International journal of nursing studies
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Promotion of patient safety is among the most important goals and challenges of healthcare systems worldwide in countries including China. Donabedian's Structure-Process-Outcome model implies that patient safety is affected by hospital nursing organizational factors and nursing care process. However, studies are imperative for a clear understanding about the mechanisms by which patient safety is affected to guide practice. ⋯ Improving work environment, increasing nurse staffing levels, and providing sufficient support for nurses to spend more time on direct patient care would be beneficial to patient safety improvement.
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Deficient communication during shift change can cause negative patient outcomes and hinder person-centeredness in care. Person-centered handover is performed together with the patient at bedside, with the intention of providing a safe and efficient handover while promoting patient participation. The knowledge about nurse perspectives on handover models that involve patient participation is sparse. ⋯ The intentions of person-centered handovers differed from the way it was actually performed, especially in regards to the obtained levels of patient participation, as described by nurses. Professional insecurity in relation to bedside communication with patients and their visitors is a novel finding that should be considered when implementing person-centered handovers. Overall, the perceptions of person-centered handovers, as expressed by the nurses, enhance our understanding of what to consider when implementing the model and why compliance may vary.
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Observational Study
Surgical ward nurses' responses to worry: An observational descriptive study.
Rapid response systems aim to improve early recognition and treatment of deteriorating general ward patients. Sole reliance on deviating vital signs to escalate care in rapid response systems disregards nurses' judgments about a patient's condition based on worry and other indicators of deterioration. To make worry explicit, the Dutch-Early-Nurse-Worry-Indicator-Score was developed, summarising non-quantifiable signs of deterioration in the nine indicators: breathing, circulation, temperature, mentation, agitation, pain, unexpected trajectory, patient indicates not feeling well and nurses' subjective observations. Nurses' worry can be present even when vital signs are largely unchanged, enabling treatment to commence at an early stage. On the other hand, reliance on nurses' worry might lead to unnecessary calls for medical assistance or an overuse of rapid response teams. ⋯ This study suggests that worry has potential as an early indicator of deterioration, alerting nurses and encouraging them to start timely interventions. Overuse of medical assistance could not be determined, The Dutch-Early-Nurse-Worry-Indicator-Score objectifies worry when vital signs do not support its presence and systematic assessment of these indicators is recommended.
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Continuous vital signs monitoring on general hospital wards may allow earlier detection of patient deterioration and improve patient outcomes. This systematic review will assess if continuous monitoring is practical outside of the critical care setting, and whether it confers any clinical benefit to patients. ⋯ Continuous vital signs monitoring outside the critical care setting is feasible and may provide a benefit in terms of improved patient outcomes and cost efficiency. Large, well-controlled studies in high-risk populations are required to evaluate the clinical benefit of continuous monitoring systems.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The impact of a pain assessment intervention on pain score and analgesic use in older nursing home residents with severe dementia: A cluster randomised controlled trial.
Pain is highly prevalent in older adults, especially those in institutional settings such as nursing homes. The presence of dementia may increase the risk of underdiagnosed and undertreated pain. Pain assessment tools are not regularly used in clinical practice, however, there are indications that the regular use of pain assessments tools may influence the recognition of pain by nursing staff and thereby affect pain management. ⋯ The current intervention did not change analgesic use or pain score compared with the control condition. However, there is not sufficient evidence to conclude that regular pain assessment using a pain assessment tool is not clinically relevant. Furthermore, our results indicated that pain continued to be inadequately treated in nursing home residents with severe dementia. Therefore, further research on how standardised pain assessment can be used to support effective pain management in this population is needed.