Current practices related to family presence during acute deterioration in adult emergency department patients.

Aims And Objectives: To explore the characteristics of and interactions between clinicians, patients and family members during management of the deteriorating adult patient in the emergency department.

Background: Previous research into family presence during resuscitation has identified many positive outcomes when families are included. However, over the last three decades the epidemiology of acute clinical deterioration has changed, with a decrease in in-hospital cardiac arrests and an increase in acute clinical deterioration.

Post resuscitation management of cardiac arrest patients in the critical care environment: A retrospective audit of compliance with evidence based guidelines.

Background: There is a clear relationship between evidence-based post resuscitation care and survival and functional status at hospital discharge. The Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) recommends protocol driven care to enhance chance of survival following cardiac arrest. Healthcare providers have an obligation to ensure protocol driven post resuscitation care is timely and evidence based.

Patient perceptions of nurse mentors facilitating the Aussie Heart Guide: A home-based cardiac rehabilitation programme for rural patients.

Aim: To explore and describe long-term thoughts and perceptions of the Aussie Heart Guide Programme including the role of the mentor, held by patients recovering from myocardial infarction.

Design: A qualitative design.

Methods: Thirteen patients recovering from myocardial infarction who were unable to attend a hospital-based or affiliated outpatient cardiac rehabilitation programme were interviewed by telephone at the completion of the programme and asked to describe the relationship with their assigned nurse mentor and their perception of the audiovisual used in the programme.

Family presence during management of acute deterioration: Clinician attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of current practices.

Background: The nature of acute clinical deterioration has changed over the last three decades with a decrease in in-hospital cardiac arrests and an increase in acute clinical deterioration. Despite this change, research related to family presence continues to focus on care during resuscitation rather than during acute deterioration.

Aim: To explore healthcare clinician attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of current practices surrounding family presence during episodes of acute deterioration in adult Emergency Department patients.

Evaluating a standardised clinical assessment tool for pre-registration midwifery students: A cross-sectional survey of midwifery students and midwives in Australia.

Background: Assessment of clinical competence is a core component of midwifery education. Clinical assessment tools have been developed to help increase consistency and overcome subjectivity of assessment.

Aim: The study had two main aims.

Model to predict inpatient mortality from information gathered at presentation to an emergency department: The Triage Information Mortality Model (TIMM).

Objectives: To derive and validate a mortality prediction model from information available at ED triage.

Methods: Multivariable logistic regression of variables from administrative datasets to predict inpatient mortality of patients admitted through an ED. Accuracy of the model was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC-AUC) and calibration using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test.

Development, reliability and validity of a tool, to measure emergency department clinicians' attitudes towards family presence (FP) during acute deterioration in adult patients.

Despite many studies of family presence during resuscitation, no validated tool exploring the attitudes and beliefs of healthcare staff towards family presence has been published. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a tool to accurately measure the attitudes and beliefs of emergency department staff towards family presence in the deteriorating adult patient, present the results of validity and reliability testing, and present the final validated tool. Twenty-nine items were developed, informed by themes from the literature and unvalidated published tools related to family presence during resuscitation.