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Intraoperative electron beam radiotherapy (ELIOT) to the breast: a need for a quality assurance programme.

Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) is a technique in which a high, single-fraction radiation dose is delivered directly to the tumour bed during a surgical intervention, after the removal of a neoplastic mass. IORT has been recently used in early stage cancer as an exclusive radiation modality, rather than as a boost, especially for breast tumours, in particular at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, where the technique has been called electron intraoperative therapy (ELIOT). Our studies on more than 1000 patients have demonstrated the feasibility of the technique and it is expected that its application will become more widespread in the immediate future. It is important to emphasise that ELIOT relies not only on new technological developments, but also on a multidisciplinary team with clear roles and responsibilities, the establishment of a programme of quality assurance with appropriate guidelines and a comprehensive staff development programme.

Breast Neoplasms↗

Criteria for the evaluation of district health information systems.

A comprehensive set of evaluation criteria for District Health Information Systems (DHISs) in South Africa (SA) have been developed. The criteria are organised in the following eight categories: philosophy and objectives, policy and procedures, functionality, facilities and equipment, DHIS management and staffing, user/patient interaction, staff development and education, and evaluation and quality improvement. A handbook of evaluation criteria has been compiled by restating the evaluation criteria to include mechanisms for measuring whether or not criteria have been met.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗

Employment characteristics of recent PNP graduates.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of employment, health-illness characteristics of children cared for by PNPs, frequency of role functions by practice setting, and participation in professional organizations of recent graduates from 11 university programs. METHOD: A 60-item multiple-choice survey tool was sent to graduates from 1997-1999. RESULTS: Two hundred twenty-five surveys were returned (response rate: 54%). More than 48% described their practice setting as primary care, and 33% described it as specialty practice. Graduates indicated they frequently cared for children "at risk," with chronic health conditions, and with critical health conditions. Assessment of growth and development and provision of preventive care services were roles more frequently performed in primary care settings, whereas implementing and participating in research, case management, systems intervention, staff development, development of policies or programs, and writing for grants or publication were roles more frequently performed in specialty practice settings (P <.05). DISCUSSION: Findings from this survey confirm earlier survey findings regarding the varied practice settings, diverse role functions, and type of clients served by recent PNP graduates. Educational programs need to prepare graduates for the varied role functions they are likely to perform upon graduation and encourage them to participate in professional organizations and the development of health care policies affecting children and families.

Child↗

Improvement scaling (rehabilitation version). A new approach to measuring progress of patients in achieving their individual rehabilitation goals.

OBJECTIVES: Accurate measurement of clinically relevant change in individual patients undergoing rehabilitation has been an elusive goal. Simple, clinically meaningful, patient-centered measures of individual patient change are urgently needed. The purpose of this research was the development and testing of Improvement Scaling (Rehabilitation Version)(IMS), a new approach to measuring the progress that rehabilitation patients make during treatment. METHODS: Research and clinical staff developed the 65 IMS scales and applied them to all admissions to an an inpatient rehabilitation unit. Date were collected on 292 consecutively admitted rehabilitation patients who were aged 50 or older. An Improvement Score indicates the degree to which each patient achieves the expected level of outcome on his or her unique set of IMS goals. Improvement scores were compared to Goal Attainment Scores and to scores from more traditional measures. Interrater reliability was assessed. RESULTS: IMS scores correlated r = .78 with comparable Goal Attainment Scores. IMS and Goal Attainment Scores had the same pattern of correlations with other measures. Interrater reliability of IMS scores was r = .91. CONCLUSIONS: IMS appears to be a practical, reliable, valid, and clinically useful technique for measuring individual patient change. What is needed now is replication and more information on factors which may influence IMS scores. Versions of IMS are being developed for home health care and mental health. Applications of IMS for quality assurance, quality improvement, and documentation of patient change for third parties is discussed.

Activities of Daily Living↗

Teaching reliability and validity: fun with classroom applications.

In addition to the basic role of educating and facilitating learning, in recent years, staff development educators and continuing educators also have assumed a major role of facilitating research in many institutions. As more emphasis is placed on bedside research, stimulating staff interest has been a challenge. This article describes a fun way to help staff members acquire or refocus on skills and concepts essential to clinical research.

Data Collection↗

Sexual harassment: perspectives from the past, present practice, policy, and prevention.

During the times of Florence Nightingale, elements of sexual harassment were evident and were addressed in her writings. The more recent Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas judicial hearings brought more attention to the issue. It is imperative that hospitals and their staff development departments have a clear understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment so that effective policies can be implemented. Preventive training can be implemented to avoid absenteeism, staff turnover, lost productivity, decreased quality of patient care, and exorbitant legal costs.

Absenteeism↗

A newsletter: an innovative teaching strategy.

A variety of teaching strategies are used by staff development and inservice educators to foster adult learning. The authors have found a service newsletter to be an effective means to informally communicate with and educate staff. A newsletter can serve as a means of providing a pleasurable and leisurely learning experience.

Communication↗

A personnel profile of professional nurses in the J.D. Allen Operating Theatre Complex of Baragwanath Hospital.

In this exploratory descriptive study an attempt was made to develop a profile of professional nurses in the J.D. Allen operating theatre complex of Baragwanath hospital. Aspects of significance have been extracted from the analysed data and highlighted as trends, not only of demographic nature but also in nursing education and practice, with specific reference to operating theatre nursing. Problem areas have been indicated and recommendations suggested. This profile could be used as a staff development tool. It also would be possible to plan more rational staff structure considering future advances.

Adult↗

Evaluating health promotion in schools: a case study of design, implementation and results from the Hong Kong Healthy Schools Award Scheme.

Health promoting schools (HPS) and Healthy Schools Award Schemes from a number of countries have demonstrated positive changes in children's health behaviours and the culture and organisation of the school. The Hong Kong Healthy Schools Award Scheme (HKHSA) aims to promote staff development, parental education, involvement of the whole school community, and linkage with different stakeholders to improve the health and well-being of the pupils, parents and staff, and the broader community, supported by a system to monitor the achievement. This concept is very much in line with the research literature on school effectiveness and improvement. The indicators examined to evaluate the success of the HKHSA reflect outcomes related to both health and education and are not limited to changes in population health status. The early results demonstrated significant improvements in various aspects of student health and also improvement in school culture and organisation. The evaluation framework described in this paper and data collected to assess how schools perform in the HKHSA scheme, provides insight into how HPSs could lead to better outcomes for both education and health.

Awards and Prizes↗

The ethics survey: an important step in promoting nursing ethics.

A needs analysis survey tool was developed to determine the nature and type of ethics-related activities needed by nurses in a large urban medical center. The survey revealed that nurses' self-assessed need was, first, for staff development and, second, for an ethics consultation service.

Codes of Ethics↗

An outbreak of Shigella dysenteriae type 2 among laboratory workers due to intentional food contamination.

CONTEXT: Shigella dysenteriae type 2 is rare in the United States, and outbreaks associated with this pathogen are uncommon. OBJECTIVE: To determine the magnitude and source of an outbreak of S dysenteriae type 2. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. SETTING: Laboratory of a large medical center. PATIENTS: Case patients were identified as laboratory workers who had diarrhea on or after October 28 and a positive stool culture or temperature greater than 37.8 degrees C. Laboratory workers with diarrhea only were probable case patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We interviewed laboratory staff and performed identification, serotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis on isolates from case patients, implicated food, and laboratory stock culture. RESULTS: From October 29 through November 1, a total of 12 (27%) of 45 laboratory staff developed severe, acute diarrheal illness; 8 had S dysenteriae isolated from stool and 4 were hospitalized. All case patients reported having eaten muffins or doughnuts placed in the staff break room on October 29. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed stool isolates from 9 case patients were indistinguishable from S dysenteriae type 2 recovered from an uneaten muffin and from the laboratory's stock strain, a portion of which was missing. CONCLUSIONS: The source of the outbreak was most likely the laboratory's stock culture, which was used to contaminate the pastries. Results of this investigation underscore the need for adequate precautions to prevent inadvertent or intentional contamination from highly pathogenic laboratory specimens.

Adult↗

A team approach to managing urinary incontinence.

Urinary incontinence (UI) affects at least 50% of long-term care residents. With most care being delivered by nursing assistants, a need exists to educate and include these team members when implementing a UI management program. This article describes a pilot program instituted at Tacoma Lutheran Home using a team approach. In addition to the benefits the residents received, 27% of the staff thought incontinence was easier to manage after the program was implemented, and 50% said someone in administration listened to their suggestions and took action. The coordinator thought the program's weaknesses were that the staff required consistent supervision to accomplish tasks in a timely manner and it was extremely time-consuming in addition to the other duties of employee health and staff development.

Aged↗

Assessing hospital nursing staff retention and turnover. A life table approach.

This research applied the life table technique to nursing personnel data in two types of hospitals to illustrate how administrators can examine patterns of continued employment. Although a large proportion of nurses were short-stay employees, the teaching hospital was found to have a higher retention rate than the community hospital corporation. The retention patterns are examined by personal and professional characteristics, as well as by reason for termination. Implications of our findings are discussed with respect to policy concerns related to hiring, retention, productivity, and staff development.

Actuarial Analysis↗

Establishing a research fund in a hospital pharmacy department.

Development of a fund to support research in the pharmacy department of a community hospital is described. Finding research money difficult to obtain from industry or government sources, members of the pharmacy staff created a research fund from their own resources. Staff members donated time spent preparing and presenting educational programs such as seminars and workshops, and profits from these programs were designated for research. In addition, the hospital allowed direct contributions to the fund through payroll deductions. A board comprising pharmacists, physicians, and the hospital's legal counsel was formed to request, receive, and review grant proposals and to award funds. Objectives of the research fund were to facilitate staff development and recognition; improve communication and managerial skills of those planning the program, administering it, and conducting the actual research; and enhance recruitment efforts. More than +21,000 has been raised, and the first project, a microcomputer-based pharmacokinetic dosing program, has been completed.

Pharmacy Service, Hospital↗

A collaborative program between a school of public health and a local health department to increase HIV testing of pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the effectiveness of a continuing medical education (CME) program that sought to increase HIV testing of women attending maternity clinics of the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services (HDHHS). The CME program consisted of 14 training sessions given in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000. Educational objectives included increasing patient knowledge of HIV perinatal testing, increasing patient appreciation of the importance of HIV testing, and developing staff skills in educating and counseling women to accept HIV testing during pregnancy. METHODS: The CME program was based on assessment of clinician learning needs and an algorithm of the testing process, both jointly developed by faculty from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and HDHHS personnel. The algorithm was also used to assess the care delivered. The CME was evaluated by examining changes in the percentage of women tested in the maternity clinics. RESULTS: In 1995, the year before the education program, 5.7% of women seen in the maternity clinics were tested for HIV. After the program began, testing rates rose to 64.2% in 1996, 65.5% in 1997, and 43.3% in 1998. Given the decline in testing in 1998, additional CME sessions were conducted in 1999-2000. The rate of testing rose to 62.3% in 1999 and 76.5% in 2000. CONCLUSION: Cooperative planning between university and health department personnel can create CME programs that alter provider behaviors and service delivery patterns to increase HIV testing. Outcomes need to be regularly monitored, however, to determine the need for maintenance or performance reinforcement.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗

Defining home health care nursing: implications for continuing nursing education.

The purpose of this qualitative interpretivist study was to analyze and articulate the characteristics of nursing practice in the home health care context. Researchers sought to describe expert home health care nursing practice and how it developed. Twenty-one nurses, at various stages of practice development, were asked to write three clinical narratives describing their home health care practice. Data were analyzed to elicit themes and characteristics of nursing practice in the home health care context. Findings indicate that in the context of home health care, expert nursing practice develops along a continuum, until nurses can integrate physiological data with environmental and family data to provide seamless, intuitive, and highly complex nursing care. The results of this research can assist continuing education and staff development providers as they develop educational programs designed to facilitate professional development of new graduates and newly employed nurses in home health care.

Community Health Nursing↗

A process for determining content for a nurse internship program.

The purpose of this study was to determine the essential content of a surgical nurse internship program. Five groups of senior nursing students, nursing faculty, and nursing service staff ranked and weighted 68 topics separated into five categories: professional, personal, patient/family, broad clinical, and surgical nursing. Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance was used to determine the agreement within each of the nurse groups, between each two nurse groups, and among all nurses. All nurses showed a significantly high agreement in ranking topics of all five categories. The associate degree faculty was the only nurse group to have a significant agreement within the group. Of the five nurse groups, the nursing service staff had the most significant rankings with other nurse groups. Because the topics ranked are broad in context, the study is applicable to nurse internship programs of other areas and to continuing education (CE) and staff development (SD) programs for newly graduated nurses.

Adult↗

Continuing nursing education: why don't nurses go? Why don't they use what they learn?

There are barriers that block nurses from participating in continuing nursing education (CNE) and from using what they learn when they do participate. This article describes the problems nurses experience in going to, and using what they learn from, CNE. Possible causes for the barriers, and steps to take to surmount them, are discussed. This information has implications for human and financial resource management, staffing and scheduling, staff development, policy regulations, economics, and professional trends.

Adult↗