It has been known for over a century that these cranial nerves exist, and that they are not typographical errors nor a sensational event reported in the medical literature. A number of scientific articles on anatomy highlight how textbooks on descriptive anatomy do not always consider variables such as differences related to the geographical areas where people live, and these differences do exist. This is an important concept not only for surgeons, but also for all medical professionals who use manual techniques when treating their patients, ie, osteopaths, chiropractors, physiotherapists, and other manual therapists. This paper highlights the latest developments regarding these cranial nerves, offering at the same time some ideas for further reflection when looking at clinical scenarios that appear to bear little relationship to each other. Inclusion of these concepts in everyday anamnesis is encouraged.

Purpose

Health systems around the world are struggling to meet the needs of aging populations and increasing numbers of clients with complex health conditions. Faced with multiple health system challenges, governments are advocating for team-based approaches to health care. Key descriptors used to describe health care teams include “interprofessional,” “multiprofessional,” “interdisciplinary,” and “multidisciplinary.” Until now there has been no review of the use of terminology relating to health care teams. The purpose of this integrative review is to provide a descriptive analysis of terminology used to describe health care teams.

Methods

An integrative review of the literature was conducted because it allows for the inclusion of literature related to studies using diverse methodologies. The authors searched the literature using the terms interprofessional, multiprofessional, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary combined with “health teams” and “health care teams.” Refining strategies included a requirement that journal articles define the term used to describe health care teams and include a list of health care team members. The literature selection process resulted in the inclusion of 17 journal articles in this review.

Results:

Multidisciplinary is more frequently used than other terminology to describe health care teams. The findings in this review relate to frequency of terminology usage, justifications for use of specific terminology, commonalities and patterns related to country of origin of research studies and health care areas, ways in which terminology is used, structure of team membership, and perspectives of definitions used.

Conclusion:

Stakeholders across the health care continuum share responsibility for developing and consistently using terminology that is both common and meaningful. Notwithstanding some congruence in terminology usage, this review highlights inconsistencies in the literature and suggests that broad debate among policy makers, clinicians, educators, researchers, and consumers is still required to reach useful consensus.

As the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continues to grow, management of the disease still faces considerable challenges. Despite the existence of effective pharmacological treatments, patient adherence is often poor. Side effects of medications and patients’ concerns about potential side effects may contribute to poor adherence. Situated as they are at the frontline of patient care in the clinic, nurse practitioners play an important role in the management of COPD. This review discusses the current literature on medications available for management of COPD, focusing primarily on their safety and tolerability. This information can be particularly important for nurse practitioners, who can be invaluable in identifying side effects, and providing education to patients with COPD on the available treatments and the associated side effects. By helping patients to understand the balance of benefits and risks of treatment, nurse practitioners may be able to help improve adherence and thereby improve patient outcomes.

Tuberculous uveitis is an underdiagnosed form of uveitis. Absence of pulmonary signs and symptoms does not rule out the disease. In an era of reduced immunity from human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the disease is becoming more prevalent. This review discusses the common manifestations of tuberculous uveitis, pointing out helpful diagnostic criteria in suspicious cases of uveitis. Physicians need to be aware that ocular manifestations of tuberculosis may be independent of systemic disease.

Introduction

Interprofessional collaboration among health care professionals yields improved patient outcomes, yet many students in health care programs have limited exposure to interprofessional collaboration in the classroom and in clinical and service-learning experiences. This practice gap implies that students enter their professions without valuing interprofessional collaboration and the impact it has on promoting positive patient outcomes.

Aim

The aim of this study was to describe the interprofessional experiences of students in health care professional programs as they collaborated to provide health care to Guatemalan citizens over a 7-day period.

Methods

In light of the identified practice gap and a commitment by college administration to fund interprofessional initiatives, faculty educators from nursing, occupational therapy, and physical therapy conducted a qualitative study to explore a service-learning initiative focused on promoting interprofessional collaboration. Students collaborated in triads (one student from each of the three disciplines) to provide supervised health care to underserved Guatemalan men, women, children, and infants across a variety of community and health care settings. Eighteen students participated in a qualitative research project by describing their experience of interprofessional collaboration in a service-learning environment. Twice before arriving in Guatemala, and on three occasions during the trip, participants reflected on their experiences and provided narrative responses to open-ended questions. Qualitative content analysis methodology was used to describe their experiences of interprofessional collaboration.

Results

An interprofessional service-learning experience positively affected students’ learning, their growth in interprofessional collaboration, and their understanding and appreciation of health care professions besides their own. The experience also generated feelings of gratitude for the opportunity to be a member of an interprofessional team and to serve those in need by giving of themselves.

Conclusion

The findings support service learning as a platform to encourage interprofessional collaboration among students in health care professional programs. The research will inform future service-learning experiences in which interdisciplinary collaboration is an outcome of interest.

Background

Good public health ensures an efficient work force. Organizations can ensure a prominent position on the global stage by staying on the leading edge of technological development. Public health and technological innovation are vital elements of prosperous economies. It is important to understand how these elements affect each other. This research study explored and described the relationship between these two critical elements/constructs.

Methods

Indicators representing technological innovation and public health were identified. Indicator data from 2000 to 2009 were collected from various US federal government sources, for the four US Census regions. The four US Census regions were then compared in terms of these indicators. Canonical correlation equations were formulated to identify combinations of the indicators that are strongly related to each other. Additionally, the cause–effect relationship between public health and technological innovation was described using the structural equation modeling technique.

Results

The four US Census regions ranked differently in terms of both type of indicators in a statistically significant manner. The canonical correlation analysis showed that the first set of canonical variables had a fairly strong relationship, with a magnitude > 0.65 at the 95% confidence interval, for all census regions. Structural equation modeling analysis provided β < −0.69 and Student’s t statistic > 12.98, for all census regions. The threshold Student’s t statistic was 1.98. Hence, it was found that the β values were significant at the 95% confidence interval, for all census regions.

Discussion

The results of the study showed that better technological innovation indicator scores were associated with better public health indicator scores. Furthermore, the study provided preliminary evidence that technological innovation shares causal relation with public health.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a significant cause of work disability and job loss. The resulting economic burden experienced by patients has received considerable research attention. This research assesses the effect of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists (infliximab, etanercept) on the ability of RA patients living in Japan to work and participate in society. A total of 42 patients with active RA were enrolled and given biological therapy for 12 months (mo). Of these patients, 14 were employed full-time, 6 were employed part-time, and 22 were not employed. Twenty-six patients were given infliximab, and sixteen were given etanercept. The amount of domestic labor performed before the biologics served as a baseline and was assigned a value of 0%. After treatment with biologics, the productivity was evaluated using the visual analog scale (VAS; −100 to +100 mm). The administration of TNF antagonists to RA patients who exhibited an insufficient response to medical treatment significantly improved the Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS 28) after both 6 mo and 12 mo (P < 0.0001). A significant correlation was found between the improvement in their DAS 28 and improvements in their work situation (Productivity VAS) (P < 0.05). Of particular interest is the significant correlation between the values of baseline mHAQ and the percent changes of Productivity VAS that was observed after 6 mo and 12 mo (P < 0.05). Our findings indicate that medical treatment of RA with TNF antagonists improves the patients' ability to perform their jobs and housekeeping. Because loss of productivity is an important contributor to the indirect costs of RA, our findings are relevant for the pharmacoeconomic assessment of treatments.

Mentoring plays an important role in learning and career development. Mentored researchers are more productive and more likely to publish their work. However, mentorship programs are not universally used in most settings or disciplines. Furthermore, successful and mutually beneficial mentoring relationships are not always easy to arrange. Long-distance mentoring relationships are even more difficult to handle and may break down for a wide variety of reasons. Drawing from our experiences with the first Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Canadian HIV Trials Network international postdoctoral fellowship program, we describe the roles of the context, the key mentor and the mentee attributes; goals and expectations; environments, local support, a communication plan, funding, face-to-face contact, multidisciplinary collaboration, co-mentoring, and evaluation as they apply to the successful implementation of a long-distance mentoring program.

For over a decade, organizations have attempted to include the measurement and reporting of health outcome data in contractual agreements between funders and health service providers, but few have succeeded. This research explores the utility of collecting health outcomes data that could be included in funding contracts for an Australian Community Care Organisation (CCO). An action-research methodology was used to trial the implementation of outcome measurement in six diverse projects within the CCO using a taxonomy of interventions based on the International Classification of Function. The findings from the six projects are presented as vignettes to illustrate the issues around the routine collection of health outcomes in each case. Data collection and analyses were structured around Donabedian’s structure–process–outcome triad. Health outcomes are commonly defined as a change in health status that is attributable to an intervention. This definition assumes that a change in health status can be defined and measured objectively; the intervention can be defined; the change in health status is attributable to the intervention; and that the health outcomes data are accessible. This study found flaws with all of these assumptions that seriously undermine the ability of community-based organizations to introduce routine health outcome measurement. Challenges were identified across all stages of the Donabedian triad, including poor adherence to minimum dataset requirements; difficulties standardizing processes or defining interventions; low rates of use of outcome tools; lack of value of the tools to the service provider; difficulties defining or identifying the end point of an intervention; technical and ethical barriers to accessing data; a lack of standardized processes; and time lags for the collection of data. In no case was the use of outcome measures sustained by any of the teams, although some quality-assurance measures were introduced as a result of the project.

Background

In many settings, people who inject drugs (PWID) have limited access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care which is provided in several hospitals and primary health centers in big cities. Substance abuse treatment (SAT) can be used as the entry-point to HIV programs. The aim of this study is to describe the characteristics of the PWID who had accessed SAT and determine which SAT modality associates significantly with HIV programs.

Methods

PWID were recruited by respondent-driven sampling in an urban setting in Java, Indonesia and interviewed with the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Blood-Borne Virus Transmission Risk Assessment Questionnaires, and Knowledge Questionnaire on HIV/AIDS. The information regarding the use of substance abuse treatment and HIV program were based on questions in ASI.

Results

Seventy-seven percent of 210 PWID had accessed SAT at least once. PWID who had accessed a SAT modality reported more severe drug problems. The most widely used SAT were opioid substitution (57%) and traditional/faith-based treatment (56%). Accessing substitution treatment (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 5.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.5–13.9) or residential drug-free treatment (adjusted OR = 3.7; 95% CI: 1.4–9.7) was significantly associated with HIV testing, whereas accessing substitution treatment (adjusted OR = 3.8; 95% CI: 1.9–7.5) or other medical services (adjusted OR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.1–8.7) was significantly associated with HIV treatment. There was no significant association between accessing traditional/faith-based treatment and HIV testing and treatment.

Conclusion

Efforts should be made to link HIV services with traditional/faith-based treatment to increase the coverage of HIV programs.

Introduction

In a society where most older people live in their own homes, it may be expected of older individuals to exercise their potential to take care of themselves in daily life. Nutrition is a central aspect of self-care, and groups of older, home-dwelling people are at risk of undernutrition.

Aim

The aim of this study was to describe the lived experiences of self-care and features that influence health and self-care among older, home-dwelling individuals identified to be at risk of undernutrition.

Methods

Qualitative interviews were performed with eleven home-dwelling individuals who had been identified as being at risk of undernutrition. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with a descriptive phenomenological method.

Findings

Self-care as a lived experience among older, home-dwelling individuals identified to be at risk of undernutrition is about being aware of food choices and making decisions about taking healthy steps or not. In the presence of health problems, the appetite often decreases. Being able to take care of oneself in daily life is important, as is receiving help when needing it. Working at being physically and socially active and engaged may stimulate the appetite. Having company at meals is important and missed when living alone. Being present and taking each day by day, as well as considering oneself in the light of past time and previous experiences and looking ahead, is central, even when having fears for the future and the end of life.

Conclusion

Health care professionals should be aware of these findings in order to support self-care in older people, and they should pay attention to the social aspects at meals.

Video abstract

Video

Internationally, the health workforce has undergone rapid transformation to help meet growing staffing demands and population requirements. Several tools have been developed to support workforce change processes. The Calderdale Framework (CF) is one such tool designed to facilitate competency-based training by engaging team members in a seven step process involving awareness raising, service and task analysis, competency identification, establishing support systems, training, and sustaining. This paper explores the utility of the CF as an appraisal tool to assess whether adherence to the tool influences outcomes. The CF was applied retrospectively to three complete evaluations of allied health assistant role introduction: a new podiatry assistant role (Australia), speech pathology assistant (Australia), and occupational therapy assistant practitioner role (UK). Adherence to the CF was associated with more effective and efficient use of the role, role flexibility and career development opportunities for assistants, and role sustainability. Services are less likely to succeed in their workforce change process if they fail to plan for and use a structured approach to change, assign targeted leadership, undertake staff engagement and consultation, and perform an initial service analysis. The CF provides a clear template for appraising the implementation of new roles and highlights the potential consequences of not adhering to particular steps in the implementation process.

Smart house technology using tablet computers may help older people to master activities of daily living by making it easier to perform daily tasks like controlling lights and indoor temperature throughout the house with a few keystrokes. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of age, cognition, self-efficacy, and technology experience on the ability of older people to perceive and use iPad tablet computers for this purpose. Twenty-eight participants were interviewed using a structured interview guide and questionnaires, and a practical test of how to use the iPad was performed. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognition. Cognitive deficits and low self-efficacy significantly reduced the ability of the subjects to use the smart house technology and to perceive the smart house technology service as provided. Age was unrelated to the outcome variables. Finally, technology experience had an effect on technology perception. If further research supports these findings, it should influence smart-house implementation in an elderly population, raising awareness of usability problems in older people with low self-efficacy and cognitive problems.

Purpose

Asthma is a common chronic disease with gender differences in terms of severity and quality of life. This study aimed to understand the gendered practices of male asthmatic adolescents in terms of living with and managing their chronic disease. The study applied a sociological perspective to identify the gender-related practices of participants and their possible consequences for health and disease.

Patients and methods

The study used a combined ethnomethodology and grounded theory design, which was interpreted using Bourdieu’s theory of practice. We aimed to discover how participants interpreted their social worlds to create a sense of meaning in their everyday lives. The study was based on multistage focus group interviews with five adolescent participants at a specialist center for asthmatic children and youths. We took necessary precautions to protect the participants, according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was approved by the Regional Committee for Medical Research Ethics and the hospital’s research department.

Results

The core concept for asthmatic male adolescents was being men. They were focused on being nonasthmatic, and exhibited ambivalence towards the principles of the health services. Physical activity supported their aim of being men and being nonasthmatic, as well as supported their treatment goals. Being fearless, unconcerned, “cool,” and dependent also supported the aim of being men and being nonasthmatic, but not the health service principle of regular medication. Occasionally, the participants were asthmatic when they were not able to or gained no advantages from being nonasthmatic. Their practice of being men independently of being asthmatic emphasized their deeply gendered habits.

Conclusion

Understanding gender differences in living with and managing asthma is important for health workers. Knowledge of embodied gendered habits and their reproduction in social interactions and clinical work should be exploited as a resource during the supervision of asthmatic adolescent boys.

Background:

Bleeding symptoms commonly seen by multiple physician specialties may belie undiagnosed congenital or acquired bleeding disorders. Acquired hemophilia is a potentially life-threatening cause of unexplained acute bleeding manifested by an abnormal activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) that does not correct with 1:1 mixing with normal plasma.

Methods:

Practicing physicians (hematology/oncology, emergency medicine, geriatrics, internal medicine, rheumatology, obstetrics and gynecology, critical care medicine, and general surgery) completed an online survey based on a hypothetical case scenario.

Results:

Excluding surgeons and obstetrician/gynecologist respondents, 302 physicians (about 50 per specialty) were presented with an older adult woman complaining of recurrent epistaxis. Nearly 90% ordered a complete blood count and coagulation studies (aPTT, prothrombin time [PT]/international normalized ratio [INR]). Despite a prolonged aPTT of 42 seconds, <50% of nonhematologists would repeat the aPTT, and <45% would consult a hematologist; emergency medicine physicians were least likely (10%) and rheumatologists were most likely (43%) to consult. After presentation weeks later with bruising and abdominal/back pain, ≥90% of physicians within each specialty ordered a complete blood count or PT/INR/aPTT. Despite an aPTT of 63 seconds, the majority did not repeat the aPTT. At this point, approximately 75% of internal medicine and geriatric physicians indicated they would consult a hematologist, versus 47% in emergency medicine and 50% in critical care. All participants preferred abdominal computed tomography (80%–84%). After 12 hours of additional observation, 73% to 94% of respondents consulted a hematologist. Complete blood count revealed anemia and an aPTT twice the upper limit of normal; emergency medicine physicians remained least likely to request a consult.

Conclusion:

Determining the cause of an abnormal coagulation study result should carry equal weight as looking for the site of bleeding and could be facilitated by consultation with a hematologist. Insight from this survey highlights knowledge and practice gaps that could be the target of focused educational initiatives.

Background

Here we report our experience in treating colon cancer in the 5 years from 200 to 2011. Our surgical clinic treated 49 patients with colorectal cancer, of whom 28 (57.14%) were men of mean age 62 years and 21 (42.86%) were women of mean age 66 years.

Methods

In 15 cases, the cancer was related to the rectum (30.61%) and the remaining 34 cases (69.39%) were related to the colon. We found synchronous cancer in two patients. One was found in the blank and the upper right while the second was found in the transverse and sigmoid colon. Six of our patients suffered from coexisting biliary lithiasis and underwent simultaneous cholecystectomy, and simultaneous bile duct exploration for common bile duct lithiasis was performed in one of these patients.

Results

Twenty-eight of the patients with colon cancer were treated surgically on an emergency basis. There were two postoperative deaths due to septic shock and multiple organ failure. In total, we noted seven complications, all of which involved patients who had undergone emergency surgery. The length of hospital stay was 8–14 days. Four patients with stage IV disease died 2 years after surgery, and the remainder are still alive.

Conclusion

We conclude that colon cancer still occurs after the sixth decade, with a male predominance, and is mainly located in the rectum and sigmoid colon. The high rate of ileus in our region indicates inadequate diagnostic access for the residents of our region. However, mortality remains low.

Mentoring is routinely used as a tool to facilitate acquisition of skills by new professionals in fields like medicine, nursing, surgery, and business. While mentoring has been proposed as an effective strategy for knowledge and skills transfer in biostatistics and related fields, there is still much to be done to facilitate adoption by stakeholders, including academia and employers of biostatisticians. This is especially troubling given that biostatisticians play a key role in the success or otherwise of clinical research conducted for evidence-based decisions. In this paper, we offer suggestions on how mentoring can be applied in practice to advance the statistical training of future biostatisticians. In particular, we propose steps that academic statistics departments, professional statistical societies, and statistics organizations can take to advance the mentoring of young biostatisticians. Our suggestions also cover what mentors and mentees can do to facilitate a successful mentoring relationship.

Increasingly unaffordable health care costs are forcing care providers to develop economically viable and efficient health care plans. Currently, only a minority of all newly diagnosed peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) patients receive efficient and structured conservative treatment for their disease. The aim of this article is to introduce an innovative effective treatment model termed ClaudicatioNet. This concept was launched in The Netherlands as a means to combat treatment shortcomings and stimulate cohesion and collaboration between stakeholders. The overall goal of ClaudicatioNet is to stimulate quality and transparency of PAOD treatment by optimizing multidisciplinary health care chains on a national level. Improved quality is based on stimulating both a theoretical and practical knowledge base, while eHealth and mHealth technologies are used to create clear insights of provided care to enhance quality control management, in addition these technologies can be used to increase patient empowerment, thereby increasing efficacy of PAOD treatment. This online community consists of a web portal with public and personal information supplemented with a mobile application. By connecting to these tools, a social community is created where patients can meet and keep in touch with fellow patients, while useful information for supervising health care professionals is provided. The ClaudicatioNet concept will likely create more efficient and cost-effective PAOD treatment by improving the quality of supervised training programs, extending possibilities and stimulating patient empowerment by using eHealth and mHealth solutions. A free market principle is introduced by introducing transparency to provided care by using objective and subjective outcome parameters. Cost-effectiveness can be achieved using supervised training programs, which may substitute for or postpone expensive invasive vascular interventions.

Purpose

Hospitalists specialize in the management of hospitalized patients. They work with several health care professionals to provide patient care. There has been little research examining the perceived impact of the hospitalist’s role on staff working in an orthopedic environment. This study examined the experiences of staff across several professional backgrounds in working with a hospitalist in an orthopedic environment.

Participants and methods

A qualitative descriptive approach was taken to investigate the experience of staff working with a hospitalist at a specialized orthopedic hospital. Purposive sampling was used to recruit interview participants including nurses, internists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, anesthetists, senior administration, and orthopedic surgeons to the point of theoretical saturation, which occurred after 12 interviews. Interviews were coded, and these codes were combined into categories and predominant themes were identified.

Findings

Overall, staff believed that the hospitalist role was a positive addition to the facility. The role benefitted patients and supported the clinical well-being and education of staff. Many staff felt the hospitalist had no impact on their workload, but others reported that their work had decreased or increased. Several described the potential for role overlap between the hospitalist and other physicians.

Conclusion

The importance of interprofessional collaboration in the implementation of the hospitalist role was a recurring theme in our analysis. This study demonstrates the importance of educating staff about the hospitalist role boundaries prior to implementing hospitalist care.

Problem statement

Unprecedented consumption of health care resources in the USA coupled with increasing rates of chronic disease has fueled pursuit of improved models of health care delivery. The Chronic Care Model provides an organizational framework for chronic care management and practice improvement. Sea Mar, a community health care organization in Washington state, implemented the Chronic Care Model, but has not evaluated the outcomes related to provider and staff satisfaction. The specific aim of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Chronic Care Model with the addition of the Chronic Care Coordinator role.

Approach

A descriptive method was used, which incorporated quantitative, and qualitative data from providers and clinic staff collected through a Web-based survey consisting of Likert-type questions sent via an electronic link.

Results

This evaluation identified the strengths of and barriers to the chronic care model with a focus on provider and staff satisfaction regarding patient care since the addition of the Chronic Care Coordinator role. We found a high appreciation (94%) and acceptance of the role; 80% agreed that the Chronic Care Coordinator was well-integrated into clinic operations. Major strengths of the program included more patient education, better follow-up, and improved team communications. Barriers to success included limited provider access, confusion regarding role expectations of the Chronic Care Coordinator, inconsistent communications, and Chronic Care Coordinator turnover.

Conclusions/recommendations

Our findings help to validate the importance of community health organizations such as Sea Mar, the utility of the chronic care model, and the potential value for specific roles such as the Chronic Care Coordinator to positively impact quality of care by helping to empower patients to improve self-management and ultimately impact patient outcomes. However, future studies involving larger samples are needed to further explore themes among staff and patients.

Purpose

The optimal setting for interprofessional education (IPE) for prelicensure health care trainees is unclear, especially in a field as complex and emotionally challenging as oncology. In this article, the authors describe the initiation of the Cross Cancer Institute Multidisciplinary Summer Studentship in Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology, a 6-week, multidisciplinary team-based clinical placement in supportive care, designed to incorporate features of best practice cooperative learning.

Methods

A steering committee established goals, structure, eligibility criteria, application process, funding, and a consensus approach to instruction and evaluation for the IPE program. Studentship components included mandatory and flexible clinical time, an exploratory investigation, discussion groups, and a presentation. Two senior students per iteration were selected from clinical nutrition, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physiotherapy, respiratory therapy, social work, and speech–language pathology applicants. These students completed questionnaires investigating their views of their own and others’ professions at baseline, at the end of the rotation, and 6 months after the studentship.

Results

Eight students from medicine, clinical nutrition, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech–language pathology have participated to date. At the elective’s end, students have described a more positive view of multidisciplinary team practice, with each participating discipline perceived as both more caring and more subservient than at baseline. In general, changes in attitudes were maintained 6 months after completion of the placement.

Conclusion

This 6-week multidisciplinary placement is feasible, successful, and potentially transferable to other academic settings. The results of this study suggest that even over as short a period as 6 weeks, objective attitudinal and perceptual change is seen.

Aim

The aim of the present study was to identify predictors of nonparticipation in a Danish cohort of individuals on long-term sickness absence with a nonparticipation rate of 53.6%.

Methods

Data from Danish public registers were linked to all 2414 individuals initially recruited to the cohort. Information regarding social- and health-related characteristics was retrieved. Adjusted logistic regression was carried out to examine differences between participants and nonparticipants as well as to identify predictors of nonparticipation.

Results

Nonparticipation was associated with being male, relatively young, having a vocational secondary education, and having a low income, whereas a recent somatic disease treated in hospital was a predictor for participation. Having had a psychiatric disorder in the past was generally a barrier for participation, while a recent psychiatric disorder was a positive factor for participation.

Conclusion

Individuals with low socioeconomic status and individuals with prior psychiatric disorders were less willing to participate in this cohort study of long-term sickness absence.

Background:

This study aimed to verify the reproduction of an aerobic test to determine nonexpert swimmers’ resistance.

Methods:

The sample consisted of 24 male swimmers (age: 22.79 ± 3.90 years; weight: 74.72 ± 11.44 kg; height: 172.58 ± 4.99 cm; and fat percentage: 15.19% ± 3.21%), who swim for 1 hour three times a week. A new instrument was used in this study (a Progressive Swim Test): the swimmer wore an underwater MP3 player and increased their swimming speed on hearing a beep after every 25 meters. Each swimmer’s heart rate was recorded before the test (BHR) and again after the test (AHR). The rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and the number of laps performed (NLP) were also recorded. The sample size was estimated using G*Power software (v 3.0.10; Franz Faul, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany). The descriptive values were expressed as mean and standard deviation. After confirming the normality of the data using both the Shapiro–Wilk and Levene tests, a paired t-test was performed to compare the data. The Pearson’s linear correlation (r) and intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC) tests were used to determine relative reproducibility. The standard error of measurement (SEM) and the coefficient of variation (CV) were used to determine absolute reproducibility. The limits of agreement and the bias of the absolute and relative values between days were determined by Bland–Altman plots. All values had a significance level of P < 0.05.

Results:

There were significant differences in AHR (P = 0.03) and NLP (P = 0.01) between the 2 days of testing. The obtained values were r > 0.50 and ICC > 0.66. The SEM had a variation of ±2% and the CV was <10%. Most cases were within the upper and lower limits of Bland–Altman plots, suggesting correlation of the results. The applicability of NLP showed greater robustness (r and ICC > 0.90; SEM < 1%; CV < 3%), indicating that the other variables can be used to predict incremental changes in the physiological condition of swimmers.

Conclusion:

The Progressive Swim Test for nonexpert swimmers produces comparable results for noncompetitive swimmers with a favorable degree of reproducibility, thus presenting possible applications for researching the physiological performance of nonexpert swimmers.

Video abstract

Background

Trauma teams improve the initial management of trauma patients. Optimal timing of trauma alerts could improve team preparedness and performance while also limiting adverse ripple effects throughout the hospital. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how timing of trauma team activation and notification affects initial in-hospital management of trauma patients.

Methods

Data from a single hospital trauma care quality registry were matched with data from a trauma team alert log. The time from patient arrival to chest X-ray, and the emergency department length of stay were compared with the timing of trauma team activations and whether or not trauma team members received a preactivation notification.

Results

In 2009, the trauma team was activated 352 times; 269 times met the inclusion criteria. There were statistically significant differences in time to chest X-ray for differently timed trauma team activations (P = 0.003). Median time to chest X-ray for teams activated 15–20 minutes prearrival was 5 minutes, and 8 minutes for teams activated <5 minutes before patient arrival. Timing had no effect on length of stay in the emergency department (P = 0.694). We found no effect of preactivation notification on time to chest X-ray (P = 0.474) or length of stay (P = 0.684).

Conclusion

Proactive trauma team activation improved the initial management of trauma patients. Trauma teams should be activated prior to patient arrival.

There are an increasing number of educational programs to improve clinical competence and skills to treat mental disorders. For complex disorders there is also a focus on improving the quality of interprofessional work. This paper reports on interprofessional outputs of an educational program on eating disorders. A total of 207 professionals who completed the program were requested to describe up to 12 possible scenarios depicted as realistic prospects for their future work within this field. Analyzing the scenarios resulted in three categories of describing the participants’ preferences: (1) interprofessional interventions and treatment; (2) the further development of competence; and (3) organization of the health care system. The findings showed that the participants were considering working across new lines in their current workplaces or crossing borders to new frontiers in the execution of competence. Our findings may be summarized into the concept of “clinical confidence.” This concept has so far been understood as some kind of personal trait, disposition, or attitude. The present findings add nuances to this concept in terms of state-dependent encouragement, engagement, and a potential to act and to cross professional borders in order to better treat complex mental disorders.