Validation of a Predictive Model to Identify Patients at High Risk for Hospital Readmission.

Background: Hospital readmission is an adverse patient outcome that is serious, common, and costly. For hospitals, identifying patients at risk for hospital readmission is a priority to reduce costs and improve care.

Purpose: The purposes were to validate a predictive algorithm to identify patients at a high risk for preventable hospital readmission within 30 days after discharge and determine if additional risk factors enhance readmission predictability.

A quantitative study of factors influencing quality of life in rural Mexican women diagnosed with HIV.

This quantitative study explored the level of Quality of Life (QoL) in indigenous Mexican women and identified psychosocial factors that significantly influenced their QoL, using face-to-face interviews with 101 women accessing care in an HIV clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico. Variables included demographic characteristics, levels of depression, coping style, family functioning, HIV-related beliefs, and QoL. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze participant characteristics, and women's scores on data collection instruments.

Psychometric validation of the revised clinical cultural competency questionnaire.

Background And Purpose: Growing diversity in health care requires culturally competent care. Assessing nurses' cultural competence is the first step in designing cultural competency education. The Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ) is one instrument to assess nurses' cultural competence.

Intraoperatively acquired pressure ulcers and perioperative normothermia: a look at relationships.

The risk of developing an intraoperatively acquired pressure ulcer (IAPU), which is recognized as a significant complication of deep tissue injury occurrence, is associated with duration of surgery and patient positioning. There is a strong association between hypothermia, tissue viability, and surgical site infections; however, the relationship between hypothermia and pressure ulcers has not been fully explored. We examined the incidence of pressure ulcers in surgical patients and determined that there is a relationship between maintaining perioperative normothermia and a reduction in IAPU development.

An evaluation of a sitter reduction program intervention.

Hospitals use sitters as an alternative to reduce patient falls. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a sitter reduction program by examining the differences between sitter use and falls in an acute care hospital. Findings indicate that a significant decrease in sitter use and falls remained constant.

War on the spore: Clostridium difficile disease among patients in a long-term acute care hospital.

The transmission of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is evident in healthcare facilities across the country and poses a risk for patients and communities. A comprehensive infection control program along with an active surveillance process was developed and implemented in a 50-bed long-term acute care hospital (LTACH) in the southeastern United States. Patients are admitted from surrounding hospitals, have an expected stay of at least 25 days, and are acutely ill.