabis is an illegal substance in many countries, research has been hampered, leading to challenges in diagnosis since no commercial extracts are available for testing. Even in countries such as Canada, where cannabis is legalized, diagnosis may rely solely on the purchase of cannabis for prick-to-prick skin tests. Management consists of avoidance, with legal issues hindering the development of other treatments such as immunotherapy. Education of healthcare professionals is similarly lacking. This review aimed to summarize the current status of cannabis allergy and proposes recommendations for the future management of this global issue.

2020 NAEPP Guidelines Update and GINA 2021-Asthma Care Differences, Overlap, and Challenges.

The 2020 National Asthma Education and Prevention Program Coordinating Committee Expert Panel Working Group (NAEPP [2020 Focused Asthma Update]) guidelines and the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2021 strategy report are compared in this Rostrum article. The methodologies of each publication are described. Subsequently, 4 different selected pharmacological recommendations are compared in the 2 documents: step 1 for children 0 to 4 years of age with viral-induced wheezing, step 2 in ages 12 years and older with the intermittent use of inhaled corticosteroid, steps 3 and 4 with single-inhaler maintenance and reliever therapy with inhaled corticosteroids-formoterol (SMART), and steps 3, 4, and 5 with add-on long-acting muscarinic antagonist therapy. Nonpharmacological recommendations are also considered and contrasted, including for exhaled nitric oxide, environmental control, immunotherapy, and bronchial thermoplasty. Similarities and differences in these 2 documents are highlighted, and recommendations are made about harmonizing the approaches where possible.

A mixed methods analysis of the monitoring of oral anti-cancer therapies.

PURPOSE: Oral anti-cancer therapies offer advantages over parenteral therapies in terms of their non-invasive nature and reduced intrusiveness. However, the shift from directly observed administration of these therapies to home administration means that continuous monitoring is needed. The oral anti-cancer therapy market is rapidly growing, with an ever-increasing number of new medicines available for the patients presenting with cancer illnesses. This study aims to (i) evaluate both the cost of providing monitoring consultations of oral anti-cancer therapies, and (ii) to assess the experience of cancer therapy nurses responsible for the monitoring and their opinions of the quality of the service. METHODS: This study provides a mixed methods evaluation of the monitoring of oral anti-cancer therapies. Nurses were asked to record the time taken for them to perform their monitoring duties, and staff related costs were calculated using publicly available salary data. Patient-related costs were calculated using the Human Capital method. Nurses were asked to discuss their experience of monitoring oral anti-cancer therapies in semi-structured interviews. These interviews were subsequently analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: 201 recordings and their associated costs were documented. The median consultation time was 33 min, costing €22.10 using Clinical Nurse Specialist salary figures and €26.51 using Advanced Nurse Practitioner salary figures. The associated patient cost was €14.06. Themes of the effect of Covid-19 on the service, expanding and complicated care package requirements, the need for dedicated oral clinics and the future of the service emerged from the interview data. CONCLUSION: The monitoring service provided by nurses may be undervalued. The commitment to fully dedicated oral anti-cancer therapy clinics and an increase in staff to align with the ongoing increase in service demand is seen as vital for the continued safe and effective delivery of this specialist cancer service.

Personal protective equipment training team: a community nursing initiative.

COVID-19 provided significant challenges for community services and care homes. Residential and nursing care patients are considered highly vulnerable to the coronavirus due to their physical needs and environmental factors. Significant concern was raised with personal protective equipment (PPE) availability and appropriate training and support in local care homes. Members of the district nursing team and community services formed a team to deliver face to face training and support to care home workers to improve PPE adherence and reduce risks of transmission. Visits were offered to all 46 care homes in the locality and over 55 visits for teaching were performed in the first month. Challenges were faced with managing and prioritising frontline clinical duties. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and care staff benefited from face-to-face delivery of education to support best practice.

COVID-19 pandemic and the risk of infection in multiple sclerosis patients on disease modifying therapies: "what the bleep do we know?"

The novel coronavirus which emerged in Wuhan province of China has taken world by surprise. Since been diagnosed in December 2019, it has been termed a "Pandemic" and there is a growing concern in physicians across the globe. As new evidence is emerging, there are various preventative strategies which are being deployed. Multiple sclerosis patients who are on disease modifying therapies (DMTs) might be at a higher risk of acquiring or a poorer outcome due to their immune status. This review looks at the available evidence in managing this global crisis.