Development and validation of the Cystic Fibrosis Decisional Balance for Physical Activity scale (CF-DB-PA).

Background: People with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) derive several physiological and psychological benefits from regular physical activity (PA), but the practice is lower than recommended. Knowledge about the facilitators of and barriers to PA at the individual level is important to act positively on PA behaviors. This study validated the Cystic Fibrosis Decisional Balance for Physical Activity scale (CF-DB-PA) for adults with CF.

Prevalence of chronic pancreatitis: Results of a primary care physician-based population study.

Background: Data on chronic pancreatitis prevalence are scanty and usually limited to hospital-based studies.

Aim: Investigating chronic pancreatitis prevalence in primary care.

Methods: Participating primary care physicians reported the prevalence of chronic pancreatitis among their registered patients, environmental factors and disease characteristics.

The impact of hospital nursing characteristics on 30-day mortality.

Background: Evidence indicates that hospital nursing characteristics such as staffing contribute to patient outcomes. Less attention has been given to other hospital nursing characteristics central to optimal professional practice, namely nurse education and skill mix, continuity of care, and quality of the work environment.

Objective: To assess the relative effects and importance of nurse education and skill mix, continuity of care, and quality of work environment in predicting 30-day mortality after adjusting for institutional factors and individual patients characteristics.

Nurse specialty subcultures and patient outcomes in acute care hospitals: A multiple-group structural equation modeling.

Background: Hospital organizational culture is widely held to matter to the delivery of services, their effectiveness, and system performance in general. However, little empirical evidence exists to support that culture affects provider and patient outcomes; even less evidence exists to support how this occurs.

Objectives: To explore causal relationships and mechanisms between nursing specialty subcultures and selected patient outcomes (i.

[Physical activity and exercise training for patients with cystic fibrosis].

In France patients with cystic fibrosis benefit from a multidisciplinary follow-up in Cystic Fibrosis Centres. In this follow-up, despite the numerous therapeutic benefits of exercise in this disease, little emphasis is placed on the promotion of physical activity. The aim of this article is to improve this aspect of management, giving advice from a working group of experts, based on the medical literature and clinical experience.

Nursing workforce utilization: an examination of facilitators and barriers on scope of practice.

Several reports have highlighted the need to address underutilization of health human resources, but barriers to and facilitators of role optimization for nurses are poorly understood. The purpose in this study was to understand the perceptions of nurses - Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Registered Nurses (RNs) and Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs) - of the extent to which they can work to full scope of practice and identify barriers and facilitators in optimizing their roles. As part of a mixed-methods study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 167 acute care nurses (RNs, LPNs, RPNs and nurse managers) in three western Canadian health regions.

Nursing scope of practice: descriptions and challenges.

The nursing workforce is faced with shortages of near crisis proportions, yet little is understood about the optimal utilization of various categories of nurses - Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Registered Nurses (RNs) and Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs). The primary purpose in this study was to elicit the perceptions of nurses (RNs, LPNs, and RPNs) of what "working to full scope of practice" meant to them. Participants included acute care nurses in three health regions in western Canada.

The impact of hospital nursing characteristics on 30-day mortality.

Background: Evidence indicates that hospital nursing characteristics such as staffing contribute to patient outcomes. Less attention has been given to other hospital nursing characteristics central to optimal professional practice, namely nurse education and skill mix, continuity of care, and quality of the work environment.

Objective: To assess the relative effects and importance of nurse education and skill mix, continuity of care, and quality of work environment in predicting 30-day mortality after adjusting for institutional factors and individual patients characteristics.

Healthcare restructuring: the impact of job change.

Restructuring, particularly redeployment and job change, had a dramatic impact on the working conditions and practices of nursing personnel. This study was conducted to determine whether nurses (RNs and RPNs) who experienced job change perceived their work-lives differently than those who did not undergo job change and, whether nurses who experienced different types of job change (new role, new unit, or new hospital) varied in their perceptions. A questionnaire exploring themes relevant to redeployment was administered to all nurses (N = 3,408) in two large teaching hospitals that had undergone restructuring.

Symptom-based approach to colorectal cancer: survey of primary care physicians in Italy.

Background: Colorectal cancer is a frequent cause of mortality in Western countries, including Italy, where a definite screening policy has not yet been adopted. It is likely that most patients with colorectal cancer refer, first of all, to their primary care physician at onset of symptoms.

Aim: To perform a survey on the approach, of primary care physicians, to patients with symptoms suggesting the presence of colorectal cancer.

Workplace violence in Alberta and British Columbia hospitals.

Workplace violence is a significant and widespread public health concern among health care workers, including nurses. With growing awareness of how practice environments influence patient outcomes and the retention of health professionals, it is timely to consider the impact of workplace violence in hospitals. Registered nurses in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada were surveyed on their experiences of violence in the workplace over the last five shifts.

Measuring the hospital practice environment: a Canadian context.

The primary purpose of this study is to document the psychometric properties of the revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R) in the context of a large Canadian sample of registered nurses. A self-administered survey containing the NWI-R was completed by 17,965 registered nurses working in 415 hospitals in three Canadian provinces. Using exploratory principal components analysis, with a forced one-factor solution, the practice environment index was obtained.

Nursing-related determinants of 30-day mortality for hospitalized patients.

The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of the effects of nursing-related hospital variables on 30-day mortality rates for hospitalized patients. A retrospective design was used to test the proposed 30-Day Mortality Model. The sample consisted of 75 acute-care hospitals in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Nurses' experience of violence in Alberta and British Columbia hospitals.

This study examined responses to a survey on violence in the workplace from a sample of 8,780 registered nurses practising in 210 hospitals in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. Findings relate to the frequency of violence against nurses, reported as the number of times they experienced a violent incident in the workplace. Nearly half (46%) of those surveyed had experienced 1 or more types of violence in the last 5 shifts worked.

Nurses' reports on hospital care in five countries.

The current nursing shortage, high hospital nurse job dissatisfaction, and reports of uneven quality of hospital care are not uniquely American phenomena. This paper presents reports from 43,000 nurses from more than 700 hospitals in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, and Germany in 1998-1999. Nurses in countries with distinctly different health care systems report similar shortcomings in their work environments and the quality of hospital care.

Nurses' experiences of restructuring in three Ontario hospitals.

Purpose: To describe the effects of restructuring, particularly redeployment, on nurses' personal and work lives, and to compare the utility of "survivor syndrome" and empowerment as alternative concepts for understanding these effects and planning change.

Methods: Twenty-six focus groups or interviews were held with 59 nurses working in three hospitals in Ontario, Canada.

Findings: Participants described how restructuring strategies had affected them as individuals, as members of nursing teams, and as employees.

Impaired nonoxidative glucose metabolism in patients with liver cirrhosis: effects of two insulin doses.

Glucose intolerance is encountered in the majority of cirrhotic patients. This alteration has been attributed to a defective insulin-mediated glucose uptake in peripheral tissue, where nonoxidative glucose disposal seems to be chiefly impaired. To further investigate insulin action under euglycemic conditions, we studied how physiological (100 microU/mL) and pharmacological (1,000 microU/mL) plasma insulin concentrations affect whole-body insulin-mediated glucose uptake, as well as oxidative and nonoxidative glucose disposal, in cirrhotic patients and controls.

[Niobium filtration in dental radiology. Effects on image quality and on dosage].

Unlabelled: The necessity of reducing the radiation dose to the patient in diagnostic radiology according to the ALARA guideline established by the ICRP has stimulated the research on additional filtration systems capable of removing the low-energy photons increasing the dose and worsening image quality. Very few literature studies deal with the effects of niobium filtration on image quality in dental radiography with the use of modulation transfer function (MTF) and square wave response function (SWRF). Only one study has considered those effects measuring dose absorption in an anthropomorphic phantom.

Increased nonoxidative glucose metabolism in idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia.

Idiopathic reactive hypoglycemia (IRH) is responsible for postprandial hypoglycemia. Normal insulin secretion and reduced response of glucagon to acute hypoglycemia, but mostly increased insulin sensitivity, represent the metabolic features of this syndrome- The present study has two aims: first, to investigate the fate of glucose utilization inside the cells to assess whether increased glucose disposal in IRH is due to the oxidative and/or nonoxidative pathway; and second, to evaluate glucagon response to prolonged insulin-induced hypoglycemia. In eight patients with IRH and eight normal (N) subjects, we performed two studies on different days: (1) 120-minute euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic (1.