The objective of the present study was to measure and compare the direct costs of intensive care unit (ICU) days at seven ICU departments in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom by means of a standardized costing methodology. A retrospective cost analysis of ICU patients was performed from ...

OBJECTIVES: With nationwide resident shortages and decreasing resident shifts, and legislation decreasing resident work hours, the nurse practitioners (NPs) have been called upon to expand their scope of practice to encompass patients with immediate and critical conditions and to perform quick procedures. Most pediatric NP (PNP) programs do not have ...

The fields of quality improvement and patient safety (QI/PS) continue to grow with greater attention and awareness, increased mandates and incentives, and more research. Academic medical centers and their academic departments have a long-standing tradition for innovation and scholarship within a multifaceted mission to provide patient care, educate the next ...

This article traces the history of the work on mammalian embryos carried out by the author, his students and related scientists. It traces the work from the initial experiments at the King Ranch Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania in 1966, the set up of an embryo culture laboratory at the Department ...

The military has used the Emergency Whole Blood Program (EWBP) to treat combat casualties since World War I and it remains important in modern military campaigns. Despite frequent use, military medical providers receive little to no training on EWBP operations. The authors sought to improve the efficiency of the EWBP ...

In this monthly department, sponsored by the Magnet Recognition Program, updates will be provided on news and initiatives, research findings, Magnet Model components, and best practices among Magnet hospitals. This month, the author provides an overview of the Magnet Recognition Program.

The Danish National Board of Health has recommended that labor wards establish regular obstetric emergency skills training programmes. The aim of this study was to describe current practice in Denmark. A questionnaire was sent to all obstetric departments in Denmark in 2008. All responded. Simulation based training was conducted in ...

Objective. To determine trends among departments of pharmacy practice regarding use of adjunct faculty members for classroom-based teaching and to assess departmental support provided to these faculty members.Methods. Chairs of pharmacy practice departments in US colleges and school of pharmacy were contacted by e-mail and asked to complete an 11-item ...

[Formula: see text] Committee Members Co-Chairs David Brennan, M.B.E., Senior Research Engineer, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia. Lyn Tindall, Ph.D., Speech-Language Pathologist, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky. Writing Committee Janet Brown, M.A., CCC-SLP, Director, Health Care Services, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rockville, Maryland. Mike Campbell, M.S., ...

In this bimonthly series, the department editor examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, collaborative writing tools; social networking, and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. In this article, the department editor and her coauthor describe free ...

An organization can drive quality only through its people. Too often, we relegate quality to a single department or a small group of evangelical leaders but fail to make it everyone's business. Accountability has become a buzzword, and we have translated it into huge agreements with myriads of measures and ...

INTRODUCTION:: The percentage of patients having cesarean delivery (CD) under general anesthesia has decreased, which may have implications for residency training in anesthesiology. We undertook this study to assess the effect of focused simulation-based training on resident performance during a simulated general anesthetic for emergency CD. METHODS:: Thirty-two second-year anesthesiology ...

The Whole Body Monitoring Laboratory (WBML) of IFIN-HH, Bucharest, Romania, is since the year 2000, notified and was, for the first time, notified and nominated as a National Individual Dosimetry Body by the competent Romanian authority in the field, the National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control (CNCAN), in accordance with ...

Quality assurance has become an important issue. Many societies are adopting quality assurance programs in order to monitor and improve quality of care. To assess the opinion of gastroenterologists towards quality assurance on the endoscopy department. A survey was sent to all gastroenterologists (n=319) in the Netherlands. It assessed their ...

Rodent transgenesis and human-assisted reproductive programs involve multistep handling of preimplantation embryos. The efficacy of production and quality of results from conventionally scheduled programs are limited by temporal constraints other than the quality and quantities of embryos per se. The emergence of vitrification, a water ice-free cryopreservation technique, as a ...

The past decade has seen a proliferation of leadership training programs for physicians that teach skills outside the graduate medical education curriculum. To determine the perceived value and impact of an experiential leadership training program for pediatric chief residents on the chief residents and on their programs and institutions. The ...

The importance of quality assurance in bone densitometry facilities has been widely recognized. Bone densitometry service should be characterized by a good quality control program and standardization of practice. The primary aim is to ensure reproducible and consistent results at low radiation burden to patients. The establishment of a program ...

Clinical teachers need to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of their teaching. Evaluation of teaching and learning generally occurs within quality assurance frameworks that have common features. Understanding quality assurance systems and evaluation methods will help clinical teachers to improve the student learning experience.

Nocturnal home hemodialysis (NHHD) has been associated with several clinical benefits compared to conventional thrice-weekly in-center hemodialysis. However, the prevalence of NHHD remains low. To date, few studies have focused on the importance of training and education of a complex medical procedure such as NHHD. In the present review, we ...

The shortage of surgeons in the operative disciplines field has in recent years further increased. The training of a surgeon and the required lifestyle combined with the work-life balance of the surgeons are perceived as being less attractive, so that young doctors after finishing medical school rarely decide for surgical ...

Annual alumni and employer surveys, initially designed as outcomes assessment tools, were integrated into a new internal quality assurance strategy to improve the doctor of veterinary medicine program at the University of Montreal's Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire. Data collected annually from the classes of 2004-2007 indicated that alumni and their ...

BACKGROUND: The Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) is a multi-institution, multi-discipline Cooperative Group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to conduct clinical trials which investigate the treatment, prevention, control, quality of survivorship, and translational science of gynecologic malignancies. In 1982, the NCI initiated a program of on-site quality assurance audits ...

The authors have developed a comprehensive radiology quality assurance (QA) program that evaluates radiology interpretations and procedures by comparing them with reference standards. Performance metrics are calculated and then compared with benchmarks or goals on the basis of published multicenter data and meta-analyses. Additional workload for physicians is kept to ...

BACKGROUND: The issue of quality assurance (QA) and quality improvement (QI), being the quality of medical education intimately related to the quality of the health care, is becoming of paramount importance worldwide. AIM: To describe a model of implementing a system for internal QA and QI within a post-graduate paediatric ...

The Canadian National Calibration Reference Center (NCRC) for Bioassay and In Vivo Monitoring is part of the Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada. The NCRC operates three performance testing programs that are designed to confirm that workplace monitoring results are accurate and provide the necessary external verification that is part of ...

In this article the core components of a comprehensive quality assurance and improvement plan are outlined. Quality anatomic pathology work comes with focus on accurate, timely, and complete reports. A commitment to continuous quality improvement and a systems approach with a persistent effort helps to achieve this end. Departments should ...

One of the first steps towards the development of a comprehensive quality program for radiation oncology in Australia has been a survey of practice. This paper reports on the results of the survey that should inform the development of standards for radiation oncology in Australia. A questionnaire of 108 questions ...

The contribution that the mentor can make to the mentoring relationship is undoubtedly crucial. It revolves around mentor qualities, including honesty, congruence, self-sufficiency, and patience. Mentor attitudes include unconditional positive regard for the mentee and mentee focus. Mentor behaviours include establishing rapport, demonstrating warmth and empathy, and giving constructive feedback. ...

PURPOSE: To present the methodology for the evaluation of cost-effectiveness of the quality assurance protocol modifications associated with increasing demands on accuracy and reliability in radiotherapy and to present results on cost-effectiveness of in-vivo dosimetry as the chosen example of a technical procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In-vivo dosimetry was used ...

The generation of new mouse models of human disease is accelerating rapidly, due to the completion of whole-genome sequencing efforts and technological advances in the manipulation of the mouse genome. We sought to investigate manpower issues in the provision of histopathology expertise for mouse functional genomics and compared this to ...

The CD-ROM "Voice Assessment: Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology & Medicine" was developed as a teaching tool for people interested in the production of the spoken or sung human voice. Its content comprises several subjects concerning the anatomy and physiology of spoken and sung voice. A careful assessment becomes necessary in ...

Federal and state environmental agencies conduct several programs to characterize the environmental condition of Chesapeake Bay. These programs use different benthic indices and survey designs, and have produced assessments that differ in the estimate of the extent of benthic community degradation in Chesapeake Bay. Provided that the survey designs are ...

A critical mission of academic nephrology programs is training the next generation of nephrologists. Attracting high-quality candidates into nephrology training programs is the first step in this process. The training program directors (TPDs) in nephrology launched an initiative several years ago to standardize the application and recruitment process for applicants ...

Programs designed to address domestic violence often name empowerment of women as a major program goal. However, programs do not necessarily define what empowerment for survivors of domestic violence entails. This review examines the literature on empowerment, including characteristics of an empowerment process and critiques of empowerment. Diversity of goals ...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the process of scientific peer review as it is used in the manuscript submission process, assess threats and challenges to the peer review process, and to offer suggestions for enhancing its effectiveness. DISCUSSION: Peer review is often seen as one of the hallmarks of scientific publication. The ...

OBJECTIVE: To review the effectiveness of education programs to improve emotional status, daily living and self-efficacy in adults older than 60 years with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). METHOD: Electronic searches of three databases and manual searches of references lists located randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies. Health education programs ...

Through an analysis of focus group discussion data, we examine Kenyan traditional birth attendants' (TBAs) accounts of the persistence of homebirths and the key challenges they present. TBAs associated the continued demand for homebirths with the wide-ranging character and quality of their services. They did not consider their lack of ...

Traditional state x-ray inspection programs concentrate on measurement of x-ray machine parameters such as kVp and mAs, timer accuracy, collimation, etc. In 1996, the New Jersey radiation control program began a paradigm shift from the traditional inspection to an outcome-based inspection that concentrated on two indicators of performance: image quality ...

The process of radiotherapy (RT) is complex and involves understanding of the principles of medical physics, radiobiology, radiation safety, dosimetry, radiation treatment planning, simulation and interaction of radiation with other treatment modalities. Each step in the integrated process of RT needs quality control and quality assurance (QA) to prevent errors ...

From the prescription to the delivery of a radiotherapy treatment, a team of professionals from a number of disciplines is involved. In this way significant potential for errors leading to an accidental exposure becomes apparent. Comprehensive quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program to minimize such errors is, therefore, required. One aspect ...

Diagnostic radiology's basic task is to provide high quality diagnostic image information about anatomic detail or ongoing physiological process within patient's body, where such information can not be provided using alternative diagnostic method which excludes the use of ionizing radiation. Ensuring adequate clinical diagnostic information together with the least possible ...

OBJECTIVE: Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during liver transplantation (LT) has been shown to be helpful in managing fluid therapy, monitoring myocardial function, and identifying intraoperative LT complications. The present study sought to investigate the current utilization of TEE by anesthesiologists during LT as well as issues of training and credentialing in ...

Using post-genomic technologies, it is now possible to understand the molecular basis of complex developmental processes. In the case of seed germination, recent transcriptome- and proteome-wide studies led to new insights concerning the building up of the germination potential during seed maturation on the mother plant, the reversible character of ...

The main purposes of the article are to present the history of integration in psychotherapy, the reasons of the development integrative approaches, and the approaches to integration in psychotherapy. Three approaches to integration in psychotherapy exist: theoretical integration, theoretical eclecticism, and common factors in different psychotherapeutic trends. In integrative psychotherapy, ...

To describe the aims, implementation, and desired outcomes of facilitator supervision for both interventions (treatment and control) in Project Eban and to present the Eban Theoretical Framework for Supervision that guided the facilitators' supervision. The qualifications and training of supervisors and facilitators are also described. This article provides a detailed ...

Although research has demonstrated that marriage education has positive effects on relationship quality, little is known about how such services impact relationships where one partner is incarcerated. The current study implemented an adapted version of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP Inside and Out) for inmates in Oklahoma correctional ...

In genetic programming (GP), evolving tree nodes separately would reduce the huge solution space. However, tree nodes are highly interdependent with respect to their fitness. In this paper, we propose a new GP framework, namely, instruction-matrix (IM)-based GP (IMGP), to handle their interactions. IMGP maintains an IM to evolve tree ...

OBJECTIVES: To compare the quality of resuscitation between those with a simplified chest compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) program and those with a conventional CPR program. METHODS: The participants were randomly assigned to either the 120-min training program of chest compressions (chest compression-only CPR) or the 180-min training program of chest ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a formal, robust and transparent process that supports and enables midwives to reflect on their own midwifery practice in relation to recognised professional standards and to identify, prioritise and act upon individual professional development and learning needs for the provision of safe, high quality care to women ...

The Joint Commission's Disease Specific Care Certification (DSC) recognizes disease management programs for superior quality. Programs are awarded DSC that meets established criteria for managing chronic conditions. Awarding of DSC is based on a program's compliance with disease-specific standards, evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, and performance improvement measures. Programs will be ...