first opinion
How an emergency doctor would prevent ER violence
Adobe
Health care workers are targets of violence at levels five times higher than in other professions. There is no more vulnerable place than the ER, where pretty much no patient wants to be. For staff, ER boarding of hospital patients and crowding require constant workarounds, draining their cognitive and compassionate reserves. Emergency physician Jay Baruch shares lessons he's learned about how patients' powerlessness and loss of control feed their aggression.
To restore a measure of control to them, a quiet room, a lack of judgment, and an offer for medication if necessary work. But when ERs have no rooms (quiet or otherwise), Baruch writes in a STAT First Opinion, the goal should be not just safety, but security. "A respectful restoration of control is core to security, and control can feel elusive to ER patients as well as staff," he writes. "Folded into security is the belief that a thing or a place is fixed, reliable, and trustworthy." Read more on how to get there.
covid
Testing, testing, testing
In my house over the December holidays, we broke out the Covid tests again, checking to see if that tickle in the throat was from an invading virus or a re-emerging cat allergy. There were negatives all around (and a Claritin fix), but were we too quick to assume we didn't have Covid-19? A story in the Los Angeles Times suggests we should have gone beyond the recommended repeat test at 48 hours (I know, I know) if we still had symptoms, and test again four days after the scratchy throats started (really?).
Why the need for so much testing? Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, points to accumulated immunity from Covid-19 over the past nearly four years, whether from vaccinations or previous infections. "It's actually pushing back the time that people's Covid tests are coming up positive," Hudson told the LA Times. "They should really, probably on Day 4, retest themselves if they're doing the home antigen test."
More covid
Study finds link between omnivorous eating and Covid — but hold off on overhauling your diet
Wouldn't it be nice if preventing Covid were this simple? A new study in BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health suggests a plant-based diet might protect people against Covid-19 infection. The authors reached this conclusion after surveying 702 adults, nearly half of whom previously had Covid. Those who ate an omnivore's diet were more likely to have caught Covid (52%) than the herbivores (40%). Setting aside questions about how accurately people recall what they ate (a limitation the researchers acknowledge), skeptical readers might wonder about other factors that could explain the findings.
While there were no significant differences in sex, age, or vaccination status between the two groups, more people had postgraduate degrees in the group eating a plant-based diet. And meat-eaters reported a higher rate of medical conditions, including the known Covid risk factors of obesity and lower rates of physical activity. As Gavin Stewart of Newcastle University said in a statement, "The conclusion that plant-based diets have a preventative role in Covid-19 infection is premature and not warranted."
No comments