A case study on the growing movement towards patient- and family-centered care in hospitals and the effect it has on the quality of care

Current healthcare quality improvement measures were examined with the growing movement towards implementing patient-and family-centered care (PFCC) in hospitals and the effects the movement has on quality of care. The transitions of three hospitals into healthcare organizations that implement PFCC throughout their settings were analyzed to determine the effect PFCC has on a hospital’s quality of care. The analysis shows that the implementation of PFCC initiatives throughout a hospital can significantly improve quality of care and is instrumental in reforming the healthcare system while enabling hospitals to profit and meet mandated regulations. The need for quality improvement in the delivery of care has been recognized as an issue of public health significance and an increasing number of organizations are taking measures to advance improvements

Enriching the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program for Patients Undergoing Whipple Procedure for Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most complex and lethal diseases worldwide with surgical resection as a major treatment choice. Although surgery may be one of the only options for advanced pancreatic cancer, it is not without a lengthy hospital stay, a long list of possible postoperative complications, and an increased risk for readmission after discharge. Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs have been implemented for years in other surgical services for cancer care. These programs have now been extended and researched to include patients undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer. These programs are designed to assist patients and their families throughout the entirety of the perioperative period. This includes providing information preoperatively to educate patients on the expectations during their hospital stay to empower them to reach postoperative milestones sooner. These programs are evidence based and incorporate a multi-modal approach to improve perioperative treatment. Reaching postoperative milestones in line with a structured and standardized program specifically designed to a specific surgical procedure helps to increase knowledge and decrease inpatient length of stay

Self-employment among the Armed Forces Community

The Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, QinetiQ and X-Forces Enterprise were commissioned by Forces in Mind Trust to understand what more could be done to support the Armed Forces Community in pursuing self-employment and thereby help to maximise their chances of a successful and sustainable transition. This research seeks to fill the current gap in knowledge and contribute to policy-making and service delivery

The Effects of Group Conformity Based on Sex

Our experiment was a rendition of the Solomon Asch experiment. The difference between our experiment and Asch’s is that we asked a slew of general knowledge questions as compared to Asch’s question about which line was longer on a projected image. We asked 10 questions to our 45 subjects who were included in groups of six with five confederates in either an all male, female or mixed group. In order to test conformity we had our confederates answer questions with an incorrect answer to see how our subjects would respond. After all 10 questions had been administered, we debriefed our subjects on what they were actually being tested on and answered any questions. The study attempted to measure whether sex played a significant role in conformity and the results show that it does indeed. Males within mixed groups showed a tendency to conform more than males in an all female or all male group. There was no significant difference between male conformity between all male and all female groups

MEMS 411: Piston Pong

This report documents the design process of our ”Piston Pong” device. Our device was designed to be an educational demonstration of pneumatics and energy transformations using work and fluids models. The concept is that a bike pump will pump air into a holding container. After enough pressure is built up inside, the air will be released from the holding tank to a pneumatic cylinder. The cylinder will be released, hitting and launching a ball into the air. Additionally, force and pressure sensors would allow the energy to be calculated to fully understand the energy transformation. Our priorities for this design were safety, educational value, the ability to launch a ball, and pressure and force measurements. Throughout the design process, our goals and design were altered to best meet these priorities. Our final prototype was able to safely launch a ball while measuring the energy introduced to the system via the bike pump. While we have a functioning program and pressure sensor, we were not able to measure the pressure within the holding tank due to concerns about maintaining the airtight system

Assessing female sexual offenders\u27 motivations and cognitions : an exploratory study

Semi-structured interviews eliciting cognitions and motivations were carried out with 15 incarcerated female child sexual abusers (nearly 50% of the current UK female sexual offender prison population). Qualitative analysis indicated that four of the five motivational schemas (implicit theories) suggested by Ward (Ward, 2000; Ward & Keenan, 1999) to underlie male sexual offenders\u27 cognitions could be clearly identified in women, these were: Uncontrollability (UN, identified in 87% of participants), Dangerous world (DW, 53%), Children as sexual objects (CSO, 47%) and Nature of harm (NH, 20%). Entitlement, the final implicit theory (IT), commonly found in males, was not identified in any participants in the sample. Further analysis indicated that there were four main motivational types of offender based on combinations of these ITs. These were: (1) presence of DW/CSO, indicating sexual motivation and cognitions with fear of violence; (2) presence of DW/no CSO, indicating fear of violence with no sexual cognition or motivation; (3) presence of CSO/no DW, indicating sexual motivation and cognition; the NH IT also strongly featured in this group; and (4) presence of UN/no DW or CSO, indicating lack of control, sometimes with sense of protection for the victim. Suggestions are made on how the results can inform theoretical developments in the field as well as policy and practice

Assessing the Gap in Adolescent Emergency Care Training for Emergency Medicine Residents: A Systematic Review.

Over 1.5 million U.S. adolescents rely on emergency services for the majority of their healthcare, with increasing presentations (particularly for mental health complaints) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, a majority of physicians practicing emergency medicine report feeling unprepared to care for adolescent patients. In turn, adolescent patients often report feeling uncomfortable or unsafe when attempting to access emergency care. Despite this deficiency, the extent to which adolescent medicine is addressed during emergency residency medical training remains unclear. Our objective in this systematic review was to identify any existing, publicly available curriculum targeted to teach adolescent emergency care during emergency medicine residency. We conducted a keyword search within the Medline Ovid, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases to identify relevant literature published between the years of 1968 and 2021; publications meeting inclusion criteria were then analyzed for content. Despite an extensive review of the existing literature, we identified no systematized curriculum and only seven individual papers describing educational efforts to promote competency in adolescent care among emergency medicine residents. Of the resources available, none provide instruction on the management of multiple adolescent presentations, nor common conditions that should be included in a more comprehensive general emergency residency curriculum. No standardized curricula exist for the instruction of relevant adolescent care in an emergency medicine residency. We conclude that the available education for emergency medicine residents is lacking in the area of adolescent care and future work is needed to identify specific competencies to target with further intervention

Exploring the perceived impact of social support on the health behaviours of people living with and beyond cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

Purpose: Social support facilitated healthy behaviours in people living with and beyond cancer (LWBC) before the COVID-19 pandemic. Little is known about how social support impacted their health behaviours during the pandemic when social restrictions were imposed. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore how social support was perceived to impact the health behaviours of people LWBC during the COVID-19 pandemic. / Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted via telephone with 24 adults living with and beyond breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. Inductive and deductive framework analysis was used to analyse the data. / Results: Five themes developed. These were (1) Companionship and accountability as motivators for physical activity, (2) Social influences on alcohol consumption, (3) Instrumental support in food practices, (4) Informational support as important for behaviour change and (5) Validation of health behaviours from immediate social networks. / Conclusion: This study described how companionship, social influence, instrumental support, informational support and validation were perceived to impact the health behaviours of people LWBC during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interventions for people LWBC could recommend co-participation in exercise with friends and family; promote the formation of collaborative implementation intentions with family to reduce alcohol consumption; and encourage supportive communication between partners about health behaviours. These interventions would be useful during pandemics and at other times. Government policies to help support clinically extremely vulnerable groups of people LWBC during pandemics should focus on providing access to healthier foods