Practice patterns, role and impact of advanced practice nurses in stroke care: A mixed-methods systematic review.

Aim(s): To undertake a systematic review of the practice patterns and roles of advanced practice nurses (APNs) in inpatient and outpatient stroke-care services; and to evaluate the impact of APN-led inpatient and outpatient stroke-care services on clinical and patient-reported outcomes.

Design: A mixed-methods systematic review.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted across six electronic databases for primary studies.

ACT-FAST: a quality improvement project to increase the percentage of acute stroke patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis within 60 minutes of arrival at the emergency department.

Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability, with the administration of recombinant transcriptase-plasminogen activator (rtPA) improving outcomes in a time-dependent manner. Only 52.3% of eligible stroke patients at our institution received rtPA within 60 minutes of arrival.

Predicting Pneumonia in Acute Ischaemic Stroke: Comparison of Five Prediction Scoring Models.

Introduction: Although pneumonia is a major complication after acute ischaemic stroke (AIS), pneumonia prediction scores have not been extensively validated. This study aimed to compare the discrimination performance of 5 pneumonia prediction scores in AIS patients.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all consecutive adult AIS patients whom presented to our emergency department within 4.

Predicting influenza vaccination intent among at-risk chinese older adults in Hong Kong.

Background: Older adults with major chronic illnesses are very susceptible to influenza and its serious complications, but many do not obtain vaccinations. Little is known about factors associated with intention to obtain influenza vaccination among at-risk Chinese older adults in Hong Kong.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with intent to obtain influenza vaccination among at-risk Chinese older adults in Hong Kong.

Characterization of secondary aerosol and its extinction effects on visibility over the Pearl River Delta Region, China.

Aerosol samples collected from July 2007 to March 2008 were used to obtain major aerosol constituents in an urban location in the Pearl River Delta Region (PRD), China. The minimum organic carbon (OC)/elemental carbon (EC) ratio was used to calculate the primary and secondary organic carbon and the extinction effect of the secondary aerosol on visibility was estimated. As indicated in the analysis, the mass of secondary aerosol takes up 50% of the total mass of PM2.

A randomized controlled study to compare the 2% lignocaine and aqueous lubricating gels for female urethral catheterization.

Objective: The 2% lignocaine gel has long been used for male urethral catheterization, but aqueous gel as lubricant has been used for females. However, studies report that females experience pain during urethral catheterization. We compared the effectiveness of 2% lignocaine gel (intervention) and aqueous gel (control) for female urethral catheterization in reducing procedural pain.