Publications by authors named "Karen Bowen"

Background: Delirium is frightening for people experiencing it and their carers, and it is the most common hospital-acquired complication worldwide. Delirium is associated with higher rates of morbidity, mortality, residential care home admission, dementia, and carer stress and burden, yet strategies to embed the prevention and management of delirium as part of standard hospital care remain challenging. Carers are well placed to recognize subtle changes indicative of delirium, and partner with nurses in the prevention and management of delirium.

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Background: Nurses play an essential role in patient safety. Inadequate nursing physical assessment and communication in handover practices are associated with increased patient deterioration, falls and pressure injuries. Despite internationally implemented rapid response systems, falls and pressure injury reduction strategies, and recommendations to conduct clinical handovers at patients' bedside, adverse events persist.

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Recognition and escalation of the deteriorating patient is multifaceted and relevant to all clinicians involved. However, little evidence exists exploring how clinicians from different professions make decisions about early signs of clinical deterioration and how this affects their actions. The aim of this study was to explore interprofessional clinicians' and students' experiences of responding to and escalating care of deteriorating patients.

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Background: Working as a front-line worker during a pandemic is a unique situation that requires a supportive work environment. An informed understanding of nurses' and midwives' workplace experiences during a pandemic, such as COVID-19, may enable better preparation and targeted support for future pandemics at an individual, organisational, and policy level.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore nurses' and midwives' workplace experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic response.

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Background: Internationally, rapid response systems have been implemented to recognise and categorise hospital patients at risk of deterioration. Whilst rapid response systems have been implemented with a varying amount of success, there remains ongoing concern about the lack of improvement in the escalation, and management of the deteriorating patient. It also remains unclear why some clinicians fail to escalate concerns for the deteriorating patient.

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Globally, the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers' mental health has been a major focus of recent research. However, Australian research involving nurses, particularly across the acute care sector, is limited. This cross-sectional research aimed to explore the impact of pandemic-related stress on psychological adjustment outcomes and potential protective factors for nurses (n = 767) working in the Australian acute care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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MW01-6-189WH (MW189) is a novel central nervous system-penetrant small-molecule drug candidate that selectively attenuates stressor-induced proinflammatory cytokine overproduction and is efficacious in intracerebral hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury animal models. We report first-in-human, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1 studies to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of single and multiple ascending intravenous doses of MW189 in healthy adult volunteers. MW189 was safe and well tolerated in single and multiple doses up to 0.

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