Advanced Respiratory Critical Care


Book Description

Respiratory disease is the most common reason for admission to intensive care, and advanced respiratory support is one of the most frequently used interventions in critically ill patients. A clear understanding of respiratory disease is the cornerstone of high quality intensive care. Although a plethora of literature is available, both in print and online, finding the necessary relevant information can be difficult and time consuming. This handbook provides comprehensive clinical detail in an easily readable format. It is written by practising clinicians and has both in-depth theoretical discussion and practical management advice. The book is divided into sections: Section 1 deals with the approach to the patient with respiratory failure - including pathophysiology, investigation and diagnosis Sections 2 covers non invasive treatment modalities Sections 3 and 4 examine invasive ventilation in detail. Section 3 considers the principles of mechanical ventilation while section 4 deals with individual ventilator modes Section 5 discusses the management of the ventilated patient including sedation, monitoring, asynchrony, heart - lung interaction, hypercapnia and hypoxia, complications, weaning and extubation. It also has chapters on areas less frequently covered such as humidification, suction, tracheal tubes and principles of physiotherapy Section 6 is a comprehensive breakdown of each respiratory condition seen in ICU. This book is designed to bridge the gap between Intensive Care starter texts and all-encompassing reference textbooks. It is aimed at consultants and senior trainees in Intensive Care Medicine, senior ICU nursing staff, consultants in other specialties and allied healthcare professionals who have an interest in advanced respiratory critical care.










Accuracy Requirements and Uncertainties in Radiotherapy


Book Description

Accuracy requirements in radiation oncology have been defined in multiple publications; however, these have been based on differing radiation technologies. In the meantime, the uncertainties in radiation dosimetry reference standards have been reduced and more detailed patient outcome data are available. No comprehensive literature on accuracy and uncertainties in radiotherapy has been published so far. The IAEA has therefore developed a new international consensus document on accuracy requirements and uncertainties in radiation therapy, to promote safer and more effective patient treatments. This publication addresses accuracy and uncertainty issues related to the vast majority of radiotherapy departments including both external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. It covers clinical, radiobiological, dosimetric, technical and physical aspects.




Guidelines for Clinical Practice


Book Description

Guidelines for the clinical practice of medicine have been proposed as the solution to the whole range of current health care problems. This new book presents the first balanced and highly practical view of guidelinesâ€"their strengths, their limitations, and how they can be used most effectively to benefit health care. The volume offers: Recommendations and a proposed framework for strengthening development and use of guidelines. Numerous examples of guidelines. A ready-to-use instrument for assessing the soundness of guidelines. Six case studies exploring issues involved when practitioners use guidelines on a daily basis. With a real-world outlook, the volume reviews efforts by agencies and organizations to disseminate guidelines and examines how well guidelines are functioningâ€"exploring issues such as patient information, liability, costs, computerization, and the adaptation of national guidelines to local needs.




Safer Healthcare


Book Description

The authors of this book set out a system of safety strategies and interventions for managing patient safety on a day-to-day basis and improving safety over the long term. These strategies are applicable at all levels of the healthcare system from the frontline to the regulation and governance of the system. There have been many advances in patient safety, but we now need a new and broader vision that encompasses care throughout the patient’s journey. The authors argue that we need to see safety through the patient’s eyes, to consider how safety is managed in different contexts and to develop a wider strategic and practical vision in which patient safety is recast as the management of risk over time. Most safety improvement strategies aim to improve reliability and move closer toward optimal care. However, healthcare will always be under pressure and we also require ways of managing safety when conditions are difficult. We need to make more use of strategies concerned with detecting, controlling, managing and responding to risk. Strategies for managing safety in highly standardised and controlled environments are necessarily different from those in which clinicians constantly have to adapt and respond to changing circumstances. This work is supported by the Health Foundation. The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The charity’s aim is a healthier population in the UK, supported by high quality health care that can be equitably accessed. The Foundation carries out policy analysis and makes grants to front-line teams to try ideas in practice and supports research into what works to make people’s lives healthier and improve the health care system, with a particular emphasis on how to make successful change happen. A key part of the work is to make links between the knowledge of those working to deliver health and health care with research evidence and analysis. The aspiration is to create a virtuous circle, using what works on the ground to inform effective policymaking and vice versa. Good health and health care are vital for a flourishing society. Through sharing what is known, collaboration and building people’s skills and knowledge, the Foundation aims to make a difference and contribute to a healthier population.




Hidden Histories of the Dead


Book Description

Examines the post-mortem journeys of bodies, body-parts, organs, and brains in modern British medical research. This title is also available as Open Access.




Toxicological Profile for Aluminum (Update)


Book Description

This report provides information about aluminum and the human health effects of exposure. This chemical has been found in many sites identified by the EPA for long-term Federal cleanup activities. The report includes a Public Health Statement which explains the toxicologic properties of aluminum in a nontechnical, Q&A format, and a review of the general health effects observed following exposure; a description of health effects; how the chemical can affect children; and information on its chemical and physical properties, production, use and disposal, potential for human exposure, analytical methods, and regulations and advisories.




Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes


Book Description

The properties and function of human communication. Called “one of the best books ever about human communication,” and a perennial bestseller, Pragmatics of Human Communication has formed the foundation of much contemporary research into interpersonal communication, in addition to laying the groundwork for context-based approaches to psychotherapy. The authors present the simple but radical idea that problems in life often arise from issues of communication, rather than from deep psychological disorders, reinforcing their conceptual explorations with case studies and well-known literary examples. Written with humor and for a variety of readers, this book identifies simple properties and axioms of human communication and demonstrates how all communications are actually a function of their contexts. Topics covered in this wide-ranging book include: the origins of communication; the idea that all behavior is communication; meta-communication; the properties of an open system; the family as a system of communication; the nature of paradox in psychotherapy; existentialism and human communication.




Motivation


Book Description

This book provides a complete overview of motivation and emotion. Well-grounded in the history of the field, the fourth edition of Motivation: Biological, Psychological, and Environmental combines classic studies with current research. The text provides an overarching organizational scheme of how motivation (the inducement of action, feelings, and thought) leads to behavior from physiological, psychological, and environmental sources. The material draws on topics that are familiar to students while maintaining a conversational tone to sustain student interest.