Rostrum of Asclepius Vol 14, No. 1 (2015): January - March 2015

During the last decades more emphasis is put on the needs of relatives of hospitalized patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). The purpose of this study was to review the literature on the needs of relatives of hospitalized patients in the ICU. Methodology: The methodology followed included literature research mainly concerning the needs of needs of relatives of patients hospitalized in ICU, regardless of specialty. Results: The literature review showed that relatives experience many and various needs, of which the most common are the need of information, the need to participate in decisions concerning mainly ethical dilemmas and the need of visiting their loved hospitalized person. Also, they experience intense anxiety and depression which should be evaluated by health professionals and treated. Conclusions: Healthcare professionals should take care of relatives since the hospitalization of their loved person implies numerous changes in their daily lives.

Keywords: Needs of relatives, Intensive Care Unit, hospitalization in ICU

The Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) is one of the most common and also life-threatening diseases. Elderly patients due to comorbidity and changes in anatomy and physiology of the body, present some differentiation in the clinical presentation of the disease and common symptoms. Aim: The purpose of this study was to review the literature about the specific characteristics that elderly people with ACS present. Method: A review of international and Greek bibliography of the last fifteen years was carried out for the collection of data, in the electronic repositories Pubmed and Sciencedirect, using the key-words: “acute coronary syndromes”, “elderly”, “diagnosis”, “treatment”, “thrombolysis”, “electrocardiogram” and also a combination of them. Results: The review of literature showed that elderly people with ACS present more atypical symptoms such as gastrointestinal and respiratory problems and less the typical chest pain. The diagnostic methods are the same for all ages, except that older patients often have changes on electrocardiogram that complicate the diagnosis and so they need more attention in management and a comparison with a previous recording, if available, is especially helpful. Regarding the therapy, greater caution is needed in elderly patients, because of comorbidities that often exist, while the process of drug metabolism by the body changes. Furthermore, elderly patients seem to particularly delay in seeking medical care and this can aggravate their condition. Conclusions: The symptoms of elderly people who suffer from ACS are to a great degree the same with those of younger patients. There are, however, many particular characteristics that health professionals have to take into account, mainly because of the comorbidities and changes in anatomy and physiology of elderly patients.

Keywords: Acute Coronary Syndrome, elderly, management

A high percentage of the elderly population with chronic health problems, find it difficult to comply with the required medication or lifestyle changes, despite the fact that they are improving their health status. Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the role of counseling in enhancing compliance of older people with their medication. Method and Material: The methodology of this study includes bibliography research from both the review and the research literature on Iatrotek, PubMed, Cinahl, Scopus and Google Scholar databases referred to the compliance of the elderly with their medication and were published between 1999-2014. The keywords that were used were the following: «compliance», «adherence», «elderly», «chronic diseases», «counseling», «Compliance with medication», «elderly», «Counseling». Results: The compliance of the elderly with their medication relates to education, information, the relationship between patient and health professionals as well as the feedback and self-management. The counseling relationship between nurse and elderly enhances compliance with medication. Conclusions: The needs of the elderly need counseling. Thus, the elderly reveal more and easier feelings and nurse offer sufficient support in the direction of strengthening compliance with the medication.

Keywords: Compliance with regimen, elderly, counseling, chronic disease

The hospital-acquired pneumonia is the most frequent cause of death and is associated with mortality rates up to 30%. Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the degree of compliance with the protocol on the prevention of VAP by nurses in ICU. Material and methods: The studied sample consisted of 164 nurses (response rate 76.6%) working in ICU of nine (9) Hospitals in Attica. For data collection it was used a special designed questionnaire. Data analysis was performed by the statistical package SPSS ver. 15. Results: 25.6% (n = 42) of the sample were men. 43.9% (n = 72) had experience in ICU <5 years, 30.5% (n = 50) 6-10 years and 25.6% (n = 42) 11-15 years. The compliance rate of the sample with the instructions of the protocol on the prevention of VAP was 69.3 ± 17.2%. Men complied significantly more (69.3 ± 17.2%) than women (68.5 ± 18.2%) (p <0.001). Nurses with less experience in ICU complied significantly less than the others (p <0.001). The compliance of the respiratory ICU nurses was significantly greater than in other ICUs (p <0.001). Conclusions: The compliance rate for ICU nurses with protocols to prevent VAP is satisfactory. The role of nurses in the prevention of VAP is very important and can help reduce morbidity, mortality, length of patient stay in hospital and reduce health care costs.

Keywords: Intensive Care Unit, ventilator associated pneumonia, protocol, infection

Recently, there seems to be an interest in complementary treatments, with the result that there is a noticeable increase in their use. Aim: The aim of the present study was to investigate knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals who work in a medium-sized general hospital, regarding employing alternative treatments in everyday practice. Method and material: The sample of the study comprised of 234 healthcare professionals from a General Hospital. A special, valid and anonymous questionnaire was used. Data collection took place from March to May 2013, and the SPSS 17.0 software was used for the statistical analysis (p < 0.05). Results: The majority of the participants were married (62.3%) female (75.6%) nurses (56.9%) of higher education level (46.1%), aged 47,08 ± 9,18 years. The majority knew what alternative treatments were and how they could be applied (79.2%, n=186), while 79 persons (33.8%) reported having used at least once some kind of an alternative treatment and 61.5% (n=143) of them said they were fairly/very satisfied with the results. 91% (n=211) of the participants said supervision should be necessary for the use of alternative treatments, and most of them were informed about those treatments by other healthcare professionals (38.8%), family or friends (38%), and the Internet (34,6%). Conclusions: Alternative treatments are a modern therapeutic approach that improves cooperation; healthcare professionals should acquire specialised knowledge regarding complementary treatments.

Keywords: Complementary therapies, alternative medicine, nursing education, integrative health, homeopathy, reflexology