[Therapeutic use of nitric oxide: implications for nursing]. / Utilização do óxido nítrico como terapêutica: implicações para a enfermagem.

Nitric oxide (NO) is a gas that transmits signals in the organism. Such signal transmission takes place by means of the gas synthesis and release in different cell types. After it is released, the gas penetrates the membrane of a neighboring cell and regulates its function. Such mechanism represents an entirely new signaling principle in biological systems. The discoverers of NO as a signaling molecule were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1998. This discovery has revolutionized medicine and originated new treatments for old problems. In this study, we review the role of NO in some pathologies such as sepsis, arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension and Nitric Oxide is explained in terms of its current merit for treatment and its impact on nursing care.

[Nursing diagnoses by undergraduate students on hospitalized patients with neurological changes]. / Diagnósticos de enfermagem: atribuição feita por graduandos de enfermagem a pacientes internados com alterações neurológicas.

Diagnostic categories and patterns of human responses were identified in neurologic patients, assisted by nursing undergraduate students who attributed to them nursing diagnoses, according to NANDA's Taxinomy I. The majority of attributed diagnoses refer to the patterns Exchange, Move and Communicate and the minority to the patterns Choose, Receive and Feel. The non attribution of other diagnoses probably occurred due to the lack of emphasis given to them and to students' inexperience. Faculty determinations to develop in the students skills of analysis and synthesis confirm this positive experience.

[The diagnostic process and how to teach it]. / O processo de diagnosticar e o seu ensino.

The subject of the present study is the teaching of the ability of diagnosing to nursing students. It has the general objective of verifying the adequacy of the elaboration of the analysis and synthesis process and its relation to the establishment of nursing diagnosis. After the development of the programmatic content of the Medical Nursing Discipline, students individually elaborated, facing a hypothetic situation, the diagnosis process (RISNER, 1986), obtaining a total of 106 diagnosis formulations (Taxonomy I of North American Nursing Diagnosis Association). The major difficulties were in the areas of "the establishment of relations and "data clustering". Authors suggest the stimulation of the development of the process of thinking inherent to analysis and synthesis since the beginning of undergraduate course.

[Patients with cardiac disorders: diagnostic profile elaborated for nursing students]. / Clientela com alterações cardíacas: perfil diagnóstico elaborado por alunos de enfermagem.

The present study aimed at searching patterns of human responses and diagnoses categories identified by 16 undergraduate nursing students in 22 patients with cardiac alterations admitted in a School Hospital. 77 Nursing Diagnoses (ND) were found, 72.7% in the pattern of EXCHANGING, 7.7% in the pattern of MOVING, 6.4% in the pattern of FEELING and 2.5% in the pattern of RELATING. The predominant diagnoses categories were: knowledge deficit (9%), decreased cardiac output (7.7%), fluid volume excess (6.4%), altered nutrition less than body requirements (6.4%) and high risk for infection (5.1%).

[The theme of death: an educational proposal]. / O tema da morte: uma proposta de educação.

The necessity of educating the Health Professionals to the theme Death is concerned has become so evident during our educational activities that we have striven for the construction of a knowledge body about death and dying. Therefore, the knowledge we have generating refers to the pedagogical aspect of the theme. The aim of this study was to focus such dimension as far as it describes and analyses our experience in educating nursing undergraduates to deal with situations involving death and dying. In particular, we try to developing our students in order to be able to provide care to the dead body in a proposal to transcend the technical aspect of this care. Bearing this educational purpose, we strive for a space that makes possible a formation in the perspective of leading the students to another existencial dimension when facing and understanding death.