Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes infectious symptoms including fever, cough, respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, and even loss of smell/taste and to date had caused 489 000 people to be infected with 32 000 deaths. This article aims to develop some strategies in dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic to prevent nosocomial infection and ensure the safety of healthcare workforce and employees. Methods: This is a prospectively registered and retrospective descriptive study investigating the clinical characteristics, results of diagnostic tests, and patients’ disposition from February 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020, at a tertiary medical center in Northern Taiwan. Results: There is no nosocomial spreading of SARS-CoV-2 in our facility. The following strategies were followed: information transparency; epidemic prevention resources planning by authorities; multidisciplinary cooperation; informative technologies; immigration quarantine policies; travel restrictions; management of diversion/subdivision; self-health monitoring; social distancing; screening of travel, occupation, contact, and cluster (TOCC) history; traffic control bundling (TCB); training of using personal protective equipment; real-name visiting management; and employee care. The patients’ basic characteristics and diagnostic results were gathered. Of the 3832 cases, about 25.9% had travel history. Most of them were traveling to Asia (419 people/time, 10.9%) and from China (256 people/time, 6.7%). Meanwhile, healthcare personnel accounted for 316 people/time (8.3%) and cleaning personnel, 6 people/time (0.16%). The 36 cases who care or have contact with confirmed cases have negative results from the COVID-19 test. The most frequent symptoms were fever and upper respiratory infection followed by gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion: The above strategies were followed. Patients were stratified based on the risk of TOCC history assessment to ensure the safety of healthcare personnel and patients’ appropriate and timely medical services.
Idiopathic scoliosis is commonly found in adolescents of 10 to 17 years of age, patients are required to undergo various types of treatment based on different angles in scoliosis. With the summarized literature and expert opinions, this article describes the treatment and nursing care for various degrees of scoliosis.
With technical development, artificial intelligence (AI) has been actively involving in the healthcare industry. Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience with the combination of virtual objects and a real-world environment, and the objects reside in the environment of the real world through computer-generated images for the purpose to enhance perceptual effects, which can be applied in the fields of medical education and clinical practice. Researchers have found that learning motives and interests may be raised by AR. At a medical center, the inter-specialty team from the Teaching Department and Rehabilitation Department jointly developed an AR Medical Education App, which involves 44 muscle strength and walking exercises, including 6 upper limb movements, 28 lower limb exercises, and 10 cardiorespiratory exercises. Various exercise packages can be designed by health caregivers based on patient’s needs in exercise. The Orthopedics Ward applied it in the respiration training for patients who underwent spinal surgery, preventing respiratory comorbidities. The improved postoperative pulmonary function has been found when compared with that before surgery, with statistical significance. Respiration, upper and lower limbs exercises were persistently performed in patients who underwent spinal surgery, which also has been incorporated in routine nursing care to add diverse options of patient education materials for nursing personnel. In the future, aspects that required further efforts include: expanded software equipment, simplified operation mode, increased user-friendly features for equipment, and expended plentifulness of contents.
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