A medical assistant-facilitated transition activity in a pediatric cardiology clinic.

Background: Formal transition programs prepare pediatric patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) for successful lifelong management of their disease. Conducting transition program activities in pediatric cardiology clinics can be a challenge if there are limited resources. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a medical assistant (MA)-facilitated transition activity in increasing documentation of transition discussions and characterize staff acceptability of this intervention.

Referral Order Placement Decreases Time to Transfer to Adult Congenital Heart Disease Care.

Pediatric patients with moderate and great complexity congenital heart disease (CHD) may benefit from coordinated transfer to adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) centers to reduce the risk of complications; however, there are a variety of transfer practices. We examined the impact of referral order placement at the last pediatric cardiology visit on time to transfer to an ACHD center. We analyzed data collected from pediatric patients with moderate and great complexity CHD who were eligible to transfer to our tertiary center's accredited ACHD center.

Survival analysis 101: an easy start guide to analysing time-to-event data.

Survival analysis, also called time-to-event analysis, is a common approach to handling event data in cardiovascular nursing and health-related research. Survival analysis is used to describe, explain, and/or predict the occurrence and timing of events. There is a specific language used and methods designed to handle the unique nature of event data.

Testing effectiveness of the revised Cape Town modified early warning and SBAR systems: a pilot pragmatic parallel group randomised controlled trial.

Background: Nurses' recognition of clinical deterioration is crucial for patient survival. Evidence for the effectiveness of modified early warning scores (MEWS) is derived from large observation studies in developed countries.

Methods: We tested the effectiveness of the paper-based Cape Town (CT) MEWS vital signs observation chart and situation-background-assessment-recommendation (SBAR) communication guide.

Treatment of individuals who cannot receive blood products for religious or other reasons.

By virtue of their religious principles, Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) generally object to receiving blood products, raising numerous ethical, legal, and medical challenges for providers who care for these patients, especially in the emergent setting. In this review, we discuss several areas relevant to the care of JWs, including the current literature on "bloodless" medical care in the setting of perioperative and intraoperative management, acute blood loss, trauma, pregnancy, and malignancy. We have found that medical and administrative efforts in the form of bloodless medicine and surgery programs can be instrumental in helping to reduce risks of morbidity and mortality in these patients.

Validation of a modified early warning score-linked Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation communication tool: A mixed methods study.

Aims And Objectives: To develop and validate a modified Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation communication tool incorporating components of the Cape Town modified early warning score vital signs chart for reporting early signs of clinical deterioration.

Background: Reporting early signs of physiological and clinical deterioration could prevent "failure to rescue" or unexpected intensive care admission, cardiac arrest or death. A structured communication tool incorporating physiological and clinical parameters allows nurses to provide pertinent information about a deteriorating patient in a logical order.