CONTENTS
Vol. 14. No. 4. AUGUST 2001
  Open heart surgery in the elderly
Balogh, I.
Nursing and euthanasia from the point of view of the Roman Catholic church
Tamási Légrádi, M.
PRESENTED AT CONFERENCE Burnout among nurses in a Hungarian county hospital
Németh N., E.
IT IN NURSING Nursing literature in electronic form
Balogh, Z.
First-aid and its teaching – A survey of the related electronic literature
Hornyák, I.
NURSING POLICY Strenghening nursing and midwifery. WHA54.12 resulation, adopted at the 9th plenary meeting, 21 May 2001.
Review of the nursing literature

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Balogh, I.: Open heart surgery in the elderly
Objective: to compare the postoperative recovery following cardiac surgery of elderly vs. younger patients, as the number of elderly patients undergoing open heart surgery has increased recently at the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Debrecen, Hungary.

Patients, methods: Between September 1, 1999 and December 15, 1999, 50 consecutive patients above 70 years of age (mean 73.8 years) and 50 younger patients (mean age 55.3 years) were investigated. The case-history, type of operation, aortic x-clamp and perfusion time, length of ventillation, major postoperative complications, ICU and hospital stay were recorded.

Results: Coronary bypass operation was the most common procedure in both groups. The operative procedure, the aortic x-clamp and bypass time was not significantly different in the two groups. Early mortality was 6% and 2% in the elderly and younger group respectively. The elderly patients required 50% longer respiratory support than did their younger peers. There were 9 times more renal failure, 3 times more neurological events, 2.5 times more bleeding complications and 50% more arrhythmia in those aged 70 years and older. Due to the higher incidence of complications, the ICU stay was 100%, whereas the hospital LOS was 30% longer for patients above 70 years of age.

Conclusion: Open heart operation can be performed safely even in patients 70 years and older. However, the postoperative care of the elderly patients is a demanding taks, which requires more personal and financial resources from the health services.

Tamási Légrádi, M.: Nursing and euthanasia from the point of view of the Roman Catholic church
Objective: this study tried to assess the opinion of healty people about death, dying and euthanasia and to identify how this opinion changes if the indiviudal is close to death.

Method and sample: A questionnaire was administered to 60 healthy subjects aged 18 to 78 years in two districts of Budapest, Hungary. An interview survey was planned to elicit the opinion of dying patients in two faith-based (Catholic) nursing homes, however, the attempt failed due to the negative attitude of the medical staff.

Findings: 65% of the Catholic respondents approved of euthanasia, in contrast to the Catholic Church’s position. Hoever, only 47% said that they would have recourse to it if they were in terminal stage of an incurable disease.

Conclusions: Religious persons do not understand or are not fully aware of the Church’s poisition. Death is looked upon by the Church as a continuous process, whereas sience makes a difference between its individual stages.

 

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