Publications by authors named "Stirling S"

Introduction: Hospital emergency departments (ED) offer an opportunity to engage with large numbers of people who smoke to prompt cessation, although the acceptability of opportunistic intervention in this context has been questioned. This process evaluation study was embedded into the Cessation of Smoking Trial in the Emergency Department (COSTED) randomized controlled trial and sought to explore the context of intervention delivery within the ED.

Aims And Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with participants and staff across six EDs participating in the COSTED randomized controlled trial.

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Introduction: E-cigarettes have been shown to be effective for tobacco smoking cessation. Predicting those who are most likely to achieve smoking abstinence after receiving an e-cigarette based smoking cessation intervention could help to target interventions more efficiently.

Methods: A secondary analysis of baseline characteristics of 505 people who received an emergency department based smoking cessation intervention incorporating brief advice, provision of an e-cigarette starter kit and referral to stop smoking services.

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Aims: To assess the cost-effectiveness of the Cessation of Smoking Trial in Emergency Department (COSTED) intervention compared with signposting to local stop smoking service (SSS) from the National Health Service (NHS) and personal social services (PSS) perspective.

Design, Setting And Participants: This was a two-group, multi-centre, pragmatic, individually randomized controlled trial set in six Emergency Departments (EDs) in urban and rural areas in the United Kingdom. Adult (≥ 18 years) daily smokers (at least one cigarette or equivalent per day) but not daily e-cigarette users, with carbon monoxide reading ≥ 8 parts per million, attending the ED (n = 972) were included.

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Objective: This study aimed to explore perceptions regarding the sustainability of exercise following participation in a pre- and post-colorectal surgery exercise intervention trial (PREPARE-ABC).

Design: Qualitative interview study. Data were analysed using framework analysis and independently coded by two researchers.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates how adult smokers transition from tobacco smoking to vaping after receiving an e-cigarette-based smoking cessation intervention during a trial conducted across six Emergency Departments in the UK.
  • It aims to identify the pathways of this transition, analyze statistics on smoking and vaping behavior before and after the intervention, and gather qualitative insights from participants about their experiences.
  • Results show that 13.4% of participants quit smoking within the first month, while a notable portion experimented with different vaping devices and expressed satisfaction with the experience, despite many not transitioning to regular vaping.
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Background: A quarter of patients who present to emergency departments (EDs) have difficult intravenous access (DIVA), making it challenging for clinicians to successfully place a peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC). Some literature suggests that guidewire PIVC improves first-insertion success rate.

Aim: The aim was to determine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a novel long PIVC (5.

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Background: Interest in and use of electronic consent (e-consent) in the conduct of academic clinical trials has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. E-consent offers advantages including increased efficiency and accessibility, and reduced burden on site staff, which can be appealing to academic trialists anticipating challenges in recruitment to complex trial designs or with limited funding. However, there are many options to consider when using e-consent in a study protocol.

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Introduction: Screening for smoking when people interact with healthcare services and referral of those who smoke to stop smoking services (SSSs) is a key component of efforts to tackle tobacco use. However, little is known about what happens after someone is referred or signposted to SSSs.

Methods: As part of the Cessation of Smoking Trial in the Emergency Department (NCT04854616), those randomised to intervention (n= 505) were referred to local SSSs (along with receiving brief advice and an e-cigarette starter kit) and those randomised to control (n= 502) were given contact details for the same services (signposted).

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Background: Evaluating the impact of simulation-based education (SBE) has prioritised demonstrating a causal link to improved patient outcomes. Recent calls herald a move away from looking for causation to understanding 'what else happened'. Inspired by Shorrock's varieties of human work from patient safety literature, this study draws on the concept of work-as-done versus work-as-imagined.

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Introduction: First-insertion success rates for peripheral vascular access devices (PVADs) in patients with difficult venous access (DIVA) are low, which negatively affects staff workload, patient experience, and organizational cost. There is mixed evidence regarding the impact of a peripheral vascular access device with retractable coiled tip guidewire (GW; AccuCath™, BD) on the first-insertion success rate. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the use of long GW-PVADs, compared with standard PVADs, reduces the risk of first-time insertion failure, in patients admitted to emergency departments (EDs).

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Background: Supporting people to quit smoking is one of the most powerful interventions to improve health. The Emergency Department (ED) represents a potentially valuable opportunity to deliver a smoking cessation intervention if it is sufficiently resourced. The objective of this trial was to determine whether an opportunistic ED-based smoking cessation intervention can help people to quit smoking.

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Plants are constantly exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released during plant-plant communication, within-plant self-signaling, and plant-microbe interactions. Therefore, understanding VOC perception and downstream signaling is vital for unraveling the mechanisms behind information exchange in plants, which remain largely unexplored. Using the hormone-like function of volatile terpenoids in reproductive organ development as a system with a visual marker for communication, we demonstrate that a petunia karrikin-insensitive receptor, PhKAI2ia, stereospecifically perceives the (-)-germacrene D signal, triggering a KAI2-mediated signaling cascade and affecting plant fitness.

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Background: Agitation is common and impacts negatively on people with dementia and carers. Non-drug patient-centred care is first-line treatment, but we need other treatment when this fails. Current evidence is sparse on safer and effective alternatives to antipsychotics.

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Objectives: A recent review recommended UK postgraduate medical education should produce doctors capable of providing general care in broad specialties across a range of different settings. Responding to this, broad-based training (BBT) was introduced in Scotland in 2018 to provide postgraduate trainees with a grounding in four specialties. Introduced as an option for trainees after initial postgraduate 'Foundation' training, it comprises 6 months in general medicine, general practice, paediatrics and psychiatry.

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Background: Intercostal chest drain (ICD) insertion is a skill that medical trainees lack confidence in performing. This study explores the impact of a national programme of Simulation-Based Mastery Learning (SBML) on procedural confidence, including the impact of time intervals between booster sessions and interim clinical experience.

Methods: Internal Medicine Trainees in Scotland were surveyed about confidence and clinical experience with ICD insertion before and immediately after SBML and booster session.

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Objectives: To examine the costs and cost-effectiveness of mirtazapine compared to placebo over 12-week follow-up.

Design: Economic evaluation in a double-blind randomized controlled trial of mirtazapine vs. placebo.

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Introduction: A new UK medical postgraduate curriculum prompted the creation of a novel national medical postgraduate 'boot camp'. An enhanced simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) methodology was created to deliver procedural skills teaching within this national boot camp. This study aimed to explore the impact of SBML in a UK medical boot camp.

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Background: Falls in care home residents are common, unpleasant, costly and difficult to prevent.

Objectives: The objectives were to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Guide to Action for falls prevention in Care Homes (GtACH) programme.

Design: A multicentre, cluster, parallel, 1 : 1 randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation and economic evaluation.

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Objectives: To determine the clinical and cost effectiveness of a multifactorial fall prevention programme compared with usual care in long term care homes.

Design: Multicentre, parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Long term care homes in the UK, registered to care for older people or those with dementia.

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Background: The effects of growth stage (GS) and ensiling were assessed on whole-crop oat's (Avena sativa L. cv. Cantara) chemical composition, silage fermentation quality and in situ ruminal degradability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Agitation in dementia patients significantly impacts their quality of life and that of their caregivers, and non-drug treatments are typically the first approach, but more options are needed when these fail.
  • The SYMBAD trial involved 204 participants with Alzheimer's disease who were given either mirtazapine or a placebo to see if it could reduce agitation, measured by the CMAI score, over 12 weeks.
  • Results showed no significant difference in agitation reduction between mirtazapine and placebo groups, and there was a concerning higher mortality rate in the mirtazapine group, suggesting it may not be a safe alternative for treating agitation in dementia.
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Background: A colorectal resection is standard treatment for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the procedure results in significant post-operative mortality and reduced quality of life. Maximising pre-operative cardiopulmonary fitness could improve post-surgical outcomes.

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Background: Hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonias (HAP and VAP) are common in critical care and can be life-threatening. Rapid microbiological diagnostics, linked to an algorithm to translate their results into antibiotic choices, could simultaneously improve patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship.

Methods: The INHALE Randomised Controlled Trial is a multi-centre, parallel study exploring the potential of the BioFire FilmArray molecular diagnostic to guide antibiotic treatment of HAP/VAP in intensive care units (ICU); it identifies pathogens and key antibiotic resistance in around 90 min.

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Pasture-based dairy systems present the opportunity to increase productivity per hectare through increasing stocking rate and forage utilization. However, in the temperate hot-summer region of South America, different productive strategies are being adopted by farmers. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of feeding strategy (FS) and cow genotype (G) on individual animal and whole-farm biophysical performance.

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Background: The transfer of training to the workplace is the aim of training interventions. Three primary factors influence transfer: trainee characteristics, training design and work environment influences. Within medical education, the work environment factors influencing transfer of training remain underexplored.

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