Recent trends in health care have placed increased burden on cancer caregivers. In response, nurses and social workers were taught to implement a 6-hour psychoeducational Family Caregiver Cancer Education Program (FCCEP)for cancer caregivers that addresses symptom management, psychosocial support, and resource identification. Baseline characteristics from a convenience sample of 750 caregivers who attended a FCCEP andfilled out program evaluation questionnaires are reported. Factors affecting the successful implementation of the FCCEP are described. Nurses need to be alert to the range of tasks and the skills that families need to perform this role so that they can incorporate family teaching about key areas. Nurses must also be aware of the potentialforfatigue and frustration among caregivers who are working 24 hours a day, without relief.
Background
We believe junior doctors are in a unique position in relation to reporting of incidents and safety culture. They are still in training and are also ‘fresh eyes’ on the system providing valuable insights into what they perceive as safe and unsafe behaviour. The aim of this study was to co-design and implement an embedded learning intervention – a serious board game – to educate junior doctors about patient safety and the importance of reporting safety concerns, while at the same time shaping a culture of responsiveness from senior medical staff.
Methods
A serious game based on the PlayDecide framework was co-designed and implemented in two large urban acute teaching hospitals. To evaluate the educational value of the game voting on the position statements was recorded at the end of each game by a facilitator who also took notes after the game of key themes that emerged from the discussion. A sample of players were invited on a voluntary basis to take part in semi-structured interviews after playing the game using Flanagan’s Critical Incident Technique. A paper-based questionnaire on ‘Safety Concerns’ was developed and administered to assess pre-and post-playing the game reporting behaviour. Dissemination workshops were held with senior clinicians to promote more inclusive leadership behaviours and responsiveness to junior doctors raising of safety concerns from senior clinicians.
Results
The game proved to be a valuable patient safety educational tool and proved effective in encouraging deep discussion on patient safety. There was a significant change in the reporting behaviour of junior doctors in one of the hospitals following the intervention.
Conclusion
In healthcare, limited exposure to patient safety training and narrow understanding of safety compromise patients lives. The existing healthcare system needs to value the role that junior doctors and others could play in shaping a positive safety culture where reporting of all safety concerns is encouraged. Greater efforts need to be made at hospital level to develop a more pro-active safe and just culture that supports and encourages junior doctors and ultimately all doctors to understand and speak up about safety concerns.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-019-1655-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Growing recognition of the importance of holistic nursing interventions is resulting in a revival in the use of therapeutic massage. Massage contributes to health and healing through enhancement of relaxation, and is a safe, caring, and inexpensive intervention. Therapeutic massage research using older populations is reviewed for identification of its theoretical framework, design, outcome variables, sample, procedures, instruments, analyses and results. To establish a scientific basis for therapeutic massage in the future, it is critical that nurses include the following key elements in their research studies: clear definitions: procedures for massage that include type(s) of massage performed, part of body massaged, and length of time of massage; and analyses that control for the pre-massage level of the variable of interest. Research variables need to focus on concepts that have major health consequences such as agitation, immune status, and pain.
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