Minnesota medicine
-
Gardens are experiencing a renaissance in health care settings as a growing body of research is showing that exposure to natural environments can improve both the patient experience and health outcomes. This article reviews studies that have shown a connection between exposure to nature and improved healing, less medication use, shorter hospitalizations, and decreased anxiety and stress among family members and staff. It also provides guidelines for garden design in medical settings.
-
Complexity science is a useful construct for physicians trying to cope with the escalating sophistication of health care and pressure to control costs. The science of complexity suggests that outcomes are not always linear or predictable. ⋯ Assessing and managing complexity in the health care environment involves understanding why medical practice is a complex adaptive system and how to work within such a system to achieve the best outcomes. The goal of this article is to help physicians understand the basic concepts of complexity science and how they might be applied to medical practice.
-
In order to explore the correlation between physical activity, fitness, and injury among police officers, a cross section of active-duty members of the Minneapolis Police Department were surveyed about their level of fitness, physical activity, and prevalence of injury and chronic pain within the past year. In the study, officers with the highest self-reported fitness levels were less likely to experience sprains (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.08-0.88), back pain (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.09-0.88), and chronic pain (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.06-0.73) than those who considered themselves less fit. ⋯ And officers with a BMI greater than 35 were 3 times more likely to report back pain (OR 3.36, 95% CI 1.17-9.66) than those whose BMI fell in the normal range (18-25). Thus, officers who engage in higher levels of physical activity and are more physically fit have a lower prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries and chronic pain.
-
Professionalism affects the quality of medical care in terms of clinical outcomes, safety, and service. Although often talked about by physicians, professionalism is important for all who are engaged in clinical care. In our continuous effort to improve quality at Mayo Clinic, we hypothesized that patient satisfaction was affected by the professionalism of the allied health staff. ⋯ We found patient satisfaction with the allied health staff increased from 71% to 77% after the training. We also saw improvement in each of the individual PLEASE CARE attributes. This demonstrates that enhancement of professionalism among allied health staff can have a positive effect on the experience of patients.