Objective: To analyze knowledge, attitudes, practices, and frequent barriers to the implementation of the Evidence-Based Practice among nursing assistants in the hospital. Method: This is an integrative review, whose search for primary studies occurred in the PubMed, CINAHL and LILACS databases. For the analysis, cross-sectional observational studies were included in English, Portuguese and Spanish, published in nursing journals, from January 2007 to July 2016. Results: The search resulted in 363 articles, including nine primary studies. The sources of recurrent evidence among care nurses were: personal experience and local care protocols. These professionals presented weaknesses in the implementation of the Evidence-Based Practice related to the lack of knowledge for evidence evaluation, work overload and resistance to change of practice. Final considerations Nurses presented favorable attitudes, however, with little knowledge to perform the Evidence-Based Practice. Results can support interventions for its implementation in the hospital.

OBJECTIVE: to identify the prevalence and intensity of chronic pain among elderly people of the community and to analyze associations with the self-perceived health status.METHOD: cross-sectional study with a populational sample (n=934), conducted through household interviews in the city of Goiânia, Brazil. The intensity of chronic pain (existing for 6 months or more) was measured using a numerical scale (0-10) and the self-perceived health through a verbal scale (very good, good, fair, poor, very poor). For the statistical analysis, the absolute frequency and percentage, CI (95%), Chi-square test, Odds ratio, and regression analysis were used. Significance of 5%.RESULTS: The prevalence of chronic pain was 52.8% [CI (95%):49.4-56.1]; most frequently located in the lower limbs (34.5%) and lumbar region (29.5%); with high or the worst possible intensity for 54.6% of the elderly people. The occurrence of chronic pain was associated with (p<0.0001) a worse self-perception of health (OR=4.2:2.5-7.0), a greater number of chronic diseases (OR=1.8:1.2-2.7), joint disease (OR=3.5:2.4-5.1) and the female gender (OR=2.3:1.7-3.0). A lower intensity of chronic pain was associated with a better self-perception of health (p<0.0001).CONCLUSION: the majority of the elderly people of the community reported chronic pain, of a severe intensity, and located in areas related to movement activities, thus influencing the morbidity and mortality of this population.

Hypertrophy and recurrent tonsillitis are common indications of tonsillectomy. However, the pathological reports are similar, regardless of clinical aspects. Search for histopathological changes that differentiate palatine tonsils operated because of hypertrophy vis-à-vis those operated because of recurrent tonsillitis. A prospective cross-sectional descriptive study involving 46 children divided into group I - 22 with hypertrophy; and group II - 24 with recurrent tonsillitis, in the period between 2010 and 2012, in a public hospital. We evaluated clinical and histopathological features (lymph follicles, germinal centers, fibrosis, necrosis, reticulation, infiltration by plasma cells and neutrophils). The patients' ages ranged between 2 and 11 years (5.17 ± 2.28). In group I, half of the patients had had the latest infection at seven months or more, and all with obstruction degree greater than 3 (> 50%). In group II, all had had the latest infection at less than seven months, and most with obstruction degree below 4 (< 75%). There was a statistically significant difference in the degree of obstruction (p = 0.0021) and number of germinal centers (p = 0.002) was higher in group I. This study suggests that the number of germinal centers is the only histopathological criterion that can be used to differentiate the two groups.

The frequent occurrence of inconclusive serology in blood banks and the absence of a gold standard test for Chagas'disease led us to examine the efficacy of the blood culture test and five commercial tests (ELISA, IIF, HAI, c-ELISA, rec-ELISA) used in screening blood donors for Chagas disease, as well as to investigate the prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection among donors with inconclusive serology screening in respect to some epidemiological variables. To obtain estimates of interest we considered a Bayesian latent class model with inclusion of covariates from the logit link. A better performance was observed with some categories of epidemiological variables. In addition, all pairs of tests (excluding the blood culture test) presented as good alternatives for both screening (sensitivity > 99.96% in parallel testing) and for confirmation (specificity > 99.93% in serial testing) of Chagas disease. The prevalence of 13.30% observed in the stratum of donors with inconclusive serology, means that probably most of these are non-reactive serology. In addition, depending on the level of specific epidemiological variables, the absence of infection can be predicted with a probability of 100% in this group from the pairs of tests using parallel testing. The epidemiological variables can lead to improved test results and thus assist in the clarification of inconclusive serology screening results. Moreover, all combinations of pairs using the five commercial tests are good alternatives to confirm results.

OBJECTIVECorrelating two unidimensional scales for measurement of self-reported pain intensity for elderly and identifying a preference for one of the scales.METHODA study conducted with 101 elderly people living in Nursing Home who reported any pain and reached ( 13 the scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination. A Numeric Rating Scale - (NRS) of 11 points and a Verbal Descriptor Scale (VDS) of five points were compared in three evaluations: overall, at rest and during movement.RESULTSWomen were more representative (61.4%) and the average age was 77.0±9.1 years. NRS was completed by 94.8% of the elderly while VDS by 100%. The association between the mean scores of NRS with the categories of VDS was significant, indicating convergent validity and a similar metric between the scales.CONCLUSIONPain measurements among institutionalized elderly can be made by NRS and VDS; however, the preferred scale for the elderly was the VDS, regardless of gender.