Today's Health Care Research Articles

Leading and managing a multidisciplinary team in health and social care: a critical and personal reflection.

This article presents a synthesis of the leadership and management knowledge and experience gained while participating in project work in health and social care. The first part presents a critical evaluation of leadership and management across health and social care services, with a focus on a multidisciplinary team in a ward setting. The second part presents a critical reflection on a personal leadership and management experience during the project using an appropriate model of reflection, a synthesis of lessons learnt and application to future practice as a registered nurse. A range of theories and frameworks related to leadership, management and team working are critically evaluated and a critical understanding of both political and economic perspectives within today's healthcare system is presented.

ANTIBIOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY PATTERN OF BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH CLINICAL WASTE MATERIALS IN GOKANA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE.

A significant issue in world healthcare today is the rise in illnesses brought on by bacteria that have developed resistance to widely used antibiotics. The goal of this study was to determine the pattern of antibiotic susceptibility of bacteria that were isolated from five clinical wastes that were gathered from approved health facilities in Rivers state's Gokana Local Government. Fifty (50) samples of clinical waste were collected for six months from two different health centers. Samples were subjected to Standard microbiological analysis. Total heterotrophic count, total Staphylococcal count, coliform count, and feacal coliform count were estimated. Five (5) bacteria species isolated during the study and their percentage occurrence were Staphylococcus sp. was the most frequently isolated bacteria 15 (55.6%), Bacillus sp. 8(29.6%), Klebsiella sp. 2(7.4%), Pseudomonas sp. and Escherichia coli 1 (3.7%). Susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics revealed that the Gram-positive bacteria were 77.3% resistant to Cefexime, 68.2% resistant to Cefotaxine and 63.6% resistant to Augmentin and Cefuroxine while the Gram-negative bacteria were 100% resistant to Nalidixic acid, 80% resistant to Ampiclox, 60% resistant to Augmentin, Imipenem/Cilastatin, Cefuroxine and Nitrofurantoin. Out of the twenty-seven (27) isolates, 74% had a multidrug resistance index ≥ 0.2, 14.9% had ≥ 0.5, and 11.1% had <0.2 Multidrug Resistance Index value. This study revealed that azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, imipenem/cilastatin, and ofloxacin can be used as a drug of choice for treatment of Gram-positive bacteria associated with hospital wastes while levofloxacin, ofloxacin, ceftriaxone sulbactam, gentamycin, and cefixime could be used for Gram-negative bacteria associated with hospital wastes.

Bridging the Healthcare Skill Gap: A Higher Education Perspective: A Data Base Research.

There is a rising demand for highly qualified workers in today's ever-changing healthcare job environment. Recognizing higher education's critical role in closing the healthcare skill gap is critical for the long-term growth and prosperity of individuals, healthcare organizations, and the larger economy. Within the healthcare sector, education emerges as a pivotal mechanism to address the prevailing skill gap. Universities and colleges offer a wide range of academic programs meticulously designed to cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving capabilities, effective communication, and collaborative teamwork among students. Furthermore, higher education institutions actively collaborate with healthcare employers to tailor specialized programs that precisely align with the requirements of various healthcare roles. This paper delves into the multi-faceted ways in which universities and colleges can significantly contribute to mitigating the healthcare skills gap. The author emphasizes the critical role played by education in bridging this gap, ensuring that the healthcare workforce is suitably equipped to navigate the swiftly changing job market. By promoting partnerships with industry stakeholders, developing pertinent academic curricula, and offering continuous professional development opportunities, educational institutions empower individuals and healthcare organizations to excel within the dynamic landscape of healthcare delivery.

The Impact of Nurse Residency Programs on Patient Quality and Safety Outcomes: A Review of the Literature.

Schools of nursing are struggling to prepare registered nurses to practice in today's complex healthcare settings. Nurse residency programs are a good solution to support the transition to practice. Nursing education leaders must be informed of the nursing quality and safety outcomes of nurse residency programs. This literature review provides insight and evaluation of the evidence related to the impact of nurse residency programs with substantial evidence of nurse outcomes and minimal patient outcomes.

How Patients Feel with Telemedicine Devices as an Enabling Factor for Personalised Medicine: A Preliminary Study.

Telemonitoring tools have become essential in today's healthcare, representing fundamental resources for chronic disease home management supporting early detection of clinical worsening with great reduction of hospitalization costs. Therefore the investigation of the patient compliance is a key enabling point. We aim to assess how patients with chronic coronary syndromes evaluate a telemonitoring device meant for ongoing health monitoring. Twenty-six patients used the device for a week and subsequently filled out a well-designed questionnaire. The survey questions were about the device's ease of use, satisfaction levels, perceived effectiveness, and its influence on the patients' healthcare experiences. This study emphasizes the significance of focusing on patient needs in telemedicine and the importance of addressing these concerns to improve telehealth interventions.

Secure Organ Donation Management: Leveraging Ethereum Based Blockchain Technology for Trust and Efficiency

The complexity of organ donation and transplantation in today's healthcare systems need specialized methods at several stages, including registration, donor-recipient matching, organ retrieval, delivery, and transplantation. In order to ensure justice, efficiency, patient happiness, and confidence, a comprehensive solution is required to address the legal, clinical, ethical, and technical difficulties. This paper proposes to use a private Ethereum blockchain to create a decentralized, secure, traceable, auditable, private, and trustworthy system. By creating smart contracts and putting six algorithms into practice, we offer comprehensive insights into validation and testing. We demonstrate the efficacy of our suggested approach using a comparative analysis with current solutions andprivacy, security, and confidentiality studies. Adopting a private Ethereum blockchain- based solution also has benefits over conventional centralized systems. Decentralization lowers the possibility of bias or manipulation by ensuring that no one party controls the entire process. Furthermore, the immutability and transparency that come with blockchain technology improve confidence between all parties involved, including regulators, donors, beneficiaries, and medical experts. KEYWORDS: Blockchain, Organ Donation, Organ Transplantation, Decentralization, Smart Contracts, Ethereum, Traceability, Data Privacy And Security.

Historical Inequities in Medical Education - Commitment to Opportunity, Diversity, and Equity at the University of Hawai'i School of Medicine.

Medical education in the US has contributed to institutionalized racism through historically exclusionary practices, which has led to health disparities and inequities in health care today. The 1910 Flexner report, which favored schools with greater resources, led to the closure of nearly half of medical schools in the Us, which were mostly small schools located in rural communities that served economically disadvantaged, ethnic minority, and female populations. Closing these schools ultimately limited the availability of physicians willing to serve disadvantaged and minority populations in impoverished and underserved communities. In order to transform medical education to be more equitable, medical schools must be proactive in opportunity, diversity, and equity efforts. This not only includes efforts in admissions and faculty hiring, but also curricula related to social and health disparities, interracial interactions between students and faculty, and service learning activities that engage and work with marginalized communities. The University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine has a longstanding commitment to diversity, which is integral to the school's mission. Providing opportunities to underserved populations has been a priority since establishment of the school. As one of the most diverse univeristies in the US, the school of medicine continues to focus on opportunity, diversity, and equity priorities in both its strategic planning and overall mission.

Clinical needs and preferences for AI-based explanations in clinical simulation training

ABSTRACT Medical training is a key element in maintaining and improving today's healthcare standards. Given the nature of medical work, students must master not only theory but also develop their hands-on abilities and skills in clinical practice. Medical simulators play an increasing role in supporting the active learning of these students due to their ability to present a large variety of tasks allowing students to train and experiment indefinitely without causing any patient harm. While the criticality of explainable AI systems has been extensively discussed in the literature, the medical training context presents unique user needs for explanations. In this paper, we explore the potential gap of current limitations within simulation-based training, and the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds in supporting the needs of medical students in training. Through contextual inquiries and interviews with clinicians in training (N = 9) and subsequent validation with medical experts (N = 4), we obtain an understanding of the shortcomings in current simulation-based training and offer recommendations for future AI-driven training. Our results stress the need for continuous and actionable feedback that resembles the interaction between clinical supervisor and resident in real-world training scenarios while adjusting training material to the residents' skills and prior performance.

Global Ethical Principles in Healthcare Networks, Including Debates on Euthanasia and Abortion.

In today's ever-evolving healthcare landscape, the focus is shifting towards integrated care, inter-organizational cooperation, and healthcare networks (HCNs) as alternatives to traditional healthcare institutions. This transformation is driven by factors such as an aging population and increasing healthcare costs, necessitating a reevaluation of ethical considerations to ensure the well-being of patients remains central. This review provides a narrative overview of ethics within HCNs, with a focus on patient-centered medical ethics. It elaborates on the four fundamental ethical principles, namely justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and autonomy. The principle of justice underscores HCNs' ethical obligation to provide equitable and transparent access to all patients, ensuring fairness in resource allocation. The principle of nonmaleficence underscores the responsibility to prioritize patient safety, while beneficence obliges HCNs to ensure continuity of care across all dimensions. Furthermore, the principle of autonomy is redefined as a commitment to actively promote and respect patient choices. HCNs that do not adhere to these ethical principles raise concerns and lack ethical justification. Additionally, the review delves into the legal aspects of euthanasia and abortion, both of which present complex ethical challenges in healthcare systems globally. A comparative analysis is provided, examining their legal status in Islamic countries, European nations, and the United States. This study sheds light on the evolving ethical landscape in HCNs and the diverse global perspectives on contentious issues. Therefore, harmonizing legislation and defining appropriate boundaries are crucial steps toward upholding ethical standards in healthcare practices on a global scale.

Relation-intersectional Ethics Trestle: A Harmonious Merging of Relational Ethics and Intersectionality

This article endeavors to merge relational ethics with the theory of intersectionality to create a harmonious platform that could support understanding and applications of their essential concepts in today's diverse and complex health care environments. The key tenets of both frameworks are provided followed by an explanation of a coalesced conceptualization and illustration of a relation-intersectional ethics trestle for consideration of its adaptability in the health care workplace and post-secondary education curriculum. The main objective is to explain and promote the benefits of integrating the chief precepts of relational ethics and the theory of intersectionality to further strengthen the way health care providers support patients in ethical decision-making. The relation-intersectional ethics trestle aims to support the construction of authentic and mutually respectful therapeutic relationships in clinical settings where ethics and intersectionality unite.

The Role of Human Factors in Maintaining Service Quality in Hospitals

The delivery of high-quality healthcare services is a multifaceted endeavor influenced by various factors, among which human factors play a pivotal role. This paper explores the significance of human factors in upholding service quality within hospital settings. Drawing upon interdisciplinary research from fields such as psychology, sociology, and healthcare management, it examines the intricate interplay between healthcare professionals, patients, and organizational structures. In today's healthcare landscape, where patient-centric care is increasingly emphasized, understanding the impact of human factors is paramount. One of the primary focuses is on patient satisfaction, which is not only influenced by clinical outcomes but also by the quality of interactions with healthcare providers. Effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients is essential for building trust, managing expectations, and ensuring informed decision-making. Moreover, the demeanor, empathy, and interpersonal skills of healthcare staff significantly contribute to patients' overall experience and satisfaction levels. Safety is another critical aspect of service quality in hospitals, and human factors play a central role in patient safety initiatives. Research has shown that the majority of adverse events in healthcare are attributable to human error, highlighting the importance of addressing factors such as fatigue, stress, and workload among healthcare professionals. Furthermore, teamwork and collaboration are vital for promoting a culture of safety, where healthcare providers work together cohesively to identify and mitigate risks, thereby enhancing patient outcomes and reducing preventable harm. Effective leadership within healthcare organizations is also instrumental in shaping service quality. Strong leadership sets the tone for organizational culture, values, and priorities, influencing the behavior and performance of healthcare staff. Leaders who prioritize patient-centered care, employee well-being, and continuous quality improvement foster an environment conducive to delivering high-quality services. To optimize service quality, hospitals must invest in staff training, development, and support programs. Ongoing education ensures that healthcare professionals stay abreast of the latest evidence-based practices, technological advancements, and regulatory requirements. Moreover, initiatives to promote staff well-being, such as employee assistance programs, work-life balance initiatives, and resilience training, are essential for preventing burnout and maintaining morale. In conclusion, human factors play a multifaceted role in maintaining service quality in hospitals, encompassing aspects such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and staff well-being. By recognizing the complexities of human interactions within healthcare systems and implementing targeted interventions, hospitals can enhance service delivery, improve patient outcomes, and cultivate a culture of excellence.

Navigating the Digital Landscape: Embracing Innovation, Addressing Challenges, and Prioritizing Patient-Centric Care.

In the digital era, healthcare customer feedback plays a pivotal role in shaping the reputation of healthcare organizations. The study explores how digital advancements are integrated into modern healthcare, offering both transformative insights and addressing the challenges they present. It investigates how technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), digital platforms, and patient feedback systems impact patient care, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction in healthcare settings. The study emphasizes the importance of balancing both capitalizing on the opportunities presented by innovations and addressing the inherent difficulties associated with digitalization in healthcare, underlining the need for a comprehensive approach to navigating the opportunities and challenges in healthcare digitalization. AI is recognized for its role in reshaping value creation in healthcare, fostering collaboration among stakeholders, and improving patient care. Additionally, the study identifies key areas of research essential for effectively navigating the digital transformation in healthcare, including operational efficiency, patient-centric strategies, and organizational factors. However, along with the potential benefits come challenges, such as the need for regulatory frameworks to validate new technologies and address privacy concerns surrounding patient data. Managing reputation and customer relationships in the digital sphere also emerges as critical for healthcare organizations. In summary, the study underscores the importance of healthcare institutions prioritizing patient-centric care, adopting digital innovations, and adeptly navigating regulatory and ethical challenges. By doing so, they can enhance patient outcomes, and satisfaction, and drive innovation in today's dynamic healthcare landscape.

Algorithms for Empathy: Using Machine Learning to Categorize Common Empathetic Traits Across Professional and Peer-Based Conversations.

Introduction In this article, we describe our creation of a machine-learning model that uses a combination of rule-based and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. We show how this "Empathy Algorithm" was developedand how its results compare to three datasets of professional counseling and peer-led conversations. Methods These conversation datasets were rated by people with varying degrees of empathetic expertise (from counselors to student volunteers)and labeled as either low- or high-quality empathy. Our methodology involved running both these "low-empathy" and "high-empathy" conversations through our algorithm and then looking for a correlation between conversations labeled "high empathy" and an increased presence of six empathy skills flagged by our algorithm. Results We found positive correlations between four ofthe six skills that our algorithm measures (i.e., four empathizing skills showed up the same or more in each of the "high-empathy" conversations within the three datasets). This suggests that certain empathizing skills are not only consistently present in effective conversationsbut also quantifiable enough to be measured by today's machine-learning models. Conclusion While limitations of language, binary classifications, and non-verbal cues remain as opportunities for further development, using algorithms to objectively assess empathic skills represents an important step to improveclient outcomes and refine communication practices for today's healthcare professionals.

Nursing Innovation: A Positive Disruption.

Organizations that foster psychologically safe environments create space for innovative cultures to emerge. The prioritization of nurse-led innovation signals broader cultural values around learning, a willingness to invest in people and their ideas, and an organizational focus around growth and operational excellence. Embracing innovative behaviors can propel emerging areas of nursing science, practice, and workforce solutions. This month's Magnet® Perspectives explores innovation and the critical role of nurse leadership in shaping today's healthcare environment, and the future of nursing.

Drug Recommendation System on Sentiment Analysis of Drug Reviews by Using Machine learning

Abstract: With the healthcare system facing increased challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there's a big demand for new ideas to help doctors and nurses. This paper suggests a new way of using computers to help doctors decide which medicines to give to patients. By using smart computer programs, we can make it easier for healthcare workers to handle their workload and provide better care for patients. By analyzing patient reviews, we employ sentiment analysis using advanced vectorization methods like Bag of Words, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), and Manual Feature Analysis. These techniques allow for the identification of subtle sentiment nuances crucial for tailoring personalized drug recommendations. We utilize various classification algorithms such as Naive Bayes, Support Vector Classifier (SVC), and Random Forest to predict sentiments. Among these, the LinearSVC classifier coupled with TF-IDF vectorization demonstrates superior performance in sentiment prediction. We tested our system using various measures like precision, recall, F1-score, and Area Under the Curve (AUC) to ensure its effectiveness. By incorporating advanced machine learning techniques, our system offers a strong foundation for enhancing the accuracy of drug prescriptions, which is a key issue in today's healthcare. Through better drug recommendations, our goal is to ultimately enhance patient health outcomes and play a part in advancing healthcare practices, especially in the face of complex and evolving healthcare challenges.

Creating a Vibrant Organization Using the Dynamic Leadership Model and a Teaming Approach.

The pandemic exposed existing weaknesses in the health care system, and innovative leaders stepped up to address the compounding effects the novel anomaly created. Postpandemic disruption persists, and the behaviors and actions of these positive deviants demonstrate that new ways of leadership are available to those who are willing to embrace the dynamic leadership model and teaming methodology to shape health care delivery of the future. As we look to new ways of being and leading, we begin from a changed world-one that has been reset and cannot go back. Dynamic leaders are called upon to create cultures that reflect the needs of the future workplace and workforce. They pave new pathways and new ways of thinking, reimagine new realities, and create abundance. Their consistent practice of 5 essential behaviors-self-awareness, deep listening, curiosity, empathy, and decisiveness-strengthen their leadership and ability to meet the demands of health care today.

Murrayakoenigii (L.) Sprengel seeds and pericarps in relation to their chemical profiles: new approach for multidrug resistant Acinetobacterbaumannii ventilator-associated pneumonia

Acinetobacterbaumannii is without a doubt one of the most problematic bacteria causing hospital-acquired nosocomial infections in today's healthcare system. To solve the high prevalence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) in A.baumannii, we investigated one of the medicinal plants traditionally used as antibacterial agent; namely Murrayakoenigii (L.) Sprengel. The total methanolic extracts of seeds and pericarps were prepared and their anti-bacterial activity was assessed using the agar diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was then calculated as compared to tigecycline. Then, an in-vivo murine model was established which confirmed the promising activity of M.koenigii seeds in demonstrating anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory actions. The histopathological study of lungs, scoring of pulmonary lesions, counting of bacterial loads after infection by multi-drug resistant A.baumannii all provided evidence to support these findings. LC–MS/MS profiling coupled to molecular networking and chemometrics detected the presence of carbazole alkaloids, and coumarins as dominate metabolites of the active seed extracts. Positively correlated metabolites to antibacterial potential were 6-(2ʹ,3ʹ-dihydroxy-3-methylbutyl)-8-prenylumbelliferone, scopoline, and 5-methoxymurrayatin. An in-silico study was also performed on the crystal structure of MurF from A.baumannii (PDB ID: 4QF5), the studied structures of the mentioned extracts revealed good docking interaction at the active site suggestive of competition with the ATP ligand. These collective findings suggest that extracts of Murrayakoenigii (L.) Sprengel seed is a novel prospective for the discovery of drug candidates against infections caused by MDR A.baumannii.

A Healthcare-Academic Practice Partnership Program to Promote Student Nurse Readiness for Work.

Highly skilled new graduate nurses must be better prepared to face the clinical and professional challenges in today's healthcare environment. Compounding these challenges are the growing resignations of clinical faculty and experienced clinical nurses. Innovative programs are needed to bridge the knowledge-practice gap with opportunities to create pipelines to aid the future nursing workforce. A multihospital health system partnered with a local college of nursing to develop a Nursing Student Pipeline Program, which allows nursing students to perform select nursing tasks as employees of the health system. Fifty-six students have been hired to participate in the pilot program. Of the students eligible for hire and who completed the program, 24 are current employees with the healthcare system. Students, preceptors, and managers report the benefits of this program, including that participating in the program supports increasing readiness for practice upon graduation.

In Vitro Transcribed mRNA Immunogenicity Induces Chemokine-Mediated Lymphocyte Recruitment and Can Be Gradually Tailored by Uridine Modification.

Beyond SARS-CoV2 vaccines, mRNA drugs are being explored to overcome today's greatest healthcare burdens, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Synthetic mRNA triggers immune responses in transfected cells, which can be reduced by chemically modified nucleotides. However, the side effects of mRNA-triggered immune activation on cell function and how different nucleotides, such as the N1-methylpseudouridine (m1Ψ) used in SARS-CoV2 vaccines, can modulate cellular responses is not fully understood. Here, cellular responses toward a library of uridine-modified mRNAs are investigated in primary human cells. Targeted proteomics analyses reveal that unmodified mRNA induces a pro-inflammatory paracrine pattern marked by the secretion of chemokines, which recruit T and B lymphocytes toward transfected cells. Importantly, the magnitude of mRNA-induced changes in cell function varies quantitatively between unmodified, Ψ-, m1Ψ-, and 5moU-modified mRNA and can be gradually tailored, with implications for deliberately exploiting this effect in mRNA drug design. Indeed, both the immunosuppressive effect of stromal cells on T-cell proliferation, and the anti-inflammatory effect of IL-10 mRNA are enhanced by appropriate uridine modification. The results provide new insights into the effects of mRNA drugs on cell function and cell-cell communication and open new possibilities to tailor mRNA-triggered immune activation to the desired pro- or anti-inflammatory application.

Reinventing Wellness: How Machine Learning Transforms Healthcare

Traditional healthcare systems have long grappled with meeting the diverse needs of millions of patients, often resulting in inefficiencies and suboptimal outcomes. However, the emergence of machine learning (ML) has brought about a transformative shift towards value-based treatment, empowering healthcare providers to deliver personalized and highly effective care. Today's healthcare equipment and devices are equipped with internal applications that collect and store comprehensive patient data, serving as a rich resource for ML-driven predictive models. This research delves into the profound impact of ML on contemporary healthcare, highlighting its potential to significantly enhance patient care and optimize resource allocation. Our study presents a robust predictive model capable of accurately forecasting patient diseases based on input information and various parameters, leveraging extensive datasets encompassing diverse patient populations. We rigorously compared several ML algorithms, including Logistic Regression, K-Nearest Neighbors, XG Boost, and PyTorch, to identify the best-performing model. The achieved accuracies underscore the effectiveness of these ML techniques in disease prediction, highlighting the potential for improving patient outcomes. Beyond the technical aspects, we explore the broader implications of value-based treatment and ML integration for various healthcare stakeholders. By emphasizing the benefits of personalized and proactive medical care, our findings illustrate the substantial potential of ML-driven predictive healthcare models to revolutionize traditional healthcare systems. The adoption of ML lays the foundation for a more efficient, effective, and patient-centered medical ecosystem, supporting the sustainability and adaptability of healthcare systems in the face of expanding patient populations and complex medical needs.