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Perceptions and experiences of paramedics managing people with non-traumatic low back pain: a qualitative study of Australian paramedics

Por: Vella · S. P. · Simpson · P. · Bendall · J. C. · Pickles · K. · Copp · T. · Swain · M. S. · Maher · C. G. · Machado · G. C.
Background

Paramedics are often first providers of care to patients experiencing non-traumatic low back pain (LBP), though their perspectives and experiences with managing these cases remain unclear.

Objectives

This study explored paramedic views of the management of non-traumatic LBP including their role and experience with LBP management, barriers to referral and awareness of ambulance service guidelines.

Design

Qualitative study using semistructured interviews conducted between January and April 2023.

Setting

New South Wales Ambulance service.

Participants

A purposive sample of 30 paramedics of different specialities employed by New South Wales Ambulance were recruited.

Results

Paramedic accounts demonstrated the complexity, challenge, frustration and reward associated with managing non-traumatic LBP. Paramedics perceived that their primary role focused on the assessment of LBP, and that calls to ambulance services were often driven by misconceptions surrounding the management of LBP, and a person’s pain severity. Access to health services, patient factors, defensive medicine, paramedic training and education and knowledge of guidelines influenced paramedic management of LBP.

Conclusion

Paramedics often provide care to non-traumatic LBP cases yet depending on the type of paramedic speciality find these cases to be frustrating, challenging or rewarding to manage due to barriers to referral including access to health services, location, patient factors and uncertainty relating to litigation. Future research should explore patient perspectives towards ambulance service use for the management of their LBP.

What works for whom, how and why in mental health education for undergraduate health profession students? A realist synthesis protocol

Por: McCormack · Z. · Kerr · A. · Simpson · A. · Keating · D. · Strawbridge · J.
Introduction

It has been shown that mental health education can support positive attitudes of health profession students towards people with mental health challenges, which supports them to provide optimal healthcare to this group. There are many different approaches to designing and delivering mental health education to health profession students. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and often mental health education programmes incorporate a multimodal approach in order to reap the benefits of a variety of teaching and learning approaches. The aim of this study is to understand the current landscape of teaching and learning approaches to mental health education for undergraduate health profession students. We will examine the features of successful outcomes for health profession students for:

  • Learning environment.

  • Knowledge development and retention.

  • Confidence.

  • Motivation.

  • Preparedness for professional practice.

  • Methods

    For this, a realist synthesis has been chosen in order to review the literature. Realist synthesis lends itself to the review of complex interventions such as mental health education for undergraduate health profession curricula because it seeks to uncover the range of different mechanisms and context configurations that produce different outcomes. Health profession education and education practice, in general, is complex. A patient and public involvement (PPI) group is involved throughout this study and includes undergraduate health profession students, and members of the St John of Gods Hospital Consumers and Carers Council who are involved at every stage of the research. This study will engage with a stakeholder group who will support the refining of the programme theory.

    Ethics and dissemination

    Ethical approval has been sought and approved by Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland Ethical Committee (REC number: 212622783). We will aim to write up and publish the full synthesis as a journal article. We will also discuss ways of dissemination outside of academia with our PPI group.

    Student nurse retention. Lived experience of mature female students on a UK Bachelor of Nursing (Adult) programme: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

    Abstract

    Aims

    To explore the lived experiences of mature female students undertaking a Bachelor of Nursing (Adult) programme in the UK, to gain insight into the challenges and barriers faced by students and investigate the factors that support students who have considered leaving, to stay and continue with their studies.

    Background

    There is a global shortage of nurses and challenges exist in ensuring that enough nurses are available to provide care in the complex and rapidly changing care environments. Initiatives introduced to increase the number of Registered Nurses (RN), include increasing the number of students enrolled on pre-registration nursing programmes. However, the success of this intervention is contingent on the number of students who go on to complete their course.

    Design

    This qualitative study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which provided a methodological framework and analytical approach to enable an exploration of participants' individual and shared lived experiences.

    Methods

    Eight female, mature students at the end of their second year of a Bachelor of Nursing (Adult) programme at a Higher Education Institution in South Wales participated in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews, which were analysed idiographically before group-level analysis was undertaken.

    Findings

    The analysis revealed three superordinate themes: ‘Ambition to become a Registered Nurse’; ‘Jugging Roles’ and ‘Particular Support Needs for a Particular Student’.

    Conclusion

    Each student had a unique history, their past and present social and psychological experiences were multifaceted and complex. These differences resulted in varying degrees of resilience and motivations to continue their studies. These findings are important for ensuring that services develop and provide effective support to maximize retention and, ultimately, increase the number of students entering the RN workforce.

    Patient of Public Contribution

    No patient or public contribution.

    Impact Statement

    This research expands on current literature regarding the needs of mature female students, a growing student nurse demographic. Every student had a dynamic set of circumstances and demonstrated that the identification of ‘at-risk’ students, purely based on demographics or information on a Curriculum Vitae, is problematic and potentially futile. This knowledge could be used to tailor University support systems and inform curriculum development and support systems for maximizing student retention. These findings are important for ensuring that services continue to develop and provide effective support to maximize retention and completion and, ultimately, increase the number of students entering the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.

    External validation of the QCovid 2 and 3 risk prediction algorithms for risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality in adults: a national cohort study in Scotland

    Por: Kerr · S. · Millington · T. · Rudan · I. · McCowan · C. · Tibble · H. · Jeffrey · K. · Fagbamigbe · A. F. · Simpson · C. R. · Robertson · C. · Hippisley-Cox · J. · Sheikh · A.
    Objective

    The QCovid 2 and 3 algorithms are risk prediction tools developed during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that can be used to predict the risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality, taking vaccination status into account. In this study, we assess their performance in Scotland.

    Methods

    We used the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 national data platform consisting of individual-level data for the population of Scotland (5.4 million residents). Primary care data were linked to reverse-transcription PCR virology testing, hospitalisation and mortality data. We assessed the discrimination and calibration of the QCovid 2 and 3 algorithms in predicting COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths between 8 December 2020 and 15 June 2021.

    Results

    Our validation dataset comprised 465 058 individuals, aged 19–100. We found the following performance metrics (95% CIs) for QCovid 2 and 3: Harrell’s C 0.84 (0.82 to 0.86) for hospitalisation, and 0.92 (0.90 to 0.94) for death, observed-expected ratio of 0.24 for hospitalisation and 0.26 for death (ie, both the number of hospitalisations and the number of deaths were overestimated), and a Brier score of 0.0009 (0.00084 to 0.00096) for hospitalisation and 0.00036 (0.00032 to 0.0004) for death.

    Conclusions

    We found good discrimination of the QCovid 2 and 3 algorithms in Scotland, although performance was worse in higher age groups. Both the number of hospitalisations and the number of deaths were overestimated.

    Cohort profile: the United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study (UKCCS) - a UK-wide population-based study examining the health of cancer survivors

    Por: Roman · E. · Kane · E. · Smith · A. · Howell · D. · Sheridan · R. · Simpson · J. · Bonaventure · A. · Kinsey · S.
    Purpose

    The United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study’s (UKCCS’s) matched cohort was established to examine the longer term morbidity and mortality of individuals previously diagnosed with cancer before 15 years of age, comparing future healthcare patterns in 5-year cancer survivors to baseline activity seen in age- and sex-matched individuals from the general population.

    Participants

    Predicated on a national childhood cancer case-control study conducted in the early 1990s (4430 cases, 9753 controls) in England, Scotland and Wales, the case population comprises 3125 cancer survivors (>5 years), and the control population 7156 age- and sex-matched individuals from the general population who did not have cancer as a child. Participants are now being followed up via linkage to national administrative healthcare databases (deaths, cancers and secondary care hospital activity).

    Findings to date

    Enabling the creation of cohorts with minimal selection bias and loss to follow-up, the original case-control study registered all newly diagnosed cases of childhood cancer and their corresponding controls, regardless of their family’s participation. Early findings based on the registered case population found marked survival variations with age and sex across subtypes and differences with deprivation among acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) survivors. More recently, comparing the health-activity patterns of the case and control populations revealed that survivors of childhood ALL experienced excess outpatient and inpatient activity across their teenage/young adult years. Adding to increased risks of cancer and death and involving most clinical specialties, excesses were not related to routine follow-up monitoring and showed no signs of diminishing over time.

    Future plans

    With annual linkage updates, the UKCCS’s maturing population-based matched cohorts provide the foundation for tracking the health of individuals through their lifetime. Comparing the experience of childhood cancer survivors to that of unaffected general-population counterparts, this will include examining subsequent morbidity and mortality, secondary care hospital activity and the impact of deprivation on longer term outcomes.

    How digital health translational research is prioritised: a qualitative stakeholder-driven approach to decision support evaluation

    Por: Bamgboje-Ayodele · A. · McPhail · S. M. · Brain · D. · Taggart · R. · Burger · M. · Bruce · L. · Holtby · C. · Pradhan · M. · Simpson · M. · Shaw · T. J. · Baysari · M. T.
    Objectives

    Digital health is now routinely being applied in clinical care, and with a variety of clinician-facing systems available, healthcare organisations are increasingly required to make decisions about technology implementation and evaluation. However, few studies have examined how digital health research is prioritised, particularly research focused on clinician-facing decision support systems. This study aimed to identify criteria for prioritising digital health research, examine how these differ from criteria for prioritising traditional health research and determine priority decision support use cases for a collaborative implementation research programme.

    Methods

    Drawing on an interpretive listening model for priority setting and a stakeholder-driven approach, our prioritisation process involved stakeholder identification, eliciting decision support use case priorities from stakeholders, generating initial use case priorities and finalising preferred use cases based on consultations. In this qualitative study, online focus group session(s) were held with stakeholders, audiorecorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.

    Results

    Fifteen participants attended the online priority setting sessions. Criteria for prioritising digital health research fell into three themes, namely: public health benefit, health system-level factors and research process and feasibility. We identified criteria unique to digital health research as the availability of suitable governance frameworks, candidate technology’s alignment with other technologies in use,and the possibility of data-driven insights from health technology data. The final selected use cases were remote monitoring of patients with pulmonary conditions, sepsis detection and automated breast screening.

    Conclusion

    The criteria for determining digital health research priority areas are more nuanced than that of traditional health condition focused research and can neither be viewed solely through a clinical lens nor technological lens. As digital health research relies heavily on health technology implementation, digital health prioritisation criteria comprised enablers of successful technology implementation. Our prioritisation process could be applied to other settings and collaborative projects where research institutions partner with healthcare delivery organisations.

    Phage therapy: Awareness and demand among clinicians in the United Kingdom

    by Emily A. Simpson, Helen J. Stacey, Ross J. Langley, Joshua D. Jones

    Bacterial resistance or tolerance to antibiotics is costly to patients and healthcare providers. With the impact of antibiotic resistance forecast to grow, alternative antimicrobial approaches are needed to help treat patients with antibiotic refractory infections and reduce reliance upon existing antibiotics. There is renewed interest in bacteriophage (phage) therapy as a promising antimicrobial strategy. We therefore performed the first multi-specialty survey about phage therapy and the first such survey among clinicians in the United Kingdom. An anonymous 10-question survey of clinicians from medical and surgical specialties in two Scottish Health Boards was performed. The 90 respondents spanned 26 specialties and were predominantly consultants (73.3%). The respondents were concerned about antibiotic resistance in their clinical practice; 83 respondents estimated having seen 711 patients in the last 12 months whose infections were refractory to antibiotics (delaying or preventing resolution). Over half (58.8%) of the respondents had previously heard of phage therapy. Staphylococci, Pseudomonas and E. coli were identified as the highest cross-specialty priorities for the development of phage therapy. Together, 77 respondents estimated seeing 300 patients in the last 12 months for whom phage therapy may have been appropriate (an average of 3.9 patients per clinician). Most respondents (71.1%, n = 90) were already willing to consider using phage therapy in appropriate cases. Additional comments from the respondents affirmed the potential utility of phage therapy and highlighted a need for more information. The results of this survey demonstrate substantial demand for and willingness to use phage therapy in appropriate cases, both from individual clinicians and across specialties. Demand from a wide range of specialties illustrates the broad clinical utility of phage therapy and potential scope of impact. Widening access to phage therapy could deliver substantial clinical and financial benefits for patients and health authorities alike.

    Parents' and nurses' perceptions and behaviours of family‐centred care during periods of busyness

    Abstract

    Purpose

    Busyness as a construct within modern healthcare is complex and multidimensional. To date, few studies have sought to explore how busyness influences family-centred care. This study explored the influence of busyness on the delivery of family-centred care for nurses and parents.

    Design and Method

    Ethnography was selected as the research design. The study site was a metropolitan tertiary hospital inpatient paediatric unit in Sydney, Australia. Semi-structured interview and non-participant observation techniques were used for data collection. Ten paediatric nurses and 10 parents were interviewed and 40 h of non-participant observations were undertaken. The COREQ was used to report the study.

    Results

    The findings are presented as three key themes: (i) ‘Supporting family-centred care’ in which participants detail beliefs about the nurse-parent relationships and how despite busyness nurses sought out moments to engage with parents; (ii) ‘Being present at the bedside’ identified the challenges in optimising safety and how parents adapted their way of being and interacting on the unit; and (iii) ‘The emotional cost of busyness’ and how this influenced nurse-parent interactions, care delivery and family-centred care.

    Conclusions

    The ethnography has given shape to social understandings of busyness, the complexities of paediatric nursing and family-centred care. The culture of care changed in moments of busyness and transformed parent and nursing roles, expectations and collaborative care that at time generated internal emotional conflict and tension.

    Practice implications

    Given the increasing work demands across health systems, new agile ways of working need to ensure maintenance of a family-centred approach. Strategies need to be developed during periods of busyness to better support collaborative connections and the well-being of paediatric nurses and parents. At an organisational level, fostering a positive workplace culture that shares a vision for family-centred care and collaboration is essential.

    Patient or Public Contribution

    Parents of sick children admitted to an acute paediatric inpatient ward were invited to be a participant in a single interview. Parents were aware of the study through ward advertisement and informal discussions with the researchers or senior clinical staff. Engagement with parents was important as healthcare delivery in paediatrics is focused on the delivery of family-centred care. To minimise the risk of child distress and separation anxiety, children were present during the parent interview. Whist children and young people voices were not silenced during the interview process, for this study the parent's voice remained the focus. While important, due to limited resources, parents were not involved in the design analysis or interpretation of the data or in the preparation of this manuscript.

    Data sharing

    The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

    Beyond coping: The role of supportive relationships and meaning making in youth well‐being

    Abstract

    Introduction

    The purpose of this study was to identify coping strategies, resources, and strengths that predict well-being in a community-based sample of youth with varying levels of adversity.

    Design

    Grounded in the resilience portfolio model, we used a mixed methods approach with data from a cross-sectional sample of 231 youth ages 8–17.

    Materials and Methods

    Data were collected using a survey, participant-generated timeline activity, and brief interview. Measures included assessments of coping and appraisal, resilience resources and assets, and subjective well-being and depression.

    Results

    Active and passive coping strategies predicted subjective well-being and depression. Controlling for demographics and coping, meaning making strengths and supportive relationships were significant predictors of subjective well-being and lower depression, and decreased the impact of adversity on these outcomes.

    Discussion

    The results of this study provide support for the resilience portfolio model in a community-based sample of youth, with relationships as predicted for subjective well-being and symptoms of depression. For both outcomes, family relationships held the strongest associations with positive well-being and lower symptoms of depression. Supportive relationships with peers, meaning making strengths, interpersonal strengths, less passive coping, and fewer adverse life events were also associated with better outcomes.

    Conclusions

    These findings underscore the need to assess youth resources and strengths and to design interventions that target these protective factors for all youth, regardless of exposure to adversity.

    Clinical Relevance

    A theory-informed understanding of resources and strengths that predict youth well-being is essential to inform strengths-based interventions for pediatric research and practice. The resilience portfolio model is a useful framework for understanding predictors of youth well-being.

    A qualitative study of a sample of women participating in an Australian randomised controlled trial of intrapartum fetal surveillance

    The STan Australian Randomised controlled Trial (START), the first of its kind in Australia, compares two techniques of intrapartum fetal surveillance (cardiotocographic electronic fetal monitoring (CTG) plus analysis of the ST segment of the fetal electrocardiogram (STan+CTG) with CTG alone) with the aim of reducing unnecessary obstetric intervention. It is also the first comprehensive intrapartum fetal surveillance (IFS) trial worldwide, including qualitative examination of psychosocial outcomes and cost-effectiveness.
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