BackgroundIn recent years, perioperative nursing has received ongoing attention as part of an interprofessional collaboration. Perioperative nursing is constantly faced with new challenges and opportunities that necessitate continual updates of nursing knowledge and technical skills. In light of the longstanding relationship between nursing and technology, it is interesting that few studies with this focus have been performed. Therefore, our research question was: What is the content of perioperative nursing and how do nurses facilitate the interaction between nursing care and technology in highly specialized operating rooms in public university hospitals?MethodsAn ethnography involving participant observations and interviews was conducted during a 9-month study period. The participants comprised 24 nurses from 9 different operating wards at 2 university hospitals in different regions of Denmark.ResultsPatients were addressed as either human beings or objects. Likewise, the participants’ technical skills were observed and described as either technical flair or a lack of technical skills/technophobia. The different ways in which the technical skills were handled and the different ways in which the patients were viewed contributed to the development of three levels of interaction between technology and nursing care: the interaction, declining interaction, and failing interaction levels.ConclusionNursing practice at the interaction level is characterized by flexibility and excellence, while practice at the declining interaction level is characterized by inflexibility and rigidity. Nursing practice at the failing interaction level is characterized by staff members working in isolation with limited collaboration with other staff members in operating rooms. Considering that the declining and failing interaction levels are characterized by inflexibility, rigidity, and isolation in nursing practice, nurses at these two levels must develop and improve their qualifications to reach a level of flexible, excellent interaction. Nurse leaders must therefore refocus their skills on proficiency in perioperative nursing.

Adolescents are in a transitional phase of life characterized by major physical, emotional, and psychological challenges. Living with ulcerative colitis is experienced as a reduction of their life quality. Initial treatment of ulcerative colitis is medical, but surgery may be necessary when medical treatment ceases to have an effect. No research-based studies of adolescents' experience of the hospital period after surgery for ulcerative colitis exist. The objective of the study was to identify and describe adolescents' lived experiences while hospitalized after surgery for ulcerative colitis. This qualitative study was based on interviews with eight adolescents. Analysis and interpretation were based on a hermeneutic interpretation of meaning. Three themes were identified: Body: Out of order; Seen and understood; and Where are all the others? The adolescents experience a postoperative period characterized by physical and mental impairment. Being mentally unprepared for such challenges, they shun communication and interaction. The findings demonstrate the importance of individualized nursing care on the basis of the adolescent's age, maturity, and individual needs. Further study of adolescent patients' hospital stay, focusing on the implications of being young and ill at the same time, is needed.

The pharmacokinetics of alprazolam was studied in 10 geriatric patients (5 males, 5 females) with neurotic depression during a 6-week period. After 0.5 mg of alprazolam on Day 1 the mean elimination half-life was 11.1 hr and Cmax 12.3 ng/ml. The pharmacokinetic evaluation on Day 1 (t 1/2, tmax) did not differ significantly from the evaluation on Day 42. The mean daily dosage on Day 42 was 1.6 mg alprazolam. The concentrations of the metabolites alpha-OH alprazolam and 4-OH alprazolam were less than 10% of that of alprazolam. All the patients improved clinically. The most common side effect was drowsiness, more often during the first week than the last week.