Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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This feasibility study evaluated the effectiveness of Support-Engage-Empower-Diabetes (SEE-Diabetes), a patient-centered educational tool designed to promote shared decision-making of diabetes management in older adults. We aimed to assess SEE-Diabetes's ability to facilitate patient engagement and collaborative goal setting, as measured by the Observational Patient Involvement (OPTION) scale and Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-Doc). We hypothesized that these instruments would effectively differentiate between healthcare providers who actively leveraged SEE-Diabetes to guide patient-centric conversations and set goals compared to those who did not. ⋯ SEE-Diabetes showed considerable promise in improving interactions between patients and providers, presenting an innovative approach to diabetes management for older adults. This tool has the potential to not only close communication gaps but also enable patients to take a more active role in their healthcare decisions.
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Observational Study
Effect of a Contamination Prevention Activity Against Contamination of Blood Culture.
Blood culture is important in the diagnosis of blood infections and the identification of treatment strategies. Increased contamination in blood culture is a reduction in quality of care. This retrospective observational study, set in an emergency department in Japan, aims to elucidate the contamination rate before and after the introduction of contamination prevention activities. ⋯ Prevention activities including specific use of a blood culture cart and careful adherence to a checklist were not associated with a significant decrease in contamination rate in our hospital. Further studies based in hospitals with greater rates of contamination may see higher rates of reduction.
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Telehealth has been consistently viewed as a viable solution for addressing healthcare inaccessibility and mitigating the impact of health workforce shortages in rural areas. However, despite high utilisation in rural areas, little is known about the unintended consequences of telehealth in terms of unexpected benefits and drawbacks. ⋯ This study provides insights into the unintended consequences of telehealth. While telehealth has improved certain aspects of healthcare in rural areas such as the improved support for rural clinicians and the reduced disruption to patients' daily routines, it has also introduced unforeseen challenges such as the transfer of medicolegal burden to local clinicians in rural emergency care facilities to compensate for the absence of physical examinations. These findings feed into decision-making useful for informing and improving telehealth implementation in rural Australia to maximise unexpected benefits, minimise risks, and ensure the long-term viability of telehealth services.
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Identifying whether perceived stigma or personal stigma more significantly affects nurses' attitudes towards seeking psychological help is essential for effectively addressing current challenges and facilitating early intervention for the well-being of nurses and their patients. ⋯ High levels of personal stigma negatively affect attitudes towards seeking psychological help; however, when considered alongside working in oncology and having a chronic illness, the impact of personal stigma becomes positive. Future research should delve deeper into these dynamics to develop targeted strategies for reducing personal stigma and enhancing help-seeking behaviors among nurses. Interventions are necessary to foster positive help-seeking attitudes among nurses and reduce stigma. Aligned with the findings of this study, training and awareness initiatives aimed at improving mental health literacy among nurses can play a pivotal role in reducing stigma and encouraging proactive use of mental health resources.
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This study aimed to investigate the influential factors of adherence to inhalation drug therapy (IDT) in patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ⋯ Dose adherence was predominantly influenced by COPD health literacy, mMRC grading, duration of COPD, utilisation of support and marital status. Inhalation technical standardisation was substantially limited by age, mMRC grading, social support, mode of residence, number of acute exacerbations in the past year and literacy.