Decreased patient discharges on weekends part 3: what do the leaders tell us?

Background: Emergency department (ED) crowding is a significant challenge to providing safe and quality care to patients. We know that hospital and ED crowding is exacerbated on Mondays because fewer in-patients are discharged on the weekend. We evaluated barriers and potential solutions to improve in-patient flow and diminished weekend discharges, in hopes of decreasing the severe ED crowding observed on Mondays.

Mapping gender and sexual minority representation in cancer research: a scoping review protocol.

Background: Addressing the risk of people from gender and sexual minority (GSM) groups experiencing inequities throughout the cancer continuum requires a robust evidence base. In this scoping review, we aim to map the literature on cancer outcomes among adults from GSM groups and the factors that influence them along the cancer continuum.

Methods: This mixed-methods scoping review will follow the approach outlined by JBI.

Sleep and cognition in aging dogs. A polysomnographic study.

Introduction: Sleep is fundamental for cognitive homeostasis, especially in senior populations since clearance of amyloid beta (key in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease) occurs during sleep. Some electroencephalographic characteristics of sleep and wakefulness have been considered a hallmark of dementia. Owners of dogs with canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (a canine analog to Alzheimer's disease) report that their dogs suffer from difficulty sleeping.

Decisions and Decisional Needs of Canadians From all Provinces and Territories During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Population-Based Cross-sectional Surveys.

Background: Never before COVID-19 had Canadians faced making health-related decisions in a context of significant uncertainty. However, little is known about which type of decisions and the types of difficulties that they faced.

Objective: We sought to identify the health-related decisions and decisional needs of Canadians.

Patient-centered outcomes for gastrointestinal cancer care: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Following a cancer diagnosis, patients and their caregivers face crucial decisions regarding goals of care and treatment, which have consequences that can persist throughout their cancer journey. To foster informed and value-driven treatment choices, evidence-based information on outcomes relevant to patients is needed. Traditionally, clinical studies have largely focused on a few concrete and easily measurable outcomes such as survival, disease progression and immediate treatment toxicities.

Ethical considerations for engaging frail and seriously ill patients as partners in research: sub-analysis of a systematic review.

Background: The commitment to engage patients as partners in research has been described as a political, moral and ethical imperative. Researchers feel ill-equipped to deal with potential ethical implications of engaging patients as partners. The aim of this study is to identify the ethical considerations related to engaging frail and seriously ill (FSI) patients as partners in research.

Feasibility of Rapidly Developing and Widely Disseminating Patient Decision Aids to Respond to Urgent Decisional Needs due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

To meet urgent decisional needs of retirement/nursing home residents and their families, our interdisciplinary stakeholder team rapidly developed and disseminated patient decision aids (PtDAs) regarding leaving one's residence during the COVID-19 pandemic. The development steps were as follows: identify urgent decisional needs, develop PtDAs using the Ottawa Decision Support Framework template and minimal International PtDA Standards, obtain stakeholder feedback, broadly disseminate, and incorporate user feedback. Within 2 wk, we developed 2 PtDAs for retirement and nursing home living environments that were informed by decisional needs (identified from public responses to related media reports), current pandemic regulations/guidance, and recent systematic reviews.

Quality of telephone nursing services for adults with cancer and related non-emergent visits to the emergency department.

A quality improvement project was conducted to determine the quality of telephone nursing for patients with cancer symptoms. Eligible patients were ones who telephoned the nurse about cancer symptom(s) within four weeks prior to an emergency department (ED) visit not requiring hospital admission. Experienced oncology nurses extracting data indicated appropriateness of ED visits and opportunities for improvement.

Partnering with frail or seriously ill patients in research: a systematic review.

Background: The expectation to include patients as partners in research has steadily gained momentum. The vulnerability of frail and/or seriously ill patients provides additional complexity and may deter researchers from welcoming individuals from this patient population onto their teams. The aim was to synthesize the evidence on the engagement of frail and/or seriously ill patients as research partners across the research cycle.

Quality of telephone-based cancer symptom management by nurses: a quality improvement project.

Purpose: To determine the quality of cancer symptom management when evidence from clinical practice guidelines are used in telephone-based oncology nursing services.

Methods: Guided by the Knowledge to Action Framework, we conducted a quality improvement (QI) project focused on "monitoring knowledge use" (e.g.