BMC geriatrics
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Comparative Study
Validity, responsiveness and the minimal clinically important difference for the de Morton Mobility Index (DEMMI) in an older acute medical population.
The de Morton Mobility Index (DEMMI) is a new mobility instrument that overcomes the limitations of existing instruments. It is the first mobility instrument that accurately measures the mobility of all older adults. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed report of investigations of the validity, responsiveness to change and minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of the DEMMI during its development in an older acute medical population. ⋯ This study has validated the DEMMI in two independent samples of older acute medical patients. Estimates of its responsiveness and MCID have also been established. This study confirms that the DEMMI overcomes the limitations of the BI and HABAM and provides an advanced method for objectively assessing mobility for older acute medical patients.
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Comparative Study
Palliative care for the elderly--developing a curriculum for nursing and medical students.
Delivering palliative care to elderly, dying patients is a present and future challenge. In Germany, this has been underlined by a 2009 legislation implementing palliative care as compulsory in the medical curriculum. While the number of elderly patients is increasing in many western countries multimorbidity, dementia and frailty complicate care. Teaching palliative care of the elderly to an interprofessional group of medical and nursing students can help to provide better care as acknowledged by the ministry of health and its expert panels. In this study we researched and created an interdisciplinary curriculum focussing on the palliative care needs of the elderly which will be presented in this paper. ⋯ The curriculum was successfully implemented following the Kern approach for medical curricula. The process is documented in this paper. The information given may support curriculum developers in their search for learning goals and objectives.