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Introduction: The recoverability of athletes at different performance levels may be dissimilar. This study aimed to compare differences in fatigue level and recovery ability between champions and those who did not make it to the top three in the taekwondo category of the National High School Games. Methods: Nine champions were assigned to the excellent group (EXG) and 15 athletes who did not make it to the top three were assigned to the general group (GEG). Before and after the match, countermovement jump (CMJ) and maximum voluntary isometric contraction were evaluated. The selected parameters were jump height, 50ms, 100ms and maximal rate of force development (50ms, 100ms and maximal RFD). The differences in fatigue and recoverability between groups were examined with paired sample t-tests; independent sample t-tests were used to compare differences in percentage change in fatigue and recoverability between groups. Results: The 50ms RFD, 100ms RFD, and maximal RFD after the first match of the GEG were significantly lower than their levels before the first match (p < .05), while the group did not show significant fatigue (p >.05). The jump height of both the GEG and the EXG was significantly lower than that at pre-match (p < .05). The GEG showed significantly higher percentage reductions in 50ms RFD and 100ms RFD than the EXG (p < .05). However, the percentage change in recoverability did not differ significantly between the groups (p >.05). Conclusions: The 50ms RFD, 100ms RFD, and max RFD of the GEG were significantly reduced after the first match, indicating the group's evident fatigue level. Percentage reductions in 50ms RFD and 100ms RFD after the first match were significantly higher in the GEG than in the EXG. Both groups' CMJ height before the second match did not return to the same level as that before the first match. This study suggests that 50ms RFD and 100ms RFD can be used as an evaluation index for taekwondo athletes to determine their degree of fatigue and whether they have a competitive advantage. CMJ height may be an indicator of recoverability of taekwondo athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study is to explore the risk factors of injurious falls among hospitalized patients at psychiatric units in a medical center of southern Taiwan. Methods: This retrospective matched case-control study selected patients who were hospitalized in psychiatric units and had at least one fall event from 2010 to 2015. A total of 352 cases were reviewed using chart audit and data were analyzed using a logistic regression. Results: The risk factors of injurious falls among psychiatric inpatients were as follow: the number of falls during hospitalization (OR=1.58 - 95% CI = 1.22-2.03), non-cancer diagnosis (OR=9.12 - 95% CI = 2.72-30.60), having an acute infection (OR=2.11 - 95% CI=1.12-3.97), sleep disturbance in nursing record (OR=3.29 - 95% CI=1.98-5.46), without providing fall-preventive education (OR=17.35 - 95% CI=1.55-194.60), and case in handover report (OR=4.34 - 95% CI=1.49-12.59). Conclusion: The results suggested that nurses should give an individualized nursing care for preventing the occurrences of injurious falls for the following conditions: fall history, having acute infections, having sleep disorders and case in handover report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Supportive care is a primary method for treating dengue fever. Understanding the symptoms of dengue fever and its related nursing diagnosis is crucial for nurses as references for individual care. This research study was motivated by the few literature reviews available on this topic. Purpose: This study was developed to elucidate the symptoms experienced by hospitalized patients with dengue fever and to compare the consistency between symptoms and nursing diagnoses. Methods: A retrospective descriptive research method was employed. The data were collected from the electronic medical records of patients in the data pools of two regional hospitals in Kaohsiung City. A total of 105 patient records were acquired covering the period 2014-2016. IBM SPSS Statistics v22 was used to examine the descriptive statistics of patient attributes and symptoms of dengue fever using averages and percentages and the inferential statistics of symptoms, hospitalization days, and nursing diagnosis using the Chi-square test and Kappa consistency coefficient. Results: The average age of inpatients was 51.0 ± 27.3 years and the average length of hospital stays was 6.1 ± 3.6 days. The common symptoms were fever and headache. The consistency between nursing diagnosis and symptoms ranged up to 45.4%, including hyperthermia, acute pain, nausea, risk of ineffective gastrointestinal perfusion, and risk of bleeding. Inconsistency of nursing diagnosis was found to be 27.3%, including anxiety, deficient fluid volume, and risk of falls. The rate of undiagnosed symptoms was found to be 27.3%, including diarrhea, risk of infection, and impaired oral mucous membrane. Conclusions / Implications for Practice: The reasons for the inconsistency between symptoms and nursing diagnoses may relate to insufficient nursing knowledge of dengue fever and inadequate nursing diagnosis education resulting in insufficient clinical experience / poor judgment amongst nursing staff. The findings of this study suggest the need for continuity of education to make the use of a dengue-fever-symptom checklist more widespread in patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan experienced an unprecedented catastrophe during the SARS outbreak in 2003. That shock and sorrow experience enabled health professionals to learn many precious infectious preventions at the cost of some of their colleagues' lives. Evaluation mechanism on hospital infection inspections has been established, and efforts to evaluate the infection control have been strengthen in the past 17 years. Hospitals and their staff are now ready to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. The authors of the article, as Infection Control Practitioners in a hospital, would share their experiences of involvement in the COVID-19 control. It is hoped that such sharing could inspire more frontline medical personnel to be aware of the necessity and the importance of hospital infection control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The gap between the expectation and the development of role competency is a dilemma that nurse practitioners (NPs) face in clinical settings . Purpose: This study was designed to explore the perceived importance and actual practice of the role competencies of NPs and to compare the differences between the ideal and practical domains as well as related factors. Methods: This cross-sectional design study used Q-sort to collect data. A 56-item "Nurse Practitioner Role Capacity Questionnaire" was used as the research tool. Two questionnaires: Perceptions of Important Role Competencies and Actual Execution of Role Competencies were distributed to NPs twice, at times that were 2 weeks apart. A total of 40 participants were recruited, including 21(52.5%) internal medicine NPs and 19 (47.5%) surgical medicine NPs. Results: The significant differences that were identified in this study between the perceived importance and actual practice of role competencies were, by domain: medical assistance (t = -5.62, p < .001), clinical research (t = 4.14, p < .001), professional consultation (t = 2.29, p = .027), and direct care (t = 2.21, p = .033). The correlative factors for these differences were: education level (t = -2.17, p = .036) and membership in the Nurse Practitioner Association (t = -2.36, p = .017). NPs with higher levels of education and with membership in the Nurse Practitioner Association earned higher scores for self-expectation in important clinical competency. Conclusions: NPs face discrepancies in their role expectations, in important part due to their role as providers of medical assistance in clinical practical settings. NPs need to learn and demonstrate the roles and functions of advanced nursing practice to enhance nursing professionalism profoundly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study is to explore psychiatric nurses' beliefs, attitudes and communicative behaviors related to patients' use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and its relationships. Methods: This correlational research with a cross-sectional design was used to investigate psychiatric nurses who worked in the psychiatry teaching hospital. A total of 225 convenience samples was recruited during Feb. to Apr. 2016. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data, including demographic characteristics, the knowledge, attitude, behavior on CAM. Data were analyzed with SPSS 18 statistical software. Results: Amongst the psychiatric nurses, 22.2% of them have used CAM and 10.7% have received CAM education in the past year, but only 8.4% have practiced CAM in clinical settings. Among 60.8% of participants believed in CAM; 63.9% hold positive attitudes towards CAM; however, the communicative behaviors to CAM remained low (55.9%). Each domain was significantly positive correlated (p<0.001) which indicated that participants who have higher level of beliefs and attitudes towards CAM were more positive communicative behaviors to patients' CAM use. Conclusion/Implications for Practice: This study found the positive relationships between beliefs, attitudes and communicative behaviors of CAM. It is recommended that the practical trainings for CAM education should be arranged initiatively to implement the assessment and discussion of CAM in clinical practice in order to promote the safety of psychiatric patients' CAM use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Tai chi has been increasingly applied in osteoporosis patients. However, systematic reviews of the efficacy of this practice have been few and of limited scope. Purpose: This study reviews previous experimental research work using tai chi as an intervention in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and to appraise the reported research designs used, tai chi methods used, and outcomes. Method: A systematic review method was used to search 14 databases for articles published between January 1980 and July 2013. Searched keywords included: "tai chi," "osteoporosis," and "postmenopausal women". The 2,458 articles initially identified were reduced to 4 valid articles based on considerations of criteria and repeatability. The 4 valid articles used either a randomized clinical trial (RCT) or a controlled clinical trial (CCT). They were further analyzed and synthesized in terms of common variables such as balance, muscle strength, and quality of life. Result: Three of the 4 studies identified significant pretest / posttest differences in physiological aspects of quality of life in participants but did not obtain consistent results in terms of the psychological aspects. While reports identified a significant and positive tai chi effect on balance, they all used different measurements to do so. Only one of the four studies identified significant improvement in muscle strength. Therefore, this review could not identify clear support for the effectiveness of tai chi on balance or muscle strength. Conclusions: This review did not definitively support the positive effects of tai chi on balance, muscle strength, and quality of life in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The designs used in the tai chi interventions may be referenced for future studies. We suggest that future studies use data triangulation rather than a single-item tool to validate the research in order to cross-verify the same information. This may strengthen the research and increase the credibility and the validity of related findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Aging and age-related health problems are major issues of concern for community health services. Yoga is an exercise with both physiological and psychological effects on aging. Although many studies have assessed the effectiveness of yoga in the elderly, little information is available in the literature to support empirical conclusions. Purpose: This review synthesizes and characterizes findings related to the effects of yoga on depression and quality of sleep in the elderly. Method: Researchers used keywords including yoga, elderly, aged / older adult, depression, sleep, and quality to search 6 electronic databases for relevant studies published prior to March 2013. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to screen identified study abstracts. The Jadad scale appraised the quality of identified studies. Results: Seven studies met the inclusion criteria. Five studies found significant changes in participant depression symptoms after doing yoga. Three studies found significant effects on the quality of sleep of participants after 6 months of doing yoga. Conclusion: Yoga significantly reduced the depressive symptoms of elderly participants and improved their quality of sleep after 6 months. Findings were similar for elderly living in institutions and in the community. However, the majority of participants in the assessed studies were women characterized by a high level of social participation and proactive participation in health promotion activities. Future studies should broaden the scope of research to address different aging populations and use long-term cohort observations in order to better elicit the effectiveness of yoga and to develop strategies to introduce yoga into daily activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrative review method was used to explore the effects of Tai Chi on the impact of balance, lower extremity muscle strength, and the range of motion in order to examine the effect of fall prevention for community-dwelling elderly. This review method by searching databases has found nine clinical trials, including three randomized clinical trials, four controlled clinical trials and two uncontrolled clinical trial. The results showed that: (1) the training program for Tai Chi is at least 40 to 60 minutes a time, and 2 to 3 times a week for 8 to 12 weeks, (2) there is significant improvement on balance, lower extremity muscle strength, and joint mobility and flexibility for elderly through Tai Chi training program. It is suggested for the future that this exercise can be used as a quality physical movement to promote health in community health care organizations for elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]