The perception of nurses and doctors on a care bundle guideline for management of pain in critical care

Objetivo: el objetivo de este estudio fue explorar la percepción de las enfermeras y los médicos sobre el uso de un paquete de aten- ción como una guía para el manejo del dolor en cuidados críticos. A pesar del desarrollo de guías y protocolos para el manejo del dolor en cuidados críticos, basados en la evidencia, el dolor sigue siendo un problema importante. La introducción de un paquete de atención para cuidados críticos ha mejorado el manejo de los pacientes ventilados. Un paquete de atención en el manejo del dolor tiene como objetivo reducir las variaciones en la práctica. Método: el estudio tiene un diseño prospectivo cualitativo desarrollado mediante una entrevista en profundidad y semi-estructurada de 23 enfermeros y médicos en una unidad de cuidado crítico. Resultado: cuatro temas principales surgieron: 1 ) la adecuación al escenario de cuidado crítico, 2) la aplicabilidad al escenario de cuidado crítico, 3 ) la propiedad del Paquete de Atención al Dolor, y 4) la necesidad en la práctica actual. Los resultados mostraron una pobre aceptación del paquete por parte de los profesionales de la salud en el manejo de dolor agudo en los enfermos críticos. Conclusión: el estudio encontró que las enfermeras y los médicos no percibieron el paquete de atención al dolor como una herramienta útil para mejorar el manejo del dolor, con pruebas que apuntan a una brecha entre la práctica del manejo del dolor, tal como se describe por el paquete de atención, y la práctica real.</jats:p

Integrated out-of-hours care arrangements in England: observational study of progress towards single call access via NHS Direct and impact on the wider health system

Objectives: To assess the extent of service integration achieved within general practice cooperatives and NHS Direct sites participating in the Department of Health’s national “Exemplar Programme” for single call access to out-of-hours care via NHS Direct. To assess the impact of integrated out-of-hours care arrangements upon general practice cooperatives and the wider health system (use of emergency departments, 999 ambulance services, and minor injuries units). Design: Observational before and after study of demand, activity, and trends in the use of other health services. Setting: Thirty four English general practice cooperatives with NHS Direct partners (“exemplars”) of which four acted as “case exemplars”. Also 10 control cooperatives for comparison. Main Outcome Measures: Extent of integration achieved (defined as the proportion of hours and the proportion of general practice patients covered by integrated arrangements), patterns of general practice cooperative demand and activity and trends in use of the wider health system in the first year. Results: Of 31 distinct exemplars 21 (68%) integrated all out-of-hours call management by March 2004. Nine (29%) established single call access for all patients. In the only case exemplar where direct comparison was possible, cooperative nurse telephone triage before integration completed a higher proportion of calls with telephone advice than did NHS Direct afterwards (39% v 30%; p<0.0001). The proportion of calls completed by NHS Direct telephone advice at other sites was lower. There is evidence for transfer of demand from case exemplars to 999 ambulance services. A downturn in overall demand for care seen in two case exemplars was also seen in control sites. Conclusion: The new model of out-of-hours care was implemented in a variety of settings across England by new partnerships between general practice cooperatives and NHS Direct. Single call access was not widely implemented and most patients needed to make at least two telephone calls to contact the service. In the first year, integration may have produced some reduction in total demand, but this may have been accompanied by shifts from one part of the local health system to another. NHS Direct demonstrated capability in handling calls but may not currently have sufficient capacity to support national implementation

Shifting the focus: sequential methods of analysis with qualitative data

The purpose of this article is to illustrate both the processes of data analysis and the methodological development involved in adopting the sequential use of two data analysis methods applied to the same data set. Understanding of the phenomena of interest was sought through examining both the content and the form of nurses’ accounts of practice experiences. Initially, a method of thematic content analysis was applied to understand what the nurses said about their experiences. The core theme of nurses’ change agency derived from this analysis was examined further through a method of narrative analysis. In the second analysis, the focus was shifted to how the nurses accounted for their experiences. The innovative use of iterative, sequential methods of analysis revealed greater complexity and depth of understanding of the phenomena than would have been achieved with one method alone

Cheating the locals: invasive mussels steal and benefit from the cooling effect of indigenous mussels

The indigenous South African mussel Perna perna gapes during periods of aerial exposure to maintain aerobic respiration. This behaviour has no effect on the body temperatures of isolated individuals, but when surrounded by conspecifics, beneficial cooling effects of gaping emerge. It is uncertain, however, whether the presence of the invasive mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis limits the ability of P. perna for collective thermoregulation. We investigated whether varying densities of P. perna and M. galloprovincialis influences the thermal properties of both natural and artificial mussel beds during periods of emersion. Using infrared thermography, body temperatures of P. perna within mixed artificial beds were shown to increase faster and reach higher temperatures than individuals in conspecific beds, indicating that the presence of M. galloprovincialis limits the group cooling effects of gaping. In contrast, body temperatures of M. galloprovincialis within mixed artificial mussel beds increased slower and exhibited lower temperatures than for individuals in beds comprised entirely of M. galloprovincialis. Interestingly, differences in bed temperatures and heating rates were largely dependent on the size of mussels, with beds comprised of larger individuals experiencing less thermal stress irrespective of species composition. The small-scale patterns of thermal stress detected within manipulated beds were not observed within naturally occurring mixed mussel beds. We propose that small-scale differences in topography, size-structure, mussel bed size and the presence of organisms encrusting the mussel shells mask the effects of gaping behaviour within natural mussel beds. Nevertheless, the results from our manipulative experiment indicate that the invasive species M. galloprovincialis steals thermal properties as well as resources from the indigenous mussel P. perna. This may have significant implications for predicting how the co-existence of these two species may change as global temperatures continue to rise

Observational cross sectional pilot study of adherence with antipsychotic medication in people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders in prisons

This pilot project has aimed to: • Estimate the point prevalence of non-adherence to (typical/atypical) antipsychotic medication in population of people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in prison. • Determine prisoners’ satisfaction with and beliefs and attitudes towards antipsychotic medication. • Determine predictors of adherence in prisoners with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder. • Compare the prevalence of adherence with a community sample of individuals with schizophrenia. • Explore patients’ current and previous subjective experiences of medication (embedded qualitative element of project

Virtual interactive practice™: Utilising healthcare information systems to contexturalise the skills associated with clinical decision making within nurse education

This paper reports on a Virtual Interactive Practice (VIP) project that has the potential to revolutionise the educational delivery and learning of clinical skills complementing "real" practice. The focus is currently on nurse learning but the principles could equally be applied to multi and inter-professional learning and clinical decision-making. This project represents a new model to enhance clinical skill acquisition and clinical reasoning using a structured competency base. Integral to this is a strong partnership between education and practice utilising "real" live and recorded anonymised patient data from a critical care clinical information system (CIS) within a large district general hospital to structure scenarios fostering problem-based learning. This educational practice interface enables the synthesis of clinical data using virtual technology and sophisticated scenario-based simulation within a skills laboratory. The aim is to enhance the more ad hoc system of learning within conventional practice placements. Early findings suggest that VIP enhances practice providing a safe but challenging learning experience with the benefit of instant performance feedback to students

What is the place of generalism in the 2020 primary care team?

Primary health care is a domain of reform and change. To maintain a cost-effective, equitable and accessible health care system, policy and strategies must address growing health system complexities. These include workforce shortages, technological advances, an ageing population, rising rates of chronic disease, increases in co-morbidity and growing multi-morbidities. A single-disease focussed approach is not sufficient. Should the generalist be developed to address these multiple issues? What is generalism and its place within the 2020 primary health care team?The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Strategy