BETWEEN BROADCASTING POLITICAL MESSAGES AND INTERACTING WITH VOTERS

Politicians across Western democracies are increasingly adopting and experimenting with Twitter, particularly during election time. The purpose of this article is to investigate how candidates are using it during an election campaign. The aim is to create a typology of the various ways in which candidates behaved on Twitter. Our research, which included a content analysis of tweets (n = 26,282) from all twittering Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates (n = 416) during the 2010 UK General Election campaign, focused on four aspects of tweets: type, interaction, function and topic. By examining candidates' twittering behaviour, the authors show that British politicians mainly used Twitter as a unidirectional form of communication. However, there were a group of candidates who used it to interact with voters by, for example, mobilizing, helping and consulting them, thus tapping into the potential Twitter offers for facilitating a closer relationship with citizens

Patient safety culture in care homes for older people: a scoping review

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the role of safety culture in preventing incidents such as medication errors and falls. However, research and developments in safety culture has predominantly taken place in hospital settings, with relatively less attention given to establishing a safety culture in care homes. Despite safety culture being accepted as an important quality indicator across all health and social care settings, the understanding of culture within social care settings remains far less developed than within hospitals. It is therefore important that the existing evidence base is gathered and reviewed in order to understand safety culture in care homes. Methods: A scoping review was undertaken to describe the availability of evidence related to care homes’ patient safety culture, what these studies focused on, and identify any knowledge gaps within the existing literature. Included papers were each reviewed by two authors for eligibility and to draw out information relevant to the scoping review. Results: Twenty-four empirical papers and one literature review were included within the scoping review. The collective evidence demonstrated that safety culture research is largely based in the USA, within Nursing Homes rather than Residential Home settings. Moreover, the scoping review revealed that empirical evidence has predominantly used quantitative measures, and therefore the deeper levels of culture have not been captured in the evidence base. Conclusions: Safety culture in care homes is a topic that has not been extensively researched. The review highlights a number of key gaps in the evidence base, which future research into safety culture in care home should attempt to address

Ambiente de trabalho da enfermagem, segurança do paciente e qualidade do cuidado em hospital pediátrico

Objetivos: Descrever as características do ambiente de trabalho, as atitudes de segurança, a qualidade do cuidado mensuradas pela equipe de enfermagem das unidades pediátricas e analisar a evolução dos indicadores assistenciais e de desempenho hospitalar.Método: Estudo descritivo com 136 profissionais de enfermagem de um hospital pediátrico, com aplicação da ficha de caracterização pessoal e profissional, Nursing Work Index – Revised, Safety Attitudes Questionnaire – Short form 2006 e dos indicadores de qualidade.Resultados: Os profissionais percebem o ambiente como favorável à prática profissional, avaliaram como boa a qualidade do cuidado e a redução de eventos adversos e da permanência hospitalar. O domínio satisfação no trabalho foi favorável à segurança do paciente.Conclusões: O ambiente de trabalho é favorável à prática de enfermagem, os profissionais aprovam a qualidade do cuidado e os indicadores apontam redução dos eventos adversos e da permanência hospitalar.Palavras-chave: Ambiente de instituições de saúde. Segurança do paciente. Qualidade da assistência à saúde. Satisfação no emprego. Avaliação de resultados da assistência ao paciente

Quality of care and quality of life of people with dementia living at green care farms: a cross-sectional study

Background: Many countries are introducing smaller, more home-like care facilities that represent a radically new approach to nursing home care for people with dementia. The green care farm is a new type of nursing home developed in the Netherlands. The goal of this study was to compare quality of care, quality of life and related outcomes in green care farms, regular small-scale living facilities and traditional nursing homes for people with dementia. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used. Three types of nursing homes were included: (1) green care farms; (2) regular small-scale living facilities; (3) traditional nursing homes. All participating nursing homes were non-profit, collectively funded nursing homes in the south of the Netherlands. One hundred and fifteen residents with a formal diagnosis of dementia were included in the study. Data on quality of care was gathered and consisted of outcome indicators (e.g. falling incidents, pressure ulcers), structure indicators (e.g. hours per resident per day), and process indicators (e.g. presence, accessibility and content of protocols on care delivery). Furthermore, questionnaires on cognition, dependence in activities of daily living, quality of life, social engagement, neuropsychiatric symptoms, agitation, and depression were used. Results: Data showed that quality of care was comparable across settings. No large differences were found on clinical outcome measures, hours per resident per day, or process indicators. Higher quality of life scores were reported for residents of green care farms in comparison with residents of traditional nursing homes. They scored significantly higher on the Quality of Life - Alzheimer's disease Scale (p 0.7). No differences with regular small-scale living facilities were found. Conclusions: Green care farms seem to be a valuable alternative to existing nursing homes. This is important as people with dementia are a heterogeneous group with varying needs. In order to provide tailored care there also is a need for a variety of living environments

'There's no place like home' - A scoping review on the impact of home-like residential care models on resident-, family- and staff-related outcomes

Background: There is increasing emphasis on promoting ‘home-like’ residential care models enabling care-dependent people to continue living in a self-determined manner. Yet, little is known about the outcomes of home-like residential care models. Purpose: We aimed to (1) identify home-like residential care models for older care-dependent people with and without dementia and (2) explore the impact of these models on resident-, family- and staff-related outcomes. Design and Methods: We applied a scoping review method and conducted a comprehensive literature search in PubMed, Embase and CINAHL in May, 2015.Results: We included 14 studies, reported in 21 articles. Studies were conducted between 1994 and 2014, most using a quasi-experimental design and comparing the Eden Alternative (n=5), non-dementia specific small houses, e.g. Green House® homes (n=2), and dementia specific small houses (n=7) with usual care in traditional nursing homes. The studies revealed evidence of benefit related to physical functioning of residents living in dementia-specific small houses and satisfaction with care of residents living in non-dementia-specific small houses compared with those living in traditional nursing homes. We did not find other significant benefits related to physical and psychosocial outcomes of residents, or in family- and staff-related outcomes. Implications: The current evidence on home-like residential care models is limited. Comparative-effectiveness research building on a clear theoretical framework and/or logic model and including a standardized set of resident-, family- and staff-related outcomes, as well as cost evaluation, is needed to provide a stronger evidence base to justify the uptake of more home-like residential care models.<br/