A new children's hospital with a larger floor space, single rooms, and V-shaped ward design: A pre-post evaluation of nurse time providing patient care and nurse, patient, and family experiences.

BACKGROUND: The impact of hospital building design on patients, families and nurses related to nursing care interactions is not well understood. This study reports a pre-post intervention study to understand the effects of the move to a new children's hospital in Perth, Australia, on nurse workflow activities and on patient, family, and nurse experiences. METHODS: We used a pre-post explanatory sequential design involving observation of nurse work tasks; measurement of the Practice Environment Scale and Nurse Work Index; weekly surveys of nurse, patient and family experiences; and nurse focus groups and interviews with patients and families. Survey data were analysed using linear regression; qualitative data analysis used a thematic approach. RESULTS: Nurse time spent walking almost doubled (p < 0.001), from an estimated 10 min at T1 (pre-move) to around 20 min at T4 (12 months post-move), but there was no difference in nurse time providing patient care (p = 0.114). The Practice Environment Scale and Nurse Work Index showed significantly reduced scores for nursing foundations for quality of care (adjusted mean difference -0.08, p = 0.016) and staffing and resource adequacy (adjusted mean difference -0.19, p < 0.001).This fall was mirrored in nurse experience surveys with a reduction in mean scores from T1 to T3 (3 months post-move) of -0.7 (p < 0.001) and from T1 to T4 of -0.4 (p = 0.002). Thematic analysis of qualitative data found that initial challenges appeared to reduce over time. Nurses reported difficulties managing workflow in the new wards and feelings of exhaustion at T3, but this changed to more positive accounts at T4. For patients and families there was a tension between leaving the old and familiar, enjoying the light and space of the new and shared observations that nurses appeared to be busier at T3. At T4, these experiences had changed to 'being a family in hospital' and confidence that a nurse was always close by. CONCLUSIONS: Both benefits and challenges of the new hospital design were encountered from the perspective of nurses, patients, and families. Nurses spent double the time walking in the new environment, but time spent providing patient care was unchanged. Over time, the initial practice challenges reduced as nurses adapted to working in the new environment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ACTRN12618000775213.

A parent first: Exploring the support needs of parents caring for a child with medical complexity in Australia.

PURPOSE: In a recent paediatric nursing research priority setting study, youth, parents and healthcare professionals included 'practical and emotional support' among the top ten areas to focus on. The aim of this study was to explore the support needs of parents who have a child with medical complexity living in the family home. DESIGN: Exploratory with a qualitative inductive approach. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with 12 mothers of children living with heterogenous medical complexity. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. The COREQ checklist was used as a reporting guide. RESULTS: Three themes were tied together by the finding that participants identified as 'a parent first'. The first theme represents the early days where participants desired emotional and practical support for becoming a parent of a child with medical complexity. In the second theme, participants desired more support for the discharge home from the hospital. In the last theme, participants described high levels of knowledge and expertise in relation to their child's unique needs and desired highly accessible support for keeping their child out of hospital. CONCLUSION: Parents' support needs change over time and are similar despite the heterogeneity of their children's medical complexity. Parents seek services that support an independent family life and are responsive to their confidence and competence in caring for their child at home. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Interventions should be tailored to the changing support needs of parents over time.

Improving quality of care and long-term health outcomes through continuity of care with the use of an electronic or paper patient-held portable health file (COMMUNICATE): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The advantages of patient-held portable health files (PHF) and personal health records (PHR), paper or electronic, are said to include improved health-care provider continuity-of-care and patient empowerment in maintaining health. Top-down approaches are favored by public sector government and health managers. Bottom-up approaches include systems developed directly by health-care providers, consumers and industry, implemented locally on devices carried by patient-consumers or shared via web-based portals. These allow individuals to access, manage and share their health information, and that of others for whom they are authorized, in a private, secure and confidential environment. Few medical record technologies have been evaluated in randomized trials to determine whether there are important clinical benefits of these interventions. The COMMUNICATE trial will assess the acceptability and long-term clinical outcomes of an electronic and paper patient-held PHF. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a 48-month, open-label pragmatic, superiority, parallel-group design randomized controlled trial. Subjects (n = 792) will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to each of the trial arms: the electronic PHF added to usual care, the paper PHF added to usual care and usual care alone (no PHF). Inclusion criteria include those 60 years or older living independently in the community, but who have two or more chronic medical conditions that require prescription medication and regular care by at least three medical practitioners (general and specialist care). The primary objective is whether use of a PHF compared to usual care reduces a combined endpoint of deaths, overnight hospitalizations and blindly adjudicated serious out-of-hospital events. All primary analyses will be undertaken masked to randomized arm allocation using intention-to-treat principles. Secondary outcomes include quality of life and health literacy improvements. DISCUSSION: Lack of blinding creates potential for bias in trial conduct and ascertainment of clinical outcomes. Mechanisms are provided to reduce bias, including balanced study contact with all participants, a blinded adjudication committee determining which out-of-hospital events are serious and endpoints that are objective (overnight hospitalizations and mortality). The PRECIS tool provides a summary of the trial's design on the Pragmatic-Explanatory Continuum. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered with Clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT01082978) on 8 March 2010.

Using picture schedules in medical settings for patients with an autism spectrum disorder.

Autism is a neurobiological disorder that compromises ability to communicate and can be accompanied by anxiety, particularly for those in unfamiliar settings with unknown people. To improve communication, children with autism often relate well to pictures; however the literature describes no studies of picture schedules for patients with autism in medical settings. Our pilot project demonstrates how picture schedules for medical settings can relieve anxiety in children with autism and suggests that this approach should be employed as an innovative way to interact with patients with autism.