Effective teamwork in healthcare: research and reality.

Issues affecting health workplaces range from serious concerns that could affect the immediate physical safety of workers to those that would improve productivity and efficiency, or make an organization a preferred employer. Employers and workers might consider effective teamwork an asset, but for patients it is a prerequisite. This paper reviews the evidence for effective teamwork, primarily that gathered by a research team funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF).

Restoration of weight-shifting capacity in patients with postacute stroke: a rehabilitation cohort study.

Objectives: To identify and interrelate recovery characteristics of voluntary weight shifting after stroke and to examine whether the assessment of weight shifting adds information about balance recovery compared with the assessment of quiet standing.

Design: Exploratory study using an inception cohort with findings related to reference values from healthy elderly persons.

Setting: Dutch rehabilitation center.

Does practice modify the relationship between postural control and the execution of a secondary task in young and older individuals?

Background: Numerous daily activities require performing more than one task simultaneously, such as standing while engaging in a conversation. Recent studies have shown that postural control may be degraded when individuals are asked to perform a secondary task and that this effect seems to be more pronounced in older adults. Since various types of secondary tasks have been used in postural control studies, the novelty of the tasks may partly explain why dual-task interference occurs.

Effects of visual center of pressure feedback on postural control in young and elderly healthy adults and in stroke patients.

The goal of this study was to compare young and elderly healthy individuals and elderly stroke patients in their capacity to use visual CP feedback (VF) in controlling both quiet standing and weight shifting and to assess their sensory re-weighing when this VF is withdrawn. A total of 40 participants were involved in this study. Participants were asked to either quietly stand on a force platform for a period of 45 s with eyes open (EO), using visual feedback (VF) or without visual feedback (No VF) or to perform a dynamic weight shifting task while using VF or No VF.

Does articulation contribute to modifications of postural control during dual-task paradigms?

Many studies have been carried out to investigate the attentional resources required for postural control, using a 'dual-task' methodology in which performance on mental and postural control tasks is compared when these are carried out separately and concurrently. Most mental tasks used in these dual-task studies have employed verbal responses. However, changes in respiration during speech production are known to produce changes in postural control.

Evaluation of a specific balance and coordination programme for individuals with a traumatic brain injury.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an aerobic dancing training, designed to reduce postural imbalance and coordination deficits for individuals who had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). A two group experimental design was conducted. A control group participated in a traditional muscular training (TMT) programme while participants in the experimental group were assigned to an aerobic dancing, Slide and Step training programme (specific training group (ST)).