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Background: Nurses in Catalonia have always prescribed health advice, health products, and medication in line with the professional competency of the discipline. Legislation about nurse prescriptions and the implementation of nurse prescribing varies widely among different countries. This article reports data regarding nurse prescribing in Catalonia in 2021 and 2022. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study analyzed data from all care-providing units in Catalonia's integrated public health system. Results: The number of nurse prescriptions increased from 139,435 in 2021 to 573,822 in 2022, and the number of nurses issuing prescriptions increased from 3604 in 2021 to 5563 in 2022. The proportion of prescriptions for different products was similar in the two years analyzed. Prescriptions for medication increased by 7.5% in 2022. Conclusions: Nurse prescribing is a recent advance in Catalonia. Despite some difficulties in rollout, the data indicate that this practice is becoming consolidated, as in other European countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present the testimony of the midwife and practitioner José Quílez, who developed his professional practice in Almenar (small town in the province of Lleida), in order to show how the professional provision of care in rural postwar Catalonia was developed by this civil servant of the local administration. A qualitative study of historical research is developed using the biographical interview as a resource, framed in the phenomenological paradigm, using direct oral sources that have been triangulated with the interviewee's own written sources, bibliographic sources, as well as documentation from the archives of the Official College of Nurses of Lleida. The testimony highlights a noble character forged by the miseries of postwar Spain, which led to his emigration for work reasons from Aragon to Catalonia, where he had the opportunity to develop a solid family project, as well as a strong professional commitment in the provision of care, which is manifested in the rigor in the application of the protocols of the time, as well as the basic principles of ethics and privacy with which he attended to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We describe a series of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) long protocol cycles presenting a risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) which were rescued with an antagonist at a university-based tertiary-care fertility centre. Nineteen IVF patients presenting a risk of OHSS during treatment with long protocol, between 2009 and November 2012 were included in the present study. After discussion of available options, the agonist was stopped and a daily gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist injection was initiated ('rescue protocol') and maintained until ovulation trigger. Fourteen patients were triggered with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and five with GnRH agonist bolus, yielding competent oocytes. Seventeen embryo transfers were performed in the fresh cycles. One patient developed moderate OHSS. There were eight clinical pregnancies after the fresh IVF cycle (42% per patient), and six further pregnancies after frozen-thawed cycles, resulting in a 73% cumulative clinical pregnancy rate within one year. We conclude that the 'rescue protocol with antagonist' of the long IVF cycle with a high risk of OHSS allows us to carry on with the cycle, without compromising its success or the patient safety, thus broadening the possibility of applying the long protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvements in early diagnosis and treatment strategies in cancer patients have enabled younger women with cancer to survive. In addition to the stressful event of the diagnosis, patients with malignant diseases face the potential loss of the opportunity to have children. Preservation of fertility has become a challenging issue and it is still surrounded by controversies. On the basis of available evidence, a group of experts reached a consensus regarding the options for trying to preserve fertility in women with cancer: among established methods, in postpubertal women, oocyte cryopreservation is the preferred option, whereas ovarian tissue cryopreservation is the only possibility for prepubertal girls. Combining several strategies on an individual basis may improve the chances of success. Realistic information should be provided before any intervention is initiated. Counseling should offer support for patients and provide better care by understanding emotional needs, psychological predictors of distress and methods of coping. Early referral to the fertility specialist is essential as fertility preservation (FP) may improve quality of life in these patients. The information summarized here is intended to help specialists involved in the treatment of cancer and reproductive medicine to improve their understanding of procedures available for FP in young cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new collection model was designed and tested in Catalonia (Spain) to foster the separate collection and recycling of electrical and electronic toys, with the participation of selected primary and secondary schools, as well as waste collection points and municipalities. This project approach is very original and important because small household WEEE has low rates of collection (16–21% WEEE within the EU or 5–7% WEEE in Spain) and no research on new approaches to enhance the collection of small WEEE is found in the literature. The project was successful in achieving enhanced toys collection and recycling rates, which went up from the national Spanish average of 0.5% toys before the project to 1.9 and 6% toys during the two project years, respectively. The environmental benefits of the campaign were calculated through a life-cycle approach, accounting for the avoided impact afforded by the reuse of the toys and the recycling of the valuable materials contained therein (such as metals, batteries and circuit boards) and subtracting the additional environmental burdens associated with the establishment of the collection campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the different manoeuvres employed or degrees of difficulty during embryo transfer and live birth rate (LBR) in frozen euploid (blastocyst) embryo transfer (FEET). A retrospective, observational study of women undergoing FEET was performed. If the catheter encountered any resistance in its passage through the cervix, a stepwise approach was used. Easy embryo transfer was defined as a direct embryo transfer or use of the outer sheath of the catheter. Difficult embryo transfer was defined as when the process required the use of a Wallace Malleable Stylet (Smiths Medical International Ltd., UK) without or with additional instrumentation such as a tenaculum or uterine sound. The analysis involved 370 FEET. LBR was significantly lower in difficult FEET procedures compared with easy ones (54.5% versus 40.5%, P = 0.026) but significance was lost after adjustment for confounders. Use of the outer sheath use did not affect LBR. Although LBR was significantly lower when the stylet, without or with a tenaculum, was required (odds ratio [OR] 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.34–0.93; P < 0.05), no statistically significant reduction was observed after adjustment for confounders (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.45–1.47). No significant reduction in LBR was observed after adjustment for confounders between difficult and easy FEET, or when use of stylet without or with a tenaculum was required for embryo transfer. The lack of significance may be due to factors such as the sample size or the use of array comparative genomic hybridization analysis. Further studies are needed to confirm these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To assess the clinical pregnancy rate per transfer in recipients of embryos from donor oocytes obtained after ovarian stimulation initiated on day 2 (D2) or day 15 (D15) of the menstrual cycle with a secondary end point of comparing the response to stimulation. Design Prospective observational comparative study. Setting Private in vitro fertilization (IVF) program. Patient(s) Oocyte donors (OD) and recipients. Intervention(s) Donors stimulated within 3 months, starting on day 2 or day 15 after bleeding, with recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist, and GnRH agonist trigger, and oocytes vitrified and later assigned to recipients, followed by routine IVF procedures one to two embryos transferred. Main Outcome Measure(s) Primary outcome pregnancy rate, and secondary outcome number of mature oocytes retrieved. Result(s) Nine D2 and nine D15 cycles were performed in nine donors. There were no differences between D2 and D15 in the number of mature oocytes obtained (14.0 ± 6.96 vs. 16.89 ± 7.52). To date, 20 recipients have received vitrified oocytes (8 recipients received D2 oocytes and 12 recipients received D15 oocytes). There were no differences between the groups of recipients in fertilization rate (77.3% vs. 76.5%) or number of embryos transferred (1.50 ± 0.53 vs. 1.67 ± 0.65). Twelve clinical pregnancies were obtained. No differences were noted in pregnancy rates (62.5% vs. 58.3%) or implantation rates (41.67% vs. 45%) between recipients of D2 oocytes and recipients of D15 oocytes. Conclusion(s) Donor oocytes obtained after ovarian stimulation initiated on day 15 of the cycle achieve good pregnancy rates. This information is useful for patients with cancer undergoing fertility preservation. Clinical Trial Registration Number NCT 01645241 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]