Background: Non-medical prescribing in England has empowered allied health professionals such as nurses, paramedics, and pharmacists working in acute and primary care settings to prescribe within their competency area in suitable work settings. The opportunities for non-medical staff to prescribe in respective clinical areas of expertise have increased substantially and continue to do so. Prescribing is now an integral part of advanced clinical practice, which is not limited to just nurses but has expanded to other allied health professionals.
Purpose: To analyse the factors and challenges influencing prescribing for non-medical prescribers, during consultations with patients in primary and urgent treatment centre facilities
Methods: This study employed a critical systematic review of relevant articles chosen from electronic databases including CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane library, and Scopus. Keywords were used to formulate a search pattern using Boolean operators and suitable qualitative studies relevant to the inclusion criteria were selected
Results: Thematic analysis of the articles concluded that there were a lot of sub-themes including a lack of protocols to support decision-making, peer support, and difficult patients which were interdependent posing as a potential barrier or acting as a facilitator in certain consultations
Conclusion: The findings have provided adequate reassurance that non-medical prescribers were aware of the facilitators and barriers to non-medical prescribing. Organizational support and continued professional development are key components of the barriers and enablers for non-medical prescribers working in urgent and primary care settings
Purpose: To report the profile management options of the Keratoconus patients who attended in the tertiary eye care center in the year 2021 and to analyze the practice patterns that are considered to be ideal in the management of Keratoconus.
Methods: The data were collected retrospectively and this was a cross-sectional study. The data collected for all patients attending a tertiary eye hospital in the year July 2021 were reviewed and data were collected on the patient demographics, chief complaints, associated clinical conditions, visual acuity, corneal signs of Keratoconus, corneal topography data, and the management with contact lens; type of contact lens prescribed and the contact lens visual acuity was assessed along with others parameters of the contact lens measurement were considered. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the profile of the patients and understand the severity of Keratoconus and the parameters of the contact lenses selected.
Results: There was a total of 31 patients who were diagnosed with bilateral Keratoconus based on the clinical signs of Keratoconus and corneal topography. The mean age was 20.1+6.86. The association with eye rubbing/VKC was found in 25.8% of the total population. The majority of the patients were managed with RGP lenses.
Background: One of the most important senses in the human body is vision, which is used in many daily activities. Sports vision training is a rapidly expanding industry in the field of visual-skill development. Sports vision training had previously only been used on athletes to enhance their visual abilities and athletic performance. Still, given the pandemic’s effects and the rise in ocular ailments among college students, there is an urgent need to address their visual issues
Purpose: To explore the need of sport vision training in higher education institutes
Methods: This article examines the value of sports vision training, its necessity, and how it can be incorporated to meet the increased visual needs of college students. 170 articles were identified in this study, of which 38 were included. The search techniques included “Citation Searching” and “Using Keyword.” Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar and PubMed were used as the search engines. Both AND and OR were used as Boolean operators
Conclusions: This review also sheds a broad light on the visual problems among university students and why there is a high need to tackle them. This research concluded that to overcome the visual problems among university students, sports vision training should be opted for in higher education institutes
Background: The pandemic changed healthcare priorities all over the world, resulting in increased pressure on healthcare workers. Studies conducted in other countries reveal a significant mental health burden of the pandemic on healthcare workers. However, only a few studies have focused on UK healthcare workers, which can demonstrate variations in healthcare systems from one country to another.
Purpose: To examine the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on frontline UK healthcare workers and point to interventions to mitigate and minimise mental health problems caused by the pandemic.
Methods: This review article used an interpretivist philosophy and an inductive approach. Electronic bibliographic databases were searched using relevant search terms. Primary studies published between 2020 and 2021 were selected. Only studies conducted in the United Kingdom were considered for inclusion.
Results: Ten studies were retrieved and critiqued. It was discovered that anxiety, depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were the most reported mental health issues among frontline UK healthcare workers during the pandemic. Healthcare workers who experienced moral injury, the situation where moral dilemmas make healthcare workers feel incompetent, were at higher risk of developing the above mental health issues. These mental health issues had a negative impact on the healthcare workers’ work performance. This was predominantly due to the burnout, stress, and low motivation. The health workers in UK preferred psychosocial support as the most favourable Mental Health support intervention. However, there were reported disparities in the provision and access of the mental health support intervention at various regions within UK health care system.
Conclusions: It was concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant mental health burden on frontline UK healthcare workers.
Background: Compare the residual refractive power following “small incision lenticule extraction” (SMILE) surgical correction in myopic patients with moderate to severe myopia and myopic astigmatism.
Aim: To study the pre op with post op residual refractive status comparison in low to high myopia and myopic astigmatism patients under gone ReLEx SMILE operation.
Methods: Prospective comparative analysis with 65 eyes of 33 patients classified into three groups19: mild myopia -1.00 to -3.00 D, moderate myopia -3.25 to -6.00 D, and high myopia -6.25 to -10.00 D, comprising spherical and cylindrical using spherical equivalent (SE). Using the SMILE surgery, each patient were corrected for myopic refractive error. Retinoscope was conducted preoperatively and postoperatively one day and one month following surgery, respectively. Results: Pre op 1 day and 1 month are showing a significant and gradual decrease where low and high myopia are compared, which is statistically significant for both one day (0.007) and one month (0.001) post operatively, but low to moderate (0.282) and moderate to high (0.147) post operatively 1 day and 1 month it is not statistically significant. This indicates that high myopia has greater residual power than low and moderate myopia.
Conclusion: This research concludes that residual power increases as myopia increases in severity. As the objective residual power after SMILE surgery is less than +/- 0.50D in approximately 75% – 80% of eyes, SMILE surgery is a suitable alternative for refractive surgery correction with  less complications than other refractive surgery techniques.
Background: Childhood is a formative period in any person’s life. Sometimes trauma during this phase may have adverse effects which may last an individual’s lifetime. WHO has described child-hood maltreatment as all forms of physical and/or emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or life-threatening or other abuse, secondary to actual or latent harm to the child’s health, life, and progress. There are four different types of childhood trauma, namely “physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, and neglect” which can be further categorized as physical neglect and emotional neglect
Purpose: The incidents of trauma may alter the thinking and learning process, leading to engagement in behaviours such as drug abuse. Childhood trauma leaves many trails such as anxiety issues, anger issues and fear of happiness. Resilience and a supportive environment may lead to improvements and decreased duration of the effects of childhood trauma. Also, previous studies suggest that resilience level is low among childhood trauma patients. Individu-als with better resilience and coping mechanisms seem to have a better quality of life
Conclusion: This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the long-term effects of childhood trauma and highlight its profound impact on various aspects of human life. There is a huge impact of childhood trauma on the mental and physical well being of an individual.
Background: Stereopsis is the ability to perceive depth in objects through binocular vision, where the brain interprets 2-dimensional retinal images as 3-dimensional shadows. It plays a crucial role in assessing and understanding the objects we see. Factors like sensory and motor fusion greatly influence the quality of stereoscopic vision. Myopia, a condition characterized by nearsightedness, can negatively impact stereopsis. Contrast sensitivity refers to the ability to discern sharp outlines and detect subtle differences in shading and patterns. It helps identify objects with unclear boundaries against their background.
Purpose: This study aimed to compare Stereopsis, Contrast Sensitivity, and Near Point of Accommodation among individuals with different grades of Myopia and Emmetropia.
Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted at Nandadeep Eye Hospital, Maharastra, involving staff and patients aged 15 to 30 years. Participants with strabismus, anisometropia, previous ocular surgery, ocular diseases, or systemic conditions were excluded. The assessments included objective and subjective refraction eye examinations, as well as measurements of stereopsis, contrast sensitivity, and near point of accommodation. Results: The results, based on 109 subjects, indicated no significant change in contrast sensitivity between emmetropes and myopes. However, there were significant differences in stereoacuity and NPA among different grades of myopes compared to emmetropes.
Conclusions: the study suggests that optometrists and eye healthcare professionals should assess stereopsis and near point of accommodation in severely myopic patients even after optical correction, and consider vision therapy if necessary, as it is an effective treatment for accommodative and binocular vision anomalies.
Background: Blindness, visual impairment, and other eye problems in children are some of India’s major public health issues. In a state-operated integrated child development scheme (ICDS), the government engaged the Anganwadi workers and helpers. There is the advantage of integrating eye health within community health as active engagement of these local community workers spreads and also promotes an increase in the uptake of eye services.
Purpose: The study intended to train Anganwadi workers working within the ICDS with knowledge about children’s eye health. The study also aimed to reach mothers or other primary caregivers of children and pro-vide them with knowledge to increase awareness about children’s eye health using the network of Anganwadi workers.
Methods: A questionnaire-based study was undertaken to assess the cur-rent knowledge and awareness about children’s eye health among An-ganwadi workers and in randomly selected mothers and primary caregiv-ers of children from two blocks of the Saran District, Bihar, India. Com-prehensive training has been provided to Anganwadi workers through a validated training module which follows the structure of ICDS training modules, and each participant is asked to share the knowledge and edu-cate mothers or primary caregivers in their catchment area. After three months of imparted training, the mother’s or primary caregivers’ knowledge and awareness were assessed through a validated question-naire, and the results were compared.
Results: A total of 274 Anganwadi workers participated in the interven-tional program, and 273 (99.6%) agreed that the training about” children’s eye health” was helpful to them. Furthermore, 230 mothers participated in the study, and 222 (96.5%) said that they had increased knowledge and awareness about children’s eye health from Anganwadi workers.
Conclusions: A significant improvement was found in the knowledge and awareness of mothers or primary caregivers about children’s eye health as Anganawdi workers had educated them and made them aware of it. Edu-cating Anganawdi workers has a positive impact on spreading awareness in rural areas.
Background: According to several studies, eyesight may be impacted by dental health, including the condition of your teeth and gums. Hence awareness of correlating factors of ocular and dental disease is necessary among eyecare and dental care providers, so they can spread the awareness to patients.
Methodology: A self-administered questionnaire was developed after focus group discussion. Dentists and ophthalmologists in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai received the Survey Monkey questionnaire, which was distributed through emails and in-person meetings.
Results: 245 practitioners responded to the survey, including 125 dentists and 120 ophthalmologists. According to the survey, 62.18% of ophthalmologists and 34.40% of dentists are aware of the link between poor dental health and the eyes. Years of experience and knowledge of dentists were not correlating (p > 0.05), whereas years of experience and knowledge of ophthalmologists were correlating (p<0.05) regarding the relationship between poor oral health and eye.
Conclusion: Ophthalmologists have encountered more instances of ocular issues caused by poor dental health than dentists. Thus, the present brief survey concludes that dental care provider needs more awareness about eye disease caused by dental issues. Both respective fields can provide awareness to patients for better quality of life.
Clinical scenario for critically ill patients involves large number of medical devices, such as, bed side monitors that provide vital information about the admitted patient. Critically ill patients need prompt and perfect decision, so that lifesaving drugs can be delivered at a proper time. Moreover suggestions/ recommendations of a super specialist doctor may also be required in hospitals. The main problem in hospitals is lack of specialist doctors, so, patients are not able to approach to them on time. Automatic drug delivery using microprocessor/ microcontroller has improved tremendously in recent years due to advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This paper is focused on various Drug Delivery System Interfaces used in emergency cases to reduce manual intervention. We are proposing a hybrid approach for drug dispensing, which can work as open or closed loop system. Another feature of this system is that it can be controlled from a remote location, so is to provide virtual presence of a doctor. The system will help the doctor monitor the patient as per the immediate requirement and deliver drug remotely to patient using smart phone.
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