Nurses' health beliefs about paper face masks in Japan, Australia and China: a qualitative descriptive study.

AIM: To explore the health beliefs of clinical and academic nurses from Japan, Australia and China regarding wearing paper masks to protect themselves and others, and to identify differences in participants' health beliefs regarding masks. BACKGROUND: The correct use of face masks and consensus among health professionals across the globe is essential for containing pandemics, and nurses need to act according to policy to protect themselves, educate the public and preserve resources for frontline health workers. Paper masks are worn by health professionals and the general public to avoid the transmission of respiratory infections, such as COVID-19, but there appear to be differences in health beliefs of nurses within and between countries regarding these. METHODS: This qualitative descriptive study used content analysis with a framework approach. FINDINGS: There were major differences in nurse participants' beliefs between and within countries, including how nurses use paper masks and their understanding of their efficacy. In addition, there were cultural differences in the way that nurses use masks in their daily lives and nursing practice contexts. CONCLUSION: Nurses from different working environments, countries and areas of practice hold a variety of health beliefs about mask wearing at the personal and professional level. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY AND HEALTH POLICY: The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked much discussion about the critical importance of masks for the safety of health professionals, and there has been considerable discussion and disagreement about health policies regarding mask use by the general public. Improper use of masks may have a role in creating mask shortages or transmitting infections. An evidence-based global policy on mask use for respiratory illnesses for health professionals, including nurses, and the general public needs to be adopted and supported by a wide-reaching education campaign.

Nurses' perceptions of health beliefs and impact on teaching and practice: a Q-sort study.

AIM: To understand Chinese nurses' perceptions of health beliefs, their content, origin and the influence of sociocultural factors, as a basis of their evidence-based practice. This study contributes to a larger study to establish the health beliefs of Japanese, Australian, Chinese, South Korean and Thai nurses. BACKGROUND: Registered nurses teach patients and students about maintaining or attaining health are subject to the same range of influences and their health beliefs may be antithetical to current health evidence. METHODS: Q-method design using q-sort and interview was used to explore the perspectives on a range of health beliefs of 60 nurses in four cities in China. FINDINGS: Three factors arose from the perceptions of the participants about health and accounted for 50.2% of the total variance: (1) social impact, (2) 'the importance of evidence', and (3) beliefs rooted in culture. DISCUSSION: Influence on nurses' health beliefs was explored in terms of the internalized and frequently unconscious beliefs, values and norms tying them to their communities, reflecting the need for nurses to be aware of their health beliefs and behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Education for nurses in practice needs to acknowledge that individual practitioners' beliefs strongly influence health teaching for patients and families. In order to implement evidenced-based practice and teach in line with current evidence nurses need to critically examine and reflect on the impact of culture, society and the media on their own health beliefs. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY AND HEALTH POLICY: Education policy needs to consider that culture and societal pressures affect nurses' health beliefs and practice. Critical thinking, reflective and evidence-based practice need to be emphasized in clinical training and nurse education. China also needs to develop policies to allow nurses to be able to assess the reliability of health information on the Internet and to make quality health research more available.

Swearing: its prevalence in healthcare settings and impact on nursing practice.

Despite its prevalence there has been little academic research into swearing, and certainly none on its impact on nurses and nursing practice. Nurses are, of all health workers, most likely to be targets of verbal aggression, and up to 100% of nurses in mental health settings report verbal abuse. The literature contains no reference to the effects on nurses of exposure to swearing. This paper reports the findings of a questionnaire study of 107 nurses working in three clinical settings, which used a mixed methods approach. Participants reported high levels of swearing by patients, 32% citing its occurrence from one to five times per week and 7% 'continuously'; a similar incidence arose across the nursing teams at all sites, but being sworn at in anger by another staff member happened rarely. The study failed to show significant differences in the frequency of swearing between mental health and paediatric settings, but did find gender-based differences in both frequency of use and offendedness. High degrees of distress among nurses subjected to swearing were evident; moreover, respondents appeared to have only a limited range of interventions to draw upon in dealing with exposure to such treatment.

Lawmaking: how to be heard in Lansing and Washington.

In one way or another, government regulation affects your medical practice. Whether it is the fee schedule you receive from Medicare or a mandatory hospital stay for a new mother, decisions in Lansing and Washington, D.C. are making an impact in health care. As physicians, we are a highly valuable source of information, and therefore need to contribute our expertise to the political processes that will shape public policy for the future. Physicians must realize that without advocacy, all of our knowledge will remain untapped by our lawmakers.

Functional expression of Arabidopsis thaliana anthranilate synthase subunit I in Escherichia coli.

Anthranilate synthase is involved in tryptophan (Trp) biosynthesis. Functional expression of subunit I from Arabidopsis (ASA1) was achieved in bacteria as a protein fused with glutathione S-transferase (GST). The active product was purified in a single step on a glutathione-Sepharose column. The Vmax (45 nmol min-1mg-1), the apparent K(M) for chorismate (180 microM), and the feedback inhibition by Trp (complete inhibition by 10 microM Trp) of the purified fusion product (GST-ASA1) were comparable to anthranilate synthase purified from plants. Polyclonal antibodies raised against the fusion project and purified by affinity chromatography on a GST-ASA1-Sepharose column cross-reacted with a 61.5-kD protein in a partially purified anthranilate synthase preparation from corn seedlings. GST-ASA1 cleavage by thrombin, as well as site-directed mutagenesis modifications of the Trp allosteric site, inactivated the recombinant protein.

Purification and characterization of the Manduca sexta neuropeptide processing enzyme carboxypeptidase E.

The neuropeptide processing enzyme carboxypeptidase E (CPE) (E.C.3.4.17.10) has been well studied in vertebrates but its presence in invertebrates has not yet been reported. CPE activity in insects is present in membrane-bound and soluble forms. The soluble CPE has been purified to homogeneity from the brain of the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta. It is a 57 kDa glycoprotein containing 9% sugars. It is activated 9.2 +/- 1.8 fold by CoCl2 and inhibited by chelating agents. Its sensitivity to guanidinoethyl-mercaptosuccinic acid, and its molecular mass, make this enzyme a good candidate to be the insect equivalent of the mammalian CPE. Furthermore, its lack of sensitivity towards p-(chloromercuri)benzenesulfonate puts it closer to the vertebrate carboxypeptidase M (CPM). We postulate that insects may possess a single protein fulfilling both CPE and CPM functions.

MSMS sees opportunity for meaningful change.

The Michigan State Medical Society believes there is a real opportunity for professional liability reform in Michigan. In our view, the likelihood of such reform has increased significantly during the past several months for three major reasons. The most important factor is the election of Governor Engler, who has indicated that medical liability reform is his top health policy priority. Governor Engler appears to view liability reform as a key step toward improving access to health care, containing health care costs, and improving the quality of health care. Second, data released by Professor Robben Fleming, former Governor Blanchard's factfinder on liability, shows that Michigan hospitals and physicians pay extremely high professional liability premiums--just under $500 million annually. Finally, the recent Hutzel Hospital decision, in which the plaintiff won a judgment of $19 million, has focused tremendous media attention on the liability problem in Michigan.

Biologic aggressiveness of palpable and nonpalpable prostate cancer: assessment with endosonography.

The biologic aggressiveness of palpable versus nonpalpable prostate cancer was evaluated in 666 patients studied with endosonography over a 24-month period. Biologic aggressiveness was defined by a combined histologic and grade-stage category score. In 314 patients suspected of having prostate cancer 328 biopsies were performed. Carcinoma was detected in 99 patients, by means of both palpation and endosonography (n = 80), endosonography alone (n = 9), and palpation alone (n = 8); two cancers were not detected with either palpation or endosonography. All patients with normal results of digital examination had a combined grade-stage category score lower than 9. Fifty-five of 69 patients (80%) with abnormal results of digital examination and available histologic data had a histologic score of 6 or higher; 38 of these patients (69%) had a combined grade-stage category score of 9 or higher. Although the number of patients is small, these data suggest that nonpalpable cancers are biologically less aggressive than palpable ones and that the advantage of endosonography over palpation in detection of clinically significant cancers is limited.

2,5-Anhydro-1-deoxy-1-phosphono-D-altritol, an isosteric analogue of alpha-D-ribofuranose 1-phosphate.

Condensation of tetramethyl methylenebisphosphonate with 2,3-O-isopropylidene-5-O-trityl-D-ribose gave a mixture of 2,5-anhydro-1-deoxy-1-(diethoxyphosphinyl)-2,3 -O-isopropylidene-5-O-trityl-D-altritol and -allitol. Separation of the isomers and deprotection gave 2,5-anhydro-1-deoxy-1-phosphono-D-altritol and -allitol. The former is the stable isosteric methylenephosphonate analogue of alpha-D-ribose 1-phosphate, the ribose donor in nucleoside phosphorylase catalyzed nucleoside biosynthetic reactions. It did not, however, inhibit purine nucleoside phosphorylase at concentrations of 6 mM.

A method for lacting dowel pins in artificial stone casts.

The technique described in this article produces a removable die that can be reseated in the artificial stone cast with great accuracy and with little or no movement of the die during fabrication procedures. It provides an easy way to locate dowel pins after the artificial stone cast has hardened.

2'-O-Acyl-6-thioinosine cyclic 3',5'-phosphates as prodrugs of thioinosinic acid.

A series of 2'-O-acyl derivatives of 6-thioinosine cyclic 3',5'-phosphate (6-HS-cRMP) were prepared and examined for their cytotoxic effects on S49 mouse lymphoma cells which were deficient in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRTase). Cytotoxicity increased with the lipophilicity of the acyl group to a lowest EC50 of 65 micrometer for the 2'-O-palmityl derivative. Addition of a mutation in the gene for cAMP-dependent protein kinase to the HGPRTase-deficient cell line confers resistance to 2'-O-butyryl-cAMP but not to 2'-O-butyryl-6-HS-cRMP, indicating that the latter does not exert its toxic effect via activation of protein kinase. The time course of cell kill by 2'-O-palmityl-6-HS-cRMP resembled that of 6-mercaptopurine and not that of cyclic AMP in these cells. The data suggest that the intact cyclic nucleotides are penetrating the cells and being converted, by phosphodiesterase action and deacylation, to the first toxic metabolite of 6-mercaptopurine, thioinosinic acid.