Developing and Evaluating a Continuous Education Program for Healthcare Assistants in Macao: A Cluster-Randomized Trial.

The shortage of healthcare human resources is an important challenge for coping with the aging society in Macao. Since little attention has been paid to continuous education of healthcare assistants, this study aims to develop and evaluate a continuous education program, supporting the expansion and optimization of the competence of healthcare assistants. It is a cluster-randomized trial study.

Text Mining of Journal Articles for Sleep Disorder Terminologies.

Objective: Research on publication trends in journal articles on sleep disorders (SDs) and the associated methodologies by using text mining has been limited. The present study involved text mining for terms to determine the publication trends in sleep-related journal articles published during 2000-2013 and to identify associations between SD and methodology terms as well as conducting statistical analyses of the text mining findings.

Methods: SD and methodology terms were extracted from 3,720 sleep-related journal articles in the PubMed database by using MetaMap.

Selected neurophysiological, psychological, and behavioral influences on subjective sleep quality in nurses: a structure equation model.

Few studies have examined relationships among neurophysiological, psychological, and behavioral factors with regard to their effects on sleep quality. We used a structure equation model to investigate behavioral and psychological factors that influence neurophysiological regulation of sleep in shift workers. Using a cross-sectional study design, we tested the model with a sample of 338 female nurses working rotating shifts at an urban regional hospital.

Recovery after three-shift work: relation to sleep-related cardiac neuronal regulation in nurses.

This study was to evaluate whether sleep-related autonomic function in nurses recovers during their days off following a rapidly rotating, clockwise shift schedule. Ten rotating-shift nurses and ten regular morning-shift nurses were included. Nurses slept at home and were allowed to sleep and wake spontaneously.

Comparison of sleep-related cardiac autonomic function between rotating-shift and permanent night-shift workers.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether sleep-related cardiac sympathetic activity is significantly lower in rotating shift workers than in permanent night shift workers, in order to evaluate whether shift work is preferable to permanent night work. Our sample comprised of twelve permanent night shift nurses and twelve rotating three-shift nurses. All female nurses slept in their dormitories, where they were allowed to sleep and wake spontaneously.

Sleep and autonomic nervous system changes - enhanced cardiac sympathetic modulations during sleep in permanent night shift nurses.

Objectives: Disturbed sleep is the most common problem among the many health-related effects of shift work, with shift workers clearly having higher rates of cardiac disorders. However, the possible mechanism underlying the related health effects of shift work has yet to be examined. Consequently, this study aimed to explore the influence of long-term night shift work on the sleep patterns of nurses and their cardiac autonomic nervous system during sleep.

Sleep quality and morningness-eveningness of shift nurses.

Aim And Objective: The aim of the study was to analyse, while controlling for identified covariates, the effects of morningness-eveningness on sleep quality for shift nurses.

Background: Shift nurses had greater difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, thus resulting in higher rates of retiring from hospital. Existing research has addressed the effects of manpower demand and personal preferences on shift assignment; however, the concept of endogenous rhythms is rarely considered.

Factors affecting the long-term care preferences of the elderly in Taiwan.

This study sets out to investigate the preferences of the elderly in northern Taiwan with regard to various types of long-term care services. Taking into consideration sociodemographics, health condition, and access to such medical care services, our study examined both economic and family factors in an attempt to gain an understanding of the knowledge of and attitudes toward, the various types of long-term care among the elderly. An interview survey was carried out by local public health nurses among a sample of 562 elderly Taiwanese residents (people aged 65 years or older) from 7 counties/cities in northern Taiwan, all of whom had been selected by means of multistage sampling.

Fluvastatin ameliorates endotoxin induced multiple organ failure in conscious rats.

Objectives: Sepsis is a severe inflammatory disorder that may lead to multiple organ failure. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is associated with Gram-negative sepsis and can activate monocytes and macrophages to release pro-inflammatory mediators such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), nitric oxide (NO) and anti-inflammatory mediator such as interleukin-10 (IL-10). In this present study, we used fluvastatin, a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, to study its effects upon LPS-induced endotoxic shock in conscious rats.

Technical efficiency of nursing units in a tertiary care hospital in Taiwan.

The variation in productivity and cost efficiency has been observed among 57 nursing units in a large tertiary care hospital. The inefficient units can achieve the same level of efficiency as the efficient units by altering their inputs (either nursing hours or patient costs). The optimization can be achieved through proper reallocations of nursing resources such as nursing hours or costs.