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\u3ci\u3eThe Way of the Moderns: Six Perspectives on Modernism in Music\u3c/i\u3e, edited by Antoni Pizà
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Optimizing Blood Draw Practices and Nurse-Driven Vancomycin Trough-Level Monitoring to Enhance Patient Outcomes in the Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Initiative
Full text linkThis project highlighted both the opportunities and challenges involved in implementing a nurse-led quality improvement initiative in a high-acuity intensive care unit (ICU). The primary aim was to enhance therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of vancomycin by implementing a nurse-driven structured protocol supported by electronic health record (EHR) decision support tools. Early assessments revealed significant non-adherence to proper timing of trough-level collection and inconsistency in patient care practices. These gaps were addressed through the development and implementation of a standardized protocol that improved documentation, streamlined workflow, and strengthened communication across disciplines.
One of the key process improvements observed was a marked increase in timing compliance, rising from a baseline average of 30.9% to 74.9% post-intervention. This enhancement not only ensured more reliable monitoring of vancomycin levels but also supported safer and more effective dosing strategies. Importantly, although the project did not formally measure nephrotoxicity using clinical markers such as serum creatinine changes, the risk of toxicity was tracked using trough levels exceeding 20 mcg/mL, classified as critical. This served as a proxy indicator for nephrotoxic risk. During the baseline period, the average toxicity risk was 13.4%, which improved modestly to 11.9% in the post-intervention phase, suggesting a potential benefit in reducing the incidence of toxic vancomycin levels.
Despite these encouraging results, the project’s limitation in directly capturing nephrotoxicity rates remains a constraint in fully assessing patient safety outcomes. Routine creatinine monitoring was present, but a structured method to track vancomycin-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) was not integrated into the protocol. As vancomycin is a high-risk medication with well-documented nephrotoxic potential, future quality improvement efforts should include formal outcome monitoring to better understand the impact on renal function.
A major lesson from this initiative was the importance of frontline staff engagement, ensuring that the intervention remained clinically relevant and feasible within the dynamic ICU environment. Adaptability and interprofessional collaboration were key enablers of success, with contributions from nursing, pharmacy, medical, and IT teams ensuring the protocol aligned with institutional workflows and national goals for antimicrobial stewardship.
Looking ahead, this project provides a strong foundation for broader application and future advancement. Opportunities exist to expand outcome measures, integrate additional decision-support features, and scale the protocol to other care areas. More importantly, it fosters a culture grounded in accountability, evidence-based practice, and collaboration. Given the critical nature of vancomycin therapy in intensive care, the insights gained from this initiative can inform efforts to reduce variability, minimize adverse drug events, and promote safe, effective treatment across complex clinical settings
Empowering Parents/Caregivers: Enhancing Antibiotic Stewardship in Pediatric Primary Care Through Education- A Quality Improvement Project
Full text link\u3ci\u3eSounds of Other Shores: The Musical Poetics of Identity on Kenya\u27s Swahili Coast\u3c/i\u3e, by Andrew J. Eisenberg. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2024 [review].
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Full text linkRichard Taruskin—the single most prominent and influential musicologist of the past half-century—died on July 1, 2022 at age 77. This Colloquy consists of extended versions of papers presented on July 2, 2023, at the annual meeting of the Israeli Musicological Society, and additional essays by scholars who knew Taruskin personally. The essays engage in critical reflections on his personality, ethics, teaching philosophy, methodologies, and massive and skillful literary output. Moreover, they illuminate developments in musicology over the past fifty years, from its positivistic roots and its focus on Western canonical works to challenges from ethnomusicological practices, feminist theory, and anti-racism/colonialism
Farewell to a Beloved Buddy
Full text link“You never know when it’s the last time.” For sixty years, from a chance meeting when we were undergraduates at Columbia until his last days, the incomparable Richard Taruskin gave me the great gift of his friendship. I never knew why, still don’t, but I reveled in every moment we shared. After I decamped for Brown ten years later, and he eventually for Berkeley, our meetings grew fewer and a cherished correspondence (those from its last months excerpted here) filled the gaps. COVID-19 put finis to our reunions. “The last time” would come and go with all too little warning, leaving only his warm, wonderful, maddening, enchanting words to me over his last year and a half on this earth
Being a Critical Social Scientist: An Interview with David Fasenfest
No full textAn interview with David Fasenfest, editor of Critical Sociology and author of Marx Matters by Raju Das and Robert Latham from 2023
America’s First Neoliberal President
No full textThe late President Jimmy Carter was known for many things: He was a white southerner who advocated racial integration and equality. He was a Sunday-school Bible teacher who also supports abortion rights. As an ex-president, he mediated global conflicts and worked to eradicate disease. But Carter must also be remembered for something else: During his term as president, he inaugurated the neoliberal revolution in political economy. This article argues that Carter was indeed America’s first neoliberal president and in many respects, Ronald Reagan gets too much credit for the transformation in policy that deregulated, de-unionized, and financialized the US economy