Healthcare professionals' perspectives on facilitators of and barriers to CKD management in primary care: a qualitative study in Singapore clinics.

Introduction: The burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rising globally including in Singapore. Primary care is the first point of contact for most patients with early stages of CKD. However, several barriers to optimal CKD management exist.

Age-Related Performance in Using a Fully Immersive and Automated Virtual Reality System to Assess Cognitive Function.

Introduction: Cognition generally declines gradually over time due to progressive degeneration of the brain, leading to dementia and eventual loss of independent functions. The rate of regression varies among the six cognitive domains (perceptual motor, executive function, complex attention, learning and memory, social cognition and language). Current modality of cognitive assessment using neuropsychological paper-and-pencil screening tools for cognitive impairment such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) has limitations and is influenced by age.

Comparison of Time Taken to Assess Cognitive Function Using a Fully Immersive and Automated Virtual Reality System vs. the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Dementia is increasingly prevalent globally. Existing questionnaire-based cognitive assessment tools may not comprehensively assess cognitive function and real-time task-performance across all cognitive domains. CAVIRE (Cognitive Assessment by VIrtual REality), a fully immersive virtual reality system incorporating automated audio-visual instructions and a scoring matrix was developed to assess the six cognitive domains, with potential to maintain consistency in execution of the testing environment and possibly time-saving in busy primary care practice.

Perceived barriers and facilitators to chronic kidney disease care among patients in Singapore: a qualitative study.

Objective: To outline the facilitators and barriers to patients' self-management of predialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Design: Qualitative.

Setting: Three polyclinics in a public primary care institution in Singapore.

Cultural adaptation of a patient decision-aid for insulin therapy.

Introduction: Patient decision-aids (PDAs) support patients in selecting evidence-based treatment options. PDA is useful only if the user understands the content to make personalised decisions. Cultural adaptation is a process of adjusting health messages so that the information is accurate, relevant and understandable to users from a different population.

A good day in nursing: views of recent Singaporean graduates.

This paper arises from the analysis of data from a large Singapore-based survey and a complementary qualitative series of 17 individual interviews. Some results from both arms of the research have been previously analysed and are reported elsewhere. Answers to a series of questions within the questionnaire and the structured interviews have been drawn together under the umbrella of investigating of recent Singaporean graduates' views about the characteristics of a good nurse, a good day at work, and how they uphold ethical standards.

Recent graduate nurse views of nursing, work and leadership.

Aims And Objectives: To assess recent nurse graduates of a large university and seeks their views of university preparation, requisite nursing skills and qualities, workplace transition, supports received, nurse leadership and role models, and career development and retention.

Background: Concern about attracting and retaining registered nurses is a continuing workforce issue in parts of Asia and throughout the world.

Design: Qualitative interviews with recent nursing graduates.

Career development: graduate nurse views.

Aims And Objectives: To explore recent Singapore nursing graduates' experience of and views about their career development and progress.

Background: The recruitment and retention of an adequate number of registered nurses is a continuing workforce issue in Singapore and other major cities.

Design: Survey of recent nursing graduates.

Endogenous hydrogen sulfide insufficiency as a predictor of sexual dysfunction in aging rats.

Objective: Our earlier studies showed that endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) pathway contributed significantly to erectile function. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that age-dependent changes in the bioavailability of H(2)S increased the risk of erectile dysfunction (ED).

Methods: Young, adult (3-month) and older (18-month) male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 6-8/group) were treated daily with sodium hydrosulfide hydrate (NaHS), DL-propargylglycine, sildenafil or l-NAME for 10 weeks.