The virtual clinical evaluation tool.

Two years ago, faculty and students at this rural university setting collaborated to implement a virtual clinical evaluation tool. In recognition of the frustrations involved in coordinating instructor and student input to a hard copy tool, a virtual clinical evaluation tool was created in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Excel documents have the advantage of immediate retrieval and use by instructors or students, ease of narration by word processing, automatic mathematical computation of formative and summative scores, and data storage through computer archives. Using the online Blackboard course, students and instructors are able to collaboratively input a Likert score for each posted evaluation outcome and word process-related comments about students' clinical performance. An overview of the 2-year implementation of this virtual clinical evaluation tool, as well as the evaluation process, is discussed.

Simulation as an Assessment Strategy to Assist With Unit Placement for New Graduate Nurses.

Orienting new graduates through simulation, which incorporated critical thinking performance at the bedside, improved their readiness to respond to critical situations and eased transition to the appropriately assigned unit. Graduate nurses' critical thinking processes at the bedside were observed and scored according to how quickly correct diagnoses were made and interventions identified. A scorecard was developed based on defined criteria.

Evaluation and outcomes of patients admitted to a tertiary medical assessment unit with acute chest pain of possible coronary origin.

OBJECTIVES: The study aims to (i) profile clinical characteristics, risk estimates of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), use and yield of non-invasive cardiac testing, discharge diagnosis and 30-day outcomes among patients admitted with acute chest pain of possible coronary origin; and (ii) construct a risk stratification algorithm that informs management decisions. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of 130 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary hospital medical assessment unit between 24 January and 22 March 2012. Estimates of ACS risk were based on Australian guidelines and Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) scores. RESULTS: Patients were of mean age 61 years, 45% had known coronary artery disease (CAD), 58% presented with typical ischaemic pain, 82% had intermediate to high ACS risk and 61% underwent testing. Myocardial ischaemia was cardiologist-confirmed discharge diagnosis in 29% of patients, and was associated with known CAD, typical pain, multiple risk factors and high TIMI risk scores (P < 0.001 for all associations). Of 98 non-invasive investigations, 9% (95% CI, 5-17%) were positive for myocardial ischaemia. Major adverse event rate at 30 days was 0.8% (95% CI, <0.1-6%). An algorithm was constructed that integrates known CAD, ACS risk and TIMI scores in identifying low-risk patients capable of rapid discharge from EDs without further investigation, and classifying the remainder into risk groups that informs choice of investigations and need for telemetry. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with indeterminate chest pain, clinical features and risk scores identify most with myocardial ischaemia. An algorithm is presented that might inform triaging, early discharge, choice of testing and need for telemetry.

Can a score derived from the Critical Care Minimum Data Set be used as a marker of organ dysfunction? - a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to develop a simple organ score derived from the Critical Care Minimum Data Set (CCMDS) to compare with the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, a previously validated score of organ dysfunction. FINDINGS: The CCMDS collects data regarding the support of seven organ systems. To create a CCMDS derived score each level of organ support was allocated a numerical value. SOFA scores were collected retrospectively from each patient in the study. Data was collected in 50 sequential admissions over the first 5 days of their admission. This generated a total of 147 pairs of data for comparison.Scatter plots and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient suggest a weak positive association between our CCMDS-derived score and the SOFA score. Daily Bland-Altman plots reveal minimal bias between the score but wide limits of agreement. CONCLUSION: Our CCMDS-derived score cannot be regarded as an indicator of severity of organ dysfunction and cannot replace SOFA scores when a daily marker of organ dysfunction is required.