An Inpatient Rehabilitation Interprofessional Care Pathway for Traumatic Hip Fracture: A Pilot Quality Improvement Project

Background: Each year over 300,000 older adults are hospitalized for hip fracture. The impact of the cost of hip fracture on the US health care system is estimated to be as high as $9 billion, with the typical cost of a hip fracture episode around$30,000. Formalized pathways have been developed and successfully utilized for many patient presentations, including hip fracture, in the acute setting. Although this research is important to the comprehensive care of the elderly hip fracture patient, very little research exists that outlines evidence-based best-practice for patients in the post-acute recovery period. Purpose: The primary aim of this project was to develop an evidence-based, comprehensive, coordinated, and interprofessional care pathway for hip fracture patients in the acute rehabilitation setting to improve the percentage of patients discharging to community settings by 20% from current baseline by the end of the pilot period. Methods: The design of this project was an observational cohort study. Descriptive statistics will be used to compare intervention groups to controls, including frequencies and distributions. Results: The hip fracture tool itself had inconclusive results, the impacts of the effects on team work and enhanced coordination of the care team was realized through reducing institutionalized days for hip fracture patients in acute rehabilitation

“Won’t you be my neighbor?” Mr. Rogers as an ethical model

I do believe that Mr. Rogers and his show influenced me to become a clinical psychologist. I knew of no psychologists or other mental health professionals while growing up. My mother, however, was an elementary school teacher and thought highly of public television in general and Mr. Rogers in particular. I believe that Mr. Rogers taught me that men can be thoughtful, sensitive, and open in discussing their feelings, and can see all of life as special. On reflection, I now see him as both an ethical and spiritual model

Psychological consultation with the Roman Catholic Church: Integrating who we are with what we do

The purpose of this article is to detail one professional\u27s experience in developing a close and collaborative professional working relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. This article highlights the integration of one\u27s religious tradition with professional activities that are congruent, including assessment, psychotherapy, research and writing. Three principles for effective collaboration with clergy are presented: understand the faith tradition, develop a shared language, and expand the boundaries of professional activities

Other Post Employment Benefits-The Other Elephant in the Room

The governments of the fifty states of the United States have made promises to past and present employees regarding retirement benefits-predominately pensions and healthcare coverage. The issues surrounding the pension obligations made to these employees have been well examined but the obligations due to promises of healthcare coverage have not received as much attention. There is great variance among the OPEB liability reported by the states. This study examines reasons for the variance. The future payment of healthcare obligations, like pensions, will put extreme stress on states in the future if the impact of these promises is not understood now. Understanding the influence healthcare assumptions have on the reported liabilitites is an important step to understanding these liabilities

Goodness

And what does the Lord require of me? To love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God. -Micah 6:8 This quote from the Hebrew Bible has been one of my favorite quotes from sacred scripture in the Judea-Christian tradition for a very long time. It well summarizes how we should live. It well articulates how to live a good life. In this brief and simple statement in response to what God wants of us, it makes clear that there are three things that we should do throughout our lives if we want to follow the dictates of the God in the Jewish and Christian tradition. Even if one isn\u27t affiliated with the JudeaChristian traditions, it is still pretty good advice regarding how one should live

St. Ignatius as psychotherapist? How Jesuit spirituality and wisdom can enhance psychotherapy

The great wisdom traditions associated with various religious and spiritual practices and institutions have offered a variety of helpful strategies for more effective living and coping with life’s many challenges. In most recent times, efforts to secularize these strategies have been made in order to appeal to the general population as well as to secular mental health professionals as tools for their clinical practices. Although mindfulness meditation and yoga are perhaps the most notable examples, many other intervention strategies have been and can be borrowed from various religious and spiritual traditions to use in a secular manner if so desired. In this brief reflection, the wisdom and a few of the strategies of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Roman Catholic religious order called the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, are offered with examples presented in and for clinical practice

How Should Monetary Policy Respond to Changes in the Relative Price of Oil? Considering Supply and Demand Shocks.

This paper examines optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian model where the relative price of oil is affected by exogenous supply shocks and a productivity-driven demand shock. When wages are flexible, stabilizing core infation is optimal and the nominal rate rises (falls) in response to a demand (supply) shock. When both prices and wages are sticky, core inflation falls (rises) in response to the demand (supply) shock. Stabilizing CPI inflation generates small welfare losses only if the demand shock is the main driver of oil prices. Based on a VAR estimated using post-1986 data for the U.S., both shocks have had minimal impacts on core inflation. The federal funds rate rises in response to the demand shock but falls in response to the supply shock, consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model for a policy that stabilizes core inflation.

Celibacy and the child sexual abuse crisis

Celibacy has received a great deal of media attention recently due to the well-publicized sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. The Boston Globe reported in January 2002 that a Roman Catholic priest had sexually abused 138 children over 30 years as a parish priest and that religious superiors including Cardinal Bernard Law knew about the sexual abuse allegations and did nothing to stop them. After national and international media began to investigate these and other allegations of child sexual abuse committed by priests, within just a few months approximately 255 American priests including several bishops were accused of child sexual abuse and volunteered, or were forced, to resign. The Church has paid almost a billion dollars in legal settlements regarding child abuse allegations during the past 20 years

The long-run macroeconomic impacts of fuel subsidies in an oil-importing developing country

Analytical and numerical results show how the presence of a subsidy on household and firm purchases of oil products distorts long-run macroeconomic aggregates in an oil-importing developing country. Beyond leading to over-consumption of oil products these subsidies also lead to increased labor supply, a distorted emphasis on producing traded goods, and higher real wages. The subsidy also impacts the relative price of non-traded goods, causing it to fall when the non-traded sector is more oil-intensive than the traded sector and vice-versa.oil, fuel-price subsidies, developing countries, fiscal policy