Identifying Needs for Advancing the Profession and Workforce in Environmental Health.

An ever-changing landscape for environmental health (EH) requires in-depth assessment and analysis of the current challenges and emerging issues faced by EH professionals. The Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision, and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health initiative addressed this need.After receiving responses from more than 1700 practitioners, during an in-person workshop, focus groups identified and described priority problems and supplied context on addressing the significant challenges facing EH professionals with state health agencies and local health departments. The focus groups developed specific problem statements detailing the EH profession and workforce's prevailing challenges and needs according to 6 themes, including effective leadership, workforce development, equipment and technology, information systems and data, garnering support, and partnerships and collaboration.We describe the identified priority problems and needs and provide recommendations for ensuring a strong and robust EH profession and workforce ready to address tomorrow's challenges.

Environmental Health Practice Challenges and Research Needs for U.S. Health Departments.

BACKGROUND: Environmental health (EH) professionals, one of the largest segments of the public health workforce, are responsible for delivery of essential environmental public health services. The challenges facing these professionals and research needs to improve EH practice are not fully understood, but 26% of EH professionals working in health departments of the United States plan to retire in 5 y, while only 6% of public health students are currently pursuing EH concentrations. OBJECTIVES: A groundbreaking initiative was recently launched to understand EH practice in health departments of the United States. This commentary article aims to identify priority EH practice challenges and related research needs for health departments. METHODS: A horizon scanning approach was conducted in which challenges facing EH professionals were provided by 1,736 respondents working at health departments who responded to a web-based survey fielded in November 2017. Thematic analyses of the responses and determining the frequency at which respondents reported specific issues and opportunities identified primary EH topic areas. These topic areas and related issues informed focus group discussions at an in-person workshop held in Anaheim, California. The purpose of the in-person workshop was to engage each of the topic areas and issues, through facilitated focus groups, leading to the formation of four to five related problem statements for each EH topic. DISCUSSION: EH professionals are strategically positioned to diagnose, intervene, and prevent public health threats. Focus group engagement resulted in 29 priority problem statements partitioned among 6 EH topic areas: a) drinking water quality, b) wastewater management, c) healthy homes, d) food safety, e) vectors and public health pests, and f) emerging issues. This commentary article identifies priority challenges and related research needs to catalyze effective delivery of essential environmental public health services for common EH program areas in health departments. An unprecedented initiative to revitalize EH practice with timely and strategic recommendations for student and professional training, nontraditional partnerships, and basic and translational research activities is recommended. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP5161.

Does knowing that a suicide was "rational" influence grief?

Counseling professionals and graduate students (N = 117) recruited online read a randomly assigned one-paragraph vignette about either a nonrational or rational suicide involving an imaginary loved one. Then, they completed the Grief Experiences Questionnaire (GEQ) about how they would feel. The nonrational suicide group expected significantly more search for explanation than the rational suicide group but was not significantly different on the other six GEQ subscales. All participants expected few distressing reactions to either vignette, suggesting a one-paragraph vignette may not be sufficient to induce the kind of grief many experience when a loved one dies by suicide.

[Honey: from Noe to wound care]. / Le miel: de Noé aux soins de plaies.

Honey with its high concentration of sugar constitute a hyperosmotic medium with antimicrobial properties. It contains different enzymes, including glucose-oxidase that generates hydrogen peroxide and gluconic acid in the presence of glucose and water. The viscosity and the hygroscopic qualities of honey permits its even spread on the wound bed, creating a favourable environment for wound healing. With these properties, honey when adequately prepared, is an efficient treatment of chronic wounds of the lower leg and also of abdominal wounds.

Dressing-related pain in patients with chronic wounds: an international patient perspective.

This cross-sectional international survey assessed patients' perceptions of their wound pain. A total of 2018 patients (57% female) from 15 different countries with a mean age of 68.6 years (SD = 15.4) participated. The wounds were categorised into ten different types with a mean wound duration of 19.6 months (SD = 51.8). For 2018 patients, 3361 dressings/compression systems were being used, with antimicrobials being reported most frequently (n= 605). Frequency of wound-related pain was reported as 32.2%, 'never' or 'rarely', 31.1%, 'quite often' and 36.6%, 'most' or 'all of the time', with venous and arterial ulcers associated with more frequent pain (P= 0.002). All patients reported that 'the wound itself' was the most painful location (n= 1840). When asked if they experienced dressing-related pain, 286 (14.7%) replied 'most of the time' and 334 (17.2%) reported pain 'all of the time'; venous, mixed and arterial ulcers were associated with more frequent pain at dressing change (P < 0.001). Eight hundred and twelve (40.2%) patients reported that it took <1 hour for the pain to subside after a dressing change, for 449 (22.2%) it took 1-2 hours, for 192 (9.5%) it took 3-5 hours and for 154 (7.6%) patients it took more than 5 hours. Pain intensity was measured using a visual analogue scale (VAS) (0-100) giving a mean score of 44.5 (SD = 30.5, n= 1981). Of the 1141 who reported that they generally took pain relief, 21% indicated that they did not feel it was effective. Patients were asked to rate six symptoms associated with living with a chronic wound; 'pain' was given the highest mean score of 3.1 (n= 1898). In terms of different types of daily activities, 'overdoing things' was associated with the highest mean score (mean = 2.6, n= 1916). During the stages of the dressing change procedure; 'touching/handling the wound' was given the highest mean score of 2.9, followed by cleansing and dressing removal (n= 1944). One thousand four hundred and eighty-five (80.15%) patients responded that they liked to be actively involved in their dressing changes, 1141 (58.15%) responded that they were concerned about the long-term side-effects of medication, 790 (40.3%) of patient indicated that the pain at dressing change was the worst part of living with a wound. This study adds substantially to our knowledge of how patients experience wound pain and gives us the opportunity to explore cultural differences in more detail.

Copyright law and distance nursing education.

The authors present essential information regarding the copyright law and online education. This information provides the reader specific aids to assist in designing and implementing distance education courses within the bounds of the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act and fair use guidelines. From their research, the authors, who are distance education experts, offer a wide array of educational and legal data to inform nurse educators.