Developing personal relationships in care homes: realising the contributions of staff, residents and family members

Personal relationships are all integral part of living, working and visiting in care homes, but little research has made relationships the main focus of enquiry, and there have been few studies of the perspectives of residents, staff and family members. The study reported here sought to redress this neglect. Using a constructivist approach, the nature and types of relationships between residents, staff and family members were explored in three care homes in England using combined methods including participant observation, interviews and focus groups. The data collection and analysis Occurred iteratively Over 21 months and three types of relationships were identified: 'pragmatic relationships' that primarily focus oil the instrumental aspects of care; 'personal and responsive relationships' that engage more fully with the particular needs of individual residents; and 'reciprocal relationships' that recognise the roles of residents, staff and family members in creating a sense of community within the home. This paper explores the contributions made by staff; residents and family members in the development of these relationships. The findings enhance our understanding of the role of inter-personal relationships in care home settings and of the factors that condition them. The implications for developing improved practice in care ponies are also considered

Rolling the Dice and Playing With Numbers: Statistical Realities and Responses

Librarians invest time gathering numbers about collections for various entities, such as accrediting groups and organizations, as well as their user communities. Gathering collections-related statistics regarding the numbers of things our libraries subscribe to or purchase, as well as the items our users use, often requires a significant investment in time. Definitions can be difficult to apply, and some questions do not seem to reflect our current reality or demonstrate value. The authors explore the challenges of annually gathering and recording collections related statistics and offer suggestions for improving the process

The presence of psychological trauma symptoms in resuscitation providers and an exploration of debriefing practices

Introduction Witnessing traumatic experiences can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The true impact on healthcare staff of attending in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) has not been studied. This cross-sectional study examined cardiac arrest debriefing practices and the burden of attending IHCAs on nursing and medical staff. Methods A 33-item questionnaire-survey was sent to 517 doctors (of all grades), nurses and health-care assistants (HCAs) working in the emergency department, the acute medical unit and the intensive care unit of a district general hospital between April and August 2018. There were three sections: demographics; cardiac arrest and debriefing practices; trauma-screening questionnaire (TSQ). Results The response rate was 414/517 (80.1%); 312/414 (75.4%) were involved with IHCAs. Out of 1463 arrests, 258 (17.6%) were debriefed. Twenty-nine of 302 (9.6%) staff screened positively for PTSD. Healthcare assistants and Foundation Year 1 doctors had higher TSQ scores than nurses or more senior doctors (p = 0.02, p = 0.02, respectively). Debriefing was not associated with PTSD risk (p = 0.98). Only 8/67 (11.9%) of resuscitation leaders had prior debriefing training. Conclusions Nearly 10% of acute care staff screened positively for PTSD as a result of attending an IHCA, with junior staff being most at risk of developing trauma symptoms. Very few debriefs occurred, possibly because of a lack of debrief training amongst cardiac arrest team leaders. More support is required for acute care nursing and medical staff following an IHCA

Fort Collins Flood 1997: lessons from an extreme event

Includes bibliographical references.The July 28, 1997 flood disaster in Fort Collins, Colorado is generally called a "500-year event" and offers insight into the causes and impacts of extreme urban flooding. Although it hurt and traumatized many people, the flood provided valuable lessons for civil engineers, managers of government agencies, political leaders, counselors, and citizens. Representing several disciplines and entities, the authors present a cross-cutting view of the flood emergency and its lessons. The paper also includes a synthesis of a post-flood conference at Colorado State University which featured reports from all major entities involved in the flood. The remarkable storm that caused the flood produced the heaviest rains ever documented to have fallen over an urbanized area in this state in the recorded history of Colorado. The storm occurred in stages, and dropped 10 to 14 inches in 31 hours in a large area around Fort Collins. The heaviest hourly precipitation occurred at the storm's end, which is different from most storms, and may have exacerbated the flooding. Runoff was dramatic and some peak discharges greatly exceeded projected 100-year and 500-year flows. The City Manager's report showed five people dead, 54 people injured, loss of about 200 homes, and 1500 homes and businesses damaged throughout the City. Fort Collins was more prepared than most cities because it has a nationally-recognized Stormwater Utility and good emergency response capabilities, but it still learned much from the event. Damages at Colorado State University were unusually severe, totaling in the range of $100 million, including building damages, about 425,000 library volumes inundated, loss of a semester's textbooks in the bookstore, and many other losses-both personal and professional. Although the university was surprisingly vulnerable, it responded well with no delay in opening school a month later, but only as a result of tremendous efforts. Emergency response in the City by the Poudre Fire Authority was outstanding, and although the flood had tremendous impacts on the community, not one firefighter or police officer was injured. Within three months after the flood, the local paper, the Coloradoan, had published 282 stories about the flood, and the event received broad coverage in the United States and abroad. After the flood, Fort Collins has tried to focus beyond the physical issues to recognize the multi-faceted losses and the ensuing grief experienced by many people. Lessons are presented in the paper about complacency, protecting vulnerable areas, flood frequency analysis, stress and trauma, the importance of organizational mobilization, the vulnerability of universities, growth management in a hazardous environment, mitigation versus response, communicating risk to officials and the public, and handling large influxes of donations

Augmenting fighter pilot training with a non-invasive eye-tracking system: An evaluation in an operational training context

Objective & Significance The proposed presentation discusses research indicating that pilot training can be improved using eye tracking technology. This study has been conducted with subject matter experts in an operational training context, demonstrating feasibility for real-world use. Background A pilot’s eye behaviour can give important clues about how they are allocating their attention and what their level of situation awareness is. Eye tracking systems have considerable potential as a training tool, as they provide an accurate and objective way to measure eye behaviour. While many previous systems have been impractical outside of laboratory settings, new console-mounted tools have emerged which enable precise eye and head-tracking without requiring a physical device to be worn by the pilot. The current research involves a mixed methods study of a console-mounted eye-tracking system for flight crew training in an introductory fighter pilot training context. The primary aim is to determine whether providing instructors with an objective real-time visualisation of students’ scanning behaviour facilitates training

Understanding packet loss for sound monitoring in a smart stadium IoT testbed

The Smart Stadium for Smarter Living project provides an end-to-end testbed for IoT innovation through a collaboration between Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland and Dublin City University, Intel and Microsoft. This enables practical evaluations of IoT solutions in a controlled environment that is small enough to conduct trials but large enough to prove and challenge the technologies. An evaluation of sound monitoring capabilities during the 2016 sporting finals was used to test the capture, transfer, storage and analysis of decibel level sound monitoring. The purpose of the evaluation was to use existing sound level microphones to measure crowd response to pre-determined events for display on big screens at half-time and to test the end-to-end performance of the testbed. While this is not the specific original purpose of the sound level microphones, it provided a useful test case and produced engaging content for the project. Analysis of the data streams showed significant packet loss during the events and further investigations were conducted to understand where and how this loss occurred. This paper describes the smart stadium testbed configuration using Intel gateways linking with the Azure cloud platform and analyses the performance of the system during the sound monitoring evaluation

Effects of person-centered care approaches to dementia care on staff: a systematic review

YesPerson-centered care (PCC) has been the subject of several intervention studies, reporting positive effects on people with dementia. However, its impact on staff’s outcomes remains unclear. The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the impact of PCC approaches on stress, burnout and job satisfaction of staff caring for people with dementia in care homes. The databases PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Scopus and EBSCO and reference lists from relevant publications, were searched between December 2012 and March 2013. The review was limited to experimental and quasi-experimental studies, published in English and involving direct care workers (DCWs). Seven studies were included, addressing different PCC approaches: dementia care mapping (n=1); stimulation-oriented approaches (n=2); emotion-oriented approaches (n=2) and behavioral-oriented approaches (n=2). Five studies reported benefits on DCWs, suggesting a tendency towards the effectiveness of PCC on staff. However, methodological weaknesses and heterogeneity among studies make it difficult to draw firm conclusions.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technolog

Technologies for the diagnosis of angle closure glaucoma (ACE): protocol of a prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional diagnostic study

INTRODUCTION: Angle-closure is responsible for half of all glaucoma blindness globally. Patients with suspected glaucoma require assessment of the drainage angle by an experienced clinician. The goal of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance and cost-effectiveness of two non-contact tests, anterior segment OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) (AS-OCT) and limbal anterior chamber depth for patients referred to hospital with suspected angle closure compared with gonioscopy by ophthalmologist. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Study design: prospective, multicentre, cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study. INCLUSION CRITERIA: adults referred from community optometry to hospital with suspected angle closure. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Sensitivity and specificity. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: Positive/negative likelihood ratios, concordance, cost-effectiveness, proportion of patients requiring subsequent clinical assessment by ophthalmologist. SAMPLE SIZE: 600 individuals who have been referred with suspected angle closure from primary care (community optometry). We will have a 95% probability of detecting the true sensitivity of either test to within ±3.5% based on a sensitivity of 90%. The study would also have a 95% probability of detecting the true specificity of either test to within ±5%, assuming a specificity of 75%. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical Review Board approval was obtained. REC reference: 22/LO/0885. Our findings will be disseminated to those involved in eye care services. We will have a knowledge exchange event at the end of the study, published via the Health Technology Assessment web page and in specialist journals. The results will be presented at professional conferences and directly to patients via patient group meetings and the Glaucoma UK charity. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN15115867