Nursing research
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Healthcare utilization in women after abdominal surgery for ovarian cancer.
Women undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer are severely ill and are high users of health services. Contributing to these increased utilization rates are the multiple modalities used to treat ovarian cancer and the complications and side effects from those treatments. ⋯ Women in the intervention group appropriately used the emergency room to manage their problems after hours, whereas more women in the attention control group reported significantly more primary care visits. These findings highlight the need for healthcare providers representing various disciplines to coordinate services across specialties, especially for women who have depressive symptoms.
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Latent transition analysis is a method of modeling change over time in categorical variables. It has been used in the social sciences for many years, but not in nursing research. ⋯ The results from the example provide useful information about for whom and in what direction the intervention resulted in change. Latent transition analysis is a valuable procedure for nurse researchers because it collapses large arrays of categorical data into meaningful patterns. It is a flexible modeling procedure with extensions allowing further understanding of a change process.
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Although nurse staffing has been found to be related to patient mortality, there has been limited study of the independent effect of work schedules on patient care outcomes. ⋯ In addition to staffing, nurses' work schedules are associated with patient mortality. This suggests that work schedule has an independent effect on patient outcomes.