Use of a mobile device by nursing home residents for long-term care comprehensive geriatric self-assessment: a feasibility study.

Long-term-care comprehensive geriatric assessments, such as the Minimum Data Set 3.0, are used to evaluate the clinical, psychological, and personal status of residents in long-term-care nursing facilities. Nursing staff conducts assessment interviews, thereby increasing the workload of nurses and the cost of patient care. This study explored the ability of nursing home residents to use two different mobile devices for a geriatric self-assessment. Study participants were residents of long-term-care nursing homes. A modified Minimum Data Set 3.0 was converted to a format for use with a 6-inch mobile pad and a 3.7-inch mobile smartphone. The survey completion rate and the response time were measured. A Technology Assessment Model questionnaire analyzed the participants' experience. All participants were able to use a 6-inch pad, with an average completion rate of 92.9% and an average time for completion of 21 minutes. Only 20% of the participants could complete the assessment with the 3.7-inch smartphone. The participants found the 6-inch pad easier to use than the 3.7-inch smartphone. This exploratory study suggests that nursing home residents are able to use a mobile device to perform a geriatric self-assessment and delineates the importance of the ergonomics of the device.

Attitudes of nurses towards End-user Development.

The purpose of this study is to explore nurses' attitudes toward developing self-made information tools. In order to understand nurses' attitudes, we studied the factors that affect nurses' attitudes toward End-user Development (EUD). The investigation of nurses in Taiwan hospitals showed that nurses had positive attitudes toward EUD. A framework of nurses' attitudes toward EUD is presented. A gap was found between the functions provided by the nursing information system and self-assessment required by the job. The nurses were inclined to be dissatisfied with support provided by the information centers. Nursing managers were advised to enhance on-the-job training for computer applications, and to include computer competencies in the nursing ladders program. The results indicated that nurses were willing to develop their own tools. We believe that nurses with computer application skills who are provided with appropriate tools can become nursing application developers. The results encourage nurses to develop software by themselves. Further research and development is required to enhance the impact of EUD and establish a sharing environment for EUD applications.

A Web-based short messaging service system to enhance family-centered surgical patient care.

The purpose of this study was to develop a web-based short messaging service (SMS) system in the operating room (OR). At the same time, we integrated and analyzed the limits of SMS in the OR. A cross-sectional study with quantitative methods and convenience sampling was used to gather data in this study. In the SMS project, we approached the content of SMS with operation diagnosis, patient sources and time series (pre-, intra-, and post-operation). We also default the contents of SMS by patient individual conditions. In this study, 177 participants received 346 text messages and 139 participants answered satisfaction questionnaires (78.53 %). The findings show the usability of SMS as applied to clinical care, especially for reducing family anxiety, for real time information, physician-patient communication, medical care processes and patient safety. Therefore, it is suggested to exploit the effectiveness of a personal medical care information database under global goal in the future and to develop comprehensive management of the surgical patient relationship.

Reducing the anxiety of surgical patient's families access short message service.

This study was to build a web-based short messaging service (SMS) system in operating room. We approached the efficiency of SMS for patient's families during the time series (pre-, intra-, and post-operation). In this study, 322 participants received 685 text messages. The findings show the usability of SMS that applied to the clinical care, especially for reducing family anxiety, improved their satisfaction. Therefore, it is suggested to exploit the effectiveness of personal medical care.