C. McDonald-Kerr - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by C. McDonald-Kerr

The West Indian medical journal, 2004

Nursing care has been the "grass roots" of healthcare management even before nursing be... more Nursing care has been the "grass roots" of healthcare management even before nursing became a profession. Literature on the nursing experience with HIV is minimal and so it is challenging to comment on, or to compare experiences. This paper highlights the nursing interventions as a key feature in the ongoing development and success of a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (pMTCT) programme in a resource-limited setting. In the Kingston Paediatric and Perinatal HIV/AIDS Programme, the nurses and midwives were carefully selected and then trained in the management of preventing mother-to-child transmission (pMTCT) of HIV/AIDS, voluntary counselling and testing and the identification and nursing management of paediatric and perinatal HIV/AIDS. The sites of the programme included three large maternity centres and four paediatric centres, with several feeder clinics for pregnant women. A nurse coordinator supervised the interventions at each site. A multidisciplinary ...

The West Indian medical journal

Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is a critical issue impacting HIV disease management from... more Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is a critical issue impacting HIV disease management from a national and global perspective. In Jamaica (population 2.6 million), 2% of women in antenatal clinics are HIV-positive and mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) accounted for 7% of all reported cases in 2002. Notwithstanding this, VCT was ad hoc and not standardized. In 2003, a structured VCT programme was developed islandwide with over 300 VCT service providers and 16 qualified trainers. We describe the challenges and successes of VCT provided by five trained research nurses in the Perinatal HIV/AIDS Programme in Kingston which services 19,000 pregnant women per year in three major maternity centres and their 42 feeder antenatal clinics. The VCT model used was group education, opt-out individual testing, individual post-test counselling for seropositives and informing seronegatives of their negative status. Major challenges encountered included lack of quality control of the counselli...

The West Indian medical journal, 2008

Value in Health, 2013

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Social Science & Medicine, 1994

Data from the Australian Longitudinal Survey, conducted by the Commonwealth Department of Employm... more Data from the Australian Longitudinal Survey, conducted by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training, were analysed to estimate relative risks of psychological disturbance accompanying unemployment in young people aged 15-24 years. Two cohorts were surveyed annually over 4 years during the mid-to-late-1980s; one from the general 15-24 year-old population (N = 8995), and the other selected from Commonwealth Employment Service records (N = 2403). Such large respondent numbers allowed control of confounding by exclusion to isolate employment transition groups suitable for hypothesis testing and quantification of causal relationships. Psychological morbidity was measured using binary outcomes of the 12 item psychological component of the General Health Questionnaire. Excluded from the analysis were those who: suffered from pre-existing physical health problems; were dissatisfied in their job; were self-employed; underwent marriage breakdown during the inter-survey period; had become widowed during the inter-survey period.

PLoS ONE, 2011

Background: Behavioral paradigms applied during human recordings in electro-and magneto-encephalo... more Background: Behavioral paradigms applied during human recordings in electro-and magneto-encephalography (EEG and MEG) typically require 1-2 hours of data collection. Over this time scale, the natural fluctuations in brain state or rapid learning effects could impact measured signals, but are seldom analyzed.

Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1998

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 2007

To describe management of anesthesia for transvenous electrical cardioversion (TVEC) in horses an... more To describe management of anesthesia for transvenous electrical cardioversion (TVEC) in horses and report perianesthetic complications. Retrospective case series. 62 horses with atrial fibrillation and without underlying cardiac disease and 60 horses without atrial fibrillation. Medical records of horses with atrial fibrillation anesthetized for TVEC were reviewed, as were records of horses without atrial fibrillation anesthetized for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The TVEC group horses were compared with MRI group horses for incidence of intraoperative bradycardia and use of inotropic drugs. Data obtained included patient signalment, weight, duration of anesthesia, heart rate and arterial blood pressure during anesthesia, anesthetic drugs administered, mode of ventilation, perioperative complications, and quality of recovery. The TVEC group horses were &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; 1 year of age and were predominantly Standardbreds. The TVEC group horses underwent a total of 76 anesthetic episodes. For 40 (52.6%) anesthetic episodes, horses received xylazine only for premedication, and for 26 (34.2%) anesthetic episodes, horses received xylazine and butorphanol. Induction of anesthesia consisted of ketamine administration in various combinations with diazepam and guaifenesin for 74 (97.4%) anesthetic episodes and ketamine alone for 2 (2.6%). Bradycardia in horses was encountered during 15 of 76 (19.7%) anesthetic episodes. Minor signs of possible postanesthetic myopathy occurred following 6 (7.9%) anesthetic episodes. No significant difference was found between TVEC and MRI group horses regarding incidence of bradycardia and inotropic drug administration. Short-duration anesthesia for TVEC of atrial fibrillation in horses without underlying cardiac disease was a safe procedure.

Journal of Medical Genetics, 1981

Journal of Medical Genetics, 1989

In view of the persistent claim of Australian Vietnam veterans that their health and that of thei... more In view of the persistent claim of Australian Vietnam veterans that their health and that of their children were adversely affected, aspects of reproductive behaviour and the distribution of disease and disability in family units were investigated in a sample of Tasmanian veterans and another group chosen for comparison of selected characteristics. One third of veterans reported serious health problems and their reproductive behaviour differed with more marital breakdowns, increased use of reproductive alternatives, and more complications of pregnancy. Patterns of malformation and disease among veterans' children involved predominantly the central nervous, skeletal, and cardiovascular systems. A similar pattern was detected on review of the three other major investigations on veterans' offspring in the USA and Australia. Although plausible mechanisms remain unknown, the evidence from all available studies supports a causal contribution to defects in veterans' children from a paternally mediated genetic effect.

Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 2008

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 2009

Patients in the placebo arms of randomized controlled trials (RCT) often experience positive chan... more Patients in the placebo arms of randomized controlled trials (RCT) often experience positive changes from baseline. While multiple theories concerning such ''placebo effects'' exist, peculiarly, none has been informed by actual interviews of patients undergoing placebo treatment. Here, we report on a qualitative study (n = 27) embedded within a RCT (n = 262) in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Besides identical placebo acupuncture treatment in the RCT, the qualitative study patients also received an additional set of interviews at the beginning,

Clinical Nutrition Supplements, 2012

Circulation, 1996

Electrical stimulation of the heart to prevent bradycardia has been a practical treatment option ... more Electrical stimulation of the heart to prevent bradycardia has been a practical treatment option for 40 years, 1 and over this period pacemaker technology has advanced at a rapid rate. Many innovations in lead and generator technology have now become incorporated into ...

Circulation, 2001

MB ChB; Michael Gent, DSc; Stuart J. Connolly, MD; and the Canadian Trial of Physiologic Pacing (... more MB ChB; Michael Gent, DSc; Stuart J. Connolly, MD; and the Canadian Trial of Physiologic Pacing (CTOPP) Investigators

Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia, 1993

Invasive cardiac electrophysiological (EP) testing and transcatheter ablation are new methods ava... more Invasive cardiac electrophysiological (EP) testing and transcatheter ablation are new methods available for the diagnosis and treatment of complex dysrhythmias. The purpose of this review is to familiarize anaesthetists with these procedures. The #lformation presented combines a literature review with the authors' experience. This article reviews normal cardiac conduction, tachycardia pathogenesis, principles of cardiac EP study and techniques of conduction pathway ablation. The anaesthetic considerations, including the choice of anaesthetic agent, monitoring problems, drug interactions, special methods of dysrhythmia termination in the EP lab, and complications specific to these procedures, are detailed. Balanced general anaesthesia or monitored anaesthesia care (MAC) sedation with benzodiazepines, propofol and narcotics are acceptable. Several conclusions can be drawn: transcatheter ablation is an effective treatment for many reentry tachycardias; anaesthetic assistance for this procedure will increasingly be needed; anaesthesia can easily be provided without influencing accurate EP testing; overdrive pacing is the method of choice for terminating tachydysrhythmias in the EP lab.

Anaesthesia, 1998

Neuromuscular blocking drugs exhibit different degrees of fade in response to train-of-four stimu... more Neuromuscular blocking drugs exhibit different degrees of fade in response to train-of-four stimulation believed to represent their relative prejunctional effects. The present study was designed to compare the train-of-four fade after cisatracurium and compare this with other commonly used muscle relaxants. Train-of-four fade during onset and recovery of block were recorded after administration of cisatracurium 0.05 or 0.1 mg.kg ¹1 , atracurium 0.5 mg.kg ¹1 , vecuronium 0.08 mg.kg ¹1 , mivacurium 0.15 mg.kg ¹1 or rocuronium 0.6 mg.kg ¹1 to patients anaesthetised with fentanyl, nitrous oxide and a propofol infusion. Neuromuscular monitoring was by stimulation of the ulnar nerve and recording the force of contraction of the adductor pollicis muscle. The onset and recovery of block were also measured. Train-of-four fade during onset of block was greater with the lower dose of cisatracurium compared with the higher dose of cisatracurium and all other relaxants. Train-of-four fade during recovery was similar. The median times (and ranges) for the onset of maximum block were 3.4 (2.1-5.6), 1.5 (1.2-2.3), 2.1 (1.2-2.6), 2.0 (1.5-2.7) and 1.0 (0.7-1.3) min for cisatracurium 0.1 mg.kg ¹1 and atracurium, mivacurium, vecuronium and rocuronium, respectively. The median times (and ranges) for the recovery of T 1 to 25% of control and to a train-of-four ratio of 0.8 were 41 (21-50) and 65 (40-78); 43 (37-54) and 69 (58-79); 15 (11-20) and 25 (19-30); 31 (23-46) and 60 (45-117); and 33 (18-57) and 50 (28-76) min following cisatracurium, 0.1 mg.kg ¹1 , atracurium, mivacurium, vecuronium and recuronium, respectively.