Do Personal Nurse-Initiated Medication Boxes Work in Prison? A Cross-Sectional Study Involving Incarcerated Persons and Prison Officers in a Swiss Prison.

INTRODUCTION: Daily in-hand medication dispensing in prisons and jails is resource intensive, disempowering, and nonconfidential. This research aimed to assess a nurse-initiated, low-frequency medication dispensing system using personal lockable boxes. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a Swiss prison involving 47 box users and 19 custodial officers. FINDINGS: Box users agreed or strongly agreed about the perceived advantages of the box system, including user-friendliness, lower theft risk, and increased dignity, confidentiality, compliance, and autonomy to self-manage medication. Officers, who must accompany nurses during dispensing rounds, concurred that medication boxes were more time-efficient and improved role differentiation between custodial and clinical staff. Patients and officers were overall satisfied with the system and would recommend scaling it up in other facilities. DISCUSSION: This study suggests that medication boxes are feasible, acceptable, easy to use, and secure. Boxes could promote patients' autonomy, protect confidentiality, and allow nurses to dedicate more time to individual visits and health promotion and prevention activities.

Access to treatment in prison: an inventory of medication preparation and distribution approaches.

The preparation and distribution of medication in prisons or jails are critical for individuals to access their treatment. This process is resource-intensive for healthcare professionals and may violate principles of confidentiality, autonomy, respect, and dignity if non-qualified staff are involved. However, there are no published best practices on the topic. This report aims to bridge this gap by presenting the results of a mapping exercise on different models of medication preparation and delivery. Authors call upon healthcare professionals to enrich this live document to inform health services research further and improve access to prescribed medications for people experiencing incarceration.

Case Report: Don't chew the fufu: a case report of suspected drug body stuffing.

Background: Intrabody concealment of illicit substances is a common practice in the trafficking chain. Bodystuffing, which consists of precipitously swallowing packets of substances for concealment from law-enforcement officers in anticipation of impending search or arrest, is particularly dangerous. There is a risk of rupture of the loosely wrapped drug packets, which could lead to substance intoxication or even death. Case presentation:  This article reports the case of a young man who was taken by law enforcement authorities to our Emergency Department for investigation of bodystuffing. Although the patient denied the facts, the initial reading of the computed tomography (CT) scan confirmed the presence of multiple images compatible with drug packets, which were mostly in the stomach. Upon admission to our secured inpatient ward for clinical surveillance of packet evacuation, the patient denied again having ingested such packets, and declared that he only ate 'fufu'. Fufu is a traditional food of central and western Africa consisting of a starchy preparation compacted by hand into small balls. Fufu balls are usually swallowed without chewing to allow a sensation of stomach fullness throughout the day. Considering the fufu intake history, a careful reassessment of the imaging confirmed the presence of food content. Conclusions: This case study offers an example of bodystuffing false positive due to fufu. It illustrates the importance of a history of food intake that could bias the interpretation of CT scan images.

[Men and violence, a subject little known by general practitioners]. / Violences chez l'homme, un sujet peu connu des praticiens.

Violence in men represents a global health burden and a serious problem of public health, with severe repercussions on physical, psychic and social health. The cost is very high for society. Men are often the authors of violence, but they also can be victims or witnesses. Violence presents itself under diverse forms and differently affects women and men in the various phases of their life and also depends from specific features, such as social status, sexual orientation and morbidities. We propose an overview of several points concerning violence in men that are relevant for general practice.

Fléau mondial, les violences sont un véritable problème de santé publique pouvant avoir des répercussions graves sur la santé globale, y compris chez l'homme, qu'il soit auteur, victime ou témoin de violences, et pour lequel cette problématique reste à ce jour peu connue des praticiens. Ces violences se manifestent en partie différemment que chez la femme et dans les différentes phases de la vie, de même qu'en fonction du statut social, de l'orientation sexuelle et des morbidités. Nous aborderons dans cet article différents points nécessaires à la pratique du médecin de premier recours face aux violences chez les hommes.