Views of family members on using video calls during the hospital admission of a patient: A qualitative study

Background: Utilization of video calls on hospital wards to facilitate involvement of and communication with family members is still limited. A deeper understanding of the needs and expectations of family members regarding video calls on hospital wards is necessary, to identify potential barriers and facilitate video calls in practice. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the views, expectations and needs of a patient's family members regarding the use of video calls between family members, patients and healthcare professionals, during the patient's hospital admission. Methods: A qualitative study was carried out. Semi-structured interviews with family members of patients admitted to two hospitals were conducted between February and May 2022. Family members of patients admitted to the surgical, internal medicine and gynaecological wards were recruited. Results: Twelve family members of patients participated. Family members stated that they perceive video calls as a supplemental option and prefer live visits during hospital admission. They expected video calls to initiate additional moments of contact with healthcare professionals, e.g. to join in medical rounds. When deploying video calls, family members mentioned that adequate instruction and technical support by nurses should be available. Conclusion: Family members considered video calls valuable when visiting is not possible or to participate in medical rounds or other contacts with healthcare professionals outside of visiting hours. Implications: Family members need to be supported in options and use of video calls on hospital wards. Additional knowledge about actual participation in care through video calls is needed as well as the effect on patient, family and healthcare professional outcomes. Impact: Using video calls on hospital wards can provide family members with flexible alternatives for contact and promote family involvement. Reporting Method: COREQ guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: Family members of patients admitted to hospital have contributed by sharing their perspectives in interviews. What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community?: Family members perceive additional value from the use of video calls on hospital wards. For family, use of video calls needs to be facilitated with clear instruction materials and support. Trial and Protocol Registration: Amsterdam UMC Medical Ethics Review Committee (ref number W21_508 # 21.560)

Supermarket shopper movements versus sales and the effects of scent, light, and sound

Common sense assumes that supermarket sales of specific products are driven by the number of visitors and by their behavior during their visit. In addition, certain shopping ambiances probably stimulate a certain shopper behavior, resulting in more sales. Surprisingly, these relationships have rarely been experimentally tested in real-life supermarkets. Number of shoppers, shopper movement patterns, and sales of selections of white wines, coffees, and fruits in a medium-size supermarket were monitored over an 18-week period. Wines were visited for longer (9.5. s) than coffees (4.4. s) and fruits (4.5. s), but visitors to wines were relatively stationary and visits resulted less often in a sale (1 sale per 41.2 visits) than visits to coffees (1 sale per 21.7 visits) and fruits (1 sale per 3.7 visits). Visit frequency correlated positively with higher sales for coffee (Beta = 0.64, p <. 0.001) and for fruit (Beta = 0.33, p = 0.02) but not for wine. Wine, fruit, and coffee sales increased with the number of directional changes during a visit (p <. 0.001). Sales correlated positively with visit duration only for wine (Beta = 0.74, p <. 0.001). Local variations in scent, sound, and light conditions did not affect visit frequency or sales, but did affect speed during coffee (p = 0.04) and wine (p = 0.03) visits

Prosocial consequences of imitation

Item does not contain fulltextResearch has shown that helping behavior can be primed easily. However, helping decreases significantly in the presence of inhibition cues, signaling high costs for the executor. On the other hand, multiple studies demonstrated that helping behavior increases after being mimicked. The present study investigated whether imitation still increases helping when more substantial costs are involved. Helping behavior was operationalized as the willingness to accompany the confederate on a 15-20 minute walk to the train station. Results show that even in the face of these high costs, participants who were mimicked agreed more often to help the confederate than participants who were anti-mimicked. These findings suggest that mimicry not only makes people more helpful when it comes to small favors, but also allows them to ignore the substantial costs possibly involved in helping others.8 p