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Surgical patients are at risk of developing a perioperative pressure injury (ORPI) during surgery. Accurate assessment and prompt implementation of prevention strategies or treatment of ORPI are dependent on knowledge and skills of operating room (OR) nurses. The study examined the knowledge and attitude of OR nurses in identifying at‐risk patients. A cross‐sectional, prospective, descriptive study was adopted. OR nurses were invited to complete the survey using the attitude towards pressure ulcer prevention instrument (Cronbach α of 0.79) and pressure ulcer knowledge assessment tool (Cronbach α of 0.77). Approximately, 28% of OR nurses took part in the survey. Most of them were females (99%) with a mean age of 38.4 ± 12.9 years old. Of these, 73% of the nurses described not having adequate experience in preventing ORPI, and 88% of them were uncertain about the treatment strategies. The mean overall knowledge score was 47.8 ± 9.1% for this cohort. The study demonstrated that approximately 8.9% of OR nurses passed with a score ≥ 60% for knowledge. The mean overall attitude score was 74.6 ± 6.1% for this cohort. About 35.6% of these nurses gave positive scores of greater than 75% for attitudes. The knowledge scores have no relationship with the working experience, role responsibility, academic qualification, ethnicity, nationality, and gender except for age 35 years older or equal and younger. Still, both the knowledge and attitude scores obtained have a strong relationship with the nurses' experiences with PI prevention. Personal competency to prevent PI has a strong correlation with risk identifying and preventing PI. There are strong associations between being responsible for PI development and the knowledge on risk identification and prevention of PI. The attitude regarding the prioritisation of PI prevention is also strongly correlated to the nurses' knowledge in preventing PI. Positive attitudes of OR nurses have no relationship with the overall knowledge scores. The prevention of ORPI is not on the list of priorities among OR nurses. The knowledge of preventive measures and risk identification of PI was limited among local OR nurses. Incorporating a standard screening and assessment tool within the current assessment list will support and promote ORPI risk assessment and continuous assessment. Contextualised education on ORPI prevention and management should be considered part of the training for OR nurses.
Although obesity appears to be an important predictor of mortality and morbidity, little data about the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the outcome of severely burned patients are available. Patients admitted to the General Hospital Vienna between 1994 and 2014, who underwent surgery because of burn injuries, were enrolled in this study. BMI was used to divide patients into five groups: BMI 18.5 to 24.9, 25 to 29.9, 30 to 34.9, 35 to 39.9, and > 40. The groups were compared in terms of difference of mortality and morbidity. Of 460 patients, 34.3% (n = 158) died. Mortality rates were the lowest in patients with obesity class III and the highest in patients with BMI 35 to 39.9 (BMI 18.5‐24.9: 30.5%, BMI 25‐29.9: 31.5%, BMI 30‐34.9: 41.3%, BMI 35‐39.9: 55.5%, BMI > 40: 30%; P = .031). BMI was not found to be an independent risk factor when corrected with age, percent total body surface area burned, full‐thickness burns, and inhalation injury. No significant differences in length of stay, inhalation trauma, pneumonia, wound infection, sepsis, and invasive ventilation were observed. BMI as an independent risk factor for severely burned patients could not be confirmed via multivariate analysis.
Pictorial illustrations of Likert-type scales are culturally useful and may reduce error associated with usage of Westernized self-report measures in low- and middle-income countries. Pictorial illustrations can be encounter-specific decision aids in populations with low literacy or English proficiency. In an unanticipated finding from the SANKOFA study, caregivers of children living with human immunodeficiency virus experienced challenges comprehending Likert-type scales. A cross-sectional, qualitative study was conducted with a SANKOFA participant subset (n = 30) in Ghana. Using an informatics-based formative design approach, we developed a culturally-relevant pictorial aid to assess usability and preference when compared to a Likert-type self-report measure. Ninety percent (n = 27) of substudy participants preferred the pictorial of a traditional Bolga basket over a shallow basket. Forty-three percent (n = 13) preferred the pictorial aid over the Likert-type measure. Fifty percent reported the pictorial aid was easy to use. Fifty-seven percent preferred the Likert-type measure, potentially because English proficiency is regarded in Ghana as a means of upward social and financial mobility. Such cultural norms may have contributed to the lack of consensus and must be considered for pictorial aids to be meaningful. Pictorial aids have been designed for use in clinical and research settings. They reduce barriers associated with lower textual literacy while facilitating comprehension and decision-making. This article reviews current technologies in nursing education and the impact of technology on learning. The integration of technology into nursing curricula is thought to improve efficiency and enhance student experiences through active learning and interactive learning designs. The following focused questions are explored: (1) What are the current technologies used by university students and faculty in nursing programs? (2) How does that technology influence student learning? The primary themes were student-centered technology, with five subthemes, and faculty-centered technology. Consumers of healthcare (patients) demand quality care and expect highly skilled, compassionate, ethical practitioners; to this end, training and education of future nurses by skilled, qualified nurse educators who are comfortable with technological demands of all aspects of healthcare are fundamental. While it is essential that nurses and nurse educators continue to publish as a mechanism for open discussion and transparency in our teaching and learning approaches, we need higher levels of evidence to strengthen the argument that technology improves the learning environment and student outcomes and has a positive impact on clinical settings and patient care. Robotic systems are used to support inpatients and healthcare professionals and to improve the efficiency and quality of nursing. There is a lack of scientific literature on how applied robotic systems can be used to support inpatients. This study uses surveys and focus group interviews to identify the necessary aspects and functions of bedside robots for inpatients. A total of 90 healthcare professionals and 108 inpatients completed the questionnaire, and four physicians and five nurses participated in the focus group interviews. The most highly desired functionalities were related to patient care and monitoring, including alerting staff, measuring vital signs, and sensing falls. Nurses and physicians reported different needs for human-robot interaction. Nurses valued robotic functions such as nonverbal expression recognition, automatic movement, content suggestion, and emotional expressions. The results of the patients' open-ended questions and healthcare professionals' focus groups indicate that the purpose of the robots should primarily be treatment and nursing. Participants believe bedside robots would be helpful but have concerns regarding safety and utility. This study attempts to determine which aspects of robots may increase their acceptance. Our findings suggest that if robots are used in healthcare institutions, they may improve the effectiveness of care. Electronic health record systems have been widely implemented throughout healthcare settings over the last few years, and nurses rely on these systems to obtain information about patients, make clinical decisions, and deliver safe and appropriate care. Health information technology systems have electronic health record downtime episodes both due to scheduled maintenance and unforeseen circumstances. The ability to deliver safe and effective care during electronic health record downtime episodes is important, yet training on electronic health record downtime is rarely included for nursing staff. This quality improvement project implemented an electronic health record downtime training course and administered it to 50 onboarding nurses within the hospital facility. The participants indicated a positive perception of electronic health record downtime preparedness after the course offering related to ability to find and follow downtime procedures. However, no precourse metrics were obtained, and therefore it is uncertain if this positive perception is a direct result of the electronic health record downtime training course. While initial results are promising, further investigation will need to be conducted to determine training course effectiveness. Massive generation of health-related data has been key in enabling the big data science initiative to gain new insights in healthcare. Nursing can benefit from this era of big data science, as there is a growing need for new discoveries from large quantities of nursing data to provide evidence-based care. However, there are few nursing studies using big data analytics. The purpose of this article is to explain a knowledge discovery and data mining approach that was employed to discover knowledge about hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infections from multiple data sources, including electronic health records and nurse staffing data. Three different machine learning techniques are described: decision trees, logistic regression, and support vector machines. The decision tree model created rules to interpret relationships among associated factors of hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The logistic regression model showed what factors were related to a higher risk of hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infections. The support vector machines model was included to compare performance with the other two interpretable models. This article introduces the examples of cutting-edge machine learning approaches that will advance secondary use of electronic health records and integration of multiple data sources as well as provide evidence necessary to guide nursing professionals in practice. Wound healing is a complex cellular and biochemical process and can be affected by several systemic and local factors. In this study, we aimed to discuss the aetiologic factors of non‐healing wounds and the management of this complicated process with current information. The medical data of the patients who were admitted to our clinic due to non‐healing or chronic wounds were analysed retrospectively. A total of 27 patients were evaluated retrospectively during the 14 months of the study. The data of 6 patients who were followed up for chronic wound that developed after abdominal incisional hernia repair and pilonidal sinus surgery were not included in the study as their data could not be reached. A total of 21 patients were included in the study. Malignancy was diagnosed in two patients and granulomatous disease was found in four patients. The aetiology of the other cases included foreign body reaction, infection, and mechanical causes. Non‐healing wounds are a serious social and economic problem for patients. Further studies on the pathophysiology of various aetiologies in non‐healing wounds in both clinical settings and experimental animal models would be a useful step in treatment.
Lower limb crush injury is a major source of mortality and morbidity in trauma patients. Complications, especially surgical site infections (SSIs) are a major source of financial burden to the institute and to the patient as it delays rehabilitation. As such, every possible attempt should be made to reduce any complications. We, thus, aimed to compare the outcomes in early vs delayed closure of lower extremity stumps in cases of lower limb crush injury requiring amputation, so as to achieve best possible outcome. A randomised controlled study was conducted in the Division of Trauma Surgery & Critical Care at Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi from 1 September 2018 to 30 June 2019 and included patients undergoing lower limb amputation below hip joint. Patients were randomised in two groups, in one group amputation stump was closed primarily, while in the second group delayed primary closure of stump was performed. We compared rate of SSI, length of hospital stay, and number of surgeries in both the groups. Fifty‐six patients with 63 amputation stumps were recruited in the study. Mean age of patients in the study was 34 years, of which about 95% patients were males. The most common mechanism of injury was road traffic injury in 66% of patients. Mean injury severity score was 12.28 and four patients had diabetes preoperatively. Total 63 extremities were randomised with 30 cases in group I and 33 cases in group II as per computer‐generated random number. Above knee amputations was commonest (57.14%) followed by below knee amputations (33.3%). Two patients died in the current study. In group I, In‐hospital infection was detected in 7 cases (23.3%) and in group II 9 cases (27.3%) had SSI during hospital admission (P > .05). Mean hospital stay in group I was 10.32 ± 7.68 days and in group II was 11 ± 8.17 days (P > .05). Road traffic injuries and train‐associated injuries are a major cause of lower limb crush injuries, leading to limb loss. Delayed primary closure of such wounds requires extra number of surgical interventions than primary closure. There is no difference in extra number of surgical interventions required in both the groups. Thus, primary closure can be safely performed in patients undergoing lower limb amputations following trauma, provided that a good lavage and wound debridement is performed.
Tissue adhesives have gained increasing use as a possible method of wound closure. We compared the use of 2‐octyl cyanoacrylate (OCA) or subcuticular suture in incisions sutures for the closure of laparoscopic cholecystectomy port incisions. A prospective randomised controlled trial was performed. Patients were randomised to have closure of laparoscopic port sites using either OCA or sutures. Patients were reviewed at 24 hours and returned for follow‐up 1 week and 1 month after postoperatively. At these times, different wound characteristics were documented: Two tools were used to measure the cosmetic result using Hollander wound evaluation scale (HWES) and the patient and observer scar assessment scale (POSAS). A total of 70 patients, 35 in each group were enrolled. The wounds were closed significantly faster in the OCA group (mean 229.16 [±43.7] seconds versus 258.82 [±51.7] seconds, P = .01). Statistically significant difference in favour of using OCA was found for dehiscence (17.1% versus none in the suture group, P = .025) after 1 week. However, no difference was found for wound dehiscence after 1 month. OCA and suture groups did not differ significantly on patient satisfaction. There were no differences in the percentage of wounds achieving optimal scores on the HWES (suture 85.7% versus OCA 74.2%, P = .169). Nerveless, wound evolution was judged to be significantly better in the OCA group using POSAS. Patients' median POSAS was 9.45 (6–11) and 11.43 (10–13) in the OCA and suture groups, respectively (P = .005), and surgeon's median POSAS was 9.42 (6–11) and 11.48 (10–13) in the OCA and suture groups, respectively (P = .006). N‐butyl‐cyanoacrylate tissue adhesive is an acceptable technique for the closure of laparoscopic wounds with less operative time, and cosmetic results are comparable to suturing.
Wound infection involving hardware can be notoriously difficult to treat, often requiring the removal of the infected implant. The goal of this study was to determine the utility of instillation negative pressure wound therapy to help eradicate infection and allow for definitive wound closure in patients without removing the infected hardware. A retrospective review was performed on the outcomes of 28 patients who presented with open wounds with exposed or infected hardware and who were treated with a combination of surgical debridement and negative pressure wound therapy with instillation (NPWTi). Eleven patients were treated for infected spinal hardware, 12 for extremity, and 5 for sternal hardware. Twenty‐five of 28 (89%) patients had successful retention or replacement of hardware, with clearance of infection and healed wounds. Original hardware was maintained in 17 of 28 (61%) patients. In 11 patients, original hardware was removed, with subsequent replacement in eight of those patients after a clean wound was achieved. Average time to definitive closure was 12.6 days. Average follow‐up was 135 days. This series supports NPWTi as an effective adjunct therapy to help expeditiously eradicate hardware infection, allowing for hardware retention.
Human skin fibroblast (HSF) cells were irradiated with different energy lasers to detect cell proliferation, apoptosis, and expression of microRNA‐206 and protein, and to further summarise the therapeutic effect of laser on scar cells. Human scar cell line HSF cells were cultured in three groups. The control group was not irradiated by laser, the low‐energy group was irradiated by 10 J/cm2 laser, and the high‐energy group was irradiated by 20 J/cm2 laser. After irradiation, HSF cells were cultured for 20 hours. Cell proliferation was detected by MTT assay. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry. Transwell migration assay was used to detect cell migratory ability. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) was used to detect miR‐206 and mTOR gene levels. The levels of MMP‐9, Bax, Bcl‐2, cyclin D1, and mTOR signalling pathway proteins were detected by Western blotting assays. The results showed that after laser irradiation, the proliferation of cells decreased, and the difference between the control group and the experimental group was significant (P < .05). The higher the energy was, the greater the upregulation of apoptosis was. Apoptosis and cell migration increased (P < .05). The expressions of microRNA‐206, MMP‐9, and Bax were upregulated, while the expressions of mTOR, Bcl‐2, and cyclin D1 were downregulated. To sum up, laser irradiation can significantly inhibit the proliferation of HSF cells, affect cell cycle, and increase cell apoptosis and migratory ability.
Pressure injuries (PIs) are a common quality indicator for hospital care, and preventing PIs often requires patient engagement; as such, Australian consensus research has recommended that high‐quality education materials be made to patients for PIs via hospital networks. The purpose of the present study was to assess the availability and accuracy of patient education materials on PIs in publicly available hospital websites in Victoria, Australia. Two independent coders assessed 212 websites for content on PI prevention and management, analysing availability and accuracy of PI definitions, risk factors, preventive strategies, referral, visual tools, consumer endorsement, information for family/carers, and translation on community languages. A greater proportion of hospitals did not have any patient education materials on PI prevention publicly available, with private hospitals (compared with public) and metropolitan hospitals (compared to rural) more likely to have materials available on their sites. The available materials contained accurate messages on PI defining characteristics and risk factors for PIs, although there was considerable variability on the availability of other information. Our findings suggest a significant deficit in the availability of educational materials for acute care patients and their families. There is a need for evidence‐based, consumer‐endorsed, uniform materials on all hospital websites to prevent PIs in acute care.
The use of haemostatic agents can provide life‐saving treatment for patients who suffer from massive bleeding in both prehospital and intraoperative conditions. However, there are still urgent demands for novel haemostatic materials that exhibit better haemostatic activity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability than existing products. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the feasibility of new wound dressing, RapidClot, for treating uncontrolled haemorrhage through a series of in vitro assessments to determine the swelling ratio, clotting time, enzymatic degradation, haemolytic activity, cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, and migration. The results indicated that the RapidClot revealed better water adsorption capacity and shorter blood clotting time (132.7 seconds) than two commercially available haemostatic agents Celox (378.7 seconds) and WoundSeal (705.3 seconds). Additionally, the RapidClot dressing exhibited a similar level of degradability in the presence of hyaluronidase and lysozyme as that of Celox, whereas negligible degradation of WoundSeal was obtained. Although both Celox and RapidClot revealed a similar level in cell viability (above than 90%) against NIH/3 T3 fibroblasts, improved cell proliferation and migration could be obtained in RapidClot. Taking together, our results demonstrated that RapidClot could possess a great potential for serving as an efficient healing dressing with haemorrhage control ability.
To evaluate the efficacy of intravenous lidocaine in relieving postoperative pain and promoting rehabilitation in laparoscopic colorectal surgery, we conducted this meta‐analysis. The systematic search strategy was performed on PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese databases, and Cochrane Library before September 2019. As a result, 10 randomised clinical trials were included in this meta‐analysis (n = 527 patients). Intravenous lidocaine significantly reduced pain scores at 2, 4, 12, 24, and 48 hours on movement and 2, 4, and 12 hours on resting‐state and reduced opioid requirement in first 24 hours postoperatively (weighted mean difference [WMD] = −5.02 [−9.34, −0.70]; P = .02). It also decreased the first flatus time (WMD: −10.15 [−11.20, −9.10]; P < .00001), first defecation time (WMD: −10.27 [−17.62, −2.92]; P = .006), length of hospital stay (WMD: −1.05 [−1.89, −0.21]; P = .01), and reduced the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (risk ratio: 0.53 [0.30, 0.93]; P = .03) when compared with control group. However, it had no effect on pain scores at 24 and 48 hours at rest, the normal dietary time, and the level of serum C‐reactive protein. In summary, perioperative intravenous lidocaine could alleviate acute pain, reduce postoperative analgesic requirements, and accelerate recovery of gastrointestinal function in patients undergoing laparoscopic colorectal surgery.
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Commentary on: Ali UM, Judge A, Foster C, et al. Do portable nursing stations within bays of hospital wards reduce the rate of inpatient falls? An interrupted time-series analysis. Age Ageing 2018;47:818–24.
Portable nursing stations (PNSs) are one of the most important prevention programmes for reducing the rate of inpatient falls. The PNSs provide a useful schema in reducing the direct and indirect costs. Due to the new nature of PNSs and understanding the facilitators and barriers to implementation of this innovation, more interventions, qualitative research and randomised controlled trials are needed to be developed.
Inpatient falls are serious adverse events that can increase patient morbidity as well as hospital costs. Almost every year, 3.4 million people over 65 years fall in the UK.
Whenever we create a test to screen for a disease, to detect an abnormality or to measure a physiological parameter such as blood pressure (BP), we must determine how valid that test is—does it measure what it sets out to measure accurately? There are lots of factors that combine to describe how valid a test is: sensitivity and specificity are two such factors. We often think of sensitivity and specificity as being ways to indicate the accuracy of the test or measure.
In the clinical setting, screening is used to decide which patients are more likely to have a condition. There is often a ‘gold-standard’ screening test—one that is considered the best to use because it is the most accurate. The gold standard test, when compared with other options, is most likely to correctly identify people with the disease (it is specific), and correctly identify those who do not...
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