RESUMO
Chagas disease, an infection caused by a protozoan parasite and previously endemic to Mexico and Central and South America, is becoming more prevalent in the United States and Canada. Because nurses and physicians in health care settings may be the first to encounter undiagnosed cases of Chagas disease, it is essential that public health personnel and health care providers in general become more familiar with the disease, including its incidence and prevalence, clinical manifestations, diagnostic criteria, treatment options, and implications for nursing.
Assuntos
Doença de Chagas/diagnóstico , Doença de Chagas/terapia , Papel do Profissional de Enfermagem , Doença Aguda , Animais , Canadá/epidemiologia , Doença de Chagas/epidemiologia , Doença de Chagas/transmissão , Doença Crônica , Emigração e Imigração/estatística & dados numéricos , Hispânico ou Latino/estatística & dados numéricos , Humanos , Testes Imunológicos/métodos , Incidência , Controle de Insetos , Insetos Vetores/parasitologia , Nifurtimox/uso terapêutico , Nitroimidazóis/uso terapêutico , Prevalência , Prevenção Primária , Fatores de Risco , América do Sul/epidemiologia , Viagem , Triatoma/parasitologia , Tripanossomicidas/uso terapêutico , Estados Unidos/epidemiologiaRESUMO
The use of physiologic monitoring (e.g., cardiac monitoring) as an important component in providing safe patient care has escalated over the past two decades. It enables the clinician to detect physiologic changes in the patient's condition before they become clinically significant, thus allowing anticipation and prevention of adverse events. Issues and concerns regarding physiologic monitoring were raised throughout the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) leading to the approval of a project to develop a policy and guidelines for its use: the focus being standardization of processes and patient safety improvements. This article describes the underlying issues, the execution and results of the project, and its impact on patient safety within LHSC.
