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Biomedical subjects

Alan Pearson

Publications and source records attributed to Alan Pearson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

The changing face of surgery: using systematic reviews.

Three systematic reviews relating to pre-admission procedures, admission procedures and staffing policies were undertaken to establish evidence to develop best practice guidelines for day surgery units. Results revealed that a pre-admission intervention can improve patient and surgery outcomes, although the most effective type of intervention should be further investigated. It was also found that distraction can reduce patient preoperative anxiety, and there is no high quality evidence relating skill mix, staffing levels and desired health outcomes in day surgery units. Recommendations for areas of future research are presented.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed2004

Knowledge, attitudes and practices with regard to malaria control in an endemic rural area of Myanmar.

Malaria is a global health problem, in particular, a major health problem within Southeast Asia. This study aimed to investigate malaria control within a rural area of Myanmar, where traditionally non-western medicine is the preferred treatment. Whilst malaria was perceived by the local people to be a major health problem, knowledge about the mode of transmission and correct treatment for malaria was relatively low. Consequently, the practices of the local people to control malaria were often ill-informed or based on cultural and traditional beliefs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Pressure ulcer prevention and treatment: transforming research findings into consensus based clinical guidelines.

The translation of research findings into practice guidelines is an important aspect in maintaining the currency of practice and adding value to research. While there has been a large amount of published literature regarding the treatment and prevention of pressure ulcers, very few studies have attempted to provide clear clinical guidelines. The present study proposes a model to transform research into clinical guidelines whilst developing a series of guidelines that can be applied to a variety of clinical settings.

Australia↗
PubMed2003

Patterns of nursing: a review of nursing in a large metropolitan hospital.

In this Clinical Practice Development (CPD) project we set out to identify and describe current approaches to the management and delivery of nursing care in an Australian Metropolitan Teaching Hospital. Using a simple descriptive design, data were collected to elicit patterns of care provided by nursing teams. We sought to demonstrate patterns described by nursing teams (interviews) and actual patterns of care (observation). As expected there was a degree of incongruence between the espoused and actual patterns of care. Interview data revealed that most study wards had a view of nursing that emphasizes meeting the total care needs of patients and their families through offering biopsychosocial and educative care. The observational data revealed that a relatively large proportion of time was expended on activities that were not regarded as important by staff when interviewed (e.g. documentation) while relatively small amounts of time were observed to be spent educating patients or communicating with relatives of patients. The identification of this type of gap creates a dissonance in clinicians that can be used to stimulate change through CPD. Clinicians used the information to stimulate discussion and to rewrite team value statements.

Hospitals, Teaching↗
PubMed2003

Multidisciplinary nursing: re-thinking role boundaries.

The ambiguous role of nurses within the health care team has been a subject of much debate, evident in current practice and the study of the early development of nursing in Australia. Early nursing work was broad and uncontested. Debates about nursing and 'non-nursing' tasks are thought to have emerged after the establishment of 'Nightingale reforms' in the 1870s. Nursing role conflicts may be due in part to the rise in technology and medical intervention, the demise of 'generalist' doctors, nurses and patient-centred care, the creation of nursing specialists who moved to other community care positions and nursing's drive for professionalization. Nurses' role in mealtimes provides one example of the ambiguous and contentious issue of nursing and non-nursing work. Health services need a generic worker who is client-focused, possesses multidisciplinary skills, manages the care environment, humanizes the system at the point of contact and acts therapeutically. This broad and flexible role ascribed to nurses is threatened by cost containment and the scramble for new occupations within the broad field of health services, which is plagued with increasingly rigid role boundaries. The examination of nursing workforce planning arrangements is needed to ensure greater coherence and clearer lines of nurses' roles and responsibilities.

Australia↗