Clinical predictors of successful and earlier pleurodesis with a tunnelled pleural catheter in malignant pleural effusion: a cohort study.

Background: Tunnelled pleural catheters used to treat malignant pleural effusions may achieve pleurodesis. We aimed to identify factors associated with higher pleurodesis rates and earlier catheter removal.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a prospective database of tunnelled pleural catheters inserted consecutively between May 2006 and June 2013 for confirmed malignant pleural effusion.

Indwelling Peritoneal Catheters for Managing Malignancy-Associated Ascites.

We investigated use of the tunnelled catheter in a large palliative population with malignancy-associated ascites employing retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained patient database of tunnelled peritoneal catheter insertions for refractory malignancy-associated ascites or new rapidly accumulating ascites. We found that a 100 percent procedural success rate was achieved with 395 tunnelled catheters inserted in 386 patients. Catheters remained in situ for 66 days, on average.

Implementation of an Electronic Data Collection Tool to Monitor Nursing-Sensitive Indicators in a Large Academic Health Sciences Centre.

Background: Monitoring the quality of nursing care is essential to identify patients at risk, measure adherence to hospital policies and evaluate the effectiveness of best practice interventions. However, monitoring nursing-sensitive indicators (NSI) is a challenge. Prevalence surveys are one method used by some organizations to monitor NSI, which are patient outcomes that are directly affected by the quantity or quality of nursing care that the patient receives.