Nurse and Patient Perceptions of Discharge Readiness in Relation to Postdischarge Utilization

Background: Prevention of hospital readmission and emergency department (ED) utilization will be a crucial strategy in reducing health care costs. There has been limited research on nurse assessment and patient perceptions of discharge readiness in relation to postdischarge outcomes. Objectives: To investigate the association of nurse and patient assessments of discharge readiness with postdischarge readmissions and ED visits. Research Design: Hierarchical regression analysis of readmission or ED utilization using independent nurse and patient assessments of discharge readiness and patient characteristics as explanatory variables, with hospital and unit fixed effects. Subjects: A total of 162 adult medical-surgical patients and their discharging nurses from 13 medical-surgical units of 4 Midwestern hospitals. Measures: Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale completed independently by patients and their discharging nurses within 4 hours before hospital discharge; Postdischarge utilization (unplanned readmission or ED visit within 30 days postdischarge). Results: Correlations between nurse assessment and patient perceptions of discharge readiness were low (r = 0.15- 0.32). Nurses rated patient readiness higher than patients themselves. Controlling for patient characteristics, nurse readiness for hospital discharge scale score (odds ratio = 0.57, P = 0.05) but not patient readiness for hospital discharge scale score was associated with postdischarge utilization. Conclusions: Nurse assessment was more strongly associated with postdischarge utilization than patient self-assessment. Formalizing nurse assessment of discharge readiness could facilitate identification of patients at risk for readmission or ED utilization before discharge when anticipatory interventions could prevent avoidable postdischarge utilization

From Personal Memories to Sharable Memories

The exchange of personal experiences is a way of supporting decision making and interpersonal communication. In this article, we discuss how augmented personal memories could be exploited in order to support such a sharing. We start with a brief summary of a system implementing an augmented memory for a single user. Then, we exploit results from interviews to define an example scenario involving sharable memories. This scenario serves as background for a discussion of various questions related to sharing memories and potential approaches to their solution. We especially focus on the selection of relevant experiences and sharing partners, sharing methods, and the configuration of those sharing methods by means of reflection

Development of Early Social Interactions in Infants Exposed to Artificial Intelligence from Birth

Research suggests that technology density in a home may change interactions parents and infants in the earliest months of life. This study explored how the use of smart baby technology influenced parental perceptions of development and early social interactions. A qualitative, case methodology was used. The participants in this study were one family with newborn twins. Data was collected over a six month period using journals, field notes, and observations. Thematic coding of these materials was used to answer the questions of the study. Results suggest that use of smart technology supported the emerging parenting skills and allowed the parents to confidently establish care interactions

Digital Eyewear in Cardiology-Looking Forward

Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Improving the Quality of Teaching Internships with the Help of the Platforms

This article presents an empirical study on the perceptions of university students toward the development of the teaching practicum, using the CourseSites platform as a communication and support tool for their training. The opinions of the students were collected through a questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1500 students who were registered in the degrees of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Pedagogy (2008-2018). A descriptive, inferential and multi-level analysis was conducted, which confirmed that future teachers had activated their professional competences, as they had the chance to share their internship experiences with their faculty members and with their own classmates

In-home and remote use of robotic body surrogates by people with profound motor deficits

By controlling robots comparable to the human body, people with profound motor deficits could potentially perform a variety of physical tasks for themselves, improving their quality of life. The extent to which this is achievable has been unclear due to the lack of suitable interfaces by which to control robotic body surrogates and a dearth of studies involving substantial numbers of people with profound motor deficits. We developed a novel, web-based augmented reality interface that enables people with profound motor deficits to remotely control a PR2 mobile manipulator from Willow Garage, which is a human-scale, wheeled robot with two arms. We then conducted two studies to investigate the use of robotic body surrogates. In the first study, 15 novice users with profound motor deficits from across the United States controlled a PR2 in Atlanta, GA to perform a modified Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) and a simulated self-care task. Participants achieved clinically meaningful improvements on the ARAT and 12 of 15 participants (80%) successfully completed the simulated self-care task. Participants agreed that the robotic system was easy to use, was useful, and would provide a meaningful improvement in their lives. In the second study, one expert user with profound motor deficits had free use of a PR2 in his home for seven days. He performed a variety of self-care and household tasks, and also used the robot in novel ways. Taking both studies together, our results suggest that people with profound motor deficits can improve their quality of life using robotic body surrogates, and that they can gain benefit with only low-level robot autonomy and without invasive interfaces. However, methods to reduce the rate of errors and increase operational speed merit further investigation.Comment: 43 Pages, 13 Figure

Global Teamwork: A Study of Design Learning in Collaborative Virtual Environments

With the recent developments in communication and information technologies, using Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) in design activity has experienced a remarkable increase. In this paper we present a collaborative learning activity between the University of Sydney (USYD), and the Istanbul Technical University (ITU). This paper shares our teaching experience and discusses the principles of collaborative design learning in virtual environments. Followed by a study on students’ perception on the courses and collaborative learning in both universities, this paper also suggests future refinements on the course structure and the main areas of collaborative design learning. Keywords: Collaborative Design; Collaborative Virtual Environments; Design Teaching And Learning</p

Financial Stress, Family Conflict, and Youths' Successful Transition to Adult Roles

We analyze the effect of mothers' and youths' reports of family financial stress and conflict on youths' transitions into adult roles. We find that mothers’ reports of financial stresses and borrowing constraints are associated with earlier transitions to inactivity and public assistance, while youth reports of financial stresses are associated with earlier nest-leaving. Youths reporting conflict with parents leave school and move out earlier than their peers, while conflict between parents is associated with youth making later transitions. Overall, financial stress and conflict have independent effects on youths' transitions and youths' perspectives have different consequences to those of their mothers.youths, financial stress, family conflict

Marketing Youth Services

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