Patients In Healthcare Environment Research Articles

An assessment of radiation safety practices for transgender and gender non-binary patients in Irish radiology departments

IntroductionStudies indicate there may be inadequate care given to transgender and non-binary (TGNB) patients in healthcare environments, with radiology departments not being equipped to cater for this group. There is currently a deficit in research concerning the use of radiation safety measures for TGNB patients. The purpose of this research was to examine opinions of Irish Radiation Safety Experts (RSE) on current status of radiation safety protocols and techniques in place for TGNB patients and consider any changes necessary. MethodologyTen semi-structured interviews were conducted with RSEs from eight Irish hospitals, including five radiation protection officers (RPO) and five medical physicists. Question included: current radiation safety protocols for TGNB patients, potential issues and challenges with current practice, and recommendations of new measures. Coding was used to facilitate content analysis for interpretation of findings. ResultsNo reference to TGNB patients in local policies or guidelines was evident. Interviews established key radiation safety risks including inadvertent exposure of the foetus and insensitive patient care. Prominent categories identified included additional education, gender identification at patient registration and consideration of current policies and guidelines. The extent to which RSEs promoted the implementation of further measures to radiology departments varied. ConclusionsA clear lack of guidance and instruction for radiation safety for TGNB patients is evident. Whilst there are few TGNB patients in Irish hospitals, participants believed that inclusive changes should be made concurrent with Ireland's evolving culture and in the interest of equality of patient safety. Implications for practiceInclusive changes should be made to radiology departments concurrent with Ireland's evolving culture. However, barriers to implementing such measures include a lack of available resources, investment, and instruction from authoritative bodies.

The Lightweight Algorithm for Secure RFID Au-thentication System

In the milieu of IOT, the entities in our habitual ex-istence have turned to be a component of the Inter-net due to their excelling communication and com-puting competencies that let them to correspond with another object. Progression in ICT i.e. Infor-mation and communication technologies, has es-corted to the surfacing of IoT. The application of IoT technologies fetches expediency to doctors and patients in Healthcare environment as they can be concerned to numerous fields of medicine. Radio-frequency Identification Devices (RFID) is the ma-jorly famous wireless communication technologies applied in the field of IoT as they could amass in-sightful data, used for wireless communication with another object, and locate and follow specific enti-ties without human interventions. In order to pro-vide enhanced security and performance to RFID authentication scheme Elliptic Curve Cryptography is being applied. An RFID has 3 entities: RFID tag, reader and server. Since the channel of communication amid the RFID tag and RFID reader is unsafe since the data exchange takes place wirelessly and adversary could snare the data easily. Thus to pro-tect RFID tag data we are using data perturbation which is a form of privacy safeguarding data mining for electronic health information’s. Inside this paper, we confer the requirements of security for RFID authentication schemes with a comparative study on RSA, and in precise, we put forward an appraisal of ECC-based RFID authentication methods on the basis of security and performance..

Patient safety in a Resource-constrained Context: A cross-sectional study of experience, drivers, barriers and preventive measures for safety incidents and accidents amongst medical doctors in South-east Nigeria.

Globally, safety of patients in healthcare environment has been an issue of the decade, especially in resource-constrained settings. The Hippocratic maxim primum non nocere requires medical practitioners to give utmost importance to the principle of beneficence and safety in attending to patients. It is a current paradigm in quality of care metrics that determines what happens to patients who interface with the healthcare system. The study was aimed at describing the experience, drivers, barriers and preventive measures for patient safety incidents and accidents in a cross-section of medical practitioners in Abia State, Southeast Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 185 physicians in Southeast Nigeria. Data collection was done using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire that elicited information on experience, drivers, barriers and preventive measures for patient safety incidents. The mean age ± standard deviation of the respondents was 36 ± 5.6 years, with a range of 25-72 years. There were 163 (88.1%) males and 22 (11.9%) females. Lifetime and previous 1-year committal of patient safety incidents were 100% (185/185) and 61.0% (113/185), respectively, with the most committed safety incident being medication errors. The most common driver of patient safety incidents was physician stress and burnout (100%) (185/185), whereas the most common barrier was communication (100%) (185/185). The most common preventive measure was patient safety incident reporting system (100%) (185/185). One-year committal of patient safety incidents was associated with duration of practice <10 years (P = 0.00001) and sex (P = 0.011). Patient safety incidents occurred amongst the study participants, with the most committed safety incident being medication errors. The most common driver was physician stress and burnout. The most common barrier was communication and feedback barrier, whereas the most common preventive measure was patient safety incident reporting system. Patient safety information, education and training should be the target for continuing professional development in order to safeguard the health of the patients in healthcare environment.

Carbapenemase-Producing Organisms: A Global Scourge.

The dramatic increase in the prevalence and clinical impact of infections caused by bacteria producing carbapenemases is a global health concern. Carbapenemase production is especially problematic when encountered in members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Due to their ability to readily spread and colonize patients in healthcare environments, preventing the transmission of these organisms is a major public health initiative and coordinated international effort are needed. Central to the treatment and control of carbapenemase-producing organisms (CPOs) are phenotypic (growth-/biochemical-dependent) and nucleic acid-based carbapenemase detection tests that identify carbapenemase activity directly or their associated molecular determinants. Importantly, bacterial isolates harboring carbapenemases are often resistant to multiple antibiotic classes, resulting in limited therapy options. Emerging agents, novel antibiotic combinations and treatment regimens offer promise for management of these infections. This review highlights our current understanding of CPOs with emphasis on their epidemiology, detection, treatment, and control.

Time-out: The Professional and Organizational Ethics of Speaking Up in the OR.

Participation in patient safety is one concrete expression of a foundational principle of medical ethics: do no harm. Being an ethical professional requires taking action to prevent harm to patients in health care environments. Checklists and time-outs have become common patient safety tools in the US and other nations. While their use can support ethical practice, recent research has revealed their limitations and has underscored the importance of interpersonal collaboration in developing and using these patient safety tools. This article summarizes key research and discusses the professional and organizational ethics of patient safety, using the surgical time-out as a case study.

Empowering learners: Using a triad model to promote eHealth literacy and transform learning at point of care

The implementation of health technology and informatics into healthcare environments has enabled new opportunities for developing patient-centred approaches to care. The emergence of mobile learning as a new pedagogy for learning and teaching of undergraduate nurses and for continuing professional development can be used to strengthen the nurse-patient relationship. Incorporation of eHealth literacy education and health promotion by nurses, using digital technology tools and resources, will assist with empowering patients to access information and options for managing their own health. These developments provide opportunities for embracing a learning triad with patient, student, and nurse supervisor using digital technology at point of care. This triad should be embedded as a partnership to enable promotion of eHealth literacy in situ. A use case scenario is provided to demonstrate the potential of advancing eHealth literacy of patients in healthcare environments using the triad model. Collaboration and sharing information using this new method of learning has the potential to promote eHealth literacy and transform the nurse-patient relationship.