Eugene Levine

Comparison of oxygen reservoir tube length and imposed work of breathing with the universal portable anesthesia complete.

The Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete is supplied with a 12-inch oxygen reservoir. Previous work suggested that using a longer (greater-volume) reservoir results in a greater inspired oxygen concentration. This study assessed the work of breathing imposed by lengths of reservoir tubing (18, 30, and 48 inches) during simulated spontaneous breathing of an adult anesthetized with isoflurane. Peak negative pressure (PNP) was used as a surrogate of imposed work. There were no clinically significant differences between the PNP with the supplied reservoir tubing and the three lengths of 22-mm corrugated tubing. The PNP ranged between -1.5 and -1.7 cm H2O for the anesthetized condition and between -4.3 and -4.7 cm H2O for the condition modeling emergence from general anesthesia. The morphologic features of the pressure-volume curves corroborated these findings and revealed that little imposed work was attributable to the length of reservoir tubing. These findings should help future investigators seeking to modify the Universal Portable Anesthesia Complete.

Future Directions of Research in Nursing

Nursing research lias far to go before it can provide nursing with the systematic knowledge needed to improve practice. The authors suggest areas that need study and questions that need answers.

The ABC's of Statistics

STATISTICS can be defined in two ways. In one sense, statistics are numerical facts. The publication, Facts About Nursing, which deals with a variety of numerical data about the practice of nursing, is a good example of statistics defined in this way(l). In the other sense, statistics refers to a body of systematic methods for obtaining, organizing, and analyzing numerical facts. It is the application of statistics defined in this latter fashion with which we are concerned here.

Probability Sampling of Hospitals and Patients

level, with emphasis on national policy for local health planning. Topics discussed include: (1) trends in health care expenditures; (2) the problem of the purchase of health services by third parties which emerged in the 1960s; (3) the extra difficulties of health planning at the local level; (4) the influence of the federal government on local health planning; (5) an agenda for reform and federal technical assistance ; and (6) suggestions for self-help by local health planning agencies. &dquo;In the past decade, local health planning has been hampered by unstable federal funding. The absence of national policies and guidelines has led to a constant quest for new ideas.... What is required, in addition to steadier funding, is a fostering of local capabilities for health planning. Health planning organizations will require a good deal of technical assistance in the form of concrete ideas on ways to enhance the flexibility and versatility of health facilities and personnel, monitoring natural experiments and learning their lessons, and elucidating the public policy implications of empirical research findings and even of apposite propositions from theory. In specified circumstances the federal government is expected to serve as the superseding decision maker.&dquo; References.