Professional practice

BACKGROUND: Within hospital systems, diverse subsets of patients are subject to minimally invasive procedures that provide therapeutic relief and necessary health data that are often perceived as anxiogenic or painful. These feelings are particularly relevant to patients experiencing procedures where they are conscious and not sedated or placed under general anesthesia that renders them incapacitated. Pharmacologic pain management and topical anesthetic creams are used to manage these feelings; however, distraction-based methods can provide nonpharmacologic means to modify the painful experience and discomfort often associated with these procedures...

BACKGROUND: Environmental and behavioral factors are responsible for 12.6 million deaths annually and contribute to 25% of deaths and chronic diseases worldwide. Through the One Health initiative, the World Health Organization and other international health organizations plan to improve these indicators to create healthier environments by 2030. To meet this challenge, training primary care professionals should be the priority of national policies. General practitioners (GPs) are ready to become involved but need in-depth training to gain and apply environmental health (EH) knowledge to their practice...

Named entity recognition (NER) is a powerful computer system that utilizes various computing strategies to extract information from raw text input, since the early 1990s. With rapid advancement in AI and computing, NER models have gained significant attention and been serving as foundational tools across numerus professional domains to organize unstructured data for research and practical applications. This is particularly evident in the medical and healthcare fields, where NER models are essential in efficiently extract critical information from complex documents that are challenging for manual review...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to systematically map elements of care and respective outcomes described in the literature for different models of post-treatment care for survivors of childhood cancer. METHODS: MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Embase were searched with combinations of free text terms, synonyms, and MeSH terms using Boolean operators and are current to January 2024. We included studies that described post-treatment cancer survivorship models of care and reported patient or service level elements of care or outcomes, which we mapped to the Quality of Cancer Survivorship Care Framework domains...

The aim of this research was to describe the epidemiology, presentation and healthcare use in primary care for foot and ankle problems in children and young people (CYP) across England. We undertook a population-based cohort study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database, a database of anonymised electronic health records from general practices across England. Data was accessed for all CYP aged 0-18 years presenting to their general practitioner between January 2015 and December 2021 with a foot and/or ankle problem...

BACKGROUND: Artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT by OpenAI holds great promise to improve the quality of life of patients with dementia and their caregivers by providing high-quality responses to their questions about typical dementia behaviors. So far, however, evidence on the quality of such ChatGPT responses is limited. A few recent publications have investigated the quality of ChatGPT responses in other health conditions. Our study is the first to assess ChatGPT using real-world questions asked by dementia caregivers themselves...

INTRODUCTION: Surgery and biomedical imaging encompass a big share of the medical-device market. The ever-mounting demand for precision surgery has driven the integration of these two into the field of image-guided surgery. A key-question herein is how imaging modalities can guide the surgical decision-making process. Through performance-based design, chemists, engineers, and doctors need to build a bridge between imaging technologies and surgical challenges. AREAS-COVERED: This perspective article highlights the complementary nature between the technological design of an image-guidance modality and the type of procedure performed...

The challenges to sustaining interprofessional education (IPE) are numerous and well-documented. These challenges include crowded curricula, scheduling conflicts, lack of physical space, faculty availability, and financial considerations. In turn, IPE is often viewed and treated as an add-on rather than an integral part of healthcare education, leading to sporadic implementation and vulnerability to institutional changes. The concept of eLearning, utilizing electronic technologies for education, emerges as a potential solution to these challenges and could serve as the "next frontier" for IPE...

Sam Foster , Executive Director of Professional Practice, Nursing and Midwifery Council, considers the issues raised for regulators and assessors by the availability of tools such as ChatGPT.

BACKGROUND: Physical therapists play a vital role in the Norwegian health care system, and their work environment may be a significant determinant for their wellbeing and job performance. OBJECTIVE: 1) Assess differences in work environment, mental health problems, and work engagement between physical therapists working in specialist versus municipal health care services. 2) Assess the relationships between work environment factors and work engagement and mental health problems...

INTRODUCTION: Homeopathy is one of most widely used non-conventional supportive care methods used by women with breast cancer. This article aims to describe the routines and practices related to homeopathy as supportive care used by women with non-metastatic breast cancer in France. METHODS: This qualitative study used Grounded Theory. Participants were women with early breast cancer and healthcare professionals (General Practitioner homeopaths & oncologists)...

INTRODUCTION: Effective Basic Life Support (BLS) interventions, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), are essential for enhancing survival rates. This review aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions (KAP) of healthcare professionals regarding BLS in Arab countries. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search on PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, Web of Science, and EMBASE, to identify relevant studies. We included studies performed in Arab countries that included healthcare workers' KAP assessment towards BLS...

INTRODUCTION: Dental public health professionals play a critical role in preventing and controlling oral diseases. The purpose of this study was to assess the application of public health principles learned in a pediatric dentistry Master of Public Health (MPH) dual degree program to professional practice upon graduation. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with pediatric dentistry/MPH dual degree alumni who graduated from the program between 2012 and 2023...

BACKGROUND: Self-medication is a global concern among professionals and non-professionals, with a rapid increase in prevalence. The study aims to assess the prevalence of self-medication and its associated factors among university students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in three universities, and a total of 817 college students participated in this study. RESULTS: About 75.40% of the participants reported using medications without a professional prescription...

Advances in neonatal medicine have allowed us to rescue extremely preterm infants. However, both long-term vulnerability and the burden of treatment in the neonatal period increase with decreasing gestational age. This raises questions about the justification of life support when a baby is born at the border of viability, and has led to a so-called "grey zone", where many professionals are unsure whether provision of life support is in the child's best interest. Despite cultural, political and economic similarities, the Scandinavian countries differ in their approach to periviable infants, as seen in their respective national guidelines and practices...

BACKGROUND: Poor discharge planning can lead to increases in adverse drug events, hospital readmissions, and costs. Prior research has identified the pharmacist as an integral part of the discharge process. OBJECTIVES: To gain patients' perspectives on the discharge process and what they would like pharmacists to do to ensure a successful discharge. METHODS: Twenty patients discharged from tertiary care hospitals were interviewed after discharge...

BACKGROUND: Prior research capturing pharmacists' perspectives on the discharge process has shown that their involvement is essential. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the hospital environment, it is important to understand the perspectives of nonpharmacist health care providers. OBJECTIVES: To explore the perspectives of nonpharmacist health care providers concerning current discharge practices, components of an effective discharge plan, and perceived barriers to an optimal discharge, and to explore their expectations of pharmacists at discharge...

BACKGROUND: Serious games enhance learner engagement and knowledge, yet few medical education games target older adults' healthcare. Addressing this gap, we developed Geri-POP (Geriatrics Population Health), focusing on the Age-Friendly Health System (AFHS) framework and Geriatric 4Ms. METHODS: Geri-POP, a healthcare game is aimed at educating health profession learners about the AFHS framework. Geri-POP employs plan-do-study-act cycles of rapid improvement to apply AFHS principles and explore evidence-based geriatric practices within the game environment while garnering points for insight, trust and outcomes...

BACKGROUND: Nursing faculties need to develop digital competencies to effectively use information, communication, and technology-based nursing education. PURPOSE: The study aimed to develop and apply a theory-guided faculty development program on digital teaching competencies. METHODS: A faculty development program was developed. Between March and April 2020, three five-hour web workshops participated by ninety-three faculty members were held...

BACKGROUND: Ethical decision-making in end-of-life care is one of the most challenging aspects of healthcare: providing ethical care to the society is one of the most important responsibilities of healthcare professionals. In order to assess nurses' ethical decision-making in end-of-life care, researchers need a specialized and comprehensive instrument which is sufficiently valid and reliable. The present study was conducted to translate and test the psychometric properties of the Persian version of Nurses' Ethical Decision-Making in End-of-Life Care Scale (NEDM-EOLCS)...