Conectar
To determine the predictors of pressure injuries among residents living in Sri Lankan nursing homes.
A prospective multi-site longitudinal cohort study design.
Semi-structured observations and chart audits were used to gather data on 17 predictors of pressure injury from a consecutive sample of 210 residents (aged ≥ 60 years old) from nine nursing homes in Sri Lanka. Data were collected at baseline and followed up every week until the study endpoint: a new pressure injury or reaching the maximum 12 weeks of data collection, from July to October 2023. Validated semi-structured data collection forms and chart audits were utilised. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the predictors of pressure injuries. Generalised linear mixed models were used to assess the association between predictors and the development of new pressure injuries.
The cumulative incidence of pressure injuries was 17.1% (36/210) during the 12 weeks. The number of medical devices and baseline pressure injuries predicted the development of new pressure injuries. Each additional medical device increased the likelihood of developing a pressure injury by 2.3-fold, and individuals with a baseline pressure injury were 2.1 times more likely to develop a new pressure injury.
Multiple medical devices and baseline pressure injuries are predictors of pressure injury in older residents living in nursing homes.
This study provides evidence of pressure injury predictors among older residents living in nursing homes. Early identification of high-risk residents with an existing pressure injury and those with multiple medical devices is important for nurses and managers at nursing homes. Accurately assessing residents' risk of a pressure injury may result in implementing various preventive strategies that may ultimately help prevent future pressure injuries.
Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) for cohort studies guidelines.
No patient or public contribution.
Identify desired training content for shift-working nurses to improve their sleep and fatigue.
A descriptive qualitative design.
We recruited night shift nurses (N = 23) to provide feedback during virtual focus groups/interviews. Data collection occurred in the U.S. between March and June 2024. Participants were presented with sleep and fatigue topics derived from the literature. Focus group/interview data were collected and transcribed. Data were analysed using a hybrid deductive-inductive manifest content analysis with an a priori coding schema based on topics shared during data collection. Data not fitting the schema, yet informing content, were analysed inductively.
Three themes aligned with literature-derived topics. Theme 1, Why We Sleep and Why Should Nurses Care, explains the importance of sleep to health. Theme 2, Sleep Practices for Nurses to Support Health and Social Relationships, describes healthy strategies to promote sleep for enhanced quality of life. Theme 3, Fatigue and Work, illustrates the significance of nurse sleep and fatigue risk mitigation to safe working conditions and patient care.
Study findings highlight night shift nurses' interest in gaining evidence-based information to promote their sleep. Sleep education and training could fill a knowledge and skills gap, not often offered in school or workplace.
Identifying themes relevant to nurses may help increase the development and availability of sleep education and training currently tailored for nurses.
Study findings describe content night shift nurses' desire for sleep and fatigue training, serving as an important first step in developing programmes most relevant to shift-working nurses. Our analysis found the findings largely align with key components workers should receive in sleep education and training and reinforced the need for employers to offer such training. This study could benefit the nursing workforce and employers who expect rested, high-functioning nurses to care for patients.
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.
No patient or public contribution.
Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT06105307
To synthesise the evidence on implementation strategies used to implement transitional care interventions for adult surgical patients.
Scoping review.
Medline, CINAHL and EMBASE were searched in August 2023 and updated June 2025, followed by citation searches. Studies were screened independently by two researchers, and one extracted data, another verified its accuracy. Studies about transitional care interventions for adult surgical patients were coded according to the ‘Five classes of implementation strategies’ and the ‘Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence for practice and Research recommendations’ framework, to illuminate the review findings.
Based on 27 studies included in the scoping review, staff education, changes to staffing and electronic systems, and change management techniques were frequently used implementation strategies. Implementation strategies were mostly used with patients undergoing colorectal and cardiac surgery in Asia and the United States. Scale-up strategies and capacity-building initiatives for people in charge of spearheading the change initiatives were less common.
To further the field, future research could focus on capacity-building and scale-up strategies, fidelity reporting, and financial implications of implementation in a wider range of surgical populations and settings. Work is needed to effectively implement surgical transitional care interventions in real-world settings.
Our findings provide strategies for hospital leaders to adopt when implementing transitional care interventions for surgical patients.
Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.
Determined review focus, interpreted findings, and contributed to manuscript.
The Open Science Framework.
A significant proportion of infants born at ≤29+6 weeks’ gestation develop lung disease during the neonatal period, thus putting them at risk of developing prematurity-associated lung disease in childhood and adulthood. After discharge from the neonatal unit, pre-existing lung disease in preterm-born infants is exacerbated by (often frequent) respiratory viral infections requiring greater health utilisation, including hospital admissions, than their term-born equivalents. Opportunities to prevent viral infections in infancy are largely limited to anti-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antibody prophylaxis and recently maternal RSV immunisation, but in term-born infants, trained immunity-based vaccines such as Bactek (MV130, Inmunotek, Spain) are increasingly used. Bactek provides a promising therapeutic avenue for preterm-born infants to target postdischarge respiratory viral infection in this vulnerable group of infants. The BALLOON study aims to assess this treatment in a very/extremely preterm-born population and determine if treatment with the trained immunity-based vaccine Bactek decreases the risk of unscheduled visits to healthcare professionals for lower respiratory tract infections, when compared with placebo. Included infants are born at ≤29+6 weeks’ gestation and treated daily from term-equivalent (37–43 weeks’ postmenstrual age, PMA) or from discharge, if earlier, up to 1 year of corrected age.
542 infants are being recruited prior to discharge by neonatal units in the UK. They are being randomised to receive Bactek or placebo, once daily dose of 2 sprays (each 0.1 mL) of IMP (300 Formazin Turbidity Units), from 37 to 43 weeks’ PMA or discharge if earlier up to 1 year of corrected age. The primary objective is to assess if sublingual Bactek spray decreases the risk of health professional diagnosed lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) (unscheduled visits to general practitioners, accident and emergency departments and hospital admissions) between enrolment and 1 year of corrected age. Secondary outcomes include the number of parent-reported, health professional-confirmed unscheduled visits for LRTIs, the time to first parent-reported, health professional-confirmed unscheduled visit for LRTI, parent-reported wheeze episodes (identification aided by WheezeScan (Omron, Japan)), parent-reported use of respiratory medications, growth (weight, length and head circumference), parent(s)/guardian(s) reported time missed from work and/or nursery time missed for the infant and volume of adverse reactions. Viruses associated with LRTIs will also be identified.
Ethics permission has been granted by the Wales Research Ethics Committee 3 (Ref 24/WA/0181), and regulatory permission by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (CTA reference 21323/0063/001-0004). The study is registered on ISRCTN (ISRCTN14019493). Findings will be disseminated via national and international peer-reviewed journals, and conferences. Oversight of the study is being provided by an Independent Data Monitoring Committee and an independent Trial Steering Committee (TSC). The Trial Management Group (TMG) meets every month.
To map the current literature on the characteristics of nurse-related medication errors in perioperative healthcare settings.
A scoping review.
This scoping review used the five-stage framework developed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005). The five stages are: (1) Identifying the Research Question; (2) Identifying Relevant Studies; (3) Study Selection; (4) Charting the Data; and (5) Collating, Summarising, and Reporting the Results. Findings were synthesised using the PAGER framework. An Ishikawa diagram was used to illustrate contributing factors of nurse-related medication errors.
In October 2024, using key search terms, five databases (Scopus, EBSCO Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, OVID Embase, EBSCO Medline, EBSCO PsycInfo) and two grey literature platforms (opengrey, Policy commons) were searched. The articles were imported to the Covidence database from Endnote after removing duplicate literature. Selected article titles and abstracts, and subsequently full-text articles, were screened by two trained reviewers based on a priori inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were extracted from the included full-text articles by one author, checked by another, and analysed descriptively.
Of the 967 articles identified through the searches, 7 full-text articles were included. The incidence of nurse-related medication errors in perioperative settings ranged from 6.4% to 33.7%, with errors including incorrect medication routes, missed or delayed doses, and miscommunication-related overdoses. Contributing factors were multifaceted, involving workload pressures, communication failures, system flaws, and organisational influences such as leadership and safety culture.
Medication errors in the perioperative setting pose a significant threat to patient safety yet remain underexplored compared to other healthcare contexts. A holistic approach incorporating human factors frameworks, improved communication, workload management, and leadership can help address the complex causes of these errors and guide targeted interventions to enhance perioperative safety and patient outcomes.
Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
Open science Framework Website. Registration DOI https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/EXT8C
To assess whether transgender women who have sex with men (TGWSM) sampled in men who have sex with men (MSM) biobehavioural surveys in Ukraine experience different levels of sexual risk, stigma, HIV prevalence and engagement in the HIV care than cisgender MSM (CMSM).
Analysis of secondary data from three population-level cross-sectional surveys.
The analysis was conducted on data from three rounds of integrated biobehavioural surveys of MSM in 27 cities of Ukraine from 2013 to 2018.
Data from n=18 621 MSM with n=18 102 CMSM and n=503 TGWSM.
The primary outcomes were differences in sexual risk behaviours, HIV testing and treatment uptake, and the secondary outcomes were differences in lifetime experiences of stigma, coercive sex and physical assault (in the 2018 survey only) between CMSM and TGWSM.
Compared with CMSM, TGWSM were more likely to be clients of non-governmental organisations (adjusted OR, aOR: 1.39, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.67), engage in commercial sex (last month; aOR: 1.28, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.61), have group sex (aOR: 1.31, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.61), more long-term sex partners (last month; adjusted incidence rate ratio: 1.14, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.27), history of imprisonment (aOR: 1.51, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.31) and engage in chemsex (last month, aOR: 1.58, 95% CI 1.12 to 2.23). We found no difference in HIV prevalence (5.17% in TGWSM vs 5.43% in CMSM, p=0.065). In 2018, more TGWSM reported lifetime experience of stigma from family and friends (aOR: 3.58, 95% CI 2.54 to 5.04), general social stigma (aOR: 3.13, 95% CI 2.22 to 4.41), anticipated healthcare stigma (aOR: 3.63, 95% CI 2.53 to 5.16), physical assault (aOR: 2.73, 95% CI 1.85 to 4.03) and coercive sex (aOR: 3.01, 95% CI 1.99 to 4.55) than CMSM.
TGWSM in Ukraine may be at increased risk of HIV acquisition compared to CMSM due to many factors including elevated levels of stigma and violence. Services specifically tailored for transgender people are needed to help reduce these high-risk behaviours.
Preventing pressure injuries among nursing home residents is a significant challenge that necessitates understanding the barriers and facilitators from the perspective of staff. This qualitative study aimed to describe these factors within Sri Lankan nursing homes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 nursing home staff members from nine nursing homes in and near the Colombo district, Sri Lanka. The study was informed by the capability, opportunity, motivation, and behaviour model that guided both data collection and analysis. Data were analysed using content analysis. Using deductive coding based on capability, opportunity, and motivation, followed by inductive analysis, four primary categories emerged: focusing on skincare is foundational for pressure injury prevention, pressure injury knowledge is critical for prevention, pressure injury prevention is a low organisational priority, and overcoming challenges to enact pressure injury prevention. Key facilitators included access to skincare products, maintaining clean and dry skin, recognising risk factors, proactively managing risks, and understanding the broader implications of pressure injuries on residents and their families. Conversely, barriers encompassed limited training, varying staff support, inadequate resources, and the complexities of managing multiple tasks. This research highlights that enhancing knowledge and allocating resources effectively can improve the implementation of pressure injury prevention strategies in Sri Lankan nursing homes.
Patient participation improves patient outcomes, but factors that predict participation in pressure injury prevention (PIP) are relatively unknown. This study aimed to identify patient-related factors predictive of patient participation in pressure injury prevention (PPPIP) in hospitalised medical and surgical patients and to assess the psychometric properties of the PPPIP scale. This observational substudy recruited consenting adults at risk of pressure who participated in a parent trial. The seven-item PPPIP scale was administered within 48 h of recruitment, with higher scores reflecting more participation. Multiple regression was used to identify patient-related factors predictive of patient participation. The scale's psychometric properties were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. In total, usable data were obtained from 856 patients. Mean PPPIP scale scores were relatively high, with 571 (66.7%) scores reflecting agreement or strong agreement. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.81, and most confirmatory factor analysis criteria for construct validity were met. Only the use of mobility aids was statistically significant in the model, but it predicted a small amount of variability in PPPIP score (adjusted R 2 = 0.017; p < 0.001). Targeting patients with limited mobility may be a useful strategy when trying to engage patients in PIP if resources are limited.
To explore patients' experiences of participation in surgical wound care and provide an in-depth understanding of their experiences with post-operative wound care during and post-hospitalisation.
A descriptive qualitative study.
Adult participants who had undergone surgery within 30 days were purposively selected from two surgical wards at Gold Coast University Hospital. Seventeen semi-structured phone interviews were conducted using a specifically developed and piloted interview guide. Textual data were analysed using inductive content analysis.
Three main categories were identified. The first category, ‘I didn't expect how distressing post-operative wound care would be; it's tougher than I thought,’ highlights the significant and unexpected physical and emotional challenges participants faced, which initially hindered their engagement. The second category highlights the impact of healthcare professional interactions on patient participation, ‘I want to be involved, but conflicting advice and dismissive behaviour discourage me.’ The third category, ‘With my family's help, wound care got easier as I tried, learned, and recovered,’ illustrates how family support facilitated participants' independence and engagement over time.
The spectrum of patient participation in surgical wound care is dynamic and impacted by environmental, physical and psychological factors. This research deepens understanding of patient participation by highlighting the importance of family support and a temporal perspective in patients' wound care journeys.
Findings showed participants were unprepared for surgical wound care, greatly influenced by healthcare provider communication and family support, and evolved in participation as time passed and their wounds healed. Additionally, participants valued intent just as significantly as their behaviours and regarded even minor involvement as totally participative. These insights can inform strategies to improve patient participation in surgical settings.
SRQR (Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research).
No patient was involved in this study.
To assess the comparative effectiveness of educational interventions in neurological disease for healthcare workers and students.
Systematic review.
Medline, Embase and Cochrane through to 1 June 2025.
Studies evaluating neurological disease educational interventions with a comparator group (observational cohort/randomised controlled trial (RCT)) were included.
A Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-compliant systematic review was conducted (PROSPERO: CRD42023461838). Knowledge acquisition and educational methodologies were collected from each study. Study outcomes were classified using the Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick four-level model (learner reaction, knowledge acquisition, behavioural change, clinical outcome).1 Risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for non-randomised studies and the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for RCTs.2 3
A total of 67 studies involving 4728 participants were included. Of these, 36 were RCTs, and 31 were observational studies. Virtual interventions were the most common (67.2%, n=45 studies), primarily targeting either medical students (46.3%, n=31 studies) or specialists (40.3%, n=27 studies). Overall, 70.1% (n=47) of studies demonstrated outcomes in favour of the intervention. However, few studies used K&K level 3/4 outcomes, with two studies evaluating behaviour change (level 3) and three assessing clinical outcomes (level 4 combined with other levels). No study exclusively assessed level 4 outcomes. Meta-analysis of 22 RCTs with calculable standardised mean differences (SMDs) (n=1748) showed a significant benefit of interventions (SMD 0.75, 95% CI 0.22 to 1.27, p=0.0056).
This review highlights a growing body of research particularly focusing on virtual techniques, specialist audiences and treatment-oriented content. Few studies assessed changes in practice or patient care. Non-specialists remain underrepresented. Future studies should prioritise assessing the clinical impact of educational interventions within non-specialist audiences.
Predicting medical/surgical nurses' delivery of patient pressure injury prevention education within 24 h of hospitalisation.
A cross-sectional sub-study drawn from a larger multisite randomised controlled trial.
A consecutive sub-sample of 300 randomly assigned control group participants was recruited from 20 medical and surgical wards at two major hospitals (July 2020 to August 2023) in Queensland, Australia. Semi-structured observations and chart audit data were collected, including patient education, demographic and clinical data. Binary logistic regression identified hospital site, clinical and patient predictors contributing to pressure injury prevention education delivery by nurses.
Seventeen (5.7%) participants received pressure injury prevention education within the first 24 h of admission. Body mass index was an independent predictor, increasing the odds of nurses delivering patient education.
Few episodes of pressure injury prevention education were observed in this study. As a patient's body mass index rises, they are more likely to receive preventative education from nurses soon after admission.
Our findings underscore the need for standardised inclusive protocols and ongoing nurse training to assess and address education needs beyond single risk factors like body mass index. Further research should explore other factors influencing patient education delivery in hospitals.
This study adhered to STROBE guidelines. Dr. Brett Dyer, statistician, is part of the author team.
No patient or public contribution.
The aim of this study was to develop a conceptual understanding of the role of caring for older adults with combined vision and hearing impairment (DSI).
Dual sensory impairment (DSI) impacts both listening and speechreading communication, function and social participation, meaning that older adults often require support and care to ‘age in place’ successfully. Family carers play a key role in supporting older adults with DSI to maintain social and physical health.
This qualitative study uses Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory (GT) methodology. Data were collected between 2017 and 2019 and analysed using constructivist GT methods. Lengthy interviews with eight family carers of older adults living with DSI explored personal histories of DSI, relationships with families, social networks and health care professionals.
This study demonstrates that caring in this context is predominantly social and ‘invisible’. To reduce the social effort of their family member with DSI and to maintain their own self-identity, family carers adopted a ‘conscious caring’ approach. This is conceptualised as an approach to caring that supports family carers to access resources embedded in their social networks by bridging the gap between the dyad and their broader, more diverse social networks.
This study identifies that a reduction in both close and broader social networks limits personal, social and psychosocial resources and impacts the capacity of the dyad to renegotiate their roles, create and maintain their individual and shared social networks and successfully transition to living with DSI.
There is a gap in the literature regarding the impact of sensory impairments on complex communication, health and social care needs of older adults and the role that family carers play. Registered nurses require complex communication skills to support older persons with DSI during health and social care interactions. A better understanding of DSI itself, as well as understanding the key role family carers play in integrating care for their family member, is crucial to delivering person-centred care.
This study addresses a growing social gerontological issue and identifies the role that family carers play in integrating health and social care for their family member with DSI. Better professional recognition of DSI and increased visibility of the challenges of living with DSI could help address barriers to effective communication between service providers, formal care support staff and those with DSI. Integrating family carers into care teams is critical to improving health and social care experiences for both caregiver and care receiver.
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
(1) Analyse in depth an exemplar safety-critical task required of newly qualified doctors (prescribing insulin) and (2) Provide transferable insights into how undergraduate education could better educate medical students to meet the demands of practice when they become postgraduate trainees.
Document analysis of doctors’ reported experiences of insulin prescribing, an everyday task that has an emergent logic of practice and harms not just patients but (psychologically) new doctors. Application of third-generation (social emergence) complexity theory to explore why practice can be ‘mutually unsafe’.
A system of care comprising all five Northern Irish (UK) Health and Social Care Trusts, which together provide healthcare to a population of nearly two million people.
68 postgraduate year 1 and year 2 trainees (PGY1/2s), mainly PGY1s.
Thick description of new doctors’ contexts of action, reasons for acting and specific actions. We present this as a narrative compiling all 68 stories, 13 detailed exemplar stories and a diagram summarising how multiple factors interacted to make practice complex.
Situations that required PGY1/2s to act had interacting layers of complexity: (1) disease trajectories; (2) social dynamics between stakeholders and (3) contextual influences on stakeholders’ interactions. Out-of-hours working and unsuitable wards intensified troublesome contextual influences. All three individually complex layers ‘crystallised’ briefly to create ‘moments of action’. At best, PGY1/2s responded proactively, ‘stretched time’ and checked the results of their actions. At worst, PGY1/2s ‘played safe’ in unsafe ways (eg, took no action), acted on unsafe advice or defaulted to actions protecting them from criticism. Informal, pervasive rules emerged from, and perpetuated, unsafe practice.
New doctors’ work includes acting on indeterminate, emergent situations whose complexity defies rules that are determinate enough to be taught off the job. If new doctors are to perform capably in moments of action, medical students need ample, supervised, situated experience of what it is like to take responsibility in such moments.
To synthesise the existing literature on effective interventions aligned with the 2015 U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines to address workplace violence against nurses.
An integrative review.
PubMed, Embase, CINAH, and PsycINFO databases were searched for articles published between 2010 and 2023. Articles addressing WPV interventions and published in English were included.
Thirty-seven of 834 articles met the inclusion criteria. The review revealed several strategies to address workplace violence in healthcare settings, with staff training being the most common strategy. However, most interventions were researcher-designed, often excluding input from nurses or other stakeholders. Limited managerial support for nurses following the incidents was another prominent finding.
Although safety training programmes are common, there are critical gaps in managerial support and nurse involvement in intervention development. Further research should focus on incorporating nurse contributions and strengthening managerial support to enhance prevention efforts.
Addressing workplace violence in healthcare settings requires a comprehensive approach beyond safety training. Active nurses' participation in intervention design and enhanced managerial support are essential for creating effective solutions. Healthcare administrators should create environments that empower nurses to contribute to solutions.
This review highlights existing gaps in interventions and emphasises the need for collaborative and nurse-centered approaches to address workplace violence.
The reporting of this review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
No patient or public contribution.
Rare diseases (RD) are collectively common and often genetic. Families value and can benefit from precise molecular diagnoses. Prolonged diagnostic odysseys exacerbate the burden of RD on patients, families and the healthcare system. Genome sequencing (GS) is a near-comprehensive test for genetic RD, but existing care models—where consultation with a medical geneticist is a prerequisite for testing—predate GS and may limit access or delay diagnosis. Evidence is needed to guide the optimal positioning of GS in care pathways. While initiating GS prior to geneticist consultation has been trialled in acute care settings, there are no data to inform the utility of this approach in outpatient care, where most patients with RD seek genetics services. We aim to evaluate the diagnostic yield, time to diagnosis, clinical and personal utility and incremental cost-effectiveness of GS initiated at the time of referral triage (pre-geneticist evaluation) compared with standard of care.
200 paediatric patients referred to one of two large genetics centres in Ontario, Canada, for suspected genetic RD will be randomised into a 1:1 ratio to the intervention (GS first) or standard of care (geneticist first) arm. An unblinded, permuted block randomisation design will be used, stratified within each recruitment site by phenotype and prior genetic testing. The primary outcome measure is time to genetic diagnosis or to cessation of active follow-up. Survival analysis will be used to analyse time-to-event data. Additional measures will include patient-reported and family-reported measures of satisfaction, understanding and perceived test utility, clinician-reported measures of perceived test utility and management impact, and healthcare system utilisation and costs.
This study was approved by Clinical Trials Ontario. Results will be disseminated, at minimum, via peer-reviewed journals, professional conferences and internal reports to funding bodies. Efforts will be made to share aggregated study results with participants and their families.
FreshRSS 