Communicate to Care: Implementing Health Literacy in a Pediatric Ears, Nose, and Throat Clinic.

Background: Despite positive outcomes in controlled trials, organizations have been slow to adopt health literacy practices. The purpose of the Communicate to CARE (Clear Communication, Achieve Understanding with Teach-Back, Receptive to our patient family needs, Empathetic care delivery) study was to use theories and strategies from implementation science to scale up health literacy practices in a pediatric Ears, Nose, and Throat (ENT) clinic.

Brief Description Of Activity: Expanding on previous efforts that simply reflected on barriers, the CARE team identified barriers within the local context pre-implementation to select strategies to directly address barriers during health literacy implementation.

Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Health Literacy Practices in a Pediatric ENT Clinic: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Background: Despite strong evidence of improved patient outcomes, clinicians have been slow to adopt health literacy practices.

Purpose: To identify facilitators and barriers to implementing health literacy practices into clinical care.

Methods: Stakeholders (N = 40) completed surveys of acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, conviction, and confidence with teach-back practices.

The Design and Testing of the Psychometric Properties of the Adolescent Capacity to Engage Index Instrument to Measure an Adolescent's Capacity to Engage in Healthcare.

Engagement in one's healthcare is paramount to improving health outcomes. As adolescents begin their journey into adulthood and increase involvement in their health-care decision-making, it is critical to understand their ability to be involved in their healthcare. The purpose of this instrumentation study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties and underlying factors of the Adolescent Capacity to Engage Index (ACEI) tool which measures the construct of an adolescent's capacity to engage in their healthcare.

A Psychometric Analysis of the Health Literate Health Care Organization-10 Item Questionnaire.

The concept of a Health Literate Healthcare Organization (HLHO) is a relatively new approach to health literacy that moves the focus from the individual patient to the overarching health care system. The HLHO-10 questionnaire was developed internationally to assess the 10 Attributes of HLHOs as described by participants of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy. The purpose of this study was to establish reliability and validity of the HLHO-10 among a sample of United States hospitals.

Is Your WebLitLegit? Finding Safe and Good Health Information on the Internet.

Background: There exists a paucity of literature about teenager health literacy in general and teenagers are likely to turn to the internet for health information. Therefore, they need good e-health literacy to properly understand and apply the information obtained. Yet, many have limited e-health literacy, lacking the knowledge and skills to filter and distinguish reliable from unreliable health information and searches return large amounts of information, making it difficult to recognize whether information is reputable and raising concerns regarding teenagers' safety.

Original Research: Assessing Organizational Focus on Health Literacy in North Texas Hospitals.

Overview: In 2012, the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy established 10 attributes of a health literate health care organization that, if instated, would improve health information and empower patients to make more informed health decisions. Few studies have assessed how well organizations meet these attributes.

Purpose: This study sought to describe the extent to which health care systems in North Texas were adopting policies and practices that address the 10 attributes of a health literate health care organization.

Massive Transfusion Protocol Simulation: An Innovative Approach to Team Training.

At a 72-bed pediatric facility, a multidisciplinary team approach was used to prepare for the expansion of services for patients requiring spinal fusion. This preparation included emergency response requiring massive transfusion, necessitating the need for a Massive Transfusion Protocol (MTP) process to be in place. Such instances are low volume/high risk, creating difficulty for staff to gain and maintain proficiency with the equipment and processes related to the MTP in a secure environment.

Reducing Fresh Tracheostomy Decannulations Following Implementation of a Fresh Tracheostomy Guideline.

Pediatric patients undergoing tracheostomy placement are often medically fragile with multiple comorbidities. The complexity of these patients partnered with the risks of a newly placed tracheostomy necessitates a clear understanding of patient management and clinical competence. At our institution, a quality improvement initiative was formed with a focus on increasing the safety of these patients by developing a postoperative care guideline.

Orienting and Onboarding Clinical Nurse Specialists: A Process Improvement Project.

Purpose: Clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) have a unique advanced practice role. This article describes a process useful in establishing a comprehensive orientation and onboarding program for a newly hired CNS.

Description: The project team used the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists core competencies as a guide to construct a process for effectively onboarding and orienting newly hired CNSs.

Ensuring Safe Transfer of Pediatric Patients: A Quality Improvement Project to Standardize Handoff Communication.

Background: During a single hospital stay, a patient's care is transferred several times between health care clinicians requiring multiple handoffs. Nurses often voice concerns about feeling unsafe when receiving patients from other areas.

Aims: The aims of the intradepartmental quality improvement project were to identify the safest way to transfer care of pediatric patients and to improve bedside nurses' knowledge on conducting an evidence based practice project.

Leading change: evidence-based transition.

Purpose/objectives: The purpose of this article was to provide a framework for evidence-based transition of patient populations within an acute care pediatric institution.

Background: Transition within a hospital is foreseeable, given the ever-changing needs of the patients within an evolving healthcare system. These changes include moving patient populations because of expansion, renovation, or cohorting similar patient diagnoses to provide care across a continuum.