Creating healthy nursing home environment via lighting interventions: a theoretical approach.

In the Netherlands long-term care facilities made investments in order to improve the well-being of their residents and to support healthcare professionals in their daily task. Light is one of the technical solutions that might be contribute to support the well-being of older residents in long-term care facilities. This study investigates which possibilities are available to enrich the current situation to support the well-being, activities of daily living, and quality of life of older residents from lighting perspective.

Visual functioning of aging care professionals and the influence of light, a brief literature study.

Ageing is an important factor that affects visual functioning. In the Netherlands the average age in healthcare facilities is on increase. The current study is a preliminary literature review regarding the influence of light on the visual functioning of the aging workforce and their related tasks.

Medication management capacity in relation to cognition and self-management skills in older people on polypharmacy.

Objective: To determine the medication management capacity of independently living older people (≥75 years) on polypharmacy (≥ 5 medications) in relation to their cognitive- and self-management skills.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Two homecare organizations in the Netherlands.

Direct access: lessons learnt from the Netherlands.

Objective: To use a qualitative approach to examine the perceptions of policy makers, general dental practitioners, dental hygienists, dental students and dental hygiene students in the Netherlands following the introduction of a direct access policy in 2006.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were undertaken with a variety of policy makers and clinicians in the Netherlands. These were recorded and transcribed verbatim into MS Word documents.

Knowledge and perspectives of Dutch home healthcare nurses regarding medication frequently used by older people.

Background: Home healthcare nurses in their roles as caregivers, educators and administrators of medications are particularly well positioned to act on a preventive way to be alert of adverse drug reactions. However, knowledge about medication and a professional attitude is required.

Aim: To describe medication-related knowledge and perspectives of Dutch home healthcare nurses regarding frequent used medication by older people.

Light therapy: methodological issues from an engineering perspective.

Light therapy is increasingly administered and studied as a non-pharmacologic treatment for a variety of health-related problems, including treatment of people with dementia. Light therapy comes in a variety of ways, ranging from being exposed to daylight, to being exposed to light emitted by light boxes and ambient bright light. Light therapy is an area in medicine where medical sciences meet the realms of physics, engineering and technology.

Ageing-in-place with the use of ambient intelligence technology: perspectives of older users.

Introduction: Ambient intelligence technologies are a means to support ageing-in-place by monitoring clients in the home. In this study, monitoring is applied for the purpose of raising an alarm in an emergency situation, and thereby, providing an increased sense of safety and security. Apart from these technological solutions, there are numerous environmental interventions in the home environment that can support people to age-in-place.

Environmental interventions and the design of homes for older adults with dementia: an overview.

In Western societies, the vast majority of people with dementia live at home and wish to remain doing so for as long as possible. Aging in place can be facilitated through a variety of environmental interventions, including home modifications. This article provides an overview of existing design principles and design goals, and environmental interventions implemented at home, based on literature study and additional focus group sessions.

Thermal comfort: research and practice.

Thermal comfort--the state of mind, which expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment--is an important aspect of the building design process as modern man spends most of the day indoors. This paper reviews the developments in indoor thermal comfort research and practice since the second half of the 1990s, and groups these developments around two main themes; (i) thermal comfort models and standards, and (ii) advances in computerization. Within the first theme, the PMV-model (Predicted Mean Vote), created by Fanger in the late 1960s is discussed in the light of the emergence of models of adaptive thermal comfort.

Promoting the use of outcome measures by an educational programme for physiotherapists in stroke rehabilitation: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine the influence of tutor expertise on the uptake of a physiotherapists' educational programme intended to promote the use of outcome measures in the management of patients with stroke.

Design: Pilot randomized controlled trial.

Methods: Thirty physiotherapists involved in stroke management were randomized into two groups and participated in five tutor-guided educational sessions (the Physiotherapists' Educational Programme on Clinimetrics in Stroke, PEPCiS).

Outcome measures in physiotherapy management of patients with stroke: a survey into self-reported use, and barriers to and facilitators for use.

Unlabelled: OBJECTIVE. To investigate physiotherapists' self-reported use of outcome measures as recommended in the Dutch Clinical Practice Guideline on Physiotherapy Management of Patients with Stroke (CPGPS) and to assess perceived barriers to and facilitators for the use of outcome measures in everyday practice.

Method: A 41-item survey, including the barriers and facilitators questionnaire (BFQ), was sent by post to 400 physiotherapists in each of the following settings in the Netherlands: acute care hospitals (ACH; n = 100), rehabilitation centres (RC; n = 100), nursing homes (NH; n = 100) and private physiotherapy practices (PPP; n = 100).