Outcomes Comparison of Enculturating Advance Directives Process at a Health System.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires organizations to comply with the Patient Self-Determination Act by having processes that inform patients about their rights to execute an advance directive (AD) and engage in shared decision-making. The aim of this study was to compare AD data from a previous study (1999-2002) to a postenculturation (2011-2015) of a structured process for documented patient's preferences. Second, to conduct a descriptive, bivariate analysis of the enculturated structured ADs process during 2011 and 2015.

Moral distress among healthcare professionals at a health system.

Moral distress is increasingly recognized as a problem affecting healthcare professionals. If not addressed, it may create job dissatisfaction, withdrawal from the moral dimensions of patient care, or even leaving the profession. Using the 21-Moral Distress Scale-Revised to assess moral distress, 323 surveys were received from 5 healthcare disciplines.

Immigrant family skills-building to prevent tobacco use in Latino youth: study protocol for a community-based participatory randomized controlled trial.

Background: Despite declines over recent years, youth tobacco and other substance use rates remain high. Latino youth are at equal or increased risk for lifetime tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other illicit drug use compared with their white peers. Family plays an important and influential role in the lives of youth, and longitudinal research suggests that improving parenting skills may reduce youth substance use.

Advance directives use in acute care hospitals.

It is a federal requirement for health care organizations to provide and obtain information from admitted patients about their rights to self-determination and executing an advance directive. But how compliant are acute care organizations with this law? This article explores the extent to which hospitalized patients in one Southeastern United States organization had advance directive documentation; its correlation with socioeconomic factors, and the success of educating patients and providing care that is consistent with patient's wishes.

An investigation of telephone use among cochlear implant recipients.

The purpose of this study was to examine telephone use among cochlear implant recipients. A questionnaire was constructed and mailed to 803 adults who received a Clarion cochlear implant system manufactured by Advanced Bionics Corporation. Questionnaire recipients were implanted at least 12 months prior to receiving the questionnaire (i.

Preschool hearing screening: pass/refer rates for children enrolled in a head start program in eastern North Carolina.

This 4-year project investigated the pass/refer rates of preschool children in a hearing screening program. Three- and 4-year-old children who attended Head Start centers in rural, traditionally medically underserved, eastern North Carolina participated (n = 1,462). Screening procedures and pass/refer criteria were based on the Guidelines for Audiologic Screening (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association [ASHA], Panel on Audiologic Assessment, 1997).

Wavelength and temperature performance of polarization-transforming fiber.

We have theoretically and experimentally investigated an optical fiber with circular polarization modes on one end and linear polarization modes on the other end. We call this fiber a polarization-transforming fiber because the local modes, or polarization states they represent, are converted from linear to circular, and visa versa, in the fiber. We have developed and implemented a postdraw process for making polarization-transforming fiber samples 30 mm long with losses less than 1 dB and a polarization-mode conversion from circular to linear greater than 20 dB.