Cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains a major cause of infection in recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) and results in significant mortality and morbidity. We present the results of CMV pp65 antigenemia-guided, risk-adapted preemptive therapy aimed at preventing CMV disease in allogeneic HSCT. Preemptive ganciclovir treatment was started when more than 5 CMV antigen-positive cells were detected in the low-risk group (with grade 0-I acute GVHD and matched related HSCT) and when any antigen-positive cells were seen in the high-risk group (with grade II-IV acute GVHD or matched unrelated HSCT). At least 1 episode of antigenemia was observed in 53 (59.6%) of 89 patients before day 100, and preemptive therapy was performed in 33 patients. CMV disease occurred in 6 patients (5 in the high-risk group and 1 in the low-risk group), and late CMV disease developed in 4 patients. Only 1 patient died of CMV pneumonitis before day 100. Neutropenia was observed in 51.5% of ganciclovir-treated patients, and coinfection/superinfection was observed in 42.4%. A strategy of ganciclovir treatment focusing on patients at higher risk could reduce the toxicity from the antiviral drug and be cost-effective. Extended surveillance for CMV disease using more sensitive diagnostic methods is necessary in high-risk patients.
Purpose:To examine the effect of tooth-brushing education on the oral health of preschoolers. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group was used. Two kindergartens were selected and 39 preschoolers from one kindergarten were assigned to the experimental group with tooth-brushing education and 39 from the other kindergarten to the control group. The tooth-brushing education program included 1 session on oral health education, individual toothbrushing instruction for 1 week and supervised tooth-brushing after lunch for 4 weeks. Oral health behavior including use of tooth paste, tooth-brushing time and method of tooth-brushing, plague, streptococcus mutans, lactobacillus and dental caries were measured before and after the education. Fisher's exact test, t-test and paired t-test with the Window SAS 9.1 program were used to analyze the data. Results: A significant increase in the use of tooth paste, tooth-brushing time and the practice of correct tooth-brushing and a decrease in plague and development of dental caries were observed in the experimental group. Conclusion: This tooth-brushing education was partially effective in improving oral health of preschoolers.
Purpose: This descriptive research was conducted to identify educational needs in pediatric nursing handoff training to improve students' handoff skills. Methods: Data were collected using a survey with 188 senior nursing students and 48 pediatric nursing professors and clinical nurses. The survey included items on general information as well as experiences in handoff training, necessity, training content, and items for a handoff training program in pediatric nursing. Results: Of the nursing students, 30.5% reported receiving handoff training during their clinical hours. After their handoff training, the students' confidence index was only 3.78 out of 10. Significantly, 98.3% of the respondents said that pediatric handoff training is necessary. In addition, participants reported that simulation practice (26.5%) is an appropriate educational method, and the time required for handoff training should be 8.16 hrs. Admission process was placed first as the most critical circumstance for handoff (56.8%). High demands were observed for the necessity of training content for patients with respiratory problems. Conclusion: The results of this study show the various educational needs for developing a patient safety pediatric handoff training program to promote nursing students' skills in handoff. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This study aims to enhance child care teachers' ability to offer health care by developing an educational program for children's health care and safety. This study was carried out using a one-group pretest-posttest design based on a survey of 400 child care teachers in 3 cities. The educational program for child care teachers consisted of three parts: child health observations, disease management for child and emergency care for children. The educational program was conducted 3 times for 3 hours, totaling 9 hours. The educational program showed better grades of child care teachers in child health observation, emergency care for children, and disease management for children. The finding indicates that more child care teachers will adopt a health care education program to improve the quality of child care service.
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