A mixed-methods approach to understand university students' perceived impact of returning to class during COVID-19 on their mental and general health.

Purpose: This study investigated the prevalence and risk factors of mental and general health symptoms among university students attending in-person and online classes during COVID-19. We also explored their experiences returning to in-person classes and their views on the university's COVID-19-related policies.

Methods: In this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study (2020-2021), U.

An unbelievable ordeal: The experiences of adult survivors treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a rescue treatment option for adult patients with severe cardiac dysfunction or respiratory failure. While short-term patient outcomes, such as in-hospital mortality and complications, have been widely described, little is known about the illness or recovery experience from the perspectives of survivors. Subjective reports of health are important indicators of the full, long-term impact of critical illness and treatment with ECMO on survivors' lives.

A Proposed Transitional Care Tool to Improve Medication Continuity After Release of Older Inmates.

Despite a growing aging population in the correctional system, older persons are often released from jail unprepared for the transition to the free world and unable to access necessary medications. This article proposes a discharge form (transitional care tool) that may improve the medical care provided to older inmates upon release from jail, especially regarding their compliance with prescribed medications. The authors developed their tool in a three-step process: (1) review concerns raised in pertinent correctional medical literature, (2) expert panel determination of the relative importance for each of the concerns, and (3) assessment of the tool's likely efficacy as viewed by a focus group familiar with transitions to the free world after incarceration.

Monitor-Watcher Use, Nurses' Knowledge of Electrocardiographic Monitoring, and Arrhythmia Detection.

Background: Electrocardiographic telemetry monitors are ubiquitous in hospitals. Dedicated monitor watchers, either on the unit or in a centralized location, are often responsible for observing telemetry monitors and responding to their alarms. The impact of use of monitor watchers is not known.

Newly diagnosed diabetes and outcomes after acute myocardial infarction in young adults.

Objective: To examine prevalence and characteristics of newly diagnosed diabetes (NDD) in younger adults hospitalised with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and investigate whether NDD is associated with health status and clinical outcomes over 12-month post-AMI.

Methods: In individuals (18-55 years) admitted with AMI, without established diabetes, we defined NDD as (1) baseline or 1-month HbA1c≥6.5%; (2) discharge diabetes diagnosis or (3) diabetes medication initiation within 1 month.

Comparison of Point-of-Care Testing Methods and Laboratory Analysis for Assessing Urine Specific Gravity and pH of Children Undergoing Chemotherapy.

Background: To reduce the risk of renal toxicity, urine specific gravity (SG) and pH (potential of hydrogen) parameters should be met before nephrotoxic chemotherapeutic agents are administered. The purpose of this study was to compare laboratory urine SG and pH values with those obtained with urine point-of-care (POC) testing methods commonly used when caring for children receiving nephrotoxic chemotherapeutic agents.

Method: A method-comparison design was used to compare the values of three POC methods for SG (dipstick, automated dipstick reader, refractometer) and three pH (dipstick, automated dipstick reader, litmus paper) methods with laboratory analysis of 86 urine samples from 43 children hospitalized on a pediatric hematology oncology unit in a large academic medical center.

Long-term health-related quality of life of adult patients treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO): An integrative review.

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a rescue treatment for patients with severe pulmonary and/or cardiac dysfunction, is increasingly being used worldwide. A better understanding of long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is needed.

Objective: To synthesize research on long-term (at least 6 months post-ECMO) HRQOL of adults treated with ECMO.

Association of Diabetes Mellitus With Health Status Outcomes in Young Women and Men After Acute Myocardial Infarction: Results From the VIRGO Study.

Background Diabetes mellitus increases the risk of mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, little is known about the association of diabetes mellitus with post-AMI health status outcomes (symptoms, functioning, and quality of life) in younger adults. Methods and Results We investigated the association between diabetes mellitus and health status during the first 12 months after AMI, using data from 3501 adults with AMI (42.

Critical care nurses' clinical reasoning about physiologic monitor alarm customisation: An interpretive descriptive study.

Aims And Objectives: To explore clinical reasoning about alarm customisation among nurses in intensive care units.

Background: Critical care nurses are responsible for detecting and rapidly acting upon changes in patients' clinical condition. Nurses use medical devices including bedside physiologic monitors to assist them in their practice.

Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes of Qigong Exercise in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Physical limitations, depression and anxiety are prevalent among older adults. Mild to moderate exercise can promote physical and psychological health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Qigong, a type of Chinese traditional medicine exercise, has demonstrated beneficial effects on physical ability and mental health in adults with chronic conditions.

Implementing Practice Standards for Inpatient Electrocardiographic Monitoring.

Background: Although electrocardiographic monitoring is common in hospitalized patients, many patients receive unnecessary monitoring, contributing to patients' inconvenience, clinicians' alarm fatigue, and delayed admissions.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of implementation of an electronic order set based on the American Heart Association practice standards for electrocardiographic monitoring on the occurrence of appropriate monitoring.

Methods: The sample for this preintervention-to-postintervention quasi-experimental study consisted of 297 adult patients on medical, surgical, neurological, oncological, and orthopedic patient care units that used remote electrocardiographic monitoring in a 627-bed hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Safety and Patients' Response to Ambulation With a Pulmonary Artery Catheter in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Background: Early mobilization of patients in the intensive care unit can be beneficial, but evidence is insufficient to indicate whether allowing patients with an indwelling pulmonary artery catheter to walk is safe.

Objective: To describe the physiological and emotional responses to ambulation in patients with heart failure and a pulmonary artery catheter.

Methods: This prospective, descriptive study included 19 patients with heart failure monitored with a pulmonary artery catheter in a cardiac intensive care unit.

Testing physiologic monitor alarm customization software to reduce alarm rates and improve nurses' experience of alarms in a medical intensive care unit.

Background: Clinicians in intensive care units experience alarm fatigue related to frequent false and non-actionable alarms produced by physiologic monitors. To reduce non-actionable alarms, alarm settings may need to be customized for individual patients; however, nurses may not customize alarms because of competing demands and alarm fatigue.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness and acceptance of physiologic monitor software to support customization of alarms.

The Association Between HIV Infection and the Use of Palliative Care in Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure.

Background: The number of adults with heart failure (HF) and HIV infection is increasing. These patients may benefit from palliative care (PC).

Objectives: Determine the association between HIV infection, other HIV characteristics, and PC among hospitalized patients with HF in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Challenges of customizing electrocardiography alarms in intensive care units: A mixed methods study.

Background: Customizing monitor alarm settings to individual patients can reduce alarm fatigue in intensive care units (ICUs), but has not been widely studied.

Objectives: To understand ICU nurses' approaches to customization of electrocardiographic (ECG) monitor alarms.

Methods: A convergent mixed methods study was conducted in 3 ICUs in 1 hospital.

Nurse-Technology Interactions and Patient Safety.

Nurses are the end-users of most technology in intensive care units, and the ways in which they interact with technology affect quality of care and patient safety. Nurses' interactions include the processes of ensuring proper input of data into the technology as well as extracting and interpreting the output (clinical data, technical data, alarms). Current challenges in nurse-technology interactions for physiologic monitoring include issues regarding alarm management, workflow interruptions, and monitor surveillance.

Attitudes and Practices Related to Clinical Alarms: A Follow-up Survey.

Background: Alarm fatigue is a widely acknowledged patient safety concern in hospitals. In 2013, The Joint Commission issued a National Patient Safety Goal on Alarm Management, making addressing alarm management a priority. To capture changes in attitudes and practices related to alarms, the Healthcare Technology Foundation conducted and reported findings from national online surveys in 2006 and 2011 and completed a third survey in 2016.

Measurement of Physiological Monitor Alarm Accuracy and Clinical Relevance in Intensive Care Units.

Background: Alarm fatigue threatens patient safety by delaying or reducing clinician response to alarms, which can lead to missed critical events. Interventions to reduce alarms without jeopardizing patient safety target either inaccurate or clinically irrelevant alarms, so assessment of alarm accuracy and clinical relevance may enhance the rigor of alarm intervention studies done in clinical units.

Objectives: To (1) examine approaches used to measure accuracy and/or clinical relevance of physiological monitor alarms in intensive care units and (2) compare the proportions of inaccurate and clinically irrelevant alarms.

Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary disease management program on outcomes in patients with heart failure in China: A randomized controlled single center study.

Background: Multidisciplinary disease management programs (MDMP) for patients with heart failure (HF) have been delivered, but evidence of their effectiveness in China is limited.

Objective: To determine if a MDMP improves quality of life (QoL), physical performance, depressive symptoms, self-care behaviors and mortality or rehospitalization in patients with HF in China.

Methods: This is a randomized controlled single center trial in which patients with HF received either MDMP with discharge education, physical training, follow-up visits and telephone calls for 180 days (n = 31) or standard care (SC, n = 31).

Update to Practice Standards for Electrocardiographic Monitoring in Hospital Settings: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Background And Purpose: This scientific statement provides an interprofessional, comprehensive review of evidence and recommendations for indications, duration, and implementation of continuous electro cardiographic monitoring of hospitalized patients. Since the original practice standards were published in 2004, new issues have emerged that need to be addressed: overuse of arrhythmia monitoring among a variety of patient populations, appropriate use of ischemia and QT-interval monitoring among select populations, alarm management, and documentation in electronic health records.

Methods: Authors were commissioned by the American Heart Association and included experts from general cardiology, electrophysiology (adult and pediatric), and interventional cardiology, as well as a hospitalist and experts in alarm management.

Physical and psychological effects of Qigong exercise in community-dwelling older adults: An exploratory study.

Older adults need exercise programs that correspond to age-related changes. The purpose of this study was to explore preliminary effects of an 8-week Qigong exercise intervention on the physical ability, functional and psychological health, and spiritual well-being of community-dwelling older adults. Forty-five community-dwelling adults with the mean age of 74.

Feasibility and Acceptability of Qigong Exercise in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in the United States.

Objectives: Qigong exercise has been shown to improve physical and psychological well-being in adults with chronic conditions, but little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of engaging in a qigong exercise program in community-dwelling older adults in the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility, acceptance, and adherence to an 8-week qigong exercise intervention in community-dwelling American older adults.

Design: An exploratory study design.