Stinne Glasdam

The Importance of Magnesium in the Human Body: A Systematic Literature Review

Magnesium, the second and fourth most abundant cation in the intracellular compartment and whole body, respectively, is of great physiologic importance. Magnesium exists as bound and free ionized forms depending on temperature, pH, ionic strength, and competing ions. Free magnesium participates in many biochemical processes and is most commonly measured by ion-selective electrode. This analytical approach is problematic because complete selectivity is not possible due to competition with other ions, i.e., calcium, and pH interference. Unfortunately, many studies have focused on measurement of total magnesium rather than its free bioactive form making it difficult to correlate to disease states. This systematic literature review presents current analytical challenges in obtaining accurate and reproducible test results for magnesium.

Practicing physiotherapy in Danish private practice: an ethical perspective.

Despite an increasingly growth of professional guidelines, textbooks and research about ethics in health care, awareness about ethics in Danish physiotherapy private practice seen vague. This article explores how physiotherapists in Danish private practice, from an ethical perspective, perceive to practice physiotherapy. The empirical data consists of interviews with twenty-one physiotherapists. The interviews are analysed from a hermeneutic approach, inspired by Ricoeur’s textual interpretation of distanciation. The analysis follows three phases: naïve reading, structural analysis and comprehensive analysis. Four main themes are constructed: Beneficence as the driving force; Disciplining the patient through the course of physiotherapy; Balancing between being a trustworthy professional and a businessperson; The dream of a code of practice. Private practice physiotherapy is embedded in a structural frame directed by both political and economical conditions that shape the conditions for practicing physiotherapy. It means that beneficence in practice is a balance between the patient, the physiotherapists themselves and the business. Beneficence towards the patient is expressed as an implicit demand. Physiotherapeutic practice is expressed as being an integration of professionalism and personality which implies that the physiotherapists also have to benefit themselves. Private practice seems to be driven by a paternalistic approach towards the patient, where disciplining the patient is a crucial element of practice, in order to optimise profit. Physiotherapists wish for a more beneficent practice in the future by aiming at bridging ‘to be’ and ‘ought to be’.

The Importance of Magnesium in the Human Body

Magnesium, the second and fourth most abundant cation in the intracellular compartment and whole body, respectively, is of great physiologic importance. Magnesium exists as bound and free ionized forms depending on temperature, pH, ionic strength, and competing ions. Free magnesium participates in many biochemical processes and is most commonly measured by ion-selective electrode. This analytical approach is problematic because complete selectivity is not possible due to competition with other ions, i.e., calcium, and pH interference. Unfortunately, many studies have focused on measurement of total magnesium rather than its free bioactive form making it difficult to correlate to disease states. This systematic literature review presents current analytical challenges in obtaining accurate and reproducible test results for magnesium.

Qualitative research ethics on the spot Not only on the desktop

Background: The increase in medical ethical regulations and bureaucracy handled by institutional review boards and healthcare institutions puts the researchers using qualitative methods in a challenging position. Method: Based on three different cases from three different research studies, the article explores and discusses research ethical dilemmas. Objectives and ethical considerations: First, and especially, the article addresses the challenges for gatekeepers who influence the informant’s decisions to participate in research. Second, the article addresses the challenges in following research ethical guidelines related to informed consent and doing no harm. Third, the article argues for the importance of having research ethical guidelines and review boards to question and discuss the possible ethical dilemmas that occur in qualitative research. Discussion and conclusion: Research ethics must be understood in qualitative research as relational, situational, and emerging. That is, that focus on ethical issues and dilemmas has to be paid attention on the spot and not only at the desktop.

Nurse-led interventions in the concept of randomized controlled trials – critical perspectives on how to handle social contexts

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the randomized clinical trial (RCT) as research method in nursing interventions and problematizes its methodological ability and delimitations considering the use of this method in the healthcare. It aims to examine if and how RCT in nurse-led interventions are handling questions concerned with contextual influences. A systematic literature review was conducted, consisting of 55 RCT from 2006 to 2010. The results show: all interventions were placed in a social arena and address interactions but did reflect the meaning and importance of the social context in the design. RCT operates as if no contextual impact exists, and at the same time, make claims to guide and change actions in the clinical practice. This has implications for the understanding of evidence-based nursing according to the Evidence Hierarchy. Further discussion concerning RCT design and impact in clinical practices are called for.

Transformation of admission interview to documentation for nursing practice

The admission interview is usually the first structured meeting between patient and nurse. The interview serves as the basis for personalised nursing and care planning and is the starting point for the clinics documentation of the patient and his course of treatment. In this way, admission interviews constitute a basis for reporting by each nurse on the patient to nursing colleagues. This study examined how, by means of the admission interview, nurses constructed written documentation of the patient and his course of treatment for use by fellow nurses. A qualitative case study inspired by Ricoeur was conducted and consisted of five taped admission interviews, along with the written patient documentation subsequently worked out by the nurse. The findings were presented in four constructed themes: Admission interviews are the nurses room rather than the patients; Information on a surgical object; The insignificant but necessary contact; and Abnormalities must be medicated. It is shown how the nurses documentation was based on the admission interview, the medical record details on the patient (facts that are essential to know in relation to disease and treatment), as well as the nurses preconception of how to live a good life, with or without disease. Often, the patient tended to become an object in the nurses report. It is concluded that in practice, the applied documentation system, VIPS, comes to act as the framework for what is important to the nurse to document rather than a tool that enables her to document what is important to the individual patient and his special circumstances and encounter with the health system.

Alcohol abuse in cancer patients: a shadow side in the oncological field and research.

This article aims to foreground alcohol abuse by cancer patients and explore how alcohol abuse functions as a biographic master motive and at the same time is a shadow side in the oncological field and research. The research is based on a single case study which draws on empirical material from interviews, field notes and staff policy, with analysis using Bourdieu’s concepts of trajectory of life and habitus. The findings show that the cancer patient’s alcohol abuse is an important part of the trajectory of his private life and spare time. In social life with family and friends alcohol is given and normal and acts as a socialisator. Alcohol abuse provides both stability and instability in the cancer patient’s life. When cancer results in work breaks and retirement, and spare time often is used as drinking time, then all daily life becomes drinking time for the cancer patient. Alcohol is often a hidden abuse at the working place and in the oncological field. In meetings with healthcare professionals, the patient chooses not to speak about his alcohol abuse to avoid further medicalisation. The challenge for the healthcare professionals is to see and accept alcohol abusers with cancer and their social lives without always trying to change their ‘unhealthy’ lifestyles.

Døden på plejehjem - en Foucault inspireret analyse af diskurser om døden og pleje af døende på danske plejehjem i dette årtusinde

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the discourses of the death of elderly in nursing homes from a Danish perspective in this millennium. Methods: A discourse analysis inspired by Foucault was constructed. The material consists of an extensive range of source documents which includes studies of deaths in nursing homes, newspaper articles, theses, books etc.; 37 sources in total. Results and conclusion: Findings show that the medical discourse about death in nursing homes is the dominating and underlying discourse, although the caring and the social critical discourses attempt to speak against it. Professional caregivers have a self-representation as guardian angels and mostly talk from a religious discourse, but it is shown how the discourse is operationalized into the medical discourse. The economical/political discourse takes part in the death in nursing home by dictating standards and laws as well as making rational priorities which the death in nursing homes manifest itself.

Chemobrain: a qualitative study of women experiencing cognitive side effects after chemotherapy

across Ireland to support this cohort of patients; a working group was formed to address this deficit. Method: The working group identified available resources. The oncology multidisciplinary team and the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Centre were invited to be involved. We conducted a literature review and liaised with colleagues who participated in other hospital based support groups. It was agreed that the structure of a single support day to be held off site. Patients with a primary cancer who had completed their treatments were invited to attend along with their main support/partner. The aim and structure of the day was designed to be patient focused. It opened with a psychologist’s presentation, followed by a choice of workshops: Diet and Cancer, Exercise and Cancer, Fatigue, Complimentary therapies, Emotional effects of cancer. The final part of the day focused on Life after Therapy. Each participant was asked to complete an evaluation form for each section of the program. Results: All talks and workshops were individually evaluated. Feedback from the day was very positive and all talks and workshops scored very high. Each section scored an average of 4.5/5 indicating a high level of appropriateness and satisfaction across the various workshops. Conclusion: The evaluation highlighted patients’ need for support on completion of cancer treatment. This support day helped to empower our patients to adapt to life after cancer. Participants found that acknowledgement and sharing of the difficulties they faced to be extremely helpful. This day was made possible by the support of the ‘Ross Nugent Foundation’ and the Irish Cancer Society. No conflict of interest.