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Nominal research illustrates the lived experience of intensive care unit registered nurses during the COVID pandemic. Palliative care team leaders and nurse researchers designed this cross-sectional study to discover opportunities for palliative care team members to enhance the experience of nurses who cared for critically ill patients during this challenging time. The study aimed to compare the effect of caring for patients in COVID versus non-COVID units. Surveys were distributed after the area's initial COVID patient influx. Questions included general demographics, the Professional Quality of Life survey instrument (measuring compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress), and open-ended questions to identify protective factors and unique challenges. Across 5 care settings with 311 nurses eligible for the study in total, 90 completed the survey. The population consisted of COVID-designated unit nurses (n = 48, 53.33%) and non-COVID unit nurses (n = 42, 46.67%). Analysis between COVID-designated and non-COVID units revealed significantly lower mean compassion scores and significantly higher burnout and stress scores among those working within COVID-designated units. Despite higher levels of burnout and stress and lower levels of compassion, nurses identified protective factors that improved coping and described challenges they encountered. Palliative care clinicians used insights to design interventions to mitigate identified challenges and stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive neuroendocrine malignancy with high and rapid relapse rates and poor outcomes. Treatment for SCLC has historically been limited by the lack of targetable driver genomic lesions, however recent developments in the underpinnings of genomic instability in SCLC and understanding of its transcriptional subtypes have led to increased interest in the use of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors as a rationale therapy. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors, historically designed to target BRCA1/2-mutated malignancies, capitalize on synthetic lethality in homologous recombination-deficient tumors. In this review, we outline the mechanistic rationale for the use of PARP inhibitors in treating SCLC and detail key clinical trials investigating their use in combination with chemotherapy and immunotherapy. We describe developments in the understanding of biomarkers for sensitivity to therapy and highlight further investigational directions for the use of PARP inhibitors in treating SCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interruptions occurring during the delivery of health care are frequent and create a serious threat to patient safety. It is important to test strategies directed at decreasing the negative effects of interruptions. The purpose of this pilot study was to test the Stay S.A.F.E. strategy for managing interruptions. A pretest, posttest quasi-experimental design was used to test the primary hypothesis that the Stay S.A.F.E. interruption management strategy would significantly (P < .05) reduce distraction time away from a primary task following an interruption. Twenty nurses with a median of 12 years of experience (range: 1-45 years) participated in the study. There was a significant decrease in the amount of time that participants were distracted away from the primary task between the pretest (134.47 seconds, SD = 6.87) and posttest (6.08 seconds, SD = 1.27) periods; P = .0004. The results of this study suggest that the Stay S.A.F.E. interruption management strategy was effective in reducing the length of time participants were distracted from the primary task in a simulated clinical setting. In addition, nurses confirmed the reports of others that interruptions are frequent, dangerous, and result in errors. K [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the interprofessional student curriculum on patient safety, quality and teamwork. It develops a pre-/postsurvey to assess student's attitudes about quality, safety and teamwork and modify to reflect course revisions. It shows significant professional group differences in all the six subscales at pretest, however, the differences in four subscales were resolved except for human fallibility and curricular time spent together.

The article discusses soft tissue expansion techniques in a complex revision total knee surgery, which presents specific challenges in managing the soft tissue envelope. It is said that a successful application of the soft tissue expansion protocol can avoid postoperative complications in such difficult cases, more complex muscle transfers and skin grafting procedures. Strict concentration to detail and close follow-up are said to be important for success with this protocol.

Purpose: To investigate patient expectations of and satisfaction with in-hospital discharge planning after total hip-joint replacement surgery in early and late discharge patient groups. Design: A qualitative study describing patients' experience of discharge planning. Sample: Thirty-three consecutive patients requiring primary total hip-joint replacement from two metropolitan hospitals. Methods: Participants completed in-depth, semistructured interviews on the day of discharge from the hospital and again 4 to 8 weeks later. Thematic analysis of the transcripts was made after comparing data from early and late discharge groups. Findings: Attendance at preassessment clinic was facilitated acceptable satisfaction levels for patients in both early and late discharge groups. Although that written information provided was timely, restricted opportunity for dialogue j with health professionals limited patient knowledge and understanding of recovery. Conclusions: Multidisciplinary teams in orthopaedic practice face the challenge of finding better ways to coordinate care and ensure people undergoing total hip-joint replacement therapy surgery have individualized care. A nurse mentorcoach could be one way to ensure patients' education needs in this area are met. Implications for Nursing Research: Future studies could investigate nurses' work in discharge planning and identify any influence that their holistic approach to care could bring to a collaborative discharge process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The second victim phenomenon describes the distress frequently experienced by health care providers after an unintentional medical error or unexpected adverse event. However, few health care institutions have initiatives that proactively address this phenomenon. The pilot project discussed in this article aimed to create a peer support program for health care providers experiencing the second victim phenomenon. The project team validated the need for such a program among health care providers in the perioperative departments of two facilities within a large health care organization in the southeastern United States. To do this, they used a survey, the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool. Among survey respondents in the two departments, 80% and 87.6% indicated a strong desire to discuss their emotional challenges with a respected peer colleague after a traumatic event. The project team then developed and implemented a peer support program in three phases to 1) educate staff across the facility on second victimization, 2) recruit and train volunteer peer supporters, and 3) launch the pilot program by embedding these peer supporters in the two perioperative departments. A survey completed by participants in the pilot program showed that 80% of respondents found the peer support extremely beneficial, 20% found it very beneficial, and 100% would recommend peer support to a colleague. This successful pilot project could inform the establishment of peer support programs at other institutions to assist health care providers experiencing the second victim phenomenon., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Workplace violence is highly prevalent for nurses, often going unreported. Regrettably, the very patients and visitors being cared for often perpetrate the majority of violence. This article's purpose is to describe how an institution implemented a workplace violence prevention training program designed to increase nurses' perception and confidence with aggressive and violent events. Evaluation of this quality improvement program posttraining was positive, suggesting this approach may influence nurses' abilities to prevent and manage these events.

Passive sensor networks were deployed in independent living apartments to monitor older adults in their home environments to detect signs of impending illness and alert clinicians so they can intervene and prevent or delay significant changes in health or functional status. A retrospective qualitative deductive content analysis was undertaken to refine health alerts to improve clinical relevance to clinicians as they use alerts in their normal workflow of routine care delivery to older adults. Clinicians completed written free-text boxes to describe actions taken (or not) as a result of each alert; they also rated the clinical significance (relevance) of each health alert on a scale of 1 to 5. Two samples of the clinician's written responses to the health alerts were analyzed after alert algorithms had been adjusted based on results of a pilot study using health alerts to enhance clinical decision-making. In the first sample, a total of 663 comments were generated by seven clinicians in response to 385 unique alerts; there are more comments than alerts because more than one clinician rated the same alert. The second sample had a total of 142 comments produced by three clinicians in response to 88 distinct alerts. The overall clinical relevance of the alerts, as judged by the content of the qualitative comments by clinicians for each alert, improved from 33.3% of the alerts in the first sample classified as clinically relevant to 43.2% in the second. The goal is to produce clinically relevant alerts that clinicians find useful in daily practice. The evaluation methods used are described to assist others as they consider building and iteratively refining health alerts to enhance clinical decision making.

Objectives: The primary purpose of the study was to determine the factors that are associated with repeat emergency department (ED) visits in children with diabetes., Methods: Emergency department charts and billing data for children up to 18 years of age presenting to the ED with diabetic diagnoses over a 4-year period were reviewed., Results: The overall rate of repeat visits to the ED was 0.24 visits per person-year of follow-up time. In univariate analyses, there were statistically significant effects of age, insurance category, sex, type of practice, and income. In a multivariate analysis, there was a significant interaction of insurance category and age. Revisit rate ratios for children older than 6 years were higher for those with Medicaid compared with those with commercial insurance. Diabetic boys were less likely to revisit the ED than were girls., Conclusions: Type of insurance was associated with repeated visits to the ED in children with diabetes. Other contributing factors included age group and sex.

Objective: The objective of this population-based observational cohort study was to estimate the extent to which the inclusion/exclusion of transferred patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) impacts on hospital performance rankings., Subjects: The authors studied 91,633 adult patients admitted to 116 acute care hospitals in Quebec, Canada, with a primary diagnosis of AMI between 1992 and 1999., Main Outcome Measure: Hospital performance ranks, based on 30-day AMI mortality rates, were estimated with hierarchical models and compared using 3 different methods for handling transferred patients (exclude all transfers; include transfers and assign outcome to the referring hospital; include transfers and assign outcome to the receiving hospital). The explanatory variable of interest was the hospital to which the patient's outcome was attributed., Results: Using the 3 methods, 4 hospitals were ranked "best performers" once, and 1 hospital ranked among the best in 2 of the 3 analyses performed. Nine hospitals were ranked "worst performers" at least once (4 of which ranked among the "worst" once only, 2 ranked among the "worst" twice, and 3 were consistently ranked "worst performers" in all analyses). There was significant variation in mortality rates among hospitals, and the difference in the rates between the highest and lowest ranking hospitals exceeded the clinically relevant benchmark of 1%., Conclusions: Performance evaluation studies that compare hospital mortality rates typically exclude transferred patients. However, methods used to deal with AMI patient transfers influenced hospital ranks when comparing 30-day mortality rates. Excluding transfers may lead to an inaccurate depiction of the quality of healthcare services in regionalized healthcare systems that call for the timely interhospital transfer of patients with AMI.

Background: Practice guidelines for breast cancer emphasize the importance of establishing an accurate diagnosis using a minimum number of procedures and selecting optimal treatment regimens. Understanding the determinants of waiting time is essential to develop optimum interventions to reduce delay., Objectives: The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent to which variability in 1) the number of procedures before surgery and 2) waiting time from initial procedure to surgery are explainable by factors related to the woman, to the provider, and to the care setting., Research Design: Records of physicians' fee-for-service claims were obtained for 23,370 women undergoing breast cancer surgery in Quebec between 1992 and 1997. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine predictors of having multiple procedures before surgery. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to identify predictors of waiting time, separately for women with lymph node involvement and without this involvement., Results: Overall, 23% of the women had 3 or more procedures before surgery with significant variation found across hospitals and surgeons. Number of procedures was a strong predictor of waiting time. Waiting time also varied by stage, age, comorbidity, a history of benign disease, surgical setting, calendar time, month of initial procedure, and hospital teaching status., Conclusion: Although variability in waiting time was more strongly influenced by the characteristics of the women rather than by physician- or hospital-related factors, most variation remained unexplained by the factors included in this study. To reduce overall waiting time, strategies would need to be systemically applied.