Objective: To understand the experiences and perceptions of mental health providers about palliative care. Background: Little attention is paid to the experience of people with chronic persistent mental illness (CPMI) and life-threatening diseases and how their dying experience might differ from those without a CPMI. Methods: Interpretive description informed the project. Sixteen mental health care providers were interviewed using a semi-structured interview template. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a reflexive, inductive-deductive thematic approach, guided by Braun & Clarke's framework for thematic analysis. Results: Four themes were identified from the data: intersectionality, limited collaboration, misconceptions about palliative care, and relationships. Mental health providers identified gaps in their knowledge of palliative care practices along with their knowledge of death and dying.
An electronic audit tool to track the donning and doffing practices of personal protective equipment in the emergency department Maya Jusza, Ramya Sridhar, Jennifer Woods, Sharon Drury Background: Maintaining the safety of patients and healthcare professionals is a priority in all healthcare settings. Infection prevention measures such as donning and doffing practices of personal protective equipment (PPE) have become even more imperative in light of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Potential PPE breaches and the degree of frontline compliance are currently being analyzed through the use of paper PPE audit tools which can be laborious and time-consuming. The development of an electronic alternative would improve frontline safety and enhance the efficiency of data collection, while optimizing the ability to share these observations with the frontline team in real time. Two nursing leadership students from the University of Alberta were tasked with developing an electronic PPE audit tool prototype for the University of Alberta Hospital’s emergency department. Implementation: An electronic PPE audit tool prototype was developed using Google Forms which provided a user-friendly interface. Google applications were used as no confidential or patient data was collected during PPE audits. The prototype auto-populated the data entries into linked spreadsheets and interactive data dashboards that visualized the data using graphs in real time. This enabled users to easily identify trends and direct educational interventions as required. Instructional one pagers and screencast videos were also created to accompany the prototype. The prototype was reviewed by and received extensive support from: Unit Managers, Patient Care Managers, Process Improvement Nurses, Infection Prevention Control (IPC), the Executive Director of the University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery emergency department and Edmonton Zone medicine programs, and the University of Alberta Hospital and Mazankowski Executive Leadership Team. Several changes and improvements were made using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. This prototype has currently been replicated onto an Alberta Health Services (AHS) server and has completed the formal testing phase with a planned application launch date. Evaluation Methods: Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were used to guide the implementation of this audit tool prototype. After development, the prototype was tested and revised which included six rounds of audit trials at the University of Alberta Hospital’s emergency department and on some inpatient medicine units. This prototype was consistently evaluated at various stages of development and changes were made to include feedback. After approval was received to recreate this prototype onto an AHS compatible server, additional changes were made to ensure functionality. These changes included adding designations and simplifying certain questions. IPC was consulted to ensure the steps outlined for donning and doffing in the prototype were accurate and reflected requirements in the clinical environment. Results: This audit tool prototype has gathered tremendous support through various demonstrations of its ability to streamline data collection in the healthcare setting. This data is relevant to the safety of both frontline workers and patients as it identifies inconsistencies in donning and doffing practices. In addition, the prototype also complements the Edmonton zone-wide PPE coaching initiative by allowing for a quantitative measurement of its efficacy. This has prompted the fast-tracked replication of an AHS compatible version with the assistance of a dedicated team that includes the creators of the prototype tool, IPC, Quality Assurance, Information Technology, and Clinical Services Development. This version has a scheduled launch date on March 22, 2021 and is to be initially rolled out to University of Alberta’s emergency department and medicine units. The objective is to eventually make this the standardized PPE audit tool throughout Alberta. Advice and Lessons Learned: 1) In order to be sustainable and implemented site-wide, an AHS compatible tool isrequired. The use of Google applications is not preferred as data will be stored outside ofthe AHS server. Even though there is no confidential information, wide-spread use mayoverwhelm the Google platform and a Gmail account is required to view data. An in-house AHS alternative has been developed. 2) Several discussions took place regarding discretions on what steps can be auditedaccording to IPC protocols. For example, some clinical nurse educators prefer handhygiene to be completed between donning steps, while this is not mandatory or auditableaccording to IPC. In addition, several discussions took place to identify the operationaland business owners of this tool which are required to support the AHS compatibleversion of the application. 3) PPE audits are vital across all hospital departments to improve the quality of healthcare.The use of PPE during patient care has grown exponentially due to the SARS-CoV2pandemic and has amplified the need for an electronic alternative to the existing paperPPE audit tool. The electronic audit tool offers an innovative way to accurately andefficiently collect and display data which will promote an improved quality of care.
In this paper, the investigation of a novel compact 2 × 2, 2 × 1, and 1 × 1 Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) based Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna with Defected Ground Structure (DGS) is employed. The proposed Electromagnetic Radiation Structures (ERS) is composed of multiple radiating elements. These MIMO antennas are designed and analyzed with and without DGS. The feeding is introduced by a microstrip-fed line to significantly moderate the radiating structure's overall size, which is 60 × 40 × 1 mm. The high directivity and divergence characteristics are attained by introducing the microstripfed lines perpendicular to each other. And the projected MIMO antenna structures are compared with others by using parameters like Return Loss (RL), Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR), Radiation Pattern (RP), radiation efficiency, and directivity. The same MIMO set-up is redesigned with DGS, and the resultant parameters are compared. Finally, the Multiple Input and Multiple Output Radiating Structures with and without DGS are compared for result considerations like RL, VSWR, RP, radiation efficiency, and directivity. This projected antenna displays an omnidirectional RP with moderate gain, which is highly recommended for human healthcare applications. By introducing the defected ground structure in bottom layer the lower cut-off frequencies of 2.3, 4.5 and 6.0 GHz are achieved with few biological effects on radio propagation in human body communications. The proposed design covers numerous well-known wireless standards, along with dual-function DGS slots, and it can be easily integrated into Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN) in medical applications. This WBAN links the autonomous nodes that may be situated either in the clothes, on-body or beneath the skin of a person. This system typically advances the complete human body and the inter-connected nodes through a wireless communication channel.
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