Preventing Home Medication Administration Errors.

Medication administration errors that take place in the home are common, especially when liquid preparations are used and complex medication schedules with multiple medications are involved; children with chronic conditions are disproportionately affected. Parents and other caregivers with low health literacy and/or limited English proficiency are at higher risk for making errors in administering medications to children in their care. Recommended strategies to reduce home medication errors relate to provider prescribing practices; health literacy-informed verbal counseling strategies (eg, teachback and showback) and written patient education materials (eg, pictographic information) for patients and/or caregivers across settings (inpatient, outpatient, emergency care, pharmacy); dosing-tool provision for liquid medication measurement; review of medication lists with patients and/or caregivers (medication reconciliation) that includes prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as vitamins and supplements; leveraging the medical home; engaging adolescents and their adult caregivers; training of providers; safe disposal of medications; regulations related to medication dosing tools, labeling, packaging, and informational materials; use of electronic health records and other technologies; and research to identify novel ways to support safe home medication administration.

Servant Leadership and Spirituality Among Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Students.

Nursing students represent the future of nursing. In today's increasingly complex health care environment nurse leaders must develop a distinct leadership style based on methodologically sound research to shape tomorrow's clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between spirituality and servant leadership characteristics in undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Although the relationship between these two concepts has been studied in the workplace, less is known about the links of servant leadership and spirituality among nursing students. Data from 66 student participants were analyzed using the Servant Leadership and Spirituality Scales. The results indicated nursing students had relatively high levels of spirituality and servant leadership. A significant positive association was found between overall servant leadership and spirituality scores. Servant leadership characteristics increased from Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program students, but then decreased among the doctoral students. A decline in servant leadership was also demonstrated in nurses in practice greater than 10 years. Spirituality scores declined slightly in nurses' early years of practice, then rebounded and continued to progress with increased years of practice. The authors concluded that students that select nursing as a professional career may inherently possess characteristics of servant leadership and spirituality.

Natural compounds targeting major cell signaling pathways: a novel paradigm for osteosarcoma therapy.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone cancer affecting children and adolescents worldwide. Despite an incidence of three cases per million annually, it accounts for an inordinate amount of morbidity and mortality. While the use of chemotherapy (cisplatin, doxorubicin, and methotrexate) in the last century initially resulted in marginal improvement in survival over surgery alone, survival has not improved further in the past four decades. Patients with metastatic osteosarcoma have an especially poor prognosis, with only 30% overall survival. Hence, there is a substantial need for new therapies. The inability to control the metastatic progression of this localized cancer stems from a lack of complete knowledge of the biology of osteosarcoma. Consequently, there has been an aggressive undertaking of scientific investigation of various signaling pathways that could be instrumental in understanding the pathogenesis of osteosarcoma. Here, we review these cancer signaling pathways, including Notch, Wnt, Hedgehog, phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT, and JAK/STAT, and their specific role in osteosarcoma. In addition, we highlight numerous natural compounds that have been documented to target these pathways effectively, including curcumin, diallyl trisulfide, resveratrol, apigenin, cyclopamine, and sulforaphane. We elucidate through references that these natural compounds can induce cancer signaling pathway manipulation and possibly facilitate new treatment modalities for osteosarcoma.