Developing standards for an integrated approach to workplace facilitation for interprofessional teams in health and social care contexts: a Delphi study

Integration of health and social care forms part of health and social care policy in many countries worldwide in response to changing health and social care needs. The World Health Organization’s appeal for systems to manage the global epidemiologic transition advocates for provision of care that crosses boundaries between primary, community, hospital, and social care. However, the focus on structural and process changes has not yielded the full benefit of expected advances in care delivery. Facilitating practice in the workplace is a widely recognised cornerstone for developments in the delivery of health and social care as collaborative and inclusive relationships enable frontline staff to develop effective workplace cultures that influence whether transformational change is achieved and maintained. Workplace facilitation embraces a number of different purposes which may not independently lead to better quality of care or improved patient outcomes. Holistic workplace facilitation of learning, development, and improvement supports the integration remit across health and social care systems and avoids duplication of effort and waste of valuable resources. To date, no standards to guide the quality and effectiveness of integrated facilitation have been published. This study aimed to identify key elements constitute standards for an integrated approach to facilitating work-based learning, development, improvement, inquiry, knowledge translation, and innovation in health and social care contexts using a three rounds Delphi survey of facilitation experts from 10 countries. Consensus about priority elements was determined in the final round, following an iteration process that involved modifications to validate content. The findings helped to identify key qualities and skills facilitators need to support interprofessional teams to flourish and optimise performance. Further research could evaluate the impact of skilled integrated facilitation on health and social care outcomes and the well-being of frontline interprofessional teams.     

Patient assessment within the context of healthcare delivery packages: A comparative analysis

BackgroundDue to an increased focus on productivity and cost-effectiveness, many countries across the world have implemented a variety of tools for standardizing diagnostics and treatment. In Denmark, healthcare delivery packages are increasingly used for assessment of patients. A package is a tool for creating coordination, continuity and efficient pathways; each step is pre-booked, and the package has a well-defined content within a predefined category of diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate how assessment processes took place within the context of healthcare delivery packages.MethodsThe study used a constructivist Grounded Theory approach. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in three specialized units: a mental health unit and two multiple sclerosis clinics in Southern Denmark, which all used assessment packages. Several types of data were sampled through theoretical sampling. Participant observation was conducted for a total of 126 h. Formal and informal interviews were conducted with 12 healthcare professionals and 13 patients. Furthermore, audio recordings were made of 9 final consultations between physicians and patients; 193 min of recorded consultations all in all. Lastly, the medical records of 13 patients and written information about packages were collected. The comparative, abductive analysis focused on the process of assessment and the work made by all the actors involved. In this paper, we emphasized the work of healthcare professionals.ResultsWe constructed five interrelated categories: 1. “Standardized assessing”, 2. “Flexibility”, which has two sub-categories, 2.1. “Diagnostic options” and 2.2. “Time and organization”, and, finally, 3. “Resisting the frames”. The process of assessment required all participants to perform the predefined work in the specified way at the specified time. Multidisciplinary teamwork was essential for the success of the process. The local organization of the packages influenced the assessment process, most notably the pre-defined scope of relevant diseases targeted by the package. The inflexible frames of the assessment package could cause resistance among clinicians. Moreover, expert knowledge was an important factor for the efficiency of the process. Some types of organizational work processes resulted in many patients being assessed, but without being diagnosed with at package-relevant disease.ConclusionLimiting the grounds for using specialist knowledge in structured health care delivery may affect specialists’ sense of professional autonomy and can result in professionals employing strategies to resist the frames of the packages. Finally, when organizing healthcare delivery packages, it seems important to consider how to make the optimal use of specialist knowledge.     

Austrian height and body proportion references for children aged 4 to under 19 years

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated differences between national and the WHO reference curves in children older than 5 years. Moreover, reference curves for body proportions (sitting height, subischial leg length and their ratio) based on state-of-the-art statistics are not available.

Aim: To develop reference curves for height and body proportions for use in Austria and compare the curves with WHO reference curves. To estimate and statistically investigate extreme percentiles.

Subjects and methods: A sample of ～14?500 children between 4–19 years of age was drawn via schooling institutions, stratified by provinces according to age- and sex-specific population proportions. GAMLSS models were used for a flexible estimation of percentile curves.

Results and conclusions: After the age of 5 years national reference curves are more suitable than the WHO reference curves for clinical use in Austria. These height curves are very similar to the German reference curves published recently. Therefore, these reference curves for criteria of body proportions are recommended for use in other populations. Further validation studies are needed to establish whether the recently recommended ?2.5 and ?3.0 SD for height are a sensitive and specific cut-off in the diagnostic work-up for children with a suspected growth disorder using this new Austrian height chart.     

Mirror writing resulting from an egocentric representation disorder: A case report

Abstract

We describe the case of a 74-year-old man with selective apraxia for transitive gestures (gestures of object use) following a left temporo-parietal infarction. We document his neuropsychological progress over 2 years and assess his praxic abilities according to the best-developed cognitive model of praxis. Strikingly, PF was unable to pantomime transitive gestures in every test modality (verbal command, imitation, photographs of objects and handling actual tools), but could still execute symbolic (e.g. salute) and meaningless gestures. He was able to discriminate and recognize transitive gestures as well as controls. His praxic impairment has persisted through the years in the absence of dementia. His inability to use tools cannot be accounted for on the basis of a visual agnosia, impaired language comprehension or a classic ideomotor apraxia. Such a selective deficit of transitive gestures is incompatible with the cognitive model proposing that the production of all meaningful gestures (symbolic and transitive) requires a final common pathway. Rather, these findings indicate a selective deficit in the production system, which is inefficient at implementing specific representations for complex object-related gestures. Our findings also support a dissociation between semantic (what) and functional (how) knowledge of an object.     

全自动尿沉渣分析仪Sysmex UF-1000i的性能评价

目的评价Sysmex UF-1000i全自动尿沉渣分析仪(简称Sysmex UF-1000i)的性能,以探讨其是否符合临床要求。方法按照实验室ISO15189要求,检测白细胞(WBC)计数、红细胞(RBC)计数、上皮细胞(EC)计数、管型(CAST)计数及细菌(BACT)计数5项指标的批内精密度、批间精密度、携带污染率、线性范围、准确度并验证生物参考区间。结果 Sysmex UF-1000i对白细胞(WBC)、红细胞(RBC)、上皮细胞(EC)、管型(CAST)、细菌(BACT)的低值质控批内精密度、高值质控批内精密度、低值质控批间精密度、高值质控批间精密度、低值质控准确度、高值质控准确度,以及RBC、BACT的携带污染率(分别为0.02%和0.00%)均符合厂家要求。WBC、RBC、BACT的线性相关系数r2分别为0.999 4,0.999 8,0.999 8,r2均不低于0.95,线性良好。结论 UF-1000i各项性能均符合ISO15189对性能评价的要求,可应用于临床尿液沉渣的检验。     

Multidisciplinary Tinnitus Care

Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) is highly prevalent, and yet standards of clinical care for tinnitus do not exist. Consequently, tinnitus clinical care is haphazard, leaving individuals seeking help for their tinnitus at a disadvantage. These individuals need accurate information about the realities of tinnitus management, which should be made available by health care providers. This report reviews the key concerns related to clinical care for tinnitus and provides recommendations for all health care practitioners to provide their patients with useful and cost-effective information. A toolkit of resources is provided to facilitate the process of dispensing this information.     

Sexual debut and college entrance among South Korean adolescents

IntroductionFor the past few decades, numerous theoretical perspectives have predicted a negative association between adolescent sexual debut and the probability of college entrance. The present article extends the literature by using nationally representative longitudinal data from South Korea to assess these perspectives.MethodsDrawing on longitudinal data from South Korea, this article examined the impact of becoming sexually active between 8th and 12th grades on the probability of college entrance. We controlled for a wide array of confounding variables by using logit models that account for longitudinal attrition and school-based sampling design.ResultsAnalytical results showed that the initiation of sexual intercourse during adolescence predicted a statistically significant decrease in the probability of college entrance for both boys and girls. Gender-specific analyses suggested that, on average, sexual debut in adolescence was associated with a decrease of 10.3 percentage points in the probability of college entrance for boys and a decrease of 14.7 percentage points for girls.ConclusionsThese findings strongly support the theoretical perspectives of age norm theory and sexual double standards in South Korea, where strictly conservative attitudes toward sexuality and sexual behaviors are dominant.