Evaluation of Current Emergency Department Fall Risk Assessment Tools: Is An Emergency Department Specific Fall Risk Assessment Tool Needed?

Problem: The ability to accurately and quickly identify patients at high risk for falls at the point of entry into the emergency department is the most important step in fall prevention and avoiding harm. Using an inpatient falls risk assessment tool is not adequately identifying patients at risk in the emergency department setting. Multiple factors contribute to falls and are not included in the risk assessment tool. The purpose of the study was to determine if the false risk assessment tool used in the Emergency Department (ED) adequately identifies a patient at risk for falling. Methods: This study used a snowball sampling method via Facebook with a link to Survey Monkey. Results: Of the 72 nurses who completed the survey, 34.7% of the nurses thought the survey was not appropriate for the evaluation of falls in the emergency department. Even though this may not seem like many, of those 72 nurses, 47.2% of them would prefer a simpler tool. When asked what population of patients the fall risk assessment tool did not appropriately screen for, responses included intoxicated, pediatric, infants, substance abuse, dizziness, vertigo, and unconscious patients. Implication for Practice: After reviewing the literature, it would be beneficial to develop an ED fall risk assessment tool that is specific to the patient population in the emergency department. A possible future study would be to implement an ED specific fall risk assessment tool and determine the effectiveness of the risk assessment tool on predicting patient falls. Key Words: Falls, Fall risk tool, Emergency room specific falls too

Technology-based rehabilitation to improve communication after acquired brain injury

The utilization of technology has allowed for several advances in aphasia rehabilitation for individuals with acquired brain injury. Thirty-one previous studies that provide technology-based language or language and cognitive rehabilitation are examined in terms of the domains addressed, the types of treatments that were provided, details about the methods and the results, including which types of outcomes are reported. From this, we address questions about how different aspects of the delivery of treatment can influence rehabilitation outcomes, such as whether the treatment was standardized or tailored, whether the participants were prescribed homework or not, and whether intensity was varied. Results differed by these aspects of treatment delivery but ultimately the studies demonstrated consistent improvement on various outcome measures. With these aspects of technology-based treatment in mind, the ultimate goal of personalized rehabilitation is discussed.This project was funded by the Coulter Foundation for Translational Research. (Coulter Foundation for Translational Research

Behavioral Differences Between Two Recently Sympatric Paper Wasps, the Native \u3ci\u3ePolistes Fuscatus\u3c/i\u3e and the Invasive \u3ci\u3ePolistes Dominulus\u3c/i\u3e

Polistes dominulus (Christ), an old world paper wasp, was introduced into the eastern United States in the 1970s and has been rapidly spreading westward. Recently, it has displaced the native Polistes fuscatus (F.) in at least some areas of Michigan. In order to understand why P. dominulus has been so successful, several behavioral attributes were compared between P. dominulus and P. fuscatus at a Michigan field site that contained colonies of both species nest- ing semi-naturally in plywood nestboxes. Preworker colonies of P. dominulus had a significantly greater tendency to store nectar (and had significantly higher proportions of cells with nectar) than preworker colonies of P. fuscatus. This finding may explain the higher survivorship of P. dominulus foundresses reported in a previous study. P. dominulus also had a significantly greater tendency to build vertical nests and had significantly more pedicels per comb and per cell than P. fuscatus. These findings suggest that compared to P. fuscatus, P. dominulus may have more flexibility in the positioning of its combs and, because of a possibly stronger attachment of the comb to a substrate, may be less susceptible to bird predation. The higher winter survivorship reported for P. fuscatus over P. dominulus in a previous study does not appear to be due to differences in the proportions of gynes stranded on their nests late in the fall. Finally, behavioral evidence from videography was consistent with previous reports that P. dominulus is not replacing P. fuscatus through direct agonistic interactions

Preliminary Results of the Louisiana Sex Offender Treatment Program

The purpose of this study was to offer preliminary support for the Louisiana Sex Offender Treatment Program (LSOTP) in addressing the needs of juvenile sex offenders. Research objectives were (1) to offer statistical evidence for reductions in anxiety, depression, cognitive distortion and negative attitudes towards women comparing a group of 21 adolescents, 12 of whom received services as usual and nine of whom participated in the LSOTP. A controlled experimental evaluation design was utilized. The juvenile sex offenders were randomly assigned to the experimental group for 12 weeks receiving treatment services and a control group receiving care “as usual” in a residential group care program. Participants in the experimental group experienced statistically significant decreases in cognitive distortions related specifically to rape and molestation.The results of this study offer preliminary support of the LSOTP as a best practices alternative to other treatment modalities

From the Inspiration to the Dedication: The Journey to Academic Book Authorship

Carrie A. Picardi's poster on book authorship and publishing

Is the Loop Really Closed?: The Assessment and Reassessment of Communications 101 Learning Outcomes

Conclusion: The students received good grades from Phase I library instruction, however did they really learn what we targeted? We could not really say for sure. This case study reveals that an appropriate method and instruments are imperative for retrieving valid data. This case also displays the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Communication was always open between all members of the team as well as with the library instruction department. We were able to forge a great relationship with the Communication Studies Director– the libraries’ liaison and the Communication Studies Director authored a textbook chapter together about the library for all COM 101 classes. Last but not least, collaboration in an open communicative environment took the fear out of assessment: everyone understood we were assessing the PROCESS not the person, for the success of our students; the focus was learning outcomes and supporting our students for academic success and lifelong learning