Dangerous Things We Used to Do in Neonatology.

Neonatology has been a rapidly growing specialty, starting in the early 1900s with premature infants displayed in incubator shows, to today with complex disease processes treated in state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care units. Along the way evolving knowledge, medications, and technology provided opportunities to learn from mistakes and misguided treatments. The ability to learn from past mistakes improves our care now and illustrates the need for humility and vigilance in everything we do. This article explores errors made in the past as we look forward to the future.

The Development and Validation of a Communication Survey Instrument for Long-term Care Staff.

Information transfers in long-term care (LTC) settings between and among providers, staff, residents, and family caregivers are often fragmented. In order to identify training needs to improve communication, a survey instrument was developed and refined to assess the self-efficacy of LTC staff in communicating with staff, providers, residents, and caregivers. This 11-item survey instrument, based on a literature review, covered four key concepts (mutual respect, recognizing and responding to sensory deficits, limited health literacy, and changes in condition) relevant to communicating health information in LTC settings. Ten content experts evaluated each survey item using a 4-point scale. The content validity of the survey was established by using the content validity index to assess results at the item and scale levels. All items scored 0.90 or greater and were retained. Future work should entail broad-scale validation and testing of this survey across the United States. By assessing the self-efficacy of LTC staff in communicating with the interprofessional team, leadership teams can design personalized interprofessional continuing education activities aimed at improving communication skills. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2022;53(3):123-130.].

Root malformation associated with a cervical mineralized diaphragm--a distinct form of tooth abnormality?

OBJECTIVE: Deviations in length and shape of tooth roots result from hard tissue resorption or occur as a developmental disorder. The purpose of this report is to present a type of root malformation which seems to have gone unreported so far. STUDY DESIGN: Two patients showing severely dysplastic roots of all permanent first molars were evaluated using radiography, histology as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS: Medical histories of the patients revealed significant, but diverse events in the first year after birth. Radiographically the pulp cavity floors of the affected molars in large part were occupied by ectopic mineralized plates. Microscopically these plates consisted of hard tissue, densely calcified globules, and a network of canals which contained large blood vessels and were lined by cementum and periodontal ligament. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that the ectopic mineralized plate was derived from the dental follicle, had developed during crown formation around the vascular plexus at the base of the dental papilla, and represented a mechanical obstacle interfering with normal root development.