Making body work sequences visible: an ethnographic study of acute orthopaedic hospital wards.

Within health and social care, academic attention is increasingly paid to understanding the nature and centrality of body work. Relatively little is known about how and where body work specifically fits into the wider work relations that produce it in healthcare settings. We draw on ethnographic observations of staff practice in three National Health Service acute hospital wards in the United Kingdom to make visible the micro-processes of patient care sequences including both body work and the work contextualising and supporting it.

PERFECTED enhanced recovery (PERFECT-ER) care versus standard acute care for patients admitted to acute settings with hip fracture identified as experiencing confusion: study protocol for a feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial.

Background: Health and social care provision for an ageing population is a global priority. Provision for those with dementia and hip fracture has specific and growing importance. Older people who break their hip are recognised as exceptionally vulnerable to experiencing confusion (including but not exclusively, dementia and/or delirium and/or cognitive impairment(s)) before, during or after acute admissions.

Optimising care for patients with cognitive impairment and dementia following hip fracture.

The global shift in demographics towards aging populations is leading to a commensurate increase in age-related disease and frailty. It is essential to optimise health services to meet current needs and prepare for anticipated future demands. This paper explores issues impacting on people living with cognitive impairment and/or dementia who experience a hip fracture and are cared for in acute settings.

Prevalence, goals of care and long-term outcomes of patients with life-limiting illness referred to a tertiary ICU.

Objective: To describe the prevalence, characteristics, long-term outcomes and goals-of-care discussions of patients with objective indicators of life-limiting illnesses (LLIs) referred to the intensive care unit.

Design, Setting And Patients: A prospective, observational, cohort study of all adult inpatients referred to the ICU by the medical emergency team or by direct referral, during the period 30 August 2012 to 1 February 2013, at a tertiary teaching hospital in Australia.

Main Outcome Measures: Mortality, LLIs, discharge destination and documentation on goals of care in medical record.

A prospective observational study of prevalence and outcomes of patients with Gold Standard Framework criteria in a tertiary regional Australian Hospital.

Objectives: Report the use of an objective tool, UK Gold Standards Framework (GSF) criteria, to describe the prevalence, recognition and outcomes of patients with palliative care needs in an Australian acute health setting. The rationale for this is to enable hospital doctors to identify patients who should have a patient-centred discussion about goals of care in hospital.

Design: Prospective, observational, cohort study.

A study of patient expectations in a Norfolk general practice.

Objective: To use semi-structured interviews to ascertain patterns in patients' expectations of health care and the extent to which these expectations were met or not.

Background: In health policy it is important to evaluate health services from varying perspectives including consumers'. One concept of emerging importance in this regard is that of patient expectations.

Assessing patients' preferences for treatments for angina using a modified repertory grid method.

A current popular theme in medicine concerns whether and how patients should be involved in treatment choice. Assuming patient involvement is desirable, how should one go about eliciting preferences? A variety of quantitative and qualitative methods exist that may be used for this purpose, one of which is the repertory grid method. This method involves eliciting constructs (reasons) for preferences through comparing sets of three options.

The risks of eating and drinking.

Consumer perceptions and 'reality'

Reasons underpinning patients' preferences for various angina treatments.

Objective: To elicit patients' preferences for the treatment of angina.

Design: Angina patients were interviewed in order to elicit their personal reasons underlying preferences for various treatment options. Interviews followed a general repertory grid technique, in which seven treatment options were presented to patients in triads.

Using interpretative phenomenology to understand the food-related experiences and beliefs of a select group of low-income UK women.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth account of the beliefs and experiences pertaining to food and health from a specific group of low-income women in the United Kingdom.

Design: Data for this in-depth, qualitative study were collected using audiotaped semistructured interviews.

Participants: Fourteen white, European women (aged 40 to 60 years) from a defined low-income group were recruited using systematic, nonprobabilistic sampling.