Transition from Oxycodone to Buprenorphine/Naloxone in a Hospitalized Patient with Sickle Cell Disease: A Case Report

Buprenorphine is increasingly used to treat pain in patients with sickle cell disease but optimal timing and approach for transitioning patients from full agonist opioids to buprenorphine is unknown. We present the case of a 22-year-old woman with sickle cell disease and acute on chronic pain who transitioned from high-dose oxycodone to buprenorphine/naloxone during a hospital stay for vaso-occlusive episode. Utilizing a microdosing approach to minimize pain and withdrawal, buprenorphine/naloxone was gradually uptitrated while she received full agonist opioids. During the transition, she experienced some withdrawal in the setting of swallowed buprenorphine/naloxone tablets, which were intended to be dosed sublingually. Nevertheless, the transition was tolerable to the patient and her pain and function significantly improved with buprenorphine treatment. This case also highlights the challenges and unique considerations that arise when providing care for the hospitalized patient who is also incarcerated.

Health education for hospitalized patient in nursing care: a conceptual analysis

ABSTRACT Objectives: to define the concept of Health Education of Hospitalized Patient. Methods: the study used the conceptual analysis based on Walker and Avant strategies: Derivation, Synthesis, and Analysis of the concept. Researchers conducted 35 interviews with nurses who worked in direct care to patients admitted to a Hospital-School, and a bibliographic search on the CINAHL, Medline/PubMed®, Scopus, Web of Science, LILACS, and BDENF databases. Results: the study identified the antecedents, attributes, and consequences of the concept and defined the concept of Health Education of Hospitalized Patient as “the action of sharing knowledge about the promotion, prevention, recovery and rehabilitation concerning to health based on reciprocity between nurses and patients, family members and companions, in a systematized or unsystematic way”. Final Considerations: the identification of antecedents, attributes, consequences, and empirical references enabled the theoretical definition unprecedented of this concept and its applicability in practice, contributing to science and hospital nursing care.

Nurses and physicians attitudes towards factors related to hospitalized patient safety

Introduction The attitudes of healthcare staff towards patients’ safety, including awareness of the risk for adverse events, are significant elements of an organization’s safety culture. Aim of research To evaluate nurses and physicians’ attitudes towards factors influencing hospitalized patient safety. Materials and methods The research included 606 nurses and 527 physicians employed in surgical and medical wards in 21 Polish hospitals around the country. The Polish adaptation of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to evaluate the factors influencing attitudes towards patient safety. Results Both nurses and physicians scored highest in stress recognition (SR) (71.6 and 80.86), while they evaluated working conditions (WC) the lowest (45.82 and 52,09). Nurses achieved statistically significantly lower scores compared to physicians in every aspect of the safety attitudes evaluation (p<0.05). The staff working in surgical wards obtained higher scores within stress recognition (SR) compared to the staff working in medical wards (78.12 vs. 73.72; p = 0.001). Overall, positive working conditions and effective teamwork can contribute to improving employees’ attitudes towards patient safety. Conclusions The results help identify unit level vulnerabilities associated with staff attitudes toward patient safety. They underscore the importance of management strategies that account for staff coping with occupational stressors to improve patient safety.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination predicts COVID-19 progression and outcomes in hospitalized patients

Background SARS-CoV-2 vaccination might impact on clinical progression of cases with breakthrough COVID-19 disease. Objective to evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on disease progression in COVID-19 hospitalized patient Methods and Findings Two-hundred eighty-four consecutive COVID-19 hospitalized patients, including 50 vaccinated cases entered the study. Compared to unvaccinated cases, vaccinated patients were older, exhibited more comorbidities and did not differ for COVID-19 severity at admission. During hospitalisation, unvaccinated patients showed worse disease progression, including higher need of oxygen and higher risk of death compared to vaccinated patients (OR 3.3; 1.05-10.7 95% CI in the whole cohort and OR 54.8; 3.5-852 in the ventilated cases). Discussion These findings argue for an important reduction in severity among vaccine breakthrough infection compared to unvaccinated cases in COVID-19 disease.