Communication is a professional competence that all paediatric healthcare professionals must learn and maintain to provide age and developmentally appropriate care. Child-centred communication encourages direct communication with children and adolescents, incorporating the use of play as a communicative strategy. Still, many paediatric healthcare professionals receive little or no formal training in communication and play. A critical barrier to communication training is the limited possibilities for healthcare professionals to take time from their clinical duties. Moreover, few randomised controlled trials have evaluated educational programmes on communication and play for paediatric healthcare professionals, and existing programmes vary significantly in design and duration. This study aims to compare the effects of a 45-min and a 3-hour educational intervention for healthcare professionals on age-appropriate communication and the use of play in clinical paediatric practice.
We will describe a single-centre, randomised, controlled, two-arm, non-inferiority trial. We will recruit 150 healthcare professionals with different professional backgrounds who will be randomised to one of two arms: a 45-min or 3-hour educational intervention on communication and play in paediatric clinical practice. The primary outcome will be their self-efficacy in patient-centredness at 12-week post-intervention, while secondary outcomes will be self-efficacy immediately after the intervention, motivation to engage in the educational activity, cognitive load, self-evaluated knowledge, satisfaction and the impact on individual practice and training needs. Data will be collected through questionnaires at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and 12 weeks post-intervention and will be analysed using linear mixed models with random effects to account for clustering and within-subject correlation.
The Danish Data Protection Agency approved the study (P-2020–1144), which will be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Findings will be published in a peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal and presented at international conferences.
NCT06859632 (ClinicalTrials.gov).
We aimed to determine the prevalence of hospital discharge communication problems in adults of 10 high-income nations and the associated factors.
Secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data.
2023 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey for Adults, including data from residents of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.
3763 survey respondents aged 18 and older who reported hospitalisation at least one time in the past 2 years.
Our primary outcome measure is poor discharge communication (PDC), which is a composite variable comprising three questions regarding the provision of written information, follow-up arrangement and discussion of medications at time of discharge.
The overall PDC rate was 17.1%, with the highest in Germany (19.7%) and the lowest in the Netherlands (9.2%). No follow-up arrangement was the most commonly reported problem (22.8%). Respondents who concerned about social service needs and mental health issues were more likely to report PDC.
Providers should consider factors which impact PDC at hospital discharge and tailor communication appropriately. Hospitals, communities and countries should work towards policies that address underlying issues related to social determinants of health, including support for lower-income patients, improved treatment access for patients with physical and mental health conditions, and food and housing stability.
Surgical oncology patients often experience doubts and uncertainties in the preoperative and postoperative periods, which can be addressed remotely through telenursing. Expanding telenursing services could contribute to more comprehensive perioperative care. We conducted a scoping review to characterise these telenursing services, identify their outcome indicators and examine the content of the care delivered.
A scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) recommendations.
MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, Web of Science and Virtual Health Library (VHL), with searches performed up to 5 May 2025.
We included studies that implemented telenursing interventions in the preoperative or postoperative period in adult oncology patients.
Two independent reviewers used a standardised search to select and extract data from the included studies. Study characteristics were presented descriptively using absolute and relative frequencies, and the content of telenursing interventions was organised into a circular thematic matrix.
A total of 37 studies were included, published between 1996 and 2024, conducted in 12 countries and primarily focused on postoperative telenursing via telephone or video calls. Preoperative care focused on psychosocial support and guidance related to surgical preparation. Postoperative topics included surgical wound care; handling of devices such as drains, ostomy bags and catheters; instructions for returning to work and support groups for financial and social assistance. Outcome indicators were primarily related to care, including levels of anxiety, stress, depression and quality of life.
Oncologic surgical telenursing remains primarily focused on postoperative care and the delivery of personalised support. Reporting on the protocols used, frequency and duration of sessions, nurse training and profiles, integration with in-person care workflows and operational cost data could strengthen the knowledge base for perioperative telenursing in oncology.
To explore facilitators and barriers in the financial model of hospitals when a change in a care pathway is implemented.
A qualitative research reported according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research.
Five hospitals in the Netherlands, between February and September 2023.
28 interviewees with 7 different stakeholders: (director of) healthcare procurement, contracting manager, financial, business or project manager, physical therapist, board of Medical Consultant Group and surgeon.
The absence of permanent funding in the hospital reimbursement model and the allocation of available resources in the internal hospital distribution model are the two most important barriers when implementing prehabilitation for patients with colorectal cancer. The main facilitator was found to be the internal provision of spare budget. Lump sum agreements are the preferred contract type because they may facilitate internal substitution of budgets according to need. Bundling primary and hospital care funding is recommended to overcome barriers in the financial model. Activity-based budgeting is the preferred budgeting method because budgets can be adjusted over time according to costs. Cost reduction can only be achieved when prehabilitation is offered to more patients. In addition to an appropriate financial model, preconditions like the involvement of a medical specialist and sense of urgency in the organisation should also be arranged.
The financial model of hospitals may affect the implementation of changes in care pathways. Despite barriers in both the reimbursement and the distribution model, it is possible to facilitate this transformation.