[Objective] To explore the effect of clinical care pathways in perioperative patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula balloon expansion. [Method] 202 patients undergoing autologous arteriovenous fistula from Jul...[Objective] To explore the effect of clinical care pathways in perioperative patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula balloon expansion. [Method] 202 patients undergoing autologous arteriovenous fistula from July 2021 to June 2022 were randomly divided into a control group (101 cases) and an observation group (101 cases) to compare the incidence rates of postoperative complications, hospitalization days, hospitalization expenses, knowledge of self-management of arteriovenous fistula and nursing satisfaction. [Results] In the observation group, the incidence of arteriovenous fistula was higher than that of the control group, and the hospitalization days and hospitalization costs were lower than that of the control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). [Conclusion] The application of the clinical nursing path to intervene in patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula balloon dilation can reduce the incidence of postoperative complications, shorten the hospital length of time, reduce hospitalization costs and improve patient satisfaction, which is clinical promotion significance.展开更多
Objective:This study designs and implements the health prescription of children’s health education specialized nursing clinic based on the physical and mental characteristics of children with Tourette’s syndrome.Met...Objective:This study designs and implements the health prescription of children’s health education specialized nursing clinic based on the physical and mental characteristics of children with Tourette’s syndrome.Methods:Applying the evidence-based nursing model and nursing intervention theory based on the survey research by searching China Knowledge Network,Wanfang Database and Wipro Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database,the study collected the literature on the health prescription intervention research in children’s Tourette’s disorders health education in children’s health education of specialized nursing outpatient clinic for review and combined with the specialty characteristics to formulate“Children’s Tourette’s Disorder Health Education Prescription.”Results:Tourette’s syndrome in children is a common pediatric neurological disorder,mainly manifested as involuntary,rapid and repeated muscle twitching and vocal tics,which brings serious psychological pressure and life disturbance to the affected children.Conclusion:For children with Tourette’s syndrome,healthcare professionals should give enough care and understanding to the children and their parents,provide timely and effective health education to them,help them improve their bad behavioral habits,establish correct cognitive attitudes,enhance self-confidence,improve patient compliance,reduce the frequency of recurrence,reduce the incidence of complications and promote children’s physical and mental health development.展开更多
Urgent care clinics and emergency departments around the world periodically suffer from extended wait times beyond patient expectations due to surges in patient flows.The delays arising from inadequate staffing levels...Urgent care clinics and emergency departments around the world periodically suffer from extended wait times beyond patient expectations due to surges in patient flows.The delays arising from inadequate staffing levels during these periods have been linked with adverse clinical outcomes.Previous research into forecasting patient flows has mostly used statistical techniques.These studies have also predominately focussed on short‐term forecasts,which have limited practicality for the resourcing of medical personnel.This study joins an emerging body of work which seeks to explore the potential of machine learning algorithms to generate accurate forecasts of patient presentations.Our research uses datasets covering 10 years from two large urgent care clinics to develop long‐term patient flow forecasts up to one quarter ahead using a range of state‐of‐the‐art algo-rithms.A distinctive feature of this study is the use of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence(XAI)tools like Shapely and LIME that enable an in‐depth analysis of the behaviour of the models,which would otherwise be uninterpretable.These analysis tools enabled us to explore the ability of the models to adapt to the volatility in patient demand during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdowns and to identify the most impactful variables,resulting in valuable insights into their performance.The results showed that a novel combination of advanced univariate models like Prophet as well as gradient boosting,into an ensemble,delivered the most accurate and consistent solutions on average.This approach generated improvements in the range of 16%-30%over the existing in‐house methods for esti-mating the daily patient flows 90 days ahead.展开更多
High-quality nursing care can greatly reduce the occurrence of nursing accidents and help patients maintain better physical and mental health.For patients with hypertension,special attention should be given to clinica...High-quality nursing care can greatly reduce the occurrence of nursing accidents and help patients maintain better physical and mental health.For patients with hypertension,special attention should be given to clinical nursing.Providing scientific medication guidance,along with psychological support,can improve their medication compliance and establish a good doctor-patient relationship,aiding in their faster recovery.Based on a review of relevant literature and the author's practical experience,this paper first analyzes the content and requirements of clinical nursing for hypertension,then discusses the main factors that restrict the effectiveness of clinical nursing for hypertension,and finally suggests improvements to the clinical nursing model for hypertension to serve as a reference for colleagues.展开更多
With the popularization of central venous catheterization in recent years,the problems arising from intravenous therapy have gradually increased.Fibrin sheath is the complication with the highest incidence rate in cen...With the popularization of central venous catheterization in recent years,the problems arising from intravenous therapy have gradually increased.Fibrin sheath is the complication with the highest incidence rate in central venous catheterization,which has always been a major problem in intravenous therapy.So the prevention and treatment of fibrin sheath has become a hot spot of research in recent years.Hence,this paper summarizes the research on fibrin sheath in recent years.展开更多
Research concerning the psychosocial aspects of infertility and infertility treatment focuses more often on women than men. The aim of this review was to synthesize the English-language evidence related to the psychol...Research concerning the psychosocial aspects of infertility and infertility treatment focuses more often on women than men. The aim of this review was to synthesize the English-language evidence related to the psychological and social aspects of infertility in men and discuss the implications of these reports for clinical care and future research. A structured search identified 73 studies that reported data concerning the desire for fatherhood and the psychological and social aspects of diagnosis, assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment and unsuccessful treatment among men with fertility difficulties. The studies are diverse in conceptualisation, design, setting and data collection, but the findings were reasonably consistent. These studies indicated that fertile and infertile childless men of reproductive age have desires to experience parenthood that are similar to those of their female counterparts; in addition, diagnosis and initiation of treatment are associated with elevated infertility-specific anxiety, and unsuccessful treatment can lead to a state of lasting sadness. However, rates of clinically significant mental health problems among this patient population are no higher than in the general population. Infertile men who are socially isolated, have an avoidant coping style and appraise stressful events as overwhelming, are more vulnerable to severe anxiety than men without these characteristics. Men prefer oral to written treatment information and prefer to receive emotional support from infertility clinicians rather than from mental health professionals, self-help support groups or friends. Nevertheless, structured, facilitated psycho-educational groups that are didactic but permit informal sharing of experiences might be beneficial. There are gaps in knowledge about factors governing seeking, persisting with and deciding to cease treatment; experiences of invasive procedures; parenting after assisted conception; adoption and infertility-related grief and shame among men. Few resource-constrained countries have any data concerning male experiences of infertility.展开更多
Multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases, is of increasing importance for health professionals. Many factors are at play when it comes to multimorbidity, but we still know very little about how clinicians...Multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases, is of increasing importance for health professionals. Many factors are at play when it comes to multimorbidity, but we still know very little about how clinicians actually weigh up the different factors—medical, social, and psychological—to reach a particular course of action. Further research is therefore required to explore the ways in which clinical reasoning processes are involved in the follow up of patients suffering from multimorbidities, to highlight their potential risks of errors. A better understanding of these clinical processes will also enrich supervision of trainees and collaboration between healthcare professionals involved in primary care.展开更多
Measuring and improving home care clinic resource volume and geographic allocation are an important public health issue regarding prolonging home care system usage among disabled elderly people. This study examined cl...Measuring and improving home care clinic resource volume and geographic allocation are an important public health issue regarding prolonging home care system usage among disabled elderly people. This study examined clinic volume and accessibility’s association with hospitalization duration among disabled elderly people in 13 municipalities in Japan;additionally, this study compared clinic volume and accessibility’s ability to explain hospitalization duration in this population. Home care clinics’ service volume and geographic accessibility were calculated for 17 municipalities using public data and geographic information systems. We analyzed medical claim data from October 2012;the sample included 22,662 persons who were aged ≥75 years, certified as disabled in daily living, and lived in 13 municipalities regarding which data could be obtained for all examined municipality characteristics. Multilevel logistic models with random intercepts were constructed for municipalities and individual- and municipality-level independent variables in order to examine home care clinic volume and accessibility’s correlation with hospitalization duration. Clinic volume ranged from 0 to 9.53 per 10,000 elderly people;clinic accessibility ranged from 0% to 83%. Clinic volume and accessibility were both significantly negatively correlated with hospitalization duration of ≥10 days (odds ratios, 0.944 and 0.713;confidence intervals, 0.914 - 0.974 and 0.553 - 0.921, respectively). Clinics were not homogeneously geographically distributed;clinic accessibility explained hospitalization duration better than clinic volume. Clinic accessibility may more accurately indicate care clinic allocation appropriateness than clinic volume.展开更多
OBJECTIVE: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides primary health care services including care for diabetes and hypertension, with limited resources under diffic...OBJECTIVE: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides primary health care services including care for diabetes and hypertension, with limited resources under difficult circumstances in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. A total of 114,911 people with diabetes were registered with UNRWA health centres in 2011. The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to assess the quality of diabetes care in the UNRWA primary health care centres. METHOD: The study population consisted of 1600 people with diabetes attending the 32 largest UNRWA health centres and treated there for at least one year. Between April and Sept. 2012 data from medical records, including results of clinical examinations and laboratory tests performed during the last one year, current management including self-care education and evidence of diabetes complications were collected and recorded in a previously validated data collection form (DCF). Patients were interviewed and clinically examined on the day of the audit and blood collected for HbA1c testing which was done at a central lab using High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (HLC®-723G8 Tosoh Corporation, Japan). Data was transferred from paper records into a computer and analysed with Epi-info 2000. RESULTS: Type 1 diabetes was present in 4.3% and type 2 diabetes in 95.7%. Co-morbid hypertension was present in 68.5%;90.3% were either obese (64.0%) or overweight (26.3%). Clinical management of diabetes was largely in line with UNRWA’s technical instructions (TI) for diabetes. Records for 2 hour postprandial glucose (2 h PPG), serum cholesterol, serum creatinine, and urine protein analysis were available in 94.7%, 96.4%, 91.4% and 87.5%, cases, respectively. Records of annual fundoscopic eye examination were available in 47.3% cases but foot examinations were less well documented. Most patients (95.6%) were on anti-diabetic drugs—68.2% oral anti diabetic drugs (OAD) only, 14.4% combination of OAD and insulin, and 12.9% insulin only. While 44.8% patients had 2 h PPG ≤ 180 mg/dl, only 28.2% had HbA1c ≤ 7%;55.5% and 28.2% had BP ≤ 140/90 and ≤130/80 mm of Hg respectively. Serum cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dl, serum creatinine ≥ 1.2 mg/dl and macro albuminuria were noted in 39.8%, 6.4% and 10.3% cases respectively. Peripheral neuropathy (52.6%), foot infections (17%), diabetic retinopathy (11%) and myocardial infarction (9.6%) were the most common long term complications. One or more episodes of hypoglycaemia were reported by 25% cases in total and in 48% of those using insulin. 17.7% and 22.6% cases received no or ≥4 self-care education sessions respectively. CONCLUSION: The study confirmed that UNRWA doctors and nurses follow TI for diabetes and hypertension fairly well. Financial constraints and the consequent effects on UNRWA TI and policies related to diabetes care were important constraints. Key challenges identified were: reliance on 2 h PPG to measure control;non-availability of routine HbA1c testing, self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and statins within the UNRWA system;and high levels of obesity in the community. Addressing these will further strengthen UNRWA health system’s efforts of providing services for diabetes and hypertension at the primary care level. Given that most developing countries either have no or only rudimentary services for diabetes and hypertension at the primary care level, UNRWA’s efforts can serve as an inspiration to others.展开更多
Aim: The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the clinical nursing competence and nursing occupational experience in hospice/palliative care nurses (HPN) in Japan. Methods: A mail survey usi...Aim: The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the clinical nursing competence and nursing occupational experience in hospice/palliative care nurses (HPN) in Japan. Methods: A mail survey using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire was conducted on clinical nursing competence regarding communication, care and prediction of worsening of symptoms with the authors’ previous research as a framework. The subjects were nurses working in hospice/palliative care units in Japan, and the period of survey was January to February, 2014. Results: In this study, the relationship between the clinical nursing competence and nursing occupational experience of HPNs in hospice/palliative care which was clarified in the authors’ previous research was examined. The results showed that the amount of clinical nursing experience as a nurse was related to clinical nursing competence in the care of end-of-life patients and worsening of symptoms. The abundance of specialized nursing experience was also related to clinical nursing competence in communication in addition to care and prediction of worsening of symptoms. Training experience was also shown to be effective for hospice/palliative care. Conclusion: From these results, clinical nursing competence of HPNs in care of end-of-life patients and prediction of worsening of symptoms are possibly learned through the accumulation of clinical nursing experience as a nurse. However, HPN’s clinical nursing competence in communication was suggested to be developed through nursing practice in hospice/palliative care.展开更多
The coronavirus disease (COVID‑19) has claimed thousands of lives. The patients have been quarantined and treated in special shelter hospitals,and mild illness accounts for the majority of the total number of patients...The coronavirus disease (COVID‑19) has claimed thousands of lives. The patients have been quarantined and treated in special shelter hospitals,and mild illness accounts for the majority of the total number of patients. This article reports one case of the first batches of infected medicalstaff, who got infected with 2019 novel coronavirus and later discharged 2 weeks after receiving treatment and nursing care in Wuhan UnionHospital. Considering all aspects of the patient’s hospitalization, the patient was performed ward environment management, medical nursing,symptomatic treatment, nutrition management, vital signs monitoring, observation and nursing, psychological assessment and support, andinfection protection and management. As the earliest successful case of cure, the patient’s manifestations are classical and common. Moreover,we hope to share it with colleagues to fight against COVID‑19 for reference. The treatment and nursing guidelines can be applied to treat a largenumber of mild cases, thus improving the discharge rate of patients and reducing the pressure of epidemic situation.展开更多
Background: Although inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have been increasing and new thera-peutic options for IBD have been developed, there are relatively few clinicians who specialize in IBD. Patients treated...Background: Although inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have been increasing and new thera-peutic options for IBD have been developed, there are relatively few clinicians who specialize in IBD. Patients treated by a non-specialist of IBD may not receive appropriate treatment. This study aimed to compare disease and medication status between IBD patients treated by a specialist and those treated by a non-specialist. Methods: Medical charts of ambulating IBD patients in two hospitals were examined. All patients in one hospital were treated by one of the IBD specialists, while in the other hospital, patients were treated by one of the gastroenterologists who was a non-specialist of IBD. Results: The numbers of IBD patients were 255 (hospital with specialists) and 74 (hospital without specialists), respectively. Disease activity of the patients was not well-controlled in the hospital without specialists compared to in the hospi- tal with specialists (ulcerative colitis (UC): p = 0.0006 and Crohn’s disease: p = 0.012, respectively). The proportion of UC patients who received an insufficient dose of mesalazine (Pentasa < 3 g/day or Asacol < 3.6 g/day) was higher in the hospital without specialists (47% vs. 15%, p < 0.0001). In the hospital without specialists, more patients received long-term corticosteroids (UC: 23% vs. 5%, p < 0.0001), while fewer patients received immunomodulators (UC: 8% vs. 46%, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: IBD patients of the hospital without specialists were not well-controlled and were not prescribed appropriately with thera-peutic drugs. Fostering and placement of the specialist of IBD is an urgent problem.展开更多
Objective To discuss the role of clinical pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care in pediatric respiratory department.Methods Supply pharmaceutical information,participate in clinical rounds,provide the rationali...Objective To discuss the role of clinical pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care in pediatric respiratory department.Methods Supply pharmaceutical information,participate in clinical rounds,provide the rationalization proposal,help doctors to formulate correctly dose regimen,enhance medication efficiency;establish medicine record for the patient,record the drugs which were used,provide pharmaceutical care for the patient such as disease propaganda,medicine-use education,medicine consultation and so on.Results Promote rational administration,enhance the security of medical practice,the clinical pharmacists' work obtains the doctors' approval;improve the medication compliance,reduce patients' economy and spiritual burden,and obtain the patients' trust.Conclusions The pharmaceutical care carried out in pediatric respiratory department can help reduce the incidence of medication errors,cut down the medication cost,shorten the time of patients to be hospitalized,raise the medication efficiency,and promote the doctor-patient relationship harmoniously.In a word the clinical pharmacists are indispensable.展开更多
<strong>Background:</strong> Emergency Clinic (EC) and Central Intensive Care (CIC) are high-stress environments that directly affect the health status of nurses. <strong>Methods:</strong> The ...<strong>Background:</strong> Emergency Clinic (EC) and Central Intensive Care (CIC) are high-stress environments that directly affect the health status of nurses. <strong>Methods:</strong> The aim of this study was to assess the level of stress at nurses working in the Emergency Clinic and nurses working in the Central Intensive Care. The study included 90 nurses, 45 nurses working in Emergency Clinic and 45 nurses working in Central Intensive Care. The study applied the Emergency Nurse Stress Questionnaire as an instrument to gather the data. This questionnaire was adopted from the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire in order to serve for the function and aim of the present study. <strong>Results:</strong> Nurses’ cohort-age ranged from 20 to 62 years. The largest proportion of respondents 40 (44.4%) was in the 20 - 30 age group, 58 (64.4%) were married, 60 (66.6%) hold bachelor degree and (33.3%) were with secondary school educational level. In terms of work-related fatigue, significant difference was found in working hours, participants reported that there was a significant difference in fatigue between 12 hours shift nurses (61 ± 10.5) compared to 8 hours nurses (41 ± 23.6) with P < 0.001. Results indicated that a vast majority of participants reported moderate to high levels of stress (81% of participants). There was no significant difference in the level of stress between the two groups of participants. There were also no significant differences compared to their demographic characteristics. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> These findings emphasize the role of using and assuring adequate strategies for ensuring quality management and finding ways of facilitating the increase in the number of nursing staff in these two departments because workplace overload and fatigue are potential factors that increase nurses’ stress levels.展开更多
Objective: Government targets to reduce waiting times are putting enormous pressures on outpatient services. The implementation of an electronic care records service (CRS) at our hospital in 2008 has led to widespread...Objective: Government targets to reduce waiting times are putting enormous pressures on outpatient services. The implementation of an electronic care records service (CRS) at our hospital in 2008 has led to widespread press coverage of ensuing chaos in clinical administration. We wanted to know how this new electronic system impacted on our working patterns in outpatient clinics and – more specifically – on the time actually spent with the patients. Material & methods: This study was performed 4 and 12 months after implementation of CRS to assess its impact on the time distribution in clinic. Senior doctors were monitored with a stop clock during consultations. Timings for pre- and post-consultation administration, and the actual consultation with the patient were recorded. A total of 170 consultations were evaluated in this way. Results: The key findings were that the total time needed to spend on a urological outpatient of 16 minutes remains unchanged from the pre-CRS era, but a majority (57%) of this time is spent in administration on the computer without the patient involved. Conclusion: No more than 15 patients should be seen in a 4 hour outpatient clinic per doctor. This recommendation drawn up by BAUS before CRS remains still valid. Patient administration related to the consultation that has previously been done by administrative aides is now to be done by the doctors on the computer in the same consultation session. Intended to streamline patient pathways, this does reduce the quality interaction-time between doctor and patients significantly.展开更多
The high frequency of dental extractions creates a high demand for prosthetic rehabilitation. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the profile of consumers of prosthetic care at the Institute of Odontology and Stom...The high frequency of dental extractions creates a high demand for prosthetic rehabilitation. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the profile of consumers of prosthetic care at the Institute of Odontology and Stomatology in Dakar. It was a descriptive and retrospective study of patients who had been consulted at the prosthetic clinic of the Institute of Odontology and Stomatology of Dakar. Data were collected from medical records from 09 November 2019 to 09 June 2020. The tools used to collect and process the information were the Sphinx software and the Excel spreadsheet. Out of the 101 patient records, 51% were male and 48% belonged to the age group of 18 to 39 years. Nearly 38.61% of the patients lived less than 5 km from the health care facility and 70.3% of the respondents had a monthly income of fewer than 100,000 FCFA. Clinically, 96% of patients came for functional reasons, 78.2% for aesthetic reasons, and partial edentulism was the most frequent diagnosis (96%). Chi-square tests were performed to find a dependency or non-dependency relationship between diagnosis and age, but also between income and treatment cost. In sum, age and diagnosis were independent of each other, just as patient income was not related to treatment cost. Proximity to health facilities, income, and cost of treatment are factors that influence accessibility to oral health care. It is important to integrate the profile of the consumer of care into global management.展开更多
Invasive candidiasis(IC) bears a high risk of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care units(ICU). With the current advances in critical care and the use of widespectrum antibiotics, invasive fungal infections(IF...Invasive candidiasis(IC) bears a high risk of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care units(ICU). With the current advances in critical care and the use of widespectrum antibiotics, invasive fungal infections(IFIs) and IC in particular, have turned into a growing concern in the ICU. Further to blood cultures, some auxil-iary laboratory tests and biomarkers are developed to enable an earlier detection of infection, however these test are neither consistently available nor validated in our setting. On the other hand, patients' clinical status and local epidemiology data may justify the empiric antifungal approach using the proper antifungal option. The clinical approach to the management of IC in febrile, non-neutropenic critically ill patients has been defined in available international guidelines; nevertheless such recommendations need to be customized when applied to our local practice. Over the past three years, Iranian experts from intensive care and infectious diseases disciplines have tried to draw a consensus on the management of IFI with a particular focus on IC in the ICU. The established IFI-clinical forum(IFI-CF), comprising the scientific leaders in the field, has recently come up with and updated recommendation on the same(June 2014). The purpose of this review is to put together literature insights and Iranian experts' opinion at the IFI-CF, to propose an updated practical overview on recommended approaches for the management of IC in the ICU.展开更多
文摘[Objective] To explore the effect of clinical care pathways in perioperative patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula balloon expansion. [Method] 202 patients undergoing autologous arteriovenous fistula from July 2021 to June 2022 were randomly divided into a control group (101 cases) and an observation group (101 cases) to compare the incidence rates of postoperative complications, hospitalization days, hospitalization expenses, knowledge of self-management of arteriovenous fistula and nursing satisfaction. [Results] In the observation group, the incidence of arteriovenous fistula was higher than that of the control group, and the hospitalization days and hospitalization costs were lower than that of the control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.05). [Conclusion] The application of the clinical nursing path to intervene in patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula balloon dilation can reduce the incidence of postoperative complications, shorten the hospital length of time, reduce hospitalization costs and improve patient satisfaction, which is clinical promotion significance.
文摘Objective:This study designs and implements the health prescription of children’s health education specialized nursing clinic based on the physical and mental characteristics of children with Tourette’s syndrome.Methods:Applying the evidence-based nursing model and nursing intervention theory based on the survey research by searching China Knowledge Network,Wanfang Database and Wipro Chinese Science and Technology Journal Database,the study collected the literature on the health prescription intervention research in children’s Tourette’s disorders health education in children’s health education of specialized nursing outpatient clinic for review and combined with the specialty characteristics to formulate“Children’s Tourette’s Disorder Health Education Prescription.”Results:Tourette’s syndrome in children is a common pediatric neurological disorder,mainly manifested as involuntary,rapid and repeated muscle twitching and vocal tics,which brings serious psychological pressure and life disturbance to the affected children.Conclusion:For children with Tourette’s syndrome,healthcare professionals should give enough care and understanding to the children and their parents,provide timely and effective health education to them,help them improve their bad behavioral habits,establish correct cognitive attitudes,enhance self-confidence,improve patient compliance,reduce the frequency of recurrence,reduce the incidence of complications and promote children’s physical and mental health development.
文摘Urgent care clinics and emergency departments around the world periodically suffer from extended wait times beyond patient expectations due to surges in patient flows.The delays arising from inadequate staffing levels during these periods have been linked with adverse clinical outcomes.Previous research into forecasting patient flows has mostly used statistical techniques.These studies have also predominately focussed on short‐term forecasts,which have limited practicality for the resourcing of medical personnel.This study joins an emerging body of work which seeks to explore the potential of machine learning algorithms to generate accurate forecasts of patient presentations.Our research uses datasets covering 10 years from two large urgent care clinics to develop long‐term patient flow forecasts up to one quarter ahead using a range of state‐of‐the‐art algo-rithms.A distinctive feature of this study is the use of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence(XAI)tools like Shapely and LIME that enable an in‐depth analysis of the behaviour of the models,which would otherwise be uninterpretable.These analysis tools enabled us to explore the ability of the models to adapt to the volatility in patient demand during the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdowns and to identify the most impactful variables,resulting in valuable insights into their performance.The results showed that a novel combination of advanced univariate models like Prophet as well as gradient boosting,into an ensemble,delivered the most accurate and consistent solutions on average.This approach generated improvements in the range of 16%-30%over the existing in‐house methods for esti-mating the daily patient flows 90 days ahead.
文摘High-quality nursing care can greatly reduce the occurrence of nursing accidents and help patients maintain better physical and mental health.For patients with hypertension,special attention should be given to clinical nursing.Providing scientific medication guidance,along with psychological support,can improve their medication compliance and establish a good doctor-patient relationship,aiding in their faster recovery.Based on a review of relevant literature and the author's practical experience,this paper first analyzes the content and requirements of clinical nursing for hypertension,then discusses the main factors that restrict the effectiveness of clinical nursing for hypertension,and finally suggests improvements to the clinical nursing model for hypertension to serve as a reference for colleagues.
文摘With the popularization of central venous catheterization in recent years,the problems arising from intravenous therapy have gradually increased.Fibrin sheath is the complication with the highest incidence rate in central venous catheterization,which has always been a major problem in intravenous therapy.So the prevention and treatment of fibrin sheath has become a hot spot of research in recent years.Hence,this paper summarizes the research on fibrin sheath in recent years.
文摘Research concerning the psychosocial aspects of infertility and infertility treatment focuses more often on women than men. The aim of this review was to synthesize the English-language evidence related to the psychological and social aspects of infertility in men and discuss the implications of these reports for clinical care and future research. A structured search identified 73 studies that reported data concerning the desire for fatherhood and the psychological and social aspects of diagnosis, assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment and unsuccessful treatment among men with fertility difficulties. The studies are diverse in conceptualisation, design, setting and data collection, but the findings were reasonably consistent. These studies indicated that fertile and infertile childless men of reproductive age have desires to experience parenthood that are similar to those of their female counterparts; in addition, diagnosis and initiation of treatment are associated with elevated infertility-specific anxiety, and unsuccessful treatment can lead to a state of lasting sadness. However, rates of clinically significant mental health problems among this patient population are no higher than in the general population. Infertile men who are socially isolated, have an avoidant coping style and appraise stressful events as overwhelming, are more vulnerable to severe anxiety than men without these characteristics. Men prefer oral to written treatment information and prefer to receive emotional support from infertility clinicians rather than from mental health professionals, self-help support groups or friends. Nevertheless, structured, facilitated psycho-educational groups that are didactic but permit informal sharing of experiences might be beneficial. There are gaps in knowledge about factors governing seeking, persisting with and deciding to cease treatment; experiences of invasive procedures; parenting after assisted conception; adoption and infertility-related grief and shame among men. Few resource-constrained countries have any data concerning male experiences of infertility.
文摘Multimorbidity, defined as 2 or more chronic diseases, is of increasing importance for health professionals. Many factors are at play when it comes to multimorbidity, but we still know very little about how clinicians actually weigh up the different factors—medical, social, and psychological—to reach a particular course of action. Further research is therefore required to explore the ways in which clinical reasoning processes are involved in the follow up of patients suffering from multimorbidities, to highlight their potential risks of errors. A better understanding of these clinical processes will also enrich supervision of trainees and collaboration between healthcare professionals involved in primary care.
文摘Measuring and improving home care clinic resource volume and geographic allocation are an important public health issue regarding prolonging home care system usage among disabled elderly people. This study examined clinic volume and accessibility’s association with hospitalization duration among disabled elderly people in 13 municipalities in Japan;additionally, this study compared clinic volume and accessibility’s ability to explain hospitalization duration in this population. Home care clinics’ service volume and geographic accessibility were calculated for 17 municipalities using public data and geographic information systems. We analyzed medical claim data from October 2012;the sample included 22,662 persons who were aged ≥75 years, certified as disabled in daily living, and lived in 13 municipalities regarding which data could be obtained for all examined municipality characteristics. Multilevel logistic models with random intercepts were constructed for municipalities and individual- and municipality-level independent variables in order to examine home care clinic volume and accessibility’s correlation with hospitalization duration. Clinic volume ranged from 0 to 9.53 per 10,000 elderly people;clinic accessibility ranged from 0% to 83%. Clinic volume and accessibility were both significantly negatively correlated with hospitalization duration of ≥10 days (odds ratios, 0.944 and 0.713;confidence intervals, 0.914 - 0.974 and 0.553 - 0.921, respectively). Clinics were not homogeneously geographically distributed;clinic accessibility explained hospitalization duration better than clinic volume. Clinic accessibility may more accurately indicate care clinic allocation appropriateness than clinic volume.
文摘OBJECTIVE: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides primary health care services including care for diabetes and hypertension, with limited resources under difficult circumstances in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. A total of 114,911 people with diabetes were registered with UNRWA health centres in 2011. The aim of this cross-sectional observational study was to assess the quality of diabetes care in the UNRWA primary health care centres. METHOD: The study population consisted of 1600 people with diabetes attending the 32 largest UNRWA health centres and treated there for at least one year. Between April and Sept. 2012 data from medical records, including results of clinical examinations and laboratory tests performed during the last one year, current management including self-care education and evidence of diabetes complications were collected and recorded in a previously validated data collection form (DCF). Patients were interviewed and clinically examined on the day of the audit and blood collected for HbA1c testing which was done at a central lab using High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (HLC®-723G8 Tosoh Corporation, Japan). Data was transferred from paper records into a computer and analysed with Epi-info 2000. RESULTS: Type 1 diabetes was present in 4.3% and type 2 diabetes in 95.7%. Co-morbid hypertension was present in 68.5%;90.3% were either obese (64.0%) or overweight (26.3%). Clinical management of diabetes was largely in line with UNRWA’s technical instructions (TI) for diabetes. Records for 2 hour postprandial glucose (2 h PPG), serum cholesterol, serum creatinine, and urine protein analysis were available in 94.7%, 96.4%, 91.4% and 87.5%, cases, respectively. Records of annual fundoscopic eye examination were available in 47.3% cases but foot examinations were less well documented. Most patients (95.6%) were on anti-diabetic drugs—68.2% oral anti diabetic drugs (OAD) only, 14.4% combination of OAD and insulin, and 12.9% insulin only. While 44.8% patients had 2 h PPG ≤ 180 mg/dl, only 28.2% had HbA1c ≤ 7%;55.5% and 28.2% had BP ≤ 140/90 and ≤130/80 mm of Hg respectively. Serum cholesterol ≥ 200 mg/dl, serum creatinine ≥ 1.2 mg/dl and macro albuminuria were noted in 39.8%, 6.4% and 10.3% cases respectively. Peripheral neuropathy (52.6%), foot infections (17%), diabetic retinopathy (11%) and myocardial infarction (9.6%) were the most common long term complications. One or more episodes of hypoglycaemia were reported by 25% cases in total and in 48% of those using insulin. 17.7% and 22.6% cases received no or ≥4 self-care education sessions respectively. CONCLUSION: The study confirmed that UNRWA doctors and nurses follow TI for diabetes and hypertension fairly well. Financial constraints and the consequent effects on UNRWA TI and policies related to diabetes care were important constraints. Key challenges identified were: reliance on 2 h PPG to measure control;non-availability of routine HbA1c testing, self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) and statins within the UNRWA system;and high levels of obesity in the community. Addressing these will further strengthen UNRWA health system’s efforts of providing services for diabetes and hypertension at the primary care level. Given that most developing countries either have no or only rudimentary services for diabetes and hypertension at the primary care level, UNRWA’s efforts can serve as an inspiration to others.
文摘Aim: The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between the clinical nursing competence and nursing occupational experience in hospice/palliative care nurses (HPN) in Japan. Methods: A mail survey using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire was conducted on clinical nursing competence regarding communication, care and prediction of worsening of symptoms with the authors’ previous research as a framework. The subjects were nurses working in hospice/palliative care units in Japan, and the period of survey was January to February, 2014. Results: In this study, the relationship between the clinical nursing competence and nursing occupational experience of HPNs in hospice/palliative care which was clarified in the authors’ previous research was examined. The results showed that the amount of clinical nursing experience as a nurse was related to clinical nursing competence in the care of end-of-life patients and worsening of symptoms. The abundance of specialized nursing experience was also related to clinical nursing competence in communication in addition to care and prediction of worsening of symptoms. Training experience was also shown to be effective for hospice/palliative care. Conclusion: From these results, clinical nursing competence of HPNs in care of end-of-life patients and prediction of worsening of symptoms are possibly learned through the accumulation of clinical nursing experience as a nurse. However, HPN’s clinical nursing competence in communication was suggested to be developed through nursing practice in hospice/palliative care.
文摘The coronavirus disease (COVID‑19) has claimed thousands of lives. The patients have been quarantined and treated in special shelter hospitals,and mild illness accounts for the majority of the total number of patients. This article reports one case of the first batches of infected medicalstaff, who got infected with 2019 novel coronavirus and later discharged 2 weeks after receiving treatment and nursing care in Wuhan UnionHospital. Considering all aspects of the patient’s hospitalization, the patient was performed ward environment management, medical nursing,symptomatic treatment, nutrition management, vital signs monitoring, observation and nursing, psychological assessment and support, andinfection protection and management. As the earliest successful case of cure, the patient’s manifestations are classical and common. Moreover,we hope to share it with colleagues to fight against COVID‑19 for reference. The treatment and nursing guidelines can be applied to treat a largenumber of mild cases, thus improving the discharge rate of patients and reducing the pressure of epidemic situation.
文摘Background: Although inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients have been increasing and new thera-peutic options for IBD have been developed, there are relatively few clinicians who specialize in IBD. Patients treated by a non-specialist of IBD may not receive appropriate treatment. This study aimed to compare disease and medication status between IBD patients treated by a specialist and those treated by a non-specialist. Methods: Medical charts of ambulating IBD patients in two hospitals were examined. All patients in one hospital were treated by one of the IBD specialists, while in the other hospital, patients were treated by one of the gastroenterologists who was a non-specialist of IBD. Results: The numbers of IBD patients were 255 (hospital with specialists) and 74 (hospital without specialists), respectively. Disease activity of the patients was not well-controlled in the hospital without specialists compared to in the hospi- tal with specialists (ulcerative colitis (UC): p = 0.0006 and Crohn’s disease: p = 0.012, respectively). The proportion of UC patients who received an insufficient dose of mesalazine (Pentasa < 3 g/day or Asacol < 3.6 g/day) was higher in the hospital without specialists (47% vs. 15%, p < 0.0001). In the hospital without specialists, more patients received long-term corticosteroids (UC: 23% vs. 5%, p < 0.0001), while fewer patients received immunomodulators (UC: 8% vs. 46%, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: IBD patients of the hospital without specialists were not well-controlled and were not prescribed appropriately with thera-peutic drugs. Fostering and placement of the specialist of IBD is an urgent problem.
文摘Objective To discuss the role of clinical pharmacists in providing pharmaceutical care in pediatric respiratory department.Methods Supply pharmaceutical information,participate in clinical rounds,provide the rationalization proposal,help doctors to formulate correctly dose regimen,enhance medication efficiency;establish medicine record for the patient,record the drugs which were used,provide pharmaceutical care for the patient such as disease propaganda,medicine-use education,medicine consultation and so on.Results Promote rational administration,enhance the security of medical practice,the clinical pharmacists' work obtains the doctors' approval;improve the medication compliance,reduce patients' economy and spiritual burden,and obtain the patients' trust.Conclusions The pharmaceutical care carried out in pediatric respiratory department can help reduce the incidence of medication errors,cut down the medication cost,shorten the time of patients to be hospitalized,raise the medication efficiency,and promote the doctor-patient relationship harmoniously.In a word the clinical pharmacists are indispensable.
文摘<strong>Background:</strong> Emergency Clinic (EC) and Central Intensive Care (CIC) are high-stress environments that directly affect the health status of nurses. <strong>Methods:</strong> The aim of this study was to assess the level of stress at nurses working in the Emergency Clinic and nurses working in the Central Intensive Care. The study included 90 nurses, 45 nurses working in Emergency Clinic and 45 nurses working in Central Intensive Care. The study applied the Emergency Nurse Stress Questionnaire as an instrument to gather the data. This questionnaire was adopted from the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire in order to serve for the function and aim of the present study. <strong>Results:</strong> Nurses’ cohort-age ranged from 20 to 62 years. The largest proportion of respondents 40 (44.4%) was in the 20 - 30 age group, 58 (64.4%) were married, 60 (66.6%) hold bachelor degree and (33.3%) were with secondary school educational level. In terms of work-related fatigue, significant difference was found in working hours, participants reported that there was a significant difference in fatigue between 12 hours shift nurses (61 ± 10.5) compared to 8 hours nurses (41 ± 23.6) with P < 0.001. Results indicated that a vast majority of participants reported moderate to high levels of stress (81% of participants). There was no significant difference in the level of stress between the two groups of participants. There were also no significant differences compared to their demographic characteristics. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> These findings emphasize the role of using and assuring adequate strategies for ensuring quality management and finding ways of facilitating the increase in the number of nursing staff in these two departments because workplace overload and fatigue are potential factors that increase nurses’ stress levels.
文摘Objective: Government targets to reduce waiting times are putting enormous pressures on outpatient services. The implementation of an electronic care records service (CRS) at our hospital in 2008 has led to widespread press coverage of ensuing chaos in clinical administration. We wanted to know how this new electronic system impacted on our working patterns in outpatient clinics and – more specifically – on the time actually spent with the patients. Material & methods: This study was performed 4 and 12 months after implementation of CRS to assess its impact on the time distribution in clinic. Senior doctors were monitored with a stop clock during consultations. Timings for pre- and post-consultation administration, and the actual consultation with the patient were recorded. A total of 170 consultations were evaluated in this way. Results: The key findings were that the total time needed to spend on a urological outpatient of 16 minutes remains unchanged from the pre-CRS era, but a majority (57%) of this time is spent in administration on the computer without the patient involved. Conclusion: No more than 15 patients should be seen in a 4 hour outpatient clinic per doctor. This recommendation drawn up by BAUS before CRS remains still valid. Patient administration related to the consultation that has previously been done by administrative aides is now to be done by the doctors on the computer in the same consultation session. Intended to streamline patient pathways, this does reduce the quality interaction-time between doctor and patients significantly.
文摘The high frequency of dental extractions creates a high demand for prosthetic rehabilitation. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the profile of consumers of prosthetic care at the Institute of Odontology and Stomatology in Dakar. It was a descriptive and retrospective study of patients who had been consulted at the prosthetic clinic of the Institute of Odontology and Stomatology of Dakar. Data were collected from medical records from 09 November 2019 to 09 June 2020. The tools used to collect and process the information were the Sphinx software and the Excel spreadsheet. Out of the 101 patient records, 51% were male and 48% belonged to the age group of 18 to 39 years. Nearly 38.61% of the patients lived less than 5 km from the health care facility and 70.3% of the respondents had a monthly income of fewer than 100,000 FCFA. Clinically, 96% of patients came for functional reasons, 78.2% for aesthetic reasons, and partial edentulism was the most frequent diagnosis (96%). Chi-square tests were performed to find a dependency or non-dependency relationship between diagnosis and age, but also between income and treatment cost. In sum, age and diagnosis were independent of each other, just as patient income was not related to treatment cost. Proximity to health facilities, income, and cost of treatment are factors that influence accessibility to oral health care. It is important to integrate the profile of the consumer of care into global management.
基金support from Behestan Darou PJS and Behphar scientific Committee Tehran Iran
文摘Invasive candidiasis(IC) bears a high risk of morbidity and mortality in the intensive care units(ICU). With the current advances in critical care and the use of widespectrum antibiotics, invasive fungal infections(IFIs) and IC in particular, have turned into a growing concern in the ICU. Further to blood cultures, some auxil-iary laboratory tests and biomarkers are developed to enable an earlier detection of infection, however these test are neither consistently available nor validated in our setting. On the other hand, patients' clinical status and local epidemiology data may justify the empiric antifungal approach using the proper antifungal option. The clinical approach to the management of IC in febrile, non-neutropenic critically ill patients has been defined in available international guidelines; nevertheless such recommendations need to be customized when applied to our local practice. Over the past three years, Iranian experts from intensive care and infectious diseases disciplines have tried to draw a consensus on the management of IFI with a particular focus on IC in the ICU. The established IFI-clinical forum(IFI-CF), comprising the scientific leaders in the field, has recently come up with and updated recommendation on the same(June 2014). The purpose of this review is to put together literature insights and Iranian experts' opinion at the IFI-CF, to propose an updated practical overview on recommended approaches for the management of IC in the ICU.