In this first AMA episode of the Clinical Appraisal podcast, Ian provides his thoughts on two listener questions which were recently emailed, both about the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the more recent metrics which were used to evaluate data on patient outcomes. The first related to excess all-cause mortality, and the second to masking-related decreases in hospitalization rates.

In this episode, Ian discusses the issues the nursing profession may face if its students continue to eschew things like Nursing Theory or professional advocacy, and generally philosophizes and pontificates about the larger problems which might result from continued demonization of our forebears.

In this episode, Ian picks apart a famous study on substituting NPs for GPs in the Dutch health system, in 15 primary care practices across The Netherlands. It's just one of a large swathe of research that now exists comparing NPs to physicians, but this one is fairly prestigious and Ian describes the things about it which are good, but also that which left much to be desired. This is the first of many on this topic. Ian will be reviewing every randomized trial comparing NPs to "standard" medical reference groups which has ever been published, and he'll present them all on this podcast for you to learn about and make up your own mind on. Enjoy!

In this episode, Ian presents an idea as Nursing Theory mediating between clinical research and clinical practice in the discipline of nursing, and discusses some philosophical reasons why so many individuals may undervalue the theoretical approaches to clinical nursing, and how, on the whole, this may be naive.

In this episode, Ian reviews a new 2020 paper on interventional versus conservative management for primary spontaneous pneumothorax in adult patients.

In this episode, Ian reviews a Turkish study on ICU patients which sought to learn whether ROM exercises could prevent or reduce incidence of delirium in a subgroup of NIMV ICU patients over 65 years of age, or decrease the duration of delirium in this same sample of patients, should they develop it during their stint on the unit.

In this episode, Ian discusses an article from the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, published back in 2018, on a prospective case review of 100 patients, where the NPs were evaluated on their ability to properly triage surgical cases to the consulting surgeons.

In this brief episode, Ian discusses the latest CDC reports of a "mere 6% of COVID-19 deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 infection alone" and describes how that misinterpretation is harmful and inappropriate.

In this episode, Ian presents another mathematical thought experiment, but framed again around developing optimism and, potentially, fighting against depressive tendencies to consider oneself a meaningless island amidst the chaotic landscape of the social relationships around them. Considering social cognition from the network standpoint, Ian encourages his listeners to consider themselves more like nodes in a network of neurons than as islands or drops in a bucket, which has little to no impact.

In this episode, Ian details the differences between qualitative research and quantitative research in nursing and other health sciences and discusses the value of qualitative work in particular, which is often eschewed by quantitatively-oriented researchers.