Publications by authors named "Vera Meeusen"

In 2012, representatives of the 44 International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists (IFNA) member countries were surveyed about their scope of practice. Ten years later, the researchers repeated the study to evaluate the professional development of nonphysician anesthesia providers. The survey was prepared by the IFNA Practice Committee and explored demographics, training, anesthesia team members, and daily activities of the nonphysician anesthesia providers (NPAPs).

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A female patient, known to have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), underwent several elective gastroscopies under sedation in different hospitals. Except for a single incident of mild laryngospasm during emergence, all procedures were uneventful. On that occasion, following the procedure in the postanesthesia care unit, the patient suffered severe airway obstruction, and standard airway rescue techniques exacerbated adequate ventilation.

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Goals: We aimed to develop and validate a patient-reported experience measure for gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy, the Comprehensive Endoscopy Satisfaction Tool that captures relevant domains that influence the patient's experience and identify factors that shape satisfaction.

Background: Patient-reported experience measures are used to capture specific quality aspects of health care services. GI endoscopic services are high-volume services, and there is a lack of specific, validated instruments to capture various domains that shape the patients' experience with routine clinical endoscopic services.

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Endoscopy-related pathogen transmission may occur if microorganisms are spread from patient to patient by contaminated equipment. Effective and safe endoscope reprocessing includes bedside precleaning, mechanical cleaning, high-level disinfection, storage, and drying. The aim of this research study was to observe and report on the variation in practice regarding the use of detergent for bedside precleaning of flexible gastrointestinal endoscopes.

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Patient positioning during gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures has received minimal attention compared with surgical procedures performed in the surgical setting. However, prolonged endoscopic interventions on patients and the increasing requirement for general anesthesia have changed to need for patient positioning guidelines. The objective of this study was to test whether patient positioning guidelines for surgical procedures in surgical suites are suitable for gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures without negatively impacting safety and procedure duration.

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In the above article, due to probable typo error with the picture and legend, the correct Fig. 1 and the Legend to the Fig. 1 is printed here.

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Goals And Background: Quality of bowel preparation is an important factor influencing adenoma detection. Patient education is believed to improve the quality of bowel preparation but might be resource-intensive. We aimed to (a) identify risk factors for failed bowel preparations and (b) develop and test the efficacy of a screening tool that allows to prospectively identify and target patients at increased risk.

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Simethicone is an antifoaming agent frequently added to endoscopic rinse solutions but has recently been implicated as a risk factor for transmission of infections due to the formation of simethicone deposits within scope channels. Since the build-up of residue is likely dose-related, the smallest effective dose of simethicone should be used but there are no data available on the effective dose. Thus, we conducted a dose-finding study in an "in vitro bubble model" to determine the appropriate simethicone dose.

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In The Netherlands, hospital care production pressure recently increased substantially, while the number of nurse anesthetists available did not match this rise. The longtime existing norm of no night shifts for nurses beyond the age of 55 years was increased to age 57 to meet the demand for more nurse anesthetists. In this pilot study, we aimed to determine the level of fatigue and its correlation with demographic items among this category of employees.

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Background: In the Netherlands, the employment as a "nurse anaesthetist" is comparable to that of a registered nurse anaesthetist in the Scandinavian countries and Poland. However, the Dutch healthcare system employs nurse anaesthetists both with and without nursing backgrounds. This study has investigated whether a nursing background influences the attitudes and perceptions of nurse anaesthetists in the Netherlands.

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Finding ways to retain nurse anesthetists in the profession to meet the increasing demands of the healthcare system is of paramount importance. The present study investigates the relationship between work climate and job satisfaction among Dutch nurse anesthetists. A questionnaire was distributed to Dutch nurse anesthetists to assess their perceptions of their work climates, and their levels of job satisfaction.

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Background: The retention of nurse anesthetists is of paramount importance, particularly in view of the fact that the health care workforce is shrinking. Although many health care providers find their work satisfying, they often consider leaving their jobs because of the stress. Are there ways to improve this situation?

Purpose: This study investigated how work environment characteristics and personality dimensions relate to burnout and job satisfaction and ultimately to turnover intention among Dutch nurse anesthetists.

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Background And Objective: The anaesthesia workforce in Europe is understaffed and may not meet the growing demands of surgery. In many European countries where responsibilities can be identified and a varying degree of task substitution occurs, the anaesthesia service is provided by a team of physician and nonphysician anaesthesia members. This study assesses the availability, as well as the roles and functions, of nonphysician anaesthesia team members in European countries.

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