Pilot Intervention Addressing Social Support and Functioning of Low Socioeconomic Status Older Adults With ESRD: The Seniors Optimizing Community Integration to Advance Better Living with ESRD (SOCIABLE) Study.

Rationale & Objective: Older adults with end-stage kidney disease have increased morbidity, fatigue, and decreased physical function, which can inhibit self-care and social engagement. We pilot tested a home-based program to improve physical and social functioning of low socioeconomic status older adults treated with hemodialysis (HD).

Study Design: Qualitative study and randomized waitlist control intervention.

Ensuring safe and optimal medication use in older community residents: Collaboration between a nurse and a pharmacist.

The purpose of this retrospective review is to describe 1) a nurse-pharmacist collaboration within a home based nurse-occupational therapist-handyman program called CAPABLE and 2) potential medication problems and 3) information communicated to participants and prescribers about those problems. A chart review was performed for each participant that one CAPABLE nurse referred to the pharmacists. We identified recommendations provided by pharmacists, synthesized common questions posed to the pharmacists' and developed exemplar cases of participant encounters.

Communication between office-based primary care providers and nurses working within patients' homes: an analysis of process data from CAPABLE.

Aims And Objectives: To examine themes of communication between office-based primary care providers and nurses working in private residences; to assess which methods of communication elicit fruitful responses to nurses' concerns.

Background: Lack of effective communication between home health care nurses and primary care providers contributes to clinical errors, inefficient care delivery and decreased patient safety. Few studies have described best practices related to frequency, methods and reasons for communication between community-based nurses and primary care providers.

Improving unsafe environments to support aging independence with limited resources.

Aging with independence benefits individuals, family, and society. To achieve independence, older adults must be able to function in their homes. This function is determined both by their abilities and by the environment in which they maneuver.

Nursing strategies for promoting and maintaining function among community-living older adults: the CAPABLE intervention.

Although many programs aim to help older adults age in place, few target both the home environment and individual physical function. We present an interprofessional intervention called CAPABLE-Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders. CAPABLE's innovative approach incorporates a nurse, occupational therapist (OT), and handyman to address both individual and environmental factors that contribute to disability.

Visual analog scales in formats other than a 10 centimeter horizontal line to assess pain and other clinical data.

Objective: To analyze visual analog scales (VAS) for pain and patient global estimate on a Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MDHAQ) in formats other than a traditional 10 cm horizontal line, designed to facilitate scoring on MDHAQ in usual clinical care.

Methods: The MDHAQ with VAS for pain and global estimate was completed by each patient at each visit. VAS formats other than a traditional (unnumbered) 10 cm horizontal line based on 21 circles at 0.

Clinicopathologic features of osteosarcoma in patients with Rothmund-Thomson syndrome.

Purpose: Patients with Rothmund-Thomson syndrome (RTS) and RECQL4 gene mutations have an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma (OS). Because RTS is considered a genomic instability syndrome, patients may experience increased toxicity with chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to summarize the clinical features and response to therapy of OS in patients with RTS.