Broad Range Of Professionals Research Articles

Physical activity, falls, injuries and technology : Toward an accessible biomechanical database?

In addressing the specific issues of physical activity, falls and injuries, as mentioned in the European Silver Paper [1], technologies currently exist for measuring the biomechanical performance of the joints of older adults. This is of value in informing the planning of their healthcare, rehabilitation and the design of the built environment and services to optimise their mobility and quality of life. However, the technologies for obtaining data from older adults currently entails screening to determine their fitness for trials participation, cumbersome and slow evaluation processes, large and expensive labs, and the data produced at present tends to remain in the style and domain of its originators, bioengineers, effectively creating a barrier to exploiting its wider value. The data is also generalised and it is difficult to plan immediate and effective healthcare on an individual basis. The challenges here are: (i) to share this data in an accessible format amongst a broad range key professions involved to enable more holistic planning; and (ii) to develop approaches and technologies that allow individualised diagnosis and planning. Steps towards this goal have already been made [2] where a proof of concept trial has highlighted the value of the visualisation of biomechanical data obtained from older adults. This has underlined the value of a coordinated multidisciplinary approach to enable discipline-specific (ie biomechanical) data to be shared more easily by visual means with further disciplines, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and design, as well as allowing commentary from older people themselves. Further investment will assist in the development of not only technologies to the extent that they are portable, cost-effective, and easily usable, but also rethinking processes and protocols to be more inclusive, benefiting to a far greater extent from the valuable experiences and insights of older adults as well as a broad range of professionals. The availability of such technology will assist in the planning of physical activities compromised by age-related conditions, disease, or falls, such as appropriate exercises to prevent or minimise foreseeable injuries, rebuilding or maintaining strength through rehabilitation in the event of injury, or planning for increased mobility in institutionalised settings.

Disruptive Behavior in Obstetrics: A Hidden Threat to Patient Safety

Obstetric Anesthesia Digest: March 2008 - Volume 28 - Issue 1 - p 12 doi: 10.1097/01.aoa.0000308292.53166.94

Disruptive behavior in obstetrics: a hidden threat to patient safety

This study was to determine the frequency of disruptive behavior on labor and delivery units, its effect on work performance, and its contribution to adverse outcomes. One hundred questionnaires were sent to nurse managers of labor and delivery units in selected hospitals in Washington, Oregon, and California regarding the occurrence of disruptive behavior and the consequences of this behavior with respect to patient safety. Fifty-six percent of questionnaires were returned. Disruptive behavior was currently occurring on 60.7% of the units. Multiple professionals demonstrated the behavior. Nurses had left the unit and there were reported adverse outcomes as a consequence of this behavior. Disruptive behavior occurs frequently on labor and delivery units on the West Coast. This behavior contributed to the nursing shortage, near misses, and adverse occurrences, and was exhibited by a broad range of professionals. The behavior was not always effectively managed by the organization.

Percepción de las dificultades en la atención sanitaria al inmigrante económico en medicina de familia

To find the problems, as seen by family doctors, in care for immigrants, with description of proposed solutions. Transversal and descriptive. 262 doctors from 18 health centres in a district. Each professional received a questionnaire containing social and demographic variables, number of immigrants seen per day, their place of origin, 6 items on accessibility, 5 on barriers to care, 6 on clinic, and 7 on solutions. 159 doctors, 57.2% women, replied. Average age was 41.1; 64% saw 2-3 immigrants a day. 52.3% (95% CI, 45.0%-61.4%) recognised that care for immigrants posed professional problems. They said that immigrants attended as an emergency more often (81.1%); they more often had no clinical records (74.7%); and they had difficulties obtaining a health card (53%). 67% expressed no difficulties for getting to the hospital. Perceived barriers were the mobility of immigrants (82.9%), language (82.3%), and culture (71.3%). Solutions suggested were translators (95.6%) or cultural intermediary (82.7%). Clinically, doctors saw no differences of pathology in immigrants (56.7%), and no greater psychiatric pathology (66%). Lack of skill in contagious pathologies hampered care (60.3%). 82.8% affirmed that specific protocols were needed. 80.3% argued for a unit of imported diseases. Among care priorities were information on health circuits and making the health card easier to obtain. The difficulties sustained by a broad range of professionals are diverse, with access and linguistic-cultural questions standing out. To palliate them, sensitivity from health staff and action from management are needed.

Technologies Making Space Visible

Studies of information technologies in workplaces are of growing significance to people in a broad range of professions and organizations, particularly those involved in the development of new technologies. The authors examine two kinds of information technologies for the support of service technicians, which have been developed in a copier customer service and support company. One is a mobile self-dispatch system with which service technicians monitor a list of customers' requests to repair machines in their service area. The other is a knowledge system. Particular attention is paid to investigating how these systems are embedded in a specific sociotechnological organization and work in service technicians' daily activities. Through the analysis of service technicians' activities, and interviews, the authors show that service technicians organize and make their workspace and activities visible with these technologies.

Death, Dying, and Bereavement in Relation to Older Individuals

This article focuses on issues of death, dying, and bereavement in relation to older individuals. Its format follows the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG) tradition of identifying a number of assumptions and principles. This article has been produced by a subgroup of the IWG. The members include academics, practitioners, and a broad range of professionals from Australia, Canada, England, Norway, Scotland, South Africa, the Netherlands, the United States, and Wales.

The 34th Rovenstine Lecture. 40 years behind the mask: safety revisited.

The 34th Rovenstine Lecture. 40 years behind the mask: safety revisited.