Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics and outcomes of Medicare patients treated in inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in 2013 through 2018.
Design: A descriptive study was conducted.
Methods: A total of 2,907,046 IRF Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage patient stays that ended in 2013 through 2018 were analyzed.
Results: The number of Medicare patients treated in IRFs increased by about 9%, from 466,092 in 2013 to 509,475 in 2018. Although IRF patients' age and racial/ethnic composition remained similar across the years, there was a shift in patients' primary rehabilitation diagnosis, with more patients with stroke, neurological conditions, traumatic and nontraumatic brain injury, fewer patients with orthopedic conditions, and fewer coded as having medically complex conditions. Across the years, the percentage of patients discharged to the community was between 73.0% and 74.4%.
Clinical relevance to the practice of rehabilitation nursing: Rehabilitation nurses should have training and expertise in the management of patients with stroke and neurological conditions to provide high-quality IRF care.
Conclusions: Between 2013 and 2018, the number of Medicare patients treated in IRFs increased overall. There were more patients with stroke and neurological conditions and fewer patients with orthopedic conditions. Changes to IRF and other post-acute care policies, Medicaid expansion, and alternative payment programs may partially be driving these changes.
Purpose: This study measured the impact of the Stay S.A.F.E. intervention on nursing students' management of and response to interruptions during medication administration. Time to return to the primary task, performance (procedural failures and error rate), and perceived task load were evaluated.
Design: This experimental study used a randomized prospective trial.
Methods: Nursing students were randomized into two groups. Group 1 (the experimental group) received two educational PowerPoints: the Stay S.A.F.E. strategy and medication safety practices. Group 2 (the control group) received educational PowerPoint on medication safety practices. Nursing students participated in three simulations where they were interrupted during a simulated medication administration. Eye tracking of students' eye movements determined focus, time to return to the primary task, performance including procedural failures and errors, and fixation time on the interrupter. The perceived task load was measured using the NASA Task Load Index.
Results: The intervention group, which was the Stay S.A.F.E. group, demonstrated a significant reduction in time away from task. There was a significant difference in perceived task load across the three simulations, including decreased frustration scores for this group as well. The control group members reported a higher mental demand, increased effort, and frustration.
Clinical relevance: Rehabilitation units often hire new nursing graduates or individuals with little experience. For new graduates they have typically practiced their skills without interruptions. However, interruptions in performing care, particularly in medication management, occur frequently in real-world situations. Improving the education of nursing students related to interruption management has the potential to improve their transition to practice and patient care.
Conclusion: Students who received the Stay S.A.F.E. training, a strategy to manage interruptions in care, had decreasing frustration over time and spent more time on the task of medication administration.
Purpose: Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is associated with spinal cord injury, manifesting in symptoms of high blood pressure, bradycardia, headache, diaphoresis, and anxiety. Nurses often manage these symptoms; thus, nursing knowledge of AD is crucial. The purpose of this study was to improve AD nursing knowledge while exploring differences between simulation and didactic learning in nurse education.
Design and methods: This prospective pilot study used two types of learning (simulation vs. didactic) to determine if one was superior to the other regarding nursing knowledge of AD. Nurses were given a pretest, randomized to simulation or didactic learning, and then given a posttest 3 months later.
Results: Thirty nurses were enrolled in this study. Seventy-seven percent of nurses held a BSN degree with an average of 15.75 years in nursing. The mean knowledge scores for AD at baseline for the control (13.9 [2.4]) and intervention (15.5 [2.9]) groups were not statistically different ( p = .1118). The mean knowledge scores for AD after either didactic- or simulation-based education for the control (15.5 [4.4]) and intervention (16.5 [3.4]) groups were not statistically different ( p = .5204).
Clinical relevance: Autonomic dysreflexia is a critical clinical diagnosis that requires prompt nursing intervention to prevent threatening consequences. This study focused on how different methods of education best benefited AD knowledge acquisition and how simulation versus didactic learning impacts overall nursing education.
Conclusions: As a whole, providing nurses with AD education was helpful in improving their understanding of the syndrome. However, our data suggest that both didactic and simulation are equally effective methods to increase AD knowledge.
Purpose: Early signs of acute conditions and increased fall risk often go unrecognized in patients in long-term care facilities. The aim of this study was to examine how healthcare staff identify and act on changes in health status in this patient population.
Design: A qualitative study design was used for this study.
Methods: Six focus groups across two Department of Veterans Affairs long-term care facilities were conducted with 26 interdisciplinary healthcare staff members. Using thematic content analysis, the team preliminarily coded based on interview questions, reviewed and discussed emerging themes, and agreed on the resultant coding scheme for each category with additional independent scientist review.
Results: Themes included describing and explaining how "normal" or expected behavior is identified by staff, noticing changes in a resident, determining the significance of the change, hypothesizing reasons for an observed change, response to an observed change, and resolution of the clinical change.
Conclusions: Despite limited training in formal assessment methods, long-term care staff have developed methods to conduct ongoing assessments of the residents. This technique, individual phenotyping, often identifies acute changes; however, the lack of formal methods, language, or tools to communicate the changes means that these assessments are not often formalized in a manner that informs the residents' changing care needs.
Clinical relevance to the practice of rehabilitation nursing: More formal objective measures of health change are needed to assist long-term care staff in expressing and interpreting the subjective phenotype changes into objective, easily communicated health status changes. This is particularly important for acute health changes and impending falls, both of which are associated with acute hospitalization.