bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Robotic applications in abdominal surgery: their limitations and future developments
Authors: Taylor G. W. , Jayne D. G. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractBackgroundIn the past 20 years, the technical aspects of abdominal surgery have changed dramatically. Operations are now routinely performed by laparoscopic techniques utilizing small abdominal incisions, with less patient discomfort, earlier recovery, improved cosmesis, and in many cases reduced economic burden on the healthcare provider. These benefits have largely been seen in the application of laparoscopic techniques to relatively straightforward procedures. It is not clear whether the same benefits carry through to more complex abdominal operations, which are more technically demanding and for which current laparoscopic instrumentation is less well adapted. The aim of surgical robotics is to address these problems and allow the advantages of minimal access surgery to be seen in a greater range of operations.MethodsA literature search was performed to ascertain the current state of the art in surgical robotics for the abdomen, and the technologies emerging within this field. The reference lists of the sourced articles were also searched for further relevant papers.ResultsCurrently available robotic devices for abdominal surgery are limited to large, costly ‘slave–master’ or telemanipulator systems, such as the da Vinci®(Intuitive Surgical, Sunny Vale, CA). In addition to their size and expense, these systems share the same limitation, by virtue of the fulcrum effect on instrument manipulation inherent in the use of ports by which external instruments gain access to the abdominal cavity. In order to overcome these limitations several smaller telemanipulator systems are being developed, and progress towards freely mobile intracorporeal devices is being made.ConclusionsWhile current robotic systems have considerable advantages over conventional laparoscopic techniques, they are not without limitations. Miniaturisation of robotic components and systems is feasible and necessary to allow minimally invasive techniques to reach full potential. The ultimate extrapolation of this progress is the development of intracorporeal robotics, the feasibility of which has been demonstrated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Soil vapor extraction system design: A case study comparing vacuum and pore‐gas velocity cutoff criteria
Authors: Dixon Kenneth L. , Nichols Ralph L. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractSoil vapor extraction (SVE) systems are typically designed based on the results of a vadose‐zone pumping test (transient or steady‐state) using a pressure criterion to establish the zone of influence (ZOI). A common problem associated with pressure‐based SVE design is overestimating the ZOI of the extraction well. As a result, design strategies based upon critical pore‐ gas velocity (CPGV) have become more common.Field tests were conducted at the Savannah River Site (SRS) to determine the influence of a vapor extraction well based upon both a pressure and pore‐ gas velocity design criterion. The results from these tests show that an SVE system designed based upon a CPGV is more robust and will have shorter cleanup times due to increased flow throughout the treatment zone. Pressure‐based SVE design may be appropriate in applications where soil gas containment is the primary objective; however, in cases where the capture and removal of contaminated soil gas is the primary objective, CPGV is a better design criterion. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Absence of severe recurrent infections in glycogen storage disease type Ib with neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction
Authors: D'Eufemia P. , Finocchiaro R. , Celli M. , Zambrano A. , Tetti M. , Ferrucci V. , Lenti L. 
Published: December 2006

SummaryWe describe a 10‐year‐old boy with glycogen storage disease type Ib (GSD Ib) with neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction who never suffered from severe recurrent infections. Lymphocyte subpopulations and assay of intracellular cytokines (IL‐2, IL‐4 and IFN‐γ) showed a pattern of lymphocyte activation suggesting a shift of TH1/TH2 balance towards a TH1 response. This is the first report of GSD Ib without severe recurrent infections in spite of neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction.
The emergence of service operations management as an academic discipline
Authors: Heineke Janelle , Davis Mark M. 
Published: December 2006

AbstractDuring the latter part of the 20th century, the service sector grew significantly in virtually every developed country, with the United States taking the lead. By 2000, services comprised almost 80% of U.S. employment. This rapid growth was caused by several factors including changing population lifestyles, deregulation, and new and improved infrastructure including the widespread availability of new technologies. With the service sector surpassing 50% of the U.S. economy in the 1950s, researchers – especially economists – began to examine the characteristics of services and attempt to apply some of the concepts that were developed and proven in manufacturing. From these early efforts there emerged a growing demand for business schools to develop both research agendas and courses in service operations. Beginning at the Harvard Business School in the early 1970s, and continuing through to the present, research and courses in service operations have evolved from simply applying basic manufacturing concepts in a service environment to recognizing the need for a trans‐disciplinary approach appropriately suited to the particular characteristics of service operations. This article traces the evolution of service operations from its immediate pre‐business school days through its early years as an academic discipline in business schools to the present, identifying “pioneers” in service operations who truly blazed a previously unmarked trail that many have since followed.
Medical patient/nurse dependency in Israel
Authors: Halevi H. S. , Ron R. 
Published: December 2006

Patients' needs for nursing care have been studied in internal medicine departments in Israel. The needs in regard to ambulation, bathing, feeding, toilet and certain treatments were analysed for three standards of hospitals: university, central and peripheral. Considerable differences were found between the rates for these groups of hospitals as well as among individual hospitals and even among parallel departments in the same hospital. On average for all surveyed departments, 54·4% of the hospitalization days were of selfcare patients, 32·0% of intermediate patients and 13·6% of bedfast, highly dependent patients.A comparison with similar studies in New Zealand and Switzerland showed that patients in medical departments in Israel are less dependent on nursing care than in the other countries.Findings of this study stress that allocation of nursing manpower proportionally to the number of beds does not meet objective needs and is inequitable. Real needs of the patients should serve as a basis for allocation of personnel. Part of the nursing personnel should be ‘floating’, with a possibility of directing them daily to different departments according to priorities.
Nursing education research management: establishing priorities and optimizing the use of resources: a methodology
Authors: Kilty J. M. , Potter F. W. 
Published: December 2006

Many educational research projects start from a wide and nonoperational statement of the problem causing concern, and a difficult task for the research worker is to so refine the area of enquiry that useful and effective results of the research are produced within the constraints imposed by limited resources.An evaluative research project into the role and preparation of the midwife teacher, undertaken in 1974–5 by the authors, at the request of the Royal College of Midwives, presented such a problem (Kilty & Potter 1975). This paper illustrates the methodology employed to establish priorities in order to resolve what was an entirely open‐ended brief into a research that could be undertaken with limited resources.
The nurse's contribution to care in a changing setting*
Authors: Hockey Lisbeth 
Published: December 2006

The concept of health needs as envisaged by the nurse and the challenge of the changing setting to nursing are explored with regard to the nurse's contribution to care against the background of change. Advances in medical science and technology tend to result in increasing specialization in health care and a complex organizational structure for its delivery. These and other factors tend towards fragmentation of care. Care is the concern of all health workers and needs collaboration based on mutual trust and respect.The nurse makes not the only but a unique contribution to care. In the primary care team she has information about the patient as a‘whole’ person and about his or her family on the basis of which she can assess total needs and make appropriate arrangements for these to be met. She communicates with the medical and other members of the health professions in the interest of coordinated and total care, including continuity of care between home and hospital, where appropriate. In hospital, nurses are the only professional workers providing a continuous and direct caring service.Care is a concept implying a measure of constancy and continuity. These two aspects, reinforced by communication, coordination, explanation, education and empathy, are some of the main components in the nurse's contribution to care.
Participation in decision‐making in the health services
Authors: Boddy David 
Published: December 2006

There is widespread discussion at the present time of ‘participation’— allowing members of an organization to exert an influence on the processes of decision‐making.The National Health Service is not isolated from this debate and already a number of experiments have been carried out at various levels of the service to allow a wider range of opinion to influence decisions than hitherto. This paper reports on a study the author carried out into one such exercise, designed to assist a Health Board reach decisions about the longterm pattern of health care in its area. Nurses, paramedical staff and local authority staff, as well as doctors, were appointed to a series of programme planning committees to advise the Health Board on issues of longterm policy. After 2 years of operation, a study was carried out into the operation of the committees and the lessons drawn from the experience should be relevant to actual and potential members of any consultative or decision‐making body.
Teaching psychiatric nursing in the classroom
Authors: Dietrich Gunna 
Published: December 2006

The practice in teaching psychiatric nursing to post registration student nurses at the Bethlem Royal & The Maudsley Hospital School of Nursing is described, showing the exclusive use of experiential teaching methods. Five distinct courses are conducted at present in this topic:

discussions based on written work;
discussions centring on set topics;
group dynamics discussions and projects;
psychodrama exercises;
supervision classes.

The later are conducted in a manner not previously described. The dependence of effective classroom teaching on the students' ward experience is demonstrated.
Student nurse rural fieldwork in mainland Tanzania
Authors: Smith Pamela A. 
Published: December 2006

The development of the health services in the majority of underdeveloped countries during the colonial period, and immediately after independence, have concentrated on providing a largely hospital‐based curative programme. This has also included training of the local population, particularly as nurses, to carry out this programme. Figures show that, for the African region of the World Health Organization (WHO), nursing personnel form a significant group of trained health manpower (WHO 1973).The objective of this paper, therefore, is to raise the question of whether nurses in underdeveloped countries should continue to be trained mainly for their traditional tasks of caring for the sick in hospitals, or whether the majority of them should be channelled into other types of work more appropriate to the major needs of the population. In order to reach this objective, an example is given of the Tanzanian experience 15 years after independence, including a description of a community health project involving a group of student nurses in the rural areas of mainland Tanzania.
Attitudes towards mental illness: a comparison of post‐basic nursing students with science students
Authors: Olade R. A. 
Published: December 2006

Two groups of Nigerian university students were compared in terms of their attitudes towards mental illness.Responses on the OMI scale questionnaire items on attitudes towards mental illness were examined. Subjects were 37 registered general nurses from the Faculty of Medicine and 15 science students from the Faculty of Science.Differences between the nurses and science students not attributable to age were observed in Factors A: Authoritarianism, B: Benevolence and D: Social restrictiveness. The nurses scored lower on the above mentioned factors while they scored higher on Interpersonal etiology and Mental hygiene ideology.Also intercorrelation between the five factors was done. Positive correlation was found between Authoritarianism and Social restrictiveness and also between these two factors and Benevolence.
The audio‐visual revolution: do we really need it?
Authors: Townsend Ian 
Published: December 2006

In the United Kingdom, the audio‐visual revolution has steadily gained converts in the nursing profession. Nurse tutor courses now contain information on the techniques of educational technology and schools of nursing increasingly own (or wish to own) many of the sophisticated electronic aids to teaching that abound.This is taking place at a time of hitherto inexperienced crisis and change. Funds have been or are being made available to buy audio‐visual equipment. But its purchase and use relies on satisfying personal whim, prejudice or educational fashion, not on considerations of educational efficiency.In the rush of enthusiasm, the overwhelmed teacher (everywhere; the phenomenon is not confined to nursing) forgets to ask the searching, critical questions: ‘Why should we use this aid?’, ‘How effective is it?’, ‘And, at what?’.Influential writers in this profession have repeatedly called for a more responsible attitude towards published research work of other fields. In an attempt to discover what is known about the answers to this group of questions, an eclectic look at media research is taken and the widespread dissatisfaction existing amongst international educational technologists is noted. The paper isolates out of the literature several causative factors responsible for the present state of affairs. Findings from the field of educational television are cited as representative of an aid which has had a considerable amount of time and research directed at it. The concluding part of the paper shows the decisions to be taken in using or not using educational media as being more complicated than might at first appear.
The British National Health Service 1948–1978: should we start again?*
Authors: Clark June 
Published: December 2006

The author concludes that since the British National Health Service is the product of a complex history, it is impossible to start again: however, the removal of three factors and the development of one would greatly improve it.The factors to be removed are: (i) the witch hunt against management, which has become the scapegoat for other ills; (ii) the medical model of health care, which is no longer relevant or practical; (iii) the industrial model, which has forced the NHS into an inappropriate style of management, trade unionism and employment patterns.The factor to be developed is the clinical skill of the nurse; such development requires improved educational opportunities and a clinical career structure.
Breast feeding in Cambridge, England: factors affecting the mother's milk supply
Authors: Whichelow Margaret J. 
Published: December 2006

Smokers were more likely to have given up breast feeding between 2 weeks and 3 months than non‐smokers but smoking was not associated with any particular weaning reason. Women taking a contraceptive pill during lactation more often experienced a diminution of milk supply than non‐pill‐takers.Sustained lactation benefits the mother since those who were still breast feeding were less likely to suffer from depression or fatigue at 3 months, and were more likely to have lost weight. The early introduction of solids was less frequent among infants being breast fed at 3 months.
Nursing in a changing society*
Authors: Auld Margaret G. 
Published: December 2006

In this paper the technological, demographic, social and disease‐pattern changes in British society are considered and their implications for the nursing and health services discussed.The influences of major nursing reports as well as the consequences of the growth of professionalism in nursing and the potential outcome of the spread of political consciousness among nurses are also highlighted.Nurses are admonished to come to terms with the ‘real’ diseases of today; those resulting from affluence and senescence.Although conceding that nurses have unique and professional roles, a plea is made for the importance of good team work in health care.The paper ends with the recognition that by building up the body of knowledge of nursing, not only will the planning of nursing care be enhanced but also the ability to change as the needs of society change.
The evolution of a token economy programme for female chronic schizophrenic patients
Authors: Butler Richard J. 
Published: December 2006

Token economy programmes are becoming an increasingly familiar sight in British psychiatric hospitals, yet many remain inflexible and prone to breakdown after a period in operation. This paper describes the evolution of a token economy for female chronic schizophrenic patients, where the nursing staff with minimal ‘psychological’ support and in dealing with a programme free of research constraints, aimed to increase the therapeutic potential of the system.The major developments arose from the need: (i) to extinguish the emergence of undesirable behaviour; (2) to develop a more individualized approach to treating patients' problems; (3) to keep consistent adequate records; (4) to re‐establish contact with the community and (5) to cater for patients' varied responses to treatment.
Behaviour therapy in psychiatric and mental handicap nursing
Authors: Barker Philip 
Published: December 2006

This paper presents an overview of the evaluation study conducted between November 1977 and December 1978. The study involved twenty nurses who had completed the Behaviour Therapy Course of the Scottish Committee for Clinical Nursing Studies.It provides an overview of the former students’ engagement in behaviour therapy on completion of the course. The study was conducted approximately 6 months after each student had returned to their parent hospital, unit or to new posts. The information was collected by circulation of a questionnaire. The report summarizes the returns presented by the individual nurses. Additional information or comments were supplied by several of the former students: unsolicited communications of this nature are acknowledged where they appear in the text, by the indication of an asterisk (*).
Representation of racial minority students in selected Canadian university schools of nursing
Authors: Wong Shirley , Wong Julia 
Published: December 2006

Several studies have suggested that the problem of inequality in educational opportunity for minority students, manifested by under‐representation, prevails in American higher education. Under‐representation of minority groups in schools of nursing is not an unusual problem. The dearth of information on representation of ethnic minorities in baccalaureate programmes in Canada provided the impetus for the investigators to conduct this study to: (I) explore the racial and ethnic composition of the student population in selected Canadian University Schools of Nursing; (2) determine the total number of withdrawals and graduations; and (3) establish baseline data for a follow‐up study. This study was exploratory in nature.A questionnaire was designed to elicit information on enrolment, admission, withdrawal and graduation of six ethnic minority groups in the 5 year period, 1974–1978. Out of 18 schools surveyed, nine schools responded with the requested statistical information.Findings of this study supported findings of other research studies conducted in the United States in that the ethnic minorities were under‐represented, and their academic survival rates were low. Statistics presented in this study should not be interpreted as conclusive. Many questions crucial to exploring and understanding the pattern of representation of racial and ethnic minority nursing students are still unanswered. A better designed, long‐term study is needed.
Organization development in a psychiatric hospital: creating desirable changes
Authors: Cope D. , Cox S. 
Published: December 2006

The organization of the way in which hospitals and hospital staff provide a service to patients is obviously of critical importance to their effectiveness, yet it is clear that rigidities and inappropriate and ineffective procedures frequently intrude. It is commonly held that changing hospitals as organizations is difficult to accomplish, and indeed, reported attempts at such change reflect this. The project reported here was a successful attempt at changing a number of different aspects of the culture of a psychiatric hospital which included managerial practices and structure, aspects of patient care, multidisciplinary team work, and staff development. The present paper concentrates on some specific outcomes at ward level.The general pattern for bringing about change involves the collection of (valid) data and then feeding this back to the staff involved so that they can take appropriate action. The data discussed here concerned ward nursing staff's attitude to the ‘climate’ of the hospital, their job satisfaction and aspects of patient care. This was fed back to nursing, managerial and medical staff, and action plans were agreed to overcome the difficulties highlighted. Outcomes have included the production of ward and unit objectives and changes in treatment programmes and aspects of patient care on the wards.
Setting performance goals In geriatric nursing
Authors: Davles Ann D. M. , Crisp A. G. 
Published: December 2006

Behavioural techniques are increasingly being applied in the geriatric field as part of a broader emphasis on psychological and social treatments in the care of the elderly. The nurse is in the best position to analyse a patient's performance and manage an intervention programme; however, some nurses have had little experience of autonomously diagnosing problems and setting performance goals.The authors argue that it is important to set such goals and give examples of how performance may be objectively specified, prerequisites made explicit, criteria for success defined and the consequences of goal attainment or non‐attainment discussed with those most concerned.A complex situation drawn from the geriatric setting which was used as part of a teaching workshop to help nurses define suitable targets for intervention is described in the Appendix.