The ambiguity of goal-setting: a study of patients' perspectives on goal-setting in outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury.

PURPOSE: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complex health condition requiring long-term rehabilitation. Person-centred goal-setting is a central component of rehabilitation. However, knowledge of patients' perspectives on the goal-setting in SCI rehabilitation is scarce. The purpose was therefore to explore patients' perspectives on goal-setting in multidisciplinary SCI rehabilitation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anthropological study combining participant-observation and individual interviews. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The COREQ checklist was used to report study quality. RESULTS: Patients with SCI perceived goal-setting as ambiguous. On the one hand, they considered it insignificant, because it was complicated to transform complex needs of everyday life to recommended criteria of goals being measurable, specific, and realistic. On the other hand, they considered it a potentially useful guiding tool. Patients were uncertain of impact of goals and perceived goal-setting as vague during rehabilitation. Patient involvement was challenged by insufficient integration of patients' experience-based knowledge of everyday life and clinicians' profession-based knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Goal-setting in rehabilitation is not the patients' need but they accept it as the clinicians' framework for rehabilitation. For goal-setting to become meaningful to patients with SCI, patient involvement should be strengthened by equally integrating the patients' perspectives in the goal-setting process.Implications for rehabilitationHealth-care professionals have to strengthen patient involvement in SCI rehabilitation by to a greater extent integrating the patients' knowledge of their everyday life and preferences rather than primarily focusing on profession-based knowledge.Health-care professionals must support patients in setting goals which are practically meaningful and relevant to the patients' everyday life and achievably and if needed go beyond the structured measurement of SMART goals.In an acknowledgement of the dynamic nature of goal-setting, clinicians should emphasise formulating goals in a flexible and non-directive manner, thereby providing room for patients' changing needs and challenges over time.Goals in SCI rehabilitation cover a wide range from broad, value-based goals to more specific goals, and the health-care professionals must ensure inclusion of such a wide range of goals.

Goal-Setting in clinical practice: a study of health-care professionals' perspectives in outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury.

PURPOSE: Spinal cord injury is a complex condition requiring long-term rehabilitation. Goal-setting is considered an essential part of rehabilitation, however, knowledge of how goal-setting is practised across health-care professions, settings and diagnoses are scarce. The purpose of the study was therefore to explore health-care professionals' perspectives on goal-setting practice in outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation targeting patients with spinal cord injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anthropological study combining participant-observation and focus group interviews. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. COREQ checklist was used to report the study quality. RESULTS: Health-care professionals experienced a field of tension between internationally recommended goal-setting criteria, requiring goals to be specific, measurable, realistic and time-based, and a practice influenced by patients presenting complex needs. The challenges were managed using a negotiation strategy characterized by a tinkering approach to adjust notions of measurability, realism and time frame into practice. Also, health-care professionals were challenged in relation to practising a person-centred rehabilitation approach. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest rethinking the goal-setting process by allowing recommended goal-setting criteria to be adapted to a specific practice context while acknowledging goal-setting practice in its variety and flexibility as a strength. Furthermore, improved incorporation of patients' perspectives in the practice is needed. Implications for rehabilitationTo strengthen person-centred rehabilitation practice, clinicians should actively search for and engage patient-identified needs and preferences in shared goal-setting.Standard criteria of goal-setting should comply with the individual and specific participation in the everyday life of patients with SCI.SMART goals are not always the right way to formulate rehabilitation goals.A flexible and pragmatic approach is needed to reach a balance between the patients' complex needs and the recommendations for goals to be specific, measurable, realistic, and time-based.

Should rehabilitation goals reflect all aspects of functioning in relation to a biopsychosocial ICF perspective?

PURPOSE: To classify short-term and long-term rehabilitation goals and analyse how they capture functioning in a biopsychosocial International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted at two specialised outpatient multidisciplinary rehabilitation centres for polio survivors and accident victims. Rehabilitation goals extracted from patient journals were linked to the ICF according to linking rules. RESULTS: One hundred patients were included. Four hundred and eighty-seven short-term and long-term rehabilitation goals were linked to the ICF. Fifty-seven per cent were linked to Activity and Participation, 22% to Body Functions, 1% to Body Structure, 4% to Environmental Factors, 4% to Personal Factors, whereas 11% were not defined and 1% was not covered. The identified categories covered all ICF domains. The most frequent categories for short-term goals were d450 "Walking" and d570 "Looking after one's health." For long-term goals, d850 "Remunerative Employment" and d920 "Recreation and Leisure" were the most frequent. CONCLUSION: The study showed challenges in capturing all aspects of biopsychosocial functioning in rehabilitation goals, particularly Contextual Factors. This study indicates that rehabilitation goals capture capacity rather than performance. Further research could highlight if functioning is captured in the rehabilitation plan, and in this way include both capacity and performance.Implications for rehabilitationHealth professionals in a post-acute or long-term rehabilitation setting should pay attention to capacity and performance when rehabilitation goals are set.The rehabilitation plan should contain goals and a description of patient's contextual factors and both should be equally valued and combined in a description of functioning.In a post-acute or long-term rehabilitation setting short-term and long-term goals are affected by the context. A longer rehabilitation intervention lead to goals linked to activity and participation.

Role of human papillomavirus testing and cytology in follow-up after conization.

OBJECTIVE: Adequate follow-up of women who have undergone conization for high-grade cervical lesions is crucial in cervical cancer screening programs. We evaluated the performance of testing for high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types, cytology alone, and combined testing in predicting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) after conization. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Denmark. POPULATION: 667 women attending for conization. METHODS: Cervical specimens were collected during 2002-2006 at first visit after conization for cytological examination and Hybrid Capture 2 detection of high-risk HPV. The women were passively followed until 2 years after first follow-up visit by linkage to the nationwide Pathology Data Bank. RESULTS: At first visit after conization (median time, 3.4 months), 20.4% were HPV-positive and 17.2% had atypical squamous intraepithelial lesions or more severe cytology (ASCUS+). The 2-year incidence of CIN2+ after conization was 3.6%. Sensitivity for detection of CIN2+ after conization was 81.0% [95% confidence interval (CI) 58.1-94.6] for positive cytology (ASCUS+ threshold) and 95.2% (95% CI 76.2-99.9) for HPV testing and for combined testing. Specificity of ASCUS+ cytology (85.2%; 95% CI 82.0-88.0) was higher than that of HPV testing (82.4%; 95% CI 79.0-85.4) and markedly higher than that of combined testing (73.2%; 95% CI 69.3-76.8). The margin status had no significant added value. CONCLUSIONS: Testing for high-risk HPV three to four months after conization is more sensitive than ASCUS+ cytology for identifying women at risk for relapse of CIN2+ within 2 years. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether HPV testing could be a stand-alone test in follow up after conization.

Outcome of physiotherapy as part of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation in an unselected polio population with one-year follow-up: an uncontrolled study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of physiotherapy as part of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation. DESIGN: Prospective uncontrolled intervention study. SUBJECTS: Fifty patients with late effects of polio, first time referred to physiotherapy at the Danish Society of Polio and Accident Victims (PTU) Rehabilitation Centre. METHODS: The intervention was physiotherapy as an essential part of an individually planned multidisciplinary rehabilitation. The outcome measures Six-Minute Walk Test and Timed-Stands Test were used to assess the functional capacity. Quality of life was evaluated by Medical Outcome Survey Short Form (SF-36) and fatigue by Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20). Patients were tested at baseline; 3 months after the start of rehabilitation and at one-year follow-up. RESULTS: The patients showed significantly better functional capacity on all measurements 3 months after start of intervention and at one-year follow-up. The patients showed significant improvement in 3 of the SF-36 dimensions regarding quality of life, but only the improvement in "general health" remained after one year. CONCLUSION: This study shows that patients with late effects of polio, who experience new problems related to polio, can benefit from an individually planned multidisciplinary intervention with emphasis on physiotherapy, and the improvement in physical capacity and general health can remain at one-year follow-up.

Lower urinary tract symptoms after total and subtotal hysterectomy: results of a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this Danish multicenter trial was to compare the proportion of women with lower urinary tract symptoms after total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) and subtotal abdominal hysterectomy (SAH) for benign uterine disorders. A total of 319 women were randomized to TAH (n = 158) or SAH (n = 161). Women were followed up for 1 year by strict data collection procedures, including postal questionnaires. Results were analyzed by intention-to-treat analyses. Urinary incontinence was found less often among TAH women than among SAH women. This was due to a larger reduction of the number of women with stress and urinary incontinence in the TAH group. No other differences were found between the two operation methods. The number of women with urinary incontinence and frequency was reduced from study entry for follow-up, while double/triple voiding was increased. Incontinent women had significantly lower quality of life scores than continent women

Sexuality after total vs. subtotal hysterectomy.

BACKGROUND: The effect of hysterectomy on sexuality is not fully elucidated and until recently total and subtotal hysterectomies have only been compared in observational studies. AIMS: To compare total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) to subtotal abdominal hysterectomy (SAH) regarding effects on sexuality. METHODS: In a Danish multicenter trial 319 women were randomized to TAH (n = 158) or SAH (n = 161); 185 women had self-selected TAH (n = 80) or SAH (n = 105) in a simultaneously conducted observational study. Women were followed for 1 year by strict data collection procedures, including postal questionnaires. Results were analyzed by intention to treat (ITT) analyses. RESULTS: No significant differences were observed between TAH and SAH at 1-year follow-up in both the randomized trial and the observational study regarding women's desire for sex, frequency of intercourse, frequency of orgasm, quality of orgasm, localization of orgasm, satisfaction with sexual life, and dyspareunia. None of these sexual variables changed significantly from entry to the 1-year follow-up, apart from dyspareunia, which was significantly (p = 0.009) reduced in both intervention groups. Significant (p < 0.05) predictors for satisfaction with sexual life after hysterectomy were the preoperative satisfaction with sexual life [odds ratio (OR) 32, 95% confidence interval (CI) 10-125], good relationship with partner (OR 50, 95% CI 9-354), physical well-being (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.09-0.88) and hormone replacement therapy (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.06-0.78). CONCLUSIONS: Both TAH and SAH significantly reduce dyspareunia without having a negative effect on sexual function. The shift toward SAH seems unwarranted.