The impact of video consultation on interprofessional collaboration and professional roles: a simulation-based study in prehospital stroke chain of care.

Healthcare is often conducted by interprofessional teams. Research has shown that diverse groups with their own terminology and culture greatly influence collaboration and patient safety. Previous studies have focused on interhospital teams, and very little attention has been paid to team collaboration between intrahospital and prehospital care. Addressing this gap, the current study simulated a common and time-critical event for ambulance nurses (AN) that also required contact with a stroke specialist in a hospital. Today such consultations are usually conducted over the phone, this simulation added a video stream from the ambulance to the neurologist on call. The aim of this study was to explore interprofessional collaboration between AN's and neurologists when introducing video-support in the prehospital stroke chain of care. The study took place in Western Sweden. The simulated sessions were video recorded, and the participants were interviewed after the simulation. The results indicate that video has a significant impact on collaboration and can help to facilitate better understanding among different professional groups. The participants found the video to be a valuable complement to verbal information. The result also showed challenges in the form of a loss of patient focused care. Both ANs and neurologists saw the video as benefiting patient safety.

'Sometimes you need an eye-opener': A qualitative study on nursing assistants' experiences of developing communication skills through an educational intervention on person-centred communication.

AIM: To explore nursing assistants' (NAs') experiences of developing communication skills while participating in an educational intervention on person-centred communication. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted. METHODS: Data were collected from interviews and written assignments before, during and after an educational intervention on person-centred communication targeting NAs in home care services. The data were analysed using a phenomenological approach. A total of 25 NAs participated in the study. RESULTS: The findings describe NAs' experiences concerning the communication skills needed for building relationships with older persons and handling emotionally challenging situations. The educational intervention increased their knowledge and awareness of the importance of communication skills and how such skills are developed and refined.

Communication in home care-A feasibility study of an educational intervention in self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

AIM: To explore the feasibility of evaluating a novel educational intervention on person-centered communication for nursing assistants (NAs) in home care. DESIGN: A feasibility study with pre- and post-assessments. METHODS: Feasibility was assessed pre- and post-intervention, including evaluation of data collection procedures, completion rates and missing data in two questionnaires: Self-efficacy Questionnaire measuring communication skills and Measure of Job Satisfaction, analysed descriptively and statistically. RESULTS: The questionnaires were feasible and acceptable for the NAs to complete and understand. The pre- and post-assessments showed 83% and 61% completion rates, respectively, and a low proportion of missing data. Barriers for not participating in data collection were stress caused by staff shortages and high workload. Preliminary analysis of the questionnaires showed no significant difference pre- and post-intervention, even though an overall tendency of increased communication self-efficacy was observed. The NAs' self-efficacy ratings also revealed a ceiling effect.

Early detection of sepsis using artificial intelligence: a scoping review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. To decrease the high case fatality rates and morbidity for sepsis and septic shock, there is a need to increase the accuracy of early detection of suspected sepsis in prehospital and emergency department settings. This may be achieved by developing risk prediction decision support systems based on artificial intelligence. METHODS: The overall aim of this scoping review is to summarize the literature on existing methods for early detection of sepsis using artificial intelligence. The review will be performed using the framework formulated by Arksey and O'Malley and further developed by Levac and colleagues. To identify primary studies and reviews that are suitable to answer our research questions, a comprehensive literature collection will be compiled by searching several sources. Constrictions regarding time and language will have to be implemented. Therefore, only studies published between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2020 will be taken into consideration, and foreign language publications will not be considered, i.e., only papers with full text in English will be included. Databases/web search engines that will be used are PubMed, Web of Science Platform, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, and ACM Digital Library. Furthermore, clinical studies that have completed patient recruitment and reported results found in the database ClinicalTrials.gov will be considered. The term artificial intelligence is viewed broadly, and a wide range of machine learning and mathematical models suitable as base for decision support will be evaluated. Two members of the team will test the framework on a sample of included studies to ensure that the coding framework is suitable and can be consistently applied. Analysis of collected data will provide a descriptive summary and thematic analysis. The reported results will convey knowledge about the state of current research and innovation for using artificial intelligence to detect sepsis in early phases of the medical care chain. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The methodology used here is based on the use of publicly available information and does not need ethical approval. It aims at aiding further research towards digital solutions for disease detection and health innovation. Results will be extracted into a review report for submission to a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Results will be shared with relevant local and national authorities and disseminated in additional appropriate formats such as conferences, lectures, and press releases.

Clinical reasoning in the emergency medical services: an integrative review.

Clinical reasoning is the process of gathering and understanding information conducted by clinicians in the emergency medical services (EMS) so as to make informed decisions. Research on clinical reasoning spans several disciplines, but a comprehensive view of the process is lacking. To our knowledge, no review of clinical reasoning in the EMS has been conducted. AIM: The aim was to investigate the nature, deployment, and factors influencing EMS clinicians' clinical reasoning by means of a review. METHOD: Data was collected through searches in electronic databases, networking among research teams, colleagues and friends, "grey literature," and through ancestry searches. A total of 38 articles were deemed eligible for inclusion and were analyzed using descriptive thematic analysis. The analysis resulted in an overarching finding - namely, the importance for EMS clinicians to adjust for perceived control in unpredictable situations. Within this finding, 3 themes emerged in terms of EMS clinicians' clinical reasoning: (1) maintaining a holistic view of the patient; (2) keeping an open mind; and (3) improving through criticism. Seven subthemes subsequently emerged from these three themes. RESULTS: This review showed that EMS clinicians' clinical reasoning begins with the information that they are given about a patient. Based on this information, clinicians calculate the best route to the patient and which equipment to use, and they also assess potential risks. They need to be constantly aware of what is happening on the scene and with the patient and strive to control the situation. This striving also enables EMS clinicians to work safely and effectively in relation to the patient, their relatives, other clinicians, associated organizations, and the wider community. A lack of contextually appropriate guidelines results in the need for creativity and forces EMS clinicians to use "workarounds" to solve issues beyond the scope of the guidelines available. In addition, they often lack organizational support and fear repercussions such as litigation, unemployment, or blame by their EMS or healthcare organization or by patients and relatives. CONCLUSION: Clinical reasoning is influenced by several factors. Further research is needed to determine which influencing factors can be addressed through interventions to minimize their impact on patient outcomes.

Research challenges in prehospital care: the need for a simulation-based prehospital research laboratory.

There is a need for improved research in the field of prehospital care. At the same time, there are many barriers in prehospital research due to the complex context, posing unique challenges for research, development, and evaluation. The present paper argues for the potential of simulation for prehospital research, e.g., through the development of an advanced simulation-based prehospital research laboratory. However, the prehospital context is different from other healthcare areas, which implies special requirements for the design of this type of laboratory, in terms of simulation width (including the entire prehospital work process) and depth (level of scenario detail). A set of features pertaining to simulation width, scenario depth, equipment, and personnel and competence are proposed. Close tailoring between these features and the prehospital research problems and context presents great potential to improve and further prehospital research.

The Effects of Integrated IT Support on the Prehospital Stroke Process: Results from a Realistic Experiment.

Stroke is a serious condition and the stroke chain of care is a complex. The present study aims to explore the impact of a computerised decision support system (CDSS) for the prehospital stroke process, with focus on work processes and performance. The study used an exploratory approach with a randomised controlled crossover design in a realistic contextualised simulation experiment. The study compared clinical performance among 11 emergency medical services (EMS) teams of 22 EMS clinicians using (1) a computerised decision support system (CDSS) and (2) their usual paper-based process support. Data collection consisted of video recordings, postquestionnaires and post-interviews, and data were analysed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. In this experiment, using a CDSS improved patient assessment, decision making and compliance to process recommendations. Minimal impact of the CDSS was found on EMS clinicians' self-efficacy, suggesting that even though the system was found to be cumbersome to use it did not have any negative effects on self-efficacy. Negative effects of the CDSS include increased on-scene time and a cognitive burden of using the system, affecting patient interaction and collaboration with team members. The CDSS's overall process advantage to the prehospital stroke process is assumed to lead to a prehospital care that is both safer and of higher quality. The key to user acceptance of a system such as this CDSS is the relative advantages of improved documentation process and the resulting patient journal. This could improve the overall prehospital stroke process.

The impact of contextualization on immersion in healthcare simulation.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper is to explore how contextualization of a healthcare simulation scenarios impacts immersion, by using a novel objective instrument, the Immersion Score Rating Instrument. This instrument consists of 10 triggers that indicate reduced or enhanced immersion among participants in a simulation scenario. Triggers refer to events such as jumps in time or space (sign of reduced immersion) and natural interaction with the manikin (sign of enhanced immersion) and can be used to calculate an immersion score. METHODS: An experiment using a randomized controlled crossover design was conducted to compare immersion between two simulation training conditions for prehospital care: one basic and one contextualized. The Immersion Score Rating Instrument was used to compare the total immersion score for the whole scenario, the immersion score for individual mission phases, and to analyze differences in trigger occurrences. A paired t test was used to test for significance. RESULTS: The comparison shows that the overall immersion score for the simulation was higher in the contextualized condition. The average immersion score was 2.17 (sd = 1.67) in the contextualized condition and -0.77 (sd = 2.01) in the basic condition (p < .001). The immersion score was significantly higher in the contextualized condition in five out of six mission phases. Events that might be disruptive for the simulation participants' immersion, such as interventions of the instructor and illogical jumps in time or space, are present to a higher degree in the basic scenario condition; while events that signal enhanced immersion, such as natural interaction with the manikin, are more frequently observed in the contextualized condition. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that contextualization of simulation training with respect to increased equipment and environmental fidelity as well as functional task alignment might affect immersion positively and thus contribute to an improved training experience.