Endemic cross-infection in an acute medical ward.

Urine samples from patients on an acute medical ward were examined each week over a three-month period in order to detect endemic cross colonization or infection. The bed positions for each patient in the ward were recorded continuously and the patients cared for by each different nurse team noted. We found an outbreak of urinary colonization/infection with a strain of Klebsiella K8 in nine patients. Two groups of two patients probably suffered cross colonization/infection with different strains of Escherichia coli. These episodes were not detected by our routine laboratory ward liaison surveillance, but by the weekly samples and molecular typing methods applied to these relatively common strains. This survey demonstrates that cross colonization/infection may occur more widely than is normally detected. The implications of these findings to surveillance audit programmes are discussed.

Intravenous therapy education in associate degree nursing programs.

Questionnaires were sent to 250 National League of Nursing-accredited associate degree registered nursing programs in the continental United States to determine what components of intravenous therapy were being taught, how these components were being taught, and where in the curriculum these components were being taught. The questionnaire also included questions that could provide insight into intervening variables such as support from clinical facilities and administrative support.

The effects of assertive training on performance in highly anxious adolescents.

The effects of assertive training on measures of assertiveness, state anxiety, and mathematics performance in highly anxious adolescents were investigated. A group of 96 highly anxious 9th graders was assigned to one of four treatment groups. Pretest and posttest assessment included the Adolescent Self-Expression Scale (a measure of assertiveness), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Mathematics Problems and Concepts subtests of the California Achievement Test. Experimental treatment consisted of four assertive training sessions, while placebo treatment for the control groups consisted of four career development training sessions. Posttest was administered to all four groups. A MANOVA was used to analyze all of the data on the students who took the pre- and posttest and attended two or more training sessions. Assertive training resulted in increased assertiveness and decreased state anxiety, with no significant effect on mathematics performance, and no significant effect due to sex. It was concluded that assertive training is a counseling technique which can be used effectively with 9th graders.

Effect of glucagon on ion transport in mouse intestine.

Effects of glucagon (GN) on short-circuited mouse intestine were studied. GN (30 microgram . ml-1), added to the serosa of intestine mounted in an Ussing chamber and bathed in glucose-free Ringer, induced significant increases of 43% in serosal-to-mucosal Cl- flux (Js leads to m Cl), 315% in net Cl- secretion (Jnet Cl), 85% in net residual flux (J net R), 61% in short-circuit current (Isc), and 44% in open-circuit potential difference (PD). The mucosal-to-serosal Cl- flux and both unidirectional Na+ fluxes (Jm leads to s Na and Js leads to m Na) were unchanged. In a glucose Ringer bathing medium, GN exhibited no significant effects on ion fluxes and electrical parameters. To eliminate the possibility that observed GN-induced changes in PD and Isc were partially due to changes in membrane surface charge, the effects of GN in Cl- -free Ringer were studied. Under these conditions, GN had no effect on electrical parameters. Furthermore, GN elicited no effect on cAMP levels in either the presence or absence of glucose. These findings suggest that 1) the effect of GN on Jnet Cl is masked in the presence of glucose, 2) GN-induced increases in Isc and PD are a reflection of the increase in Jnet Cl and are neither due to changes in membrane surface charge nor to an increase in net Na+ flux, and 3) GN-induced secretory diarrhea is in part due to changes in electrolyte transport.