The Alzheimer’s Dementia Patients’ Observed Illness Course and Experience in Ghana and Care Lessons to Be Learnt: A Mental Health Professional’s Perspective

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and associated dementia patient numbers continue to increase globally with associated economic costs to healthcare systems. Of note is the increase in numbers in lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, which already face challenges with their health budgets from communicable and non-communicable diseases. Ghana, an SSA country, faces the problem of healthcare budgetary difficulties and the additional impact of AD as a consequence of increasing population strata of old aged persons (OAPs) due to the demographic transition effect. This article uses examples of known patients’ illness courses to give a perspective on the lived experience of patients with dementia (PWD) in Ghana, living amongst a populace with a culture of stigmatization of PWD, and a relatively fragile public mental health system (PMHS) for those with mental illness, including AD. The lived experience of AD patients is characterised by stigmatisation, discrimination, non-inclusiveness, diminished dignity and human rights abuses in the face of their mental disability, and eventually death. This article is an advocacy article giving voice to the voiceless and all persons suffering from AD and other dementias in Ghana, whilst pleading for a call to action from healthcare professionals and responsible state agencies.

The Use of Smart Textiles in the Healthcare Space: Towards an Improvement of the User-Patient Experience

This article explores the role of smart textiles in transforming healthcare environments into spaces that prioritize patient well-being. We will examine the advantages of smart textiles in healthcare settings, such as the real-time monitoring of vital signs through connected clothing. Additionally, we will introduce metadesign as a design approach that considers the interactions between users, healthcare environments, and technologies to create fulfilling experiences. By combining the advanced features of smart textiles with a patient-centered metadesign approach, it becomes possible to create care spaces that cater to patient needs. The objective of this article is to present the integration of metadesign in the design of smart textiles as a process aimed at enhancing the quality of the patient user experience. In this process, we will emphasize the collaborative approach and embrace technological innovation to harness the potential for ongoing improvement and provide users with high-quality experiences. Lastly, we will underscore the significance of adopting a multidimensional approach to evaluate the impact of smart textiles on the patient user experience.

Psychological experience of breastfeeding among primiparous women with lactating mastitis:A qualitative research

Objective:The objective of this study is to comprehensively understand the psychological experience of primiparous women during breastfeeding while dealing with lactating mastitis and to establish a reliable foundation for tailored support measures.Methods:Twenty primiparous mothers from a tertiary hospital in Beijing between January and March 2023 were chosen using purposive sampling for semi-structured interviews.After conducting 20 interviews,data saturation was achieved.The Colaizzi’s seven-step analytical approach was employed to analyze,summarize,and refine the identified themes.Results:Among primiparous women afflicted by lactating mastitis,the primary themes regarding breastfeeding attitudes included three key aspects:(1)uncertainty during the initial diagnosis phase,(2)intricate emotional journey during treatment,and(3)positive psychological outlook during the recovery stage.Conclusion:Primiparous women undergoing lactating mastitis experience substantial physical and psychological strain.It is crucial for medical personnel,family caregivers,and society at large to be attuned to the emotions of these patients.Tailored support measures should be offered to enhance patients’physical and mental well-being and facilitate disease recovery.

Analyzing Arabic Twitter-Based Patient Experience Sentiments Using Multi-Dialect Arabic Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers

Healthcare organizations rely on patients’feedback and experiences to evaluate their performance and services,thereby allowing such organizations to improve inadequate services and address any shortcomings.According to the literature,social networks and particularly Twitter are effective platforms for gathering public opinions.Moreover,recent studies have used natural language processing to measure sentiments in text segments collected from Twitter to capture public opinions about various sectors,including healthcare.The present study aimed to analyze Arabic Twitter-based patient experience sentiments and to introduce an Arabic patient experience corpus.The authors collected 12,400 tweets from Arabic patients discussing patient experiences related to healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia from 1 January 2008 to 29 January 2022.The tweets were labeled according to sentiment(positive or negative)and sector(public or private),and thereby the Hospital Patient Experiences in Saudi Arabia(HoPE-SA)dataset was produced.A simple statistical analysis was conducted to examine differences in patient views of healthcare sectors.The authors trained five models to distinguish sentiments in tweets automatically with the following schemes:a transformer-based model fine-tuned with deep learning architecture and a transformer-based model fine-tuned with simple architecture,using two different transformer-based embeddings based on Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers(BERT),Multi-dialect Arabic BERT(MAR-BERT),and multilingual BERT(mBERT),as well as a pretrained word2vec model with a support vector machine classifier.This is the first study to investigate the use of a bidirectional long short-term memory layer followed by a feedforward neural network for the fine-tuning of MARBERT.The deep-learning fine-tuned MARBERT-based model—the authors’best-performing model—achieved accuracy,micro-F1,and macro-F1 scores of 98.71%,98.73%,and 98.63%,respectively.

Evaluation of Patients’ Experience Following Dental Implant Surgical Procedure

Background: Patient’s acceptability of dental implant prostheses may be influenced the fact that a surgical procedure is involved. Adequate relevant information by the dental professionals pre-surgery, is therefore, paramount to alleviating the fear of surgery and contribute positively to patient’s ability to cope with post-surgical experience. This study, therefore, aimed at evaluating the postsurgical experience of the dental implant patients. As against what was expected, and relate this with the information given pre surgery. Methodology: Post treatment self-completed questionnaires were administered to consented patients that had dental implants placed between July 2017 and December 2019. The surgical procedure followed the standard protocol and data related to post-surgical experience were collected one week after the surgery to obtain information on the level of pain/discomfort and amount of swelling experienced following surgery. The effect of the information on coping ability following surgery was also assessed. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (p value ≤ 0.05). Results: Twenty-seven patients received 44 implants to replace 48 teeth. The mean age of the patients was 45 ± 16.3 (SD) years. Teeth mostly replaced were the maxillary central incisors (39.6%). The majority of the patients 77.7% reported to experience less pain/discomfort than expected and 66.6% had less swelling than expected. While 29.6% felt they had excellent explanation of what to expect, 51.9% said they had good explanation. The post-surgical experience between males and females was not statistically significant (pain: p = 0.08, swelling: p = 0.64). However, the majority (8/12) that had good to excellent information preoperatively, had significantly less discomfort than expected. Conclusion: Positive, encouraging and satisfactory experience of patients following implant surgical procedure is related to adequate and correct information pre-surgery.

Expectations and Level of Satisfaction of the Patient with Parkinson’s Disease Undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery at the National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for patients with advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD). Reports show continued patient satisfaction after surgery despite not maintaining clinical improvement as measured by evolution scales. Objectives: The present study sought to explore expectations and level of satisfaction in patients after DBS surgery with a semi-structured questionnaire and subsequent correlation with functional scales, Quality of Life (QoL), and motor and non-motor symptoms. Methods: We performed descriptive statistics to represent demographic data, Wilcoxon rank tests to determine significant differences, and Spearman correlation between the applied scales. Results: We evaluated 20 patients with a history of DBS surgery. 45% were female, with a mean age of 55.7 ± 14.15 years, a mean disease duration of 13.42 ± 8.3 years, and a mean time after surgery of 3.18 ± 1.86 years. Patients reported surgery meeting expectations in 85.5% and continued satisfaction in 92%. These two variables showed a significant correlation. Conclusions: This sample of patients remained satisfied after DBS surgery, although we found no differences in motor and non-motor clinimetric scales. Further studies are needed to confirm the importance of assessing quality of life in patients with DBS.

On the Unipolar Generator: An Experimental and Theoretical Study

When studying the phenomenon of the induced electromotive force, which originates from Faraday’s unipolar inductor, the contrast between Faraday’s view of the magnetic field dynamic lines and the theory of relativity is revealed. In order to remove this contradiction, this phenomenon was studied in depth, theoretically and experimentally, using an experimental setup similar to Faraday’s. Calculations of the induced electromotive force, based on relativity on the one hand and on Faraday’s view on the other were made with the help of measurements of the magnetic field components. Accurate magnetic field measurements are confirmed by analytical calculations. Precise-induced electromotive force measurements confirmed Faraday’s view and contradicted the theory of relativity.

An Evaluation Scale of Medical Services Quality Based on “Patients' Experience”

An evaluation scale of medical services quality was developed on the basis of ＂patients＇ experience＂. The questionnaires were developed by, among others, searching relevant literature, col- lecting well-established assessment scales, measuring patients＇ experience and satisfaction, brain-storming, literature analysis. Delphi method was adopted for expert consultation. Scale items were screened and revised. The key indexes were converted. Field surveys were conducted for testing the reliability and validity of the scale. Our modified evaluation scale for measuring medical services quality based on ＂patients＇ experience＂ included 6 dimensions （tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and continuity）, and 50 items. The novel scale based on ＂patients＇ experience＂ may better serve the purpose of assessin~ medical services quality.

Emergency department patient experience:Same location,same provider,different scores by different survey methods

BACKGROUND: Recent findings on emergency department (ED) patient experience surveys and concerns for the low response rates challenge the quality and reliability of the survey reports. We assessed the consistency of an ED patient experience survey report and identifi ed the effects of patient demographics on ED patient experiences. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional study at a university-based ED from July to December 2017. We obtained ED patient experience scores from an institutional version (IS) survey and the Press Ganey Associates-distributed survey (PGA). We compared top box scores from the two reports using frequency analysis and performed multivariable logistic regressions to identify associations between IS patient demographics and scores. RESULTS: We obtained 289 PGA and 234 IS responses. The IS reported signifi cant, higher top box scores in doctor-specifi c patient questions compared to PGA (all four P-values < 0.01). Female, Christian and White patients were more likely to give top box scores (OR 3.07, OR 2.22 and OR 2.41, P-value < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSION: We found significant differences in ED patient experience scores between the IS and PGA surveys. We recommend that healthcare providers consider patient demographic variables when interpreting ED experience score reports. Multiple survey techniques and distribution methods may be adopted to best capture ED patient experiences.

Experience of the patient's success in facing post-stroke urinary incontinence: the patient's perspective

Objective:Post-stroke urinary incontinence(UI)is one of the sequelae of stroke.This situation affects all aspects of the patient’s life–physically,psychologically,socially,and spiritually.This study aimed to investigate the experience of patients’success in facing a post-stroke UI.Methods:A qualitative study using the Rapid Assessment Procedure(RAP)approach was used in this study.Informants were selected using purposive sampling.In-depth interviews with as many as 8 patients who had recovered from post-stroke UI and living in the greater area of Southeast Sulawesi(Indonesia)were conducted.In-depth interviews were also conducted with 8 caregivers and 2 nurses.Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach and interpretation of data was based on Humanbecoming theory and Self-care deficit theory of nursing.Results:Five successful things the patients experienced during post-stroke UI were identified.The five successes were as follows:they provided information to get to know and understand post-stroke UI,followed the procedures to overcome post-stroke UI,conducted self-control exercises and stayed motivated,performed daily activities independently according to ability,and made use of family suppor t and peers’attention.Conclusions:These findings indicated that persistence,belief,independence,and social support(family and peer)made patients to successfully face their post-stroke UI and improved their quality of life.These findings also became the basis for developing a poststroke UI management model based on Humanbecoming theory and Self-care deficit theory of nursing.

Experiences of a Dilated Cardiomyopathy Patient Suffering to Maintain Life Partnership Based on Margaret Newman’s Theory

Background: Dilated cardiomyopathy is a refractory myocardial disease with a poor prognosis. Mrs. G experienced cardiopulmonary arrest during hospitalization. She constantly struggles with uncertainty and experiences immense mental suffering from her symptoms, treatments, anxiety, and prognosis. This condition requires appropriate nursing care. Purpose: This study, which is based on Margaret Newman’s theory, aims to clarify the experience of illness of Mrs. G who has dilated cardiomyopathy. Methods: This involved interpretive and dialectical praxis research. The researcher and Mrs. G formed a partnership through discussion. Hermeneutical analysis was performed on the discussion content. Results: The experience of illness of Mrs. G consisted of 6 phases: “Looking back on the shock of having an illness and receiving medical treatment”, “Looking back on one’s life until present”, “Confusion resulting from uncertainty”, “Self-insight”, “Recognizing one’s true feelings of wanting to live”, and “Commitment and decision to live”. Mrs. G could find a new self and expand her consciousness. Conclusion: Mrs. G found meaning in coping with her illness and discovered the value of living while accepting her own destiny. She connected to her own life and became more prepared to live with hope. Thus, partnership in nursing care according to Newman’s theory can benefit patients with distress from dilated cardiomyopathy. This nursing support can improve patient outlook.

What factors influence patient experience in orthopedic oncology office visits?

BACKGROUND Patient satisfaction and reported outcomes are becoming increasingly important in determining the efficacy of clinical care.To date no study has evaluated the patient experience in the orthopedic oncology outpatient setting to determine which factors of the encounter are priorities to the patient.AIM To evaluate what factors impact patient experience and report satisfaction in an outpatient orthopedic oncology clinic.METHODS Press Ganey®patient surveys from a single outpatient orthopedic oncology clinic at a tertiary care setting were prospectively collected per routine medical care.All orthopedic oncology patients who were seen in clinic and received electronic survey were included.All survey responses were submitted within one month of clinic appointment.IRB approval was obtained to retrospectively collect survey responses from 2015 to 2016.Basic demographic data along with survey category responses were collected and statistically analyzed.RESULTS One hundred sixty-two patient surveys were collected.Average patient age was 54.4 years(SD=16.2 years)and were comprised of 51.2% female and 48.4%male.64.2%of patients were from in-state.Out of state residents were more likely to recommend both the practice and attending physician.The likelihood to recommend attending physician was positively associated with MD friendliness/courtesy(OR=14.4,95%CI:2.5-84.3),MD confidence(OR=48.2,95%CI:6.2-376.5),MD instructions follow-up care(OR=2.5,95%CI:0.4-17.4),and sensitivity to needs(OR=16.1,95%CI:1-262.5).Clinic operations performed well in the categories of courtesy of staff(76%)and cleanliness(75%)and less well in ease of getting on the phone(49%),information about delays(36%),and wait time(37%).CONCLUSION Orthopedic specialties can utilize information from this study to improve care from the patient perspective.Future studies may be directed at how to improve these areas of care which are most valued by the patient.

Patients’ Experiences of Trust in the Patient-Nurse Relationship——A Systematic Review of Qualitative Studies

Aims and Objectives: To report a synthesis of the literature on the meaning of trust in the context of patients’ experiences of nursing. The review question was “How do patients describe the meaning of trust in the nursing relationship?” Background: Trust is essential in nursing as it has the potential to create opportunities for the human being to gain faith, hope and meaning in life as well as open up for new experiences. Trust is an interpersonal and essential element of all patient-nurse relationships and requires nurses to create a trusting relationship with the patients. Design: Systematic qualitative literature review. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted for the period January 2002 to December 2012, updated in January 2014. 20 papers were included. Results: Four categories emerged: Attitudes related to trust, indicating that trust is fundamental and existential;Experiences of trust, concerning how trust can be sensed;The patient-nurse relationship, revealing the qualities of the person who creates trust;and Where trust occurs, illuminating the contextual relevancies of trust. Conclusions: Patients’ experiences of trust in nursing are dependent on the nurses’ knowledge, level of commitment in the dialogue to creating and developing the relationship and contextual issues. Implications for nursing practice: Reflection on a trusting relationship with the patient is necessary for a deeper conceptual understanding of trust in nursing. Clinical nurse researchers nurse supervisors, managers and nurse educatorsshould discuss different areas of trust during nursing supervision and focus-group meetings as well as with nursing graduates to ensure that nurses develop knowledge of how to create a trusting patient-nurse relationship.

Nursing students’ experiences of caring for dying patients and their families: a systematic review and meta-synthesis

Objective: Nurses play important roles in caring for dying patients and their families. Difficulties students confronted when facing dying patients challenge the quality of nursing education. A better understanding of students' experiences would enhance teachers' ability in helping students. This study aims to describe available evidence about nursing students' experiences when caring for dying patients and their families.Methods: A review of qualitative studies published between 2005 and 2017 was undertaken using the following databases: MEDLINE, CINAHL, ProQuest Central, ScienceDirect, and CNKI. The keywords included were nursing students, experience, care, end-of-life, and dying. Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument was used to assess the quality of the studies by two independent reviewers. The data from the studies were analyzed by meta-synthesis.Results: Eighteen English and two Chinese studies were selected in this review. Four themes were emerged:(1) Students with dying patients: students did not have enough ability in symptoms control, comfort supply, and therapeutic communication for dying patients.(2) Students with the patients' families: students advocated more caring for patients' families.(3) Students with the surroundings: professional medical staffs, especially the nursing preceptors, were key roles in constructing a supporting system for students.(4) Students with themselves: nursing students underwent various negative feelings and adopted both negative and positive strategies to cope with such feelings;students experienced professional and personal development during the caring for dying patients.Conclusions: Nursing students' abilities in terminal symptom control, comfort supply, and therapeutic communication should be improved by more theoretic learning and simulation practice. The nursing preceptors were key roles in constructing a supporting system for students and helping them to control the negative emotions when facing dying patients.

Experiences of rejection by mental health patients— A qualitative study

Background and aim: People suffering from mental illness and their experiences of attitudes towards them are rarely investigated from the perspective of the individual. The aim was to gain an understanding of how a group of mental health patients experienced social relationships in personal settings as well as in society. Method: Open interviews with twenty-five mental health patients were conducted and analysed with a qualitative content analysis. Result: The essence of the result was that mental health patients’ experiences are still not taken enough into account, neither by mental health professionals nor by their social networks. This was underpinned by four core categories: Patients’ experience of deteriorated and reduced social contacts due to various degrees of acceptance and knowledge of people in general;service users reported on difficulties with social contacts in general, with family relationships, relationships with friends and workmates and with employers;reduced life opportunities were expressed, including violated self-image and poor coping competence and, ambivalent experiences of contact with the mental health services were reported. Conclusion and clinical implication: The present study contributes to the understanding of mental health patients’ experiences of professional services and of their social networks. This knowledge may strengthen the implications of patient-centred care essential for the outcome of the care.

Analysis on influencing factors of patients experience in community health centers of Shenzhen,China

Objective To investigate the patients experience in community health centers( CHCs) and explore its associated factors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 330 patients who visited CHCs in Shenzhen,China from January to March 2018. Dependent variable was patient experience. Key descriptive variables were age,gender,marital status,working status groups,visits frequency for the past 6 months,whether patients had signed a family doctor,whether trusted in family doctor,whether had chronic diseases. Results Questionnaires for 300 patients were assessed. In the univariate analysis,patients experience total score was significantly associated with marital status( P < 0. 1),working status groups( P < 0. 1),frequency of visit for the past 6 months( P < 0. 05),whether had signed a family doctor( P < 0. 05),whether trusted in family doctor( P < 0. 05),whether had chronic diseases( P < 0. 05). The multivariate analysis showed that unmarried patients( P = 0. 011,OR = 2. 96,95% CI: 1. 24-5. 43) and had signed a family doctor( P = 0. 023,OR = 0. 44,95% CI: 0. 22-0. 85) were more likely to get a higher score. Conclusions Findings of this study showed a medium-level score of patients experience in the community. Patients had a quite good experience and more interventions should be focused upon the influence factors to improve patients experience.

Views and Experience on Patient Engagement in Healthcare Professionals and Patients—How Are They Different?

A patient-centered approach is used to build a therapeutic alliance between patients and the healthcare professionals in care process which should be supported by a good engagement of both parties. The study aimed to explore the gap between healthcare professionals and patients on patient engagement in hospital. It was a cross-sectional survey. 2774 doctors and nurses from Department of Medicine of public hospitals completed the self-administered questionnaire and 1042 patients discharged from corresponding wards completed the telephone interviews. Participants were interviewed using structural questionnaires. The Mann-Whitney test or Pearson’s chi-square test was used to analyze the agreement between health-care professionals and patients on the views and experiences of patient engagement. A difference was considered to be statistically significant when the p-value was <0.05. Although both groups valued the importance of patient engagement, there was a discrepancy on understanding, views and experiences. More healthcare professionals particularly in nursing were concerned about the possible negative impact of the engagement. The majority of healthcare professionals reported that they engaged well with patients, and perceived more difficulties than patients did. The findings highlighted the mutual understanding of patient engagement, involvement and challenges encountered by both groups in Department of Medicine, which was crucial in efforts to provide meaningful patient engagement in regards to jurisdictions, health system, specialty, discipline and background of patients. It provided insight that a collaborative strategy involving both healthcare professional and patients might be an alternative approach to improving patient engagement.

Patient Experience during Hospital Stay: A Pilot Survey

Introduction: Hospital inpatient care is provided to individuals who have a condition that requires them to stay in hospital. Patient experience is an important aspect of high-quality patient-centered care. Aim: With this pilot survey we aimed to obtain patient feedback on their experiences during their hospital stay, highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement and provide a basis for a hospital-wide inpatient experience survey. Patients and Methods: Anonymous patient experience questionnaires were given to patients who were discharged from hospital during the month of May 2016. Patients were asked to answer 45 questions concerning their experience during hospital stay using the five-point Likert scale, and hand back the questionnaire before leaving the hospital. A suggestion box was provided for comments and suggestions for improvement. Results: Fifty-six questionnaires were handed out and 50 (from 27 males, 17 females and 6 patients who did not specify their gender) questionnaires were returned (89% response rate). Most of the responses fell within the “agree” to “strongly agree” range indicating a positive patient experience for most of the items addressed. Patients also provided useful comments and suggestions. Conclusion: Results of this survey indicate that patients generally had a positive experience during their hospital stay. This survey has revealed areas for improvement, and highlights the importance of patient experience when assessing a patient-centered service.

Diversity and Scope of Senior Nurses’ Informal and Formal Experiences of Patient and Public Involvement in England

Patient and public involvement (PPI) has been recognized internationally. In England, NHS policies have increasingly emphasized the importance of patient-centered services, but limited evidence exists about the implementation of PPI policies and strategies within organizations. Few studies have explored health professionals’ perceptions of PPI and comparatively little is known about the experience of senior nurses. A national consultation utilising three focus groups aimed to explore senior nurses’ PPI experience. Four Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) and eleven Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England, with fifteen senior nurses with leadership roles and direct PPI experience, participated. Focus groups were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim;anonymised transcripts were validated by participants and analysed with thematic analysis. Sixteen categories emerged within five sub-themes of PPI experience: provision of information and raising awareness (1 category), informal generic PPI-activities not perceived as PPI (3 categories), formal generic PPI (3 categories), involvement of specific groups (5 categories) and PPI in commissioning and strategy (4 categories). Findings provided new insights into senior nurses’ experiences and evidence that progress towards meaningful, effective PPI remains slow. Nurses performed PPI in a pragmatic sense, by virtue of the nature of nursing, but they did not recognise or label these activities as such. However, a plethora and variety of innovative activities formally recognised as patient and public involvement were undertaken, together with specific networks and groups’ involvement, and involvement linked to commissioning and strategy. Enhancing awareness of nurses through education, together with monitoring and feedback mechanisms could support the PPI implementation and effectiveness at organisations.

Enhancing Quality of Patients Care and Improving Patient Experience in China with Assistance of Artificial Intelligence

Improving health of Chinese people has become national strategy according to the Healthy China 2030.Patient experience evaluation examines health care service from perspective of patients;it is important for improving health care quality.Applying artificial intelligence(AI)in patient experience is an innovative approach to assist continuous improvement of care quality of patient service.A nursing quality platform based on patient experience data which is empowered by AI technologies has been established in China for the purpose of surveillance and analysis of the quality of patient care.It contains data from nearly 1300 healthcare facilities,based on which portraits of nursing service qualities can be drawn.The patient experience big data platform has shown potentials for healthcare facilities to improve patient care quality.More efforts are needed to achieve the goal of enhancing people’s sense of health gain.