BACKGROUND Nursing managers have to meet expectations of patients despite economic pressures, an increasing burden of disease and nursing shortages. Shifting health care-related tasks to lower categories of staff, including non-nursing support staff, has become one solution to address this dilemma. Patient care workers are a specific group of non-nursing support staff working in South African h...

INTRODUCTION Nurses are primary contacts for all those involved in a patient’s care, creating a complex system of communication responsibilities (Leppa, 1996). The work environment of nurses is complicated, stressful, detail-oriented, and it significantly influences patient outcomes. Communication between nurses and members of the patient care team is critical to the delivery of quality health ...

Community health workers are ideally suited to the care coordination niche within the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) team, but there are few case studies detailing how to accomplish this integration. This qualitative study documents how community health workers (CHWs) were integrated into a PCMH in South Bronx, New York. Results show that integration was linked to clear definition of thei...

Community health workers are ideally suited to the care coordination niche within the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) team, but there are few case studies detailing how to accomplish this integration. This qualitative study documents how community health workers (CHWs) were integrated into a PCMH in South Bronx, New York. Results show that integration was linked to clear definition of thei...

Patients with chronic or complex medical or psychiatric conditions are treated by many practioners, including general practitioners (GPs). Formal liaison between primary and specialist is often assumed to offer benefits to patients. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of formal liaison of GPs with specialist service providers on patient health outcomes, by conducting a systematic r...

Recommendations c A patient-centered communication style that incorporates patient preferences, assesses literacy and numeracy, and addresses cultural barriers to care should be used. B c Treatment decisions should be timely and based on evidence-based guidelines that are tailored to individual patient preferences, prognoses, and comorbidities. B c Care should be aligned with components of the ...

Teamwork is the most effective approach in which to accomplish complex tasks. In general, teamwork has been shown to improve production, augment organizational and employee performance, increase job satisfaction, and enhance decision making. In health care, teamwork is of vital importance in order to maximize patient care delivery. Interdisciplinary teamwork is recommended as a comprehensive ap...

conclusions based on our findings, it is crucial to implement well-designed educational programs to improve hypertension self-care behaviors. background an assessment of an individual’s hypertension self-care behavior may provide clinicians and practitioners with important information regarding how to better control hypertension. objectives the objective of this study was to investigate the sel...

Even in the information-rich environment of hospitals, health-care providers face challenges in addressing their various information needs. Through a study of a patient-care team in a tertiary care Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), we expanded our understanding of health-care providers' information needs in two important ways. First, the study focused on a patient-care team instead of indivi...