Defining and Scoping Participatory Health Informatics: An eDelphi Study.

Background: Health care has evolved to support the involvement of individuals in decision making by, for example, using mobile apps and wearables that may help empower people to actively participate in their treatment and health monitoring. While the term "participatory health informatics" (PHI) has emerged in literature to describe these activities, along with the use of social media for health purposes, the scope of the research field of PHI is not yet well defined.

Objective: This article proposes a preliminary definition of PHI and defines the scope of the field.

Exploring the Stability of Communication Network Metrics in a Dynamic Nursing Context.

Network stability is of increasing interest to researchers as they try to understand the dynamic processes by which social networks form and evolve. Because hospital patient care units (PCUs) need flexibility to adapt to environmental changes (Vardaman, Cornell, & Clancy, 2012), their networks are unlikely to be uniformly stable and will evolve over time. This study aimed to identify a metric (or set of metrics) sufficiently stable to apply to PCU staff information sharing and advice seeking communication networks over time.

The Influence of Bullying on Nursing Practice Errors: A Systematic Review.

Workplace bullying is an important nursing issue that can influence a nurse's propensity to commit practice errors. This systematic review examines the influence of bullying behaviors on nursing practice errors and includes articles from 2012 to 2017 that focus on bullying among nurses in multiple health care settings, including ORs, emergency departments, and acute inpatient and critical-care units. Analysis of 14 relevant articles revealed four themes: the influence of the work environment on nursing practice errors, individual-level connections between bullying and nursing practice errors, barriers to teamwork, and communication impairment.

Exploring Online RN-to-BSN Student Perceptions of Learner Presence.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe how RN-to-BSN student and program-specific characteristics influence student perceptions of learner presence (LP) in the online learning environment.

Background: Online RN-to-BSN students represent a diverse group of practicing nurses who must balance multiple obligations and challenging learner requirements. LP represents the student's perceptions of being close to and interacting with faculty and peers within the online learning environment.

Nursing Unit Communication During a US Public Health Emergency: Natural Experiment.

Background: In the second half of 2014, the first case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) was diagnosed in the United States. During this time period, we were collecting data for the Measuring Network Stability and Fit (NetFIT) longitudinal study, which used social network analysis (SNA) to study relationships between nursing staff communication patterns and patient outcomes. One of the data collection sites was a few blocks away from where the initial EVD diagnosis was made.

Spanish-Speaking Hispanic Patients' Information-Sharing Preferences During Hospitalization: An Exploratory Pilot Study.

Background: Self-management of chronic conditions, such as cancer or diabetes, requires the coordination of care across multiple care settings. Current patient-centered, hospital-based care initiatives, including bedside nursing handoff and multidisciplinary rounds, often focus on provider information exchange and roles but fall short of the goals of participatory medicine, which recognize the right of patients to partner in their own care and play an active role in self-management.

Objective: This study aimed to elicit Spanish-speaking Hispanic patients' perspectives on the exchange and sharing of information during hospitalization.

Relationship of Staff Information Sharing and Advice Networks to Patient Safety Outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare information sharing and advice networks' relationships with patient safety outcomes.

Background: Communication contributes to medical errors, but rarely is it clear what elements of communication are key.

Methods: We investigated relationships of information-sharing and advice networks to patient safety outcomes in 24 patient care units from 3 hospitals over 7 months.

Nursing Unit Design, Nursing Staff Communication Networks, and Patient Falls: Are They Related?

Purpose:: The purpose of this research is to (1) investigate the impact of nursing unit design on nursing staff communication patterns and, ultimately, on patient falls in acute care nursing units; and (2) evaluate whether differences in fall rates, if found, were associated with the nursing unit physical structure (shape) or size.

Background:: Nursing staff communication and nursing unit design are frequently linked to patient safety outcomes, yet little is known about the impact of specific nursing unit designs on nursing communication patterns that might affect patient falls.

Method:: An exploratory longitudinal correlational design was used to measure nursing unit communication structures using social network analysis techniques.

"I want to know everything": a qualitative study of perspectives from patients with chronic diseases on sharing health information during hospitalization.

Background: Patient-centered care promotes the inclusion of the most prominent and important member of the health care team, the patient, as an active participant in information exchange and decision making. Patient self-management of a chronic disease requires the patient to bridge the gap between multiple care settings and providers. Hospitalizations often disrupt established self-management routines.

An informatics research agenda to support precision medicine: seven key areas.

The recent announcement of the Precision Medicine Initiative by President Obama has brought precision medicine (PM) to the forefront for healthcare providers, researchers, regulators, innovators, and funders alike. As technologies continue to evolve and datasets grow in magnitude, a strong computational infrastructure will be essential to realize PM's vision of improved healthcare derived from personal data. In addition, informatics research and innovation affords a tremendous opportunity to drive the science underlying PM.

Perception of Nursing Education Uses of Second Life by Graduate Nursing Students.

Although virtual reality platforms, such as Second Life, have been used in academic settings for more than a decade, little is known about how students perceive or adapt to this technology. This article presents the results of a research study that examined the experiences and perceptions of graduate nursing students as they explored the educational applications of Second Life. The students created avatars, interacted with one another in the virtual world, explored healthcare and educational uses, and maintained a reflective blog (online journal) of their experiences.

Social networks as embedded complex adaptive systems.

As systems evolve over time, their natural tendency is to become increasingly more complex. Studies in the field of complex systems have generated new perspectives on management in social organizations such as hospitals. Much of this research appears as a natural extension of the cross-disciplinary field of systems theory.

Multi-professional patterns and methods of communication during patient handoffs.

Objective: Health information technology has been shown to influence the communication patterns of healthcare providers. The goal of this study was to learn more about how healthcare providers communicate and exchange patient clinical information during patient handoffs (transfers) between units in an acute care setting.

Methods: Convenience sampling was used to select five patient handoffs.

Multi-professional communication during a patient handoff.

Little is known about the communication principles necessary for successful design and implementation of information technology that supports the needs of healthcare providers from multiple professions. New methods are needed to understand the influence of technology on existing workflow and communication patterns in the complex patient care environment. Social Network Analysis is an approach that examines how the interactions between individual providers and environmental constraints, such as health information technology, influence individual communication behavior.

Factors associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw among bisphosphonate users.

Background: Bisphosphonates are medications that impact bone reformation by inhibiting osteoclast function. Osteonecrosis of the jaw has been reported among patients receiving these medications. It is unclear if the risk factors associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw among cancer patients taking bisphosphonates also are possible risk factors among patients receiving these medications for other indications.

Promoting communication and documentation of advance care planning in long-term care facilities.

This paper describes the findings of Phase I of an advance care planning (ACP) demonstration project, undertaken collaboratively between the Texas Partnership on End-of-Life Care and the North Texas Alliance of Nursing Homes. The goal of the project, designed as a continuous quality improvement program for the nine volunteer nursing facilities (NFs), was to increase the systematic implementation of ACP Phase I consisted of baseline data collection of ACP documentation from the nine NFs. This was followed by a pre-intervention train-the-trainer educational program for facility coordinators and other interested staff who subsequently would implement the procedures in their NFs, to increase the use of advance directives (ADs).