Hospital Testing of the Effectiveness of Co-Designed Educational Materials to Improve Patient and Visitor Knowledge and Confidence in Reporting Patient Deterioration.

Background: Co-designed educational materials could significantly improve the likelihood of patients and visitors (consumers) escalating care through hospital systems. The objective was to investigate patients' and visitors' knowledge and confidence in recognizing and reporting patient deterioration in hospitals before and after exposure to educational materials.

Methods: A multimethod design involved a convenience sample of patients and visitors at a South Australian hospital.

You're Worried, We're Listening: Online Testing of the Effectiveness of Education Materials to Improve Consumer Knowledge and Confidence in Reporting Patient Deterioration.

Objectives: Early identification of patient deterioration in hospital is important to reduce mortality, avoidable morbidity, length of stay, and associated healthcare costs. By closely observing physical and behavioral changes, deteriorating patients are more likely to be identified. Patients and family at the bedside can play an important role in reporting deterioration if made aware of how to do so.

Development and Validation of an Evaluation Tool of Consumers' Knowledge and Confidence to Report Patient Deterioration in Hospitals.

Objectives: Studies have shown that many preventable hospital deaths may be reduced through early reporting of deterioration by patients and their visitors to health professionals. Engagement of patients and families for safer health care was recommended by the World Health Organization. As no validated tool was identified, the objective of the study was to develop and validate a tool to measure the impact of messages contained in self-developed educational materials on consumers' knowledge and confidence to report patient deterioration.

Taking the alternative route: Women's experience of intranasal fentanyl, subcutaneous fentanyl or intramuscular pethidine for labour analgesia.

Objective: To compare women's experience of receiving either intranasal fentanyl, subcutaneous fentanyl or intramuscular pethidine for labour analgesia.

Design: A content analysis was undertaken as part of the third phase of a larger randomised controlled trial, using the per-protocol dataset to examine women's experiences of treatment received. Healthy women birthing at term, who received intranasal fentanyl (n=41), subcutaneous fentanyl (n=37) and/or intramuscular pethidine (n=38) for labour analgesia, were contacted at 6 weeks postpartum to complete a phone questionnaire.

The influence of intrapartum opioid use on breastfeeding experience at 6 weeks post partum: A secondary analysis.

Objective: To examine breastfeeding experiences up to 6 weeks postpartum for mothers administered intranasal fentanyl, subcutaneous fentanyl or intramuscular pethidine for intrapartum analgesia.

Design: A secondary analysis was undertaken using the per-protocol dataset to examine the third phase of a larger randomised controlled trial. This phase of the study examined breastfeeding intention and experience from the first hour of birth to 6 weeks postpartum.

The relative contributions of function, perceived psychological burden and partner support to cognitive distress in bladder cancer.

Objective: Bladder cancer is a genitourinary disease of increasing incidence. Despite improvements in treatment, outcomes remain equivocal with high recurrence rates. It is associated with poor psychosocial outcomes due to reduced functioning of the genitourinary system.

E-learning & information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature.

Objectives: To examine primary research articles published between January 2001 and December 2012 that focused on the issues for students and educators involved with E-learning in preregistration nursing programs. The literature was systematically reviewed, critically appraised and thematically analyzed.

Background: E-learning is arguably the most significant change to occur in nursing education since the move from hospital training to the tertiary sector.

Subcutaneous administration of fentanyl in childbirth: an observational study on the clinical effectiveness of fentanyl for mother and neonate.

Objective: to explore the maternal and neonatal effects of fentanyl administered subcutaneously to women during labour.

Design: two methods were used: (1) A retrospective audit of the birth register and maternal and neonatal records for the period from January 2000 to December 2007. (2) A pilot study was also conducted on a convenience sample of women between July 2008 and October 2008.

Undergraduate nursing student's attitudes towards caring for people with HIV/AIDS.

The aim of this quantitative study was to determine the attitudes of Australian nursing students towards caring for people with HIV/AIDS. This research study was conducted among second year undergraduate nursing students at a university in South Australia, during August 2007. The survey tool consisted of six demographic questions and the AIDS Attitude Scale.

Termination of pregnancy and the over 30s: what are trends in contraception use 1996-2006?

There is a shift in fertility patterns with more women commencing childbearing over 30 years of age. Little is known about trends in contraception use by women in this age group seeking a termination of pregnancy. This research presents a trend analysis to determine if there were significant changes in trends in contraception use pre- and post-termination of pregnancy for women over 30 years of age from 1996 to 2006 in South Australia.

Nursing assessment of obstructive sleep apnea in hospitalised adults: a review of risk factors and screening tools.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects approximately 2-4% of the general population and may be more prevalent in obese adults. However, sleep apnea remains consistently under-diagnosed in the general population as well as in hospital wards. Nurse awareness of OSA during routine monitoring could allow specific observations of hospitalised adults to identify those at high risk and ensure appropriate referral.

Non-axial administration of fentanyl in childbirth: a review of the efficacy and safety of fentanyl for mother and neonate.

Objective: to investigate the use of fentanyl for pain relief during childbirth administered by routes other than epidural or spinal (non-axial). In particular, aspects relating to the efficacy and safety of fentanyl for mother and neonate are explored.

Background: currently, pethidine is the most widely used intramuscular opioid for the relief of labour pain but has been shown to have numerous side-effects on the mother and neonate.

Thermocyclic and photocyclic entrainment of circadian locomotor activity rhythms in sleepy lizards, Tiliqua rugosa.

Australian sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) exhibit marked locomotor activity rhythms in the field and laboratory. Light-dark (LD) and temperature cycles (TCs) are considered important for the entrainment of circadian locomotor activity rhythms and for mediating seasonal adjustments in aspects of these rhythms, such as phase, amplitude, and activity pattern. The relative importance of 24 h LD and TCs in entraining the circadian locomotor activity rhythm in T.

Attitudes of nursing students towards caring for people with HIV/AIDS: thematic literature review.

Title: Attitudes of nursing students towards caring for people with HIV/AIDS: thematic literature review.

Aim: This paper is a report of a literature review conducted to examine current research studies into attitudes of nursing students towards caring for people with HIV/AIDS and to identify factors that influenced those attitudes to inform current nursing practice and to develop nursing education regarding care provided to people with HIV/AIDS.

Background: Attitudes of nurses towards people living with HIV/AIDS have long been scrutinized.

Melatonin rhythms in the Australian freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni): a reptile lacking a pineal complex?

The vertebrate pineal gland is the primary source of melatonin, the rhythmic secretion of which is influenced by environmental light and temperature, thereby providing animals with information about seasonally changing photoperiod and thermoperiod. Although pineal glands are present in the majority of vertebrate species, a discrete organ is reported to be absent in the Crocodilia. However, if the melatonin rhythm is crucial to the survival of the organism, it would be expected that the rhythm would be present in crocodiles.

Interseasonal variation in the circadian rhythms of locomotor activity and temperature selection in sleepy lizards, Tiliqua rugosa.

Few studies in non-mammalian vertebrates have examined how various effectors of the circadian system interact. To determine if the daily locomotor and behavioural thermoregulatory rhythms of Tiliqua rugosa are both controlled by the circadian system in different seasons, lizards were tested in laboratory thermal gradients in four seasons and in constant darkness. Circadian rhythmicity for both rhythms was present in each season, being most pronounced in spring and summer and least evident in autumn.

Changing patterns in women seeking terminations of pregnancy: a trend analysis of data from one service provider 1996-2006.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess emerging trends in five characteristics: age, first ever pregnancy, contraception at time of conception, contraception choices post-operatively and referral source of women presenting for a termination of pregnancy (1996-2006) from a southern service in Adelaide, South Australia.

Method: A time-series study, from 1996 to 2006, using 3,434 cases from a termination of pregnancy service provider. Five characteristics associated with women attending for a termination of pregnancy were examined.

Circadian rhythms of locomotor activity and temperature selection in sleepy lizards, Tiliqua rugosa.

This study examined whether the daily rhythms of locomotor activity and behavioural thermoregulation that have previously been observed in Australian sleepy lizards (Tiliqua rugosa) under field conditions are true circadian rhythms that persist in constant darkness (DD) and whether these rhythms show similar characteristics. Lizards held on laboratory thermal gradients in the Australian spring under the prevailing 12-hour light : dark (LD) cycle for 14 days displayed robust daily rhythms of behavioural thermoregulation and locomotor activity. In the 13-day period of DD that followed LD, most lizards exhibited free-running circadian rhythms of locomotor activity and behavioural thermoregulation.

Effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in adults with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, or systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review.

Aim: This paper reports a systematic review of non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in adults with three common autoimmune conditions.

Background: A considerable proportion of people with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus experience compromised quality of life due to fatigue. Recent reviews of pharmacotherapies for fatigue in these conditions remain inconclusive, and systematic evidence for effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions was unavailable.

Persistence of a plasma melatonin rhythm in constant darkness and its inhibition by constant light in the sleepy lizard, Tiliqua rugosa.

This study determined whether a blood plasma melatonin rhythm persists in constant photothermal environments in the sleepy lizard, Tiliqua rugosa. It builds upon an earlier investigation which provided equivocal results as to whether an in vivo melatonin rhythm persists in constant dark (DD) and light (LL) and temperature in this species. Using more frequent sampling points and new assay techniques, the present study showed that the melatonin rhythm persisted for at least 6 days at temperatures of 25 and 33 degrees C in constant dark (DD).