Factors associated with patient information sharing among home-visiting nurses in Japan: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Home-visiting nurses are expected to enhance their ability to provide adequate nursing care in a relatively isolated work environment. However, the isolated work environment leads to less opportunity to share patient information. We investigated factors relevant to better patient information sharing among home-visiting nurses, which would contribute to the improved care performance of these nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with anonymous self-administered questionnaire was conducted between June 2015 and September 2015 in two districts of Japan. Home-visiting nurses who were working at home health care agencies were recruited. The questionnaires consisted of items on demographic data, job-related variables, communication in the workplace, the current state of patient information sharing, opportunities (or measures) of patient information sharing in the workplace, and job satisfaction. Descriptive analyses were performed on all variables, using the Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, or Mann-Whitney U-test. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with better information sharing, adjusting the years of home-visiting nursing experience as the control variable. RESULTS: Of 762 anonymous self-administered questionnaires were mailed, data from 482 participants who consented to this study and had no missing answer were analyzed. Of the total, 77.2% shared the patients' information. Having a friendly adviser (OR = 2.51, 95% CI = 1.14-5.55, p = 0.023), attending some conferences (OR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.12-4.82, p = 0.024), joining workshops (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.15-3.10, p = 0.012), and years of home-visiting nursing experience (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.03-1.57, p = 0.025) were significantly associated with sufficient sharing of the information. Nurses sufficiently sharing the information were well satisfied with their job (OR = 5.38, 95% CI =3.19-9.09, p < 0.001) and highly preferred a career in home-visiting nursing care (OR = 5.62, 95% CI =3.41-9.27, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that having opportunities to discuss face-to-face such as at conferences and workshops as well as promoting good relationships among colleagues in the workplace will contribute to better information sharing among home-visiting nurses. Home-visiting nurses with less years of experience need to be supported in order to share the information sufficiently. Additionally, sufficient information sharing was also associated with job satisfaction and preference for home-visiting nursing care, which might lead to job retention for home-visiting nurses.

Flaming portal vein as a new color Doppler sign of portal gas: report of two cases.

Portal gas is relatively rare, and the majority of reported cases have shown it to have a close relation to bowel diseases. At present, portal exploration usually begins with color Doppler sonography, and clinicians now possess a good understanding of color Doppler findings of a wide spectrum of portal abnormalities. However, the color Doppler sign we present in this article has not been reported before. We report two cases of ischemic bowel disease in which B-mode ultrasound showed multiple hyperechoic spots moving in the portal vein; the color Doppler appearance was as if the portal vein was on fire (flaming portal vein sign). Knowledge of this simple color Doppler sign helps to improve the diagnostic strategies in patients with portal gas.