P021: A ‘Pawsitive’ addition to the ER patient experience: A pilot evaluation of the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program in a Canadian hospital

Introduction: Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) have been applied in numerous clinical settings to help reduce pain, stress, and anxiety. This qualitative study sets out to evaluate the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog program in the emergency department of the Royal University Hospital. Methods: An observer identified patients interested in visiting with a Therapy Dog during their emergency department stay and obtained consent. Participants were asked to indicate on a pictographic scale their physical and mental states before and after the visit. The Therapy Dog team, consisting of a dog and handler, visited the patient for 5-10 minutes. During this time an observer took notes. Participants were asked at the conclusion of the visit to answer questions regarding their overall experience with the Therapy Dog team. Results: 117 patients participated in this study. Pre- and post AAI pictographic faces [c1] scale results showed an average improvement of 1.2. Before AAI, patients most commonly reported feeling pain, anxiety, tiredness, sadness, boredom, weakness, and a desire to go home. Immediately after the AAI, they most commonly reported feeling happiness, relaxation, better, calmness, and good. Observers noted positive participant and family changes during the AAI, including tone of voice, body language, facial expression (e.g., smiling), and openness. Patients often made efforts to make physical contact for the majority of the visit, often despite pain and immobility. There was also frequent sharing of stories about patients’ pets, which seemed to serve as a comfort within the emergency department environment. Conclusion: Animal-assisted interventions with a therapy dog team in an emergency department is a ‘pawsitive’ addition to the patient experience. An important next step is to measure whether the positive impact continued post visit.

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The effect of training and experience on mass casualty incident triage performance: Evidence from emergency personnel in a high complexity university hospital

American Journal of Disaster Medicine ◽

10.5055/ajdm.2019.0322 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 113-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Juan P. Vargas, MD, MSc ◽

Ives Hubloue, MD, PhD ◽

Jazmín J. Pinzón, MD ◽

Alejandra Caycedo Duque, MD

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

Mass Casualty Incident ◽

Mass Casualty ◽

University Hospital ◽

Trauma Patients ◽

Post Intervention ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Emergency Department Staff ◽

Department Staff ◽

Before And After

Mass casualty incident (MCI) can occur at any time and place and health care institutions must be prepared to deal with these incidents. Emergency department staff rarely learn how to triage MCI patients during their medical or nurse degrees, or through on-the-job training. This study aims to evaluate the effect of training and experience on the MCI triage performance of emergency personnel.Methodology: This was a cross-sectional prospective study that analyzed the performance of 94 emergency department staff on the triage classifications of 50 trauma patients, before and after a short training in MCI triage, while taking into account their academic background and work experience.Results: The participants were assigned initially to one of two groups: low experience if they had less than 5 years of practice, and high experience if they had more than 5 years of practice. In the low experience group, the initial accuracy was 45.76 percent, over triage 45.84 percent, and subtriage 8.38 percent. In the high experience group, the initial accuracy was 53.80 percent, over triage 37.66 percent, and sub triage 8.57 percent.Postintervention Results: In the low experience group, the post intervention accuracy was 63.57 percent, over triage 21.15 percent, and subtriage 15.30 percentage. In the high experience group, the post-intervention accuracy was 67.66 percentage, over triage 15.19 percentage, and subtriage 17.14 percentage. Conclusion: Upon completion of this study, it can be concluded that MCI triage training significantly improved the performance of all those involved in the workshop and that experience plays an important role in MCI triage performance.

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Dynamics of Mental States of Learners Working with Didactic VR Programs Using Virtual Reality Technologies

Experimental Psychology (Russia) ◽

10.17759/exppsy.2021140407 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 123-141

Author(s):

V.G. Anikina ◽

E.G. Khoze ◽

I.V. Strizhova

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Activation Parameter ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Well Being ◽

Mental States ◽

Adolescent Students ◽

Cognitive Motivation ◽

Before And After ◽

Different Levels

The article presents the results of studying the mental states of adolescent students involved in the work using didactic VR programs implemented using VR technologies of different levels, demonstrated using different technical means (stationary PC, VIVE helmet), causing immersive experience of different quality. Before and after work, the participants were controlled: activation, excitement, tone, well-being; mood, asthenia, euphoria; the severity of the presence effect. As a result, it was shown that the participants who were involved in the work with the help of a PC experienced a decrease in indicators at the level of reliable statistical significance for the activation parameter. When working with VIVE helmets, reliable increases are shown in terms of activation, arousal, tone, well-being, asthenic state and euphoria. In general, we can talk about the intensive and positive impact of didactic VR programs broadcast with the help of higher level VR technologies on the mental states of students, which can become a source of formation of their stable and productive educational and cognitive motivation.

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The Etiologies of Altered Level of Consciousness in the Emergency Department: Before versus after Coronavirus Disease-19

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association ◽

10.17340/jkna.2021.3.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 141-149

Author(s):

Dong Hwan Kim ◽

Jae Cheon Jeon ◽

In-Cheol Kim ◽

Yaerim Kim ◽

Yong Won Cho ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

South Korea ◽

Medical Records ◽

Clinical Characteristics ◽

Systemic Infection ◽

University Hospital ◽

Altered Level ◽

Level Of Consciousness ◽

Before And After ◽

Overall Mortality

Background: Altered level of consciousness (ALC) is a challenging condition in the emergency department (ED). We evaluated the clinical characteristics, causes, and prognosis of adult patients presenting with ALC at an ED of a university hospital.Methods: The medical records of patients with ALC who visited the ED of a university hospital from February 2019 to November 2020 were reviewed to compare before and after the outbreak of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in Daegu, South Korea. The cause of ALC, its classification, the patients’ destinations, and prognosis were carefully decided and compared.Results: A total of 1,851 patients with ALC in ED consisted of 1,068 before COVID-19 (BC; to February 17th, 2020) and 783 after COVID-19 (AC; from February 18th, 2020) were investigated. The all-time leading cause of ALC in ED was systemic infection (29.2% in BC, 25.0% in AC), followed by metabolic cause (21.0%) in BC and stroke (18.4%) in AC. Extra-cerebral etiologies of ALC were 1,206 (65.1%). The overall mortality of ALC in ED was 12.3%, consisting of 11.0% in BC and 14.2% in AC. During the daytime (07:00 to 18:59), patients in overall 1,179 patients (63.7%) with ALC visited ED, consisted of 665 (62.3%) in BC and 514 (65.5%) in AC.Conclusions: This study demonstrated the extra-cerebral etiologies as the major causes of ALC in the ED. And there have been shifts in the etiology of ALC in ED.

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Patient Opinion of Visiting Therapy Dogs in a Hospital Emergency Department

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17082968 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (8) ◽

pp. 2968

Author(s):

Joanne Reddekopp ◽

Colleen Anne Dell ◽

Betty Rohr ◽

Barbara Fornssler ◽

Maryellen Gibson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

University Hospital ◽

Therapy Dogs ◽

Hospital Emergency ◽

Cross Sectional Survey ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Therapy Dog ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Patient Opinion

To date there have been no studies examining whether patients want emergency department (ED) therapy dog programs. This patient-oriented study examined the opinions of patients about whether they would want to be visited by a therapy dog in the Royal University Hospital ED. Cross-sectional survey data were collected over a six week period from a convenience sample of 100 adult patients who had not been visited by a therapy dog in the ED. Most (80%) indicated they would want a visit by a therapy dog as an ED patient. A higher proportion of individuals who currently have a pet dog (95%) or identify as having lots of experience with dogs (71%) were more likely to indicate this want compared to those without a dog (90%) or little to no experience with dogs (62%). The majority were also of the opinion that patients may want to visit a therapy dog in the ED to reduce anxiety (92%) and frustration (87%) as well as to increase comfort (90%) and satisfaction (90%) and to a lesser extent to reduce pain (59%). There was no significant difference in findings by gender or age, other than a higher proportion of older adults and females identifying cultural background and tradition as a possible reason that patients may not want to be visited by a therapy dog. The findings of this study can help guide considerations for future ED therapy dog programs.

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Strategic Role of Zakat in Multidimensional Quality of Life in Sijunjung, Indonesia

The Journal of Muamalat and Islamic Finance Research ◽

10.33102/jmifr.v15i1.101 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 55-72

Author(s):

Herlin Hamimi ◽

Abdul Ghafar Ismail ◽

Muhammad Hasbi Zaenal

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Wealth Distribution ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

Before And After ◽

The Status ◽

Being There ◽

The Impact

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam which has a function of faith, social and economic functions. Muslims who can pay zakat are required to give at least 2.5 per cent of their wealth. The problem of poverty prevalent in disadvantaged regions because of the difficulty of access to information and communication led to a gap that is so high in wealth and resources. The instrument of zakat provides a paradigm in the achievement of equitable wealth distribution and healthy circulation. Zakat potentially offers a better life and improves the quality of human being. There is a human quality improvement not only in economic terms but also in spiritual terms such as improving religiousity. This study aims to examine the role of zakat to alleviate humanitarian issues in disadvantaged regions such as Sijunjung, one of zakat beneficiaries and impoverished areas in Indonesia. The researcher attempted a Cibest method to capture the impact of zakat beneficiaries before and after becoming a member of Zakat Community Development (ZCD) Program in material and spiritual value. The overall analysis shows that zakat has a positive impact on disadvantaged regions development and enhance the quality of life of the community. There is an improvement in the average of mustahik household incomes after becoming a member of ZCD Program. Cibest model demonstrates that material, spiritual, and absolute poverty index decreased by 10, 5, and 6 per cent. Meanwhile, the welfare index is increased by 21 per cent. These findings have significant implications for developing the quality of life in disadvantaged regions in Sijunjung. Therefore, zakat is one of the instruments to change the status of disadvantaged areas to be equivalent to other areas.

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THE RECOGNITION AND MANAGEMENT OF PAEDIATRIC SEPSIS IN THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF WALES (UHW) EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT (ED)

10.26226/morressier.57d034d0d462b80292383477 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Stephen Mullen

Keyword(s):

Emergency Department ◽

University Hospital ◽

The University

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A STUDY ON THE VARIATION IN CA 72-4 LEVELS OF THE GASTRIC CANCER’S PATIENTS BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY TREATMENT

Journal of Medicine and Pharmacy ◽

10.34071/jmp.2011.5.11 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 81-87

Author(s):

Thi Thu Huong Hoang ◽

Minh Vuong Nguyen

Keyword(s):

Gastric Cancer ◽

Study Groups ◽

University Hospital ◽

Control Group ◽

Central Hospital ◽

Before And After

Objectives: Studying on the variation in CA 72-4 levels of the gastric cancer’s patients before and after 10 days and 30 days surgery treatment. Materials and methods: The studying group included 42 gastric cancer’s patients who were examinated and treated in cancerology service of Hue University Hospital and gastroenterology service of Hue Central Hospital. The control group included 30 healthy normal examinated at Hue University Hospital. The study groups were clinical, endoscopic anatopathologic examination diagnosed with gastric cancer and quantitative levels of CA 72-4 in three times points: before surgerying, after surgerying 10 days and 30 days postoperatively. Rerults: The concentration of CA 72-4 in gastric cancer’s patients was 10.06 ± 16.49 U/ml. Clearly higher than the control group 1.2 ± 0.4 U/ml(p <0.01). The rate increased levels of CA 72-4 in gastric cancer’s patients before surgerying was 27.5% and the control group was 0%. After 10 days of surgery, CA 72-4 level was 5.56 ± 8.55 U/ml; 82.5% of patients have reduced levels of CA 72-4 and 17.5% no changes; there are 0% increased cases. After 30 days of surgery, CA 72-4 level was 3.79 ± 6,52 U/ml. CA 72-4 level 10 days after surgering have decreased significantly compared to before surgery (p < 0.05) and 30 days after surgery have decreased significantly compared to after 10 days (p < 0.05). 30 days postoperatively, 90% patients had reduced levels of CA 72-4, 10% no changes, no patient had increased levels of CA 72-4 and no patient be relapsed after 30 days of treatment. Conclusions: CA 72-4 concentrations before surgerying increased 27.5%, after surgery 10 days and 30 days reduced step by step, no case have increased CA 72-4 levels, no case relapsed after 30 days.

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