Search

Best-practice recommendations for young children at high likelihood of autism include active involvement of caregivers in intervention. However, the use of evidence-based parent-mediated interventions in community practice remains limited. Preliminary evidence suggests that Project ImPACT for Toddlers demonstrates positive parent and child outcomes in community settings. Project ImPACT for Toddlers was adapted specifically for toddlers and teaches parents of young children strategies to build their child's social, communication, and play skills in daily routines. This study reports implementation outcomes from the initial community rollout of Project ImPACT for Toddlers and examines the system-wide intervention reach, with the goal of informing continued community sustainment and scale-up. Participants include 38 community providers who participated in a Project ImPACT for Toddlers' training study who completed an implementation survey and semi-structured interviews after approximately 3 months of community implementation. Participants perceived the training model as acceptable and appropriate, and identified several strengths of the approach. Interview themes also supported the feasibility, acceptability, and utility of the intervention in community settings. Quantitative findings complemented the thematic results from interviews. Intervention reach data indicate an increasing number of agencies delivering and families receiving Project ImPACT for Toddlers. Efforts to scale-up evidence-based interventions in early intervention should continue to build upon the model of the Bond, Regulate, Interact, Develop, Guide, and Engage Collaborative.

In the United States, engineering technology' (ET) education is offered via two- and four-year degree programs at both public and private institutions. Many ET programs, principally at the four-year level, are accredited by ABET, the Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE), or other accrediting bodies while some are not. Both two- and four-year ET programs educate students in a hands-on manner for careers in the engineering profession. Generally speaking, two-year ET programs in multiple engineering fields prepare engineering technology students to work as technicians and engineering assistants. Four-year ET programs, especially accredited programs, educate students to work as engineers in a variety of engineering positions. While engineering technology enrollment is about onethird the size of the related engineering program enrollment in the US., ET provides an important pathway for filling the spectrum of engineering positions in businesses, industry, and government. An important aspect of engineering technology education is that it attracts students who prefer to learn from an experiential approach rather than a theoretical one. Engineering technology education pedagogy' heavily relies on hands-on laboratories and application approach work as a large component of a student's ET education. New and old engineering technology education leaders have a significant influence on how ET education continues to evolve and provide graduates with the contemporary and industry-valued, knowledge, skills and abilities that are needed to be successful in today's engineering professions. Engineering technology leaders are defined for the purpose of this paper as program directors, chairs, and deans, or academic program heads who hold similar titles with engineering technology as part of their portfolio of academic programs. To assist with the preparation of a 2019 Engineering Technology Leaders Institute (ETLI), a panel session featuring six ET leaders was organized to focus on the question of what is, or should be, the future of ET over the next 10 years and beyond. The session committee surveyed ET leaders via several ET listservs. Data from the ET leaders survey provided background information to help initiate the discussion questions and who should represent ET leaders on the ETLI panel session. The background data in the survey included opinions on top issues and concerns as well as ET leaders perceived opportunities and threats to engineering technology programs. Summaries of the panelists' comments from the ETLI session and the ET leaders survey data are presented in the body of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awareness for patient safety led a team to develop an electronic handoff communication tool for noncomplicated routine patients. The structure of SBAR (situation, background, assessment, and recommendation) was used when transferring patients to and from the progressive care unit and cardiac laboratories. The electronic SBAR gave staff a reliable and standard way to provide a patient handoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders are intended to safeguard patients' autonomy and prevent unwanted resuscitative care. However, DNR orders may be miscommunicated between health care providers, leading to errors honoring patient wishes during cardiac arrest events. This project focused on improving accuracy of DNR ordering processes for an academic, tertiary care hospital., Intervention: We describe a performance improvement process and outcomes for implementation of an inpatient electronic ordering system that included an automated, decentralized printing process for resuscitation status armbands. Specific phases of this project involved: (a) identification of common factors contributing to errors honoring patients' resuscitation wishes, (b) design of an electronic ordering process, (c) design and integration of a new DNR armband and (d) evaluation of the impact of changes on communication accuracy. The primary outcome was percentage of patients with incorrect designation of resuscitation status on armbands compared to the active resuscitation order in the electronic medical record., Results: After implementation of an electronic ordering process we identified that 37/196 (19%) patients had an armband that did not reflect their documented wishes versus 2/103 (2%) after integration of automated armband printing into the process (p<0.001). No armband discrepancies were found after the first two weeks of post-implementation audits., Conclusions: Design and implementation of an electronic ordering and armband labeling process reduced discrepancies between patient wishes and the armband labeling of the patient's desired DNR status. It is anticipated that these improvements will reduce the risk of adverse outcomes, and better align clinical processes with patient wishes.