Hospital discharge: testing the "Blaylock Risk Assessment Screening Score" in a surgical department.

Background and aim of the work Standardizing patients' assessment to identify individuals at greater risk in encountering difficulties at discharge may help to assist healthcare professionals in clinical decision making and address the gaps in quality that negatively affect continuity of care. We analyzed the predictive validity and the test-retest reliability of the BRASS index in surgical inpatients. Moreover, we evaluated the association between other variables and length of stay or location at discharge.

Validity of the Italian Code of Ethics for everyday nursing practice.

Background:: The research question for this study was as follows: Is the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Italy (Code) a valid or useful decision-making instrument for nurses faced with ethical problems in their daily clinical practice?

Method:: Focus groups were conducted to analyze specific ethical problems through 11 case studies. The analysis was conducted using sections of the Code as well as other relevant documents. Each focus group had a specific theme and nurses participated freely in the discussions according to their respective clinical competencies.

How many research nurses for how many clinical trials in an oncology setting? Definition of the Nursing Time Required by Clinical Trial-Assessment Tool (NTRCT-AT).

Few resources are available to quantify clinical trial-associated workload, needed to guide staffing and budgetary planning. The aim of the study is to describe a tool to measure clinical trials nurses' workload expressed in time spent to complete core activities. Clinical trials nurses drew up a list of nursing core activities, integrating results from literature searches with personal experience.

Dacarbazine in combination with bevacizumab for the treatment of unresectable/metastatic melanoma: a phase II study.

The combined treatment of dacarbazine with an antiangiogenic drug such as bevacizumab may potentiate the therapeutic effects of dacarbazine in metastatic melanoma (MM). Preliminary antitumour activity of dacarbazine plus bevacizumab is evaluated, together with the toxicity and safety profile, in MM patients. This prospective, open-label, phase II study included patients with previously untreated MM or unresectable melanoma.