Patient safety culture lives in departments and wards: Multilevel partitioning of variance in patient safety culture

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Aim of study was to document 1) that patient safety culture scores vary considerably by hospital department and ward, and 2) that much of the variation is across the lowest level organizational units: the wards. Setting of study: 500-bed Norwegian university hospital, September-December 2006.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data collected from 1400 staff by (the Norwegian version of) the generic version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ Short Form 2006). Multilevel analysis by MLwiN version 1.10.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Considerable parts of the score variations were at the ward and department levels. More organization level variation was seen at the ward level than at the department level.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patient safety culture improvement efforts should not be limited to all-hospital interventions or interventions aimed at entire departments, but include involvement at the ward level, selectively aimed at low-scoring wards. Patient safety culture should be studied as closely to the patient as possible. There may be such a thing as "hospital safety culture" and the variance across hospital departments indicates the existence of department safety cultures. However, neglecting the study of patient safety culture at the ward level will mask important local variations. Safety culture research and improvement should not stop at the lowest formal level of the hospital (wards, out-patient clinics, ERs), but proceed to collect and analyze data on the micro-units within them.</p

Charge Transport in DNA-Based Devices

Charge migration along DNA molecules has attracted scientific interest for over half a century. Reports on possible high rates of charge transfer between donor and acceptor through the DNA, obtained in the last decade from solution chemistry experiments on large numbers of molecules, triggered a series of direct electrical transport measurements through DNA single molecules, bundles and networks. These measurements are reviewed and presented here. From these experiments we conclude that electrical transport is feasible in short DNA molecules, in bundles and networks, but blocked in long single molecules that are attached to surfaces. The experimental background is complemented by an account of the theoretical/computational schemes that are applied to study the electronic and transport properties of DNA-based nanowires. Examples of selected applications are given, to show the capabilities and limits of current theoretical approaches to accurately describe the wires, interpret the transport measurements, and predict suitable strategies to enhance the conductivity of DNA nanostructures.Comment: A single pdf file of 52 pages, containing the text and 23 figures. Review about direct measurements of DNA conductivity and related theoretical studies. For higher-resolution figures contact the authors or retrieve the original publications cited in the caption

Implementation of incident reporting systems in Norwegian nursing homes from a management perspective — a pilot study

Artikkelen beskriver en studie hvor hensikten var å beskrive i hvilken grad norske sykehjem har implementert system for avvikshåndtering fra et ledelsesperspektiv. Studien er gjennomført ved å sende spørreskjema til et utvalg norske kommuner. Totalt 30 svarte på undersøkelsen, og alle hadde etablert en hendelse rapporteringssystem, men funnene tyder på at vi ikke har klart å integrere systemene i praksis.An incident reporting system is important for continual improvement in nursing homes. The purpose of this study is to describe the extent to which Norwegian nursing homes have implemented incident reporting systems from a management perspective. The study is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative and descriptive design, and is conducted by sending questionnaires to a sample of Norwegian municipalities. A total of 30 responded to the survey and all had established an incident reporting system, but the findings indicate that we have failed to integrate the systems in practice. A large drop-off makes the results hard to generalize, and there is a need for further research and monitoring of status