Objective- This study aims to identify the microorganisms and antibiotic resistance patterns in necrotising fasciitis. Methods- This is a retrospective audit over two consecutive years (June 2015 - July 2017) of all patients who had surgery for necrotising fasciitis at an ACS unit. Results- Necrotising fasciitis accounted for 15% of all skin and soft tissue sepsis that required surgery. There were 10 male (52.6%) and nine female (47.4%) patients. The most common co-morbidity was diabetes mellitus in 10 (52.6%) patients, the compliance and control were monitored by glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1C) in 50% of the diabetic group, with a mean of 8.98 (Range 5-12.9). Fifteen percent of cases (n=3) had a confirmed diagnosis of HIV, with a negative result in eight (42%). ICU was required in three patients two of whom were on inotropes and one patient required renal replacement therapy. Surgery was performed within 24 hours for 11 (57%) patients. The most common anatomical site for debridement was perineum in nine patients (47%). Monomicrobial infection was the most common subtype of necrotising fasciitis withmethicillin sensitive staphylococcus aureus in five (26%) as the predominant microbe. Gram-negative organism Escherichia-coli was the second most common monomicrobial infection. All Gram-positive organisms were sensitive to cloxacillin and co- amoxiclavulanic acid. Two gram negatives(15%) of the 13 organisms cultured were resistant to coamoxiclavulanic acid. The 30 day mortality was 15%. Conclusion- Necrotising fasciitis is a rare but lethal infection.In our limited series, monomicrobial infection is the most common subtype. 15% of the community acquired organisms were resistant to the empiric antibiotic of choice co-amoxiclavulanic acid. (word count= 261).

Improving hospital efficiency is a critical concern for health care managers and policy makers. Hospital technical efficiency is measured as the ratio of what quantity and quality of care is produced to what could be produced given the level of resources available to the hospital (its budget). What a hospital should produce given the resources at its disposal is called the “production frontier”. In order to improve hospital performance, health policy makers need knowledge and information about how well the hospitals they fund are utilizing the resources they receive. Data Envelopment Analysis, a non-parametric technique, is applied to administrative data on hospitals in Canada to produce the “technical frontier” and get insight into the variation of technical efficiency of acute hospitals at the Pan-Canadian level (except for the province of Quebec, which does not report its data on hospitals in a way that would make them comparable to the rest of Canada). DEA is preferred to the alternative method of stochastic frontier for the following reasons: DEA does not require to impose a specification on the production function of hospitals (for which theory is clearly lacking), and it allows the analyst to estimate a multi-output frontier (a stochastic frontier would have to weight arbitrarily the value of quantity versus that of quality of care in hospitals, whereas the DEA approach generates these weights from the data). Efficiency scores are serially de-correlated using a bootstrap technique and then entered as the dependent variable in regressions to identify the main factors of efficiency or inefficiency. Specifically, this thesis aims to: 1) estimate the level of technical efficiency of acute inpatient care in 35 teaching hospitals, 54 large hospitals and 90 medium-size hospitals respectively in Canada and identify the potential factors that have influence on technical efficiency; 2) uncover and measure the existence of possible spatial spillovers of hospital efficiency in Canada and examine its potential determinants while taking into account the interaction between hospitals by means of spatial regression; and 3) examine the technical and scale efficiency of the 229 small and rural hospitals across Canada (outside Quebec), as well as estimate the impact of institutional and contextual variables on hospital technical and scale efficiency respectively. The major findings are: 1) hospital output (combination of number and quality of stays; quality being measured as the inverse of in-hospital mortality) in Canada could be increased by 24 percent with the same resources by eliminating inefficiency. Highly efficient teaching hospitals benefit from producing care under favourable environments. Higher efficiency could be achieved by increasing cooperation within the health system and making more post- acute care beds available to both large and medium hospitals; 2) There is a substantial and significantly positive spatial spillover effect on the efficiency of acute inpatient care (elasticity of 0.3): Canadian hospitals are clearly complements to each other and work in networks much more than in competition. The hospital size (the number of beds), the percent of transfers between acute hospitals, and the percent of patient transfers to home care are the main drivers of efficiency among acute hospitals in Canada while controlling of the dependence between hospitals; and 3) Among small hospitals, the average output orientation technical efficiency on all types of services is 54% at the current input-output mix. To improve their technical efficiency, small hospitals should provide with more home care facilities to discharge their patients to (so-called Alternative Level of Care patients) and strengthen their cooperation with larger, urban hospitals. Small hospitals are scale inefficient, specifically, rural hospitals could reduce their size by 34% on average (around 6 acute beds) to achieve the optimal size. The study also found that the spending on diagnosis tests and the nursing as the percentages of total hospital spending (cost shares) are positively and significantly related to the scale efficiency. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / A hospital is technically efficient if it uses its resources (its budget) to get the most in terms of quantity (number of stays) and quality of care it can. A hospital can be more or less technically efficient for reasons independent of its control (typically, because of the environment in which the hospital operates) and efficiency is a value-neutral measure. This thesis aims to: 1) estimate the technical efficiency of acute inpatient care in Canada and identify the potential factors that influence the level of efficiency achieved by a given hospital; 2) uncover the existence of possible geographic clusters of efficiency (hospitals that are close geographically are also close in the efficiency scale, something called spatial spillovers in the literature) in Canada.; and 3) examine the role that size plays in the variation of technical efficiency among small and rural hospitals across Canada. The major findings are: 1) hospital output could be increased by 24 percent with the same resources by eliminating technical inefficiency; 2) There is a substantial and significantly positive spatial spillover effect on the efficiency of acute inpatient care: being close to an efficient hospital increases the efficiency score of a hospital, everything else being the same; and 3) The level of technical efficiency of small and rural hospitals across Canada is low overall and, perhaps surprisingly, larger rural hospitals are among the least efficient: among small hospitals, scale does not yield economies of resources.

With the corporatization of healthcare, combined with rapid advances in medical technology, frontline health care workers, especially nurses, are facing an increase in daily ethical dilemmas, with potential increases in moral distress. The contributing factors and negative effects of moral distress are well researched, in particular as they impact nurses in specialty areas. However, understanding how nurses navigate moral distress, specifically in general medical and surgical units, is not as well understood. The purpose of this study was to understand and articulate the processes that nurses carry out when navigating moral distress, by exploring their interactions with the health care environment. Using grounded theory methodology, a substantive theory was developed to explain the process. The participants in this study were all registered nurses from an acute care academic hospital, who worked on non-specialty medical and/or surgical units. Data collection consisted of audio-recorded face-to-face interviews that were transcribed post interview. All the events and situations that resulted in the experience of moral distress were primarily rooted in organizational structures, which often blindsided the nurses in this study, and led to a sense of feeling ill-equipped and unsupported to respond in the moment. Furthermore, the participants expressed their inability to be agents of change due to the established organizational expectations. The basic social process for navigating moral distress was “Just getting through the shift”. This theory is comprised of the categories of Experiencing Moral Distress, Making Sense of the Situation, and Finding the Way. In working through these processes, the participants engaged in navigating moral distress. Making sense of the situation was an ongoing process that nurses engaged in whereby they sought out knowledge in various ways, such as exploring internal resources, and building relationships with their peers, their patients, and patients’ families. Throughout this iterative process of making sense of the situation, the nurses were then able to find their way. Participants discussed positive outcomes such as reflecting and learning from the experience. However, despite this response, there was a feeling of powerlessness to make a difference. Therefore, they focused on providing the best care they could and getting on with their shift without experiencing closure. / Graduate

Introduction: Newly qualified doctors are frequently first to the scene in managing acutely unwell in-patients. Failures in clinical assessment, basic management and early escalation of care lead to avoidable patient morbidity and mortality. Analyses of adverse events have highlighted the importance of non-technical skills training to improve patient safety. These are a combination of cognitive (such as decision making) and social skills (such as team working), which complement knowledge and technical ability, and contribute to safe and effective care. In order to train and assess junior doctors in these skills, we must first have an accurate understanding of what they involve. This research project was designed to identify the critical non-technical skills required by junior doctors to manage acutely unwell patients safely and effectively. It aimed to develop a tool to observe these skills that could be used in training, assessment and research. Method: A literature review was used to develop an initial framework to categorise the non-technical skills required in this domain. Twenty-nine in depth semi-structured interviews were then completed with junior doctors. A critical incident technique was utilised: Junior doctors were asked to recall a challenging case in which they managed an acute medical emergency. Interviews were transcribed and coded using template analysis. A panel of subject matter experts were then consulted in order to refine this framework and develop an assessment tool for observing these skills. This involved two focus groups and an iterative process, returning to the original data to verify any changes. Results: Four categories of critical non-technical skills were identified: Situation awareness, decision-making, task management and teamwork. Each of these had between three and four sub-categories. Descriptors, exemplar behaviours and an assessment scale were developed to allow these non-technical skills to be observed and rated using a behavioural marker system. During the development of this tool, exploration of the data revealed the influence of factors such as hierarchy and culture on the behaviour of junior doctors. Conclusions: The performance of newly qualified doctors in acute care is influenced by the complex clinical environments in which they work. This can have profound implications for patient outcomes. The framework developed by this research allows us to be explicit about the types of behaviours that are required to keep patients safe. If this tool can be integrated into clinical training, then it could be used by clinicians to support the development of safe and effective skills and reduce the current level of avoidable patient harm.

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskeutbildningen är treårig. I den ingår teoretisk och verksamhetsförlagd utbildning inom psykiatrisk vård. Studenter behöver förberedas med att träna för att få förmågan att möta och hantera patienter med psykisk ohälsa. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur sjuksköterskestudenter uppfattar akuta omhändertaganden av patienter på psykiatriska akuta vårdavdelningar. Metod: En kvalitativ induktiv metod valdes. Tio intervjuer med semistrukturerade intervjufrågor genomfördes med studenter under termin tre på sjuksköterskeprogram i Mellansverige. Datamaterialet analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim och Lundman (2004). Resultat: Ur analysen framkom två kategorier: sjuksköterskans arbetssituation och studentens reflektion över patientens situation. Vidare framkom fem subkategorier: speciellt att sätta gränser och vårda inom akut psykiatrisk vård, anpassa stöd och samtal, använda sig själv som ett redskap, etiska reflektioner och olika perspektiv. Konklusion: Studien visar att studenterna inte har tillräcklig teoretisk eller erfarenhetsmässig kompetens i rollen som sjuksköterskestudent på en psykaitrisk akutavdelning när de ska utföra VFU. Med  anledning av avdelningsinriktning, kort placering och akuta situationer de möts av inom psykiatrisk verksamhet, finns behov för studenterna att få mer psykiatrikunskap innan den kliniska praktiken utförs. Akuta omhändertaganden i psykiatriska situationer uppfattas därför mer sensitivt, svårförstådda och svåra att hantera av studenterna. / Background: Training to become a nurse is three years and includes theoretical and clinical training in psychiatric care. Students need to be prepared to practice to get the ability to meet and manage patients with mental illness. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine how nursing students perceive the emergency care order of patients in acute psychiatric wards. Method: A qualitative inductive method was chosen and ten interviews with semi-structured interview questions were conducted with students during the third semester in nursing programs in central Sweden. The data were analyzed by content analysis according Graneheim and Lundman (2004). Results: From the analysis revealed two categories: Nurses work situation and student reflection on the patient's situation. It was also found five subcategories: especially to set limits and take care in emergency psychiatric care, customize support and conversation, using her own as a tool, students' ethical reflections and different perspectives. Conclusion: The study shows that students do not have sufficient theoretical or experiential expertise in the role of a nursing student, in a psychiatric emergency department. The study shows that students do not have sufficient theoretical or experiential expertise in the role of a nurse, in a psychiatric emergency department. Because of the departments focus, where students are located and emergency situations they encounter in psychiatry, there is a need for students to gain more knowledge before psychiatry clinical practice is carried out. Acute psychiatric nursing care in situations perceived therefore more sensitive, difficult to understand and difficult to manage by the students.

Background: In the current policy environment hospital readmissions are receiving considerable attention due to a provision in the Affordable Care Act (2010), that penalize hospitals through reduced payments for excess readmissions (the hospital readmissions reduction program (HRRP)). This program primarily holds hospitals accountable, although a multitude of factors not directly in control of hospitals can be contributory to readmissions. Of these, whether or not patients are discharged to an appropriate post-discharge care setting can be one contributory factor, and, this study evaluated the association between post-discharge care setting and hospital revisits. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the 2008 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) was conducted. Three post-discharge care settings were evaluated: 1) routine discharge to home; 2) home with home healthcare; and 3) skilled nursing facility. Two outcomes were assessed: 1) 30-day all-cause hospital readmissions; and 2) 30-day all-cause hospital revisits (combination of inpatient admissions and emergency department visits). Analyses were carried out among patients with hospitalizations for any reason, as well as among a subgroup that were hospitalized for one of seven priority conditions identified in the HRRP. Weighted logistic regression analyses that incorporated information on the complex survey design were conducted. Results: Of the MCBS sample representing 46,048,125 Medicare beneficiaries (unweighted N=11,723), 4.9 percent (N= 2,293,629; unweighted N=670) contributed at least one index hospitalization to the analysis. Among hospitalization for any reason, 30-day all-cause hospital readmissions and revisits was 12.3 percent and 17.8 percent, respectively. The subgroup consisted of 31.8 percent of hospitalizations for any reason (N=730,174; unweighted N=216). Readmissions and revisits in the subgroup were 17.8 percent, and 24.5 percent, respectively. Post-discharge care setting was not significantly associated with either readmissions (P=0.966) or revisits (P=0.728) for hospitalizations for any reason. Findings for the subgroup were similar with no significant association between post-discharge care setting with either readmissions (P=0.850) or revisits (P=0.483). Conclusion: Absence of a difference in readmissions and revisits by post-discharge care setting suggests that the choice of discharge status might be appropriate following an inpatient admission. However, further research with larger sample sizes for conditions in the subgroup both together and separately is recommended.

The nursing process is the espoused problem solving framework that forms the basis of the way in which patient care is determined, delivered, and communicated in a multiplicity of health care settings. Although its use is widespread in educational and clinical settings, some nurse clinicians display negative attitudes towards the use of the nursing process. They claim that both the structure and language that underpins this process is cumbersome and unreflective of the way in which nursing care is planned and delivered. To date, there has been no study cited that has examined its use within a clinical setting and determined if and how the nursing process is being used and whether there is substance in the clinicians' claims. Additionally, some of the research on problem solving has used laboratory based designs that are limited as they are not sensitive to contextual factors that affect the use of a problem solving process, nor are they sensitive to the efficacy of the communication process. As patient care involves many nurses working under diverse contextual conditions, these factors need to be taken into consideration when studying this phenomenon.Using grounded theory methodology, this study examined the clinical application of the nursing process in acute care hospital settings. Specifically, it sought to answer the following two questions: (1) How is the nursing process used by nurse clinicians in acute care hospital settings? and in the absence of its use, (2) How is nursing care determined, delivered, and communicated in acute care hospital settings in Western Australia?Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with predominantly nurse clinicians, patients, and patients' relatives, as well as participant field observations of nurse clinicians, and in-depth audits of patient records. Textual data were managed using NUD-IST and analysed using constant ++ / comparative method. Data generation and analysis proceeded simultaneously using open coding, theoretical coding, and selective coding techniques until saturation was achieved. This resulted in the generation of a substantive theory explaining clinical nursing in acute care hospital settings.The findings of this study revealed several problems with the clinical application of the nursing process. It also revealed a process used by nurses to overcome many difficulties they experienced as they tried to determine, deliver, and communicate patient care. Specifically, nurses in this study experienced the basic social problem of being in a state of "Unknowing". Properties and dimensions of unknowing were found consistently in the data and this problem was labelled as the core category. This state of "unknowing" was linked to a number of factors, such as, the existence of a fragmented and inconsistent method of determining and communicating patient care and work conditions of immense change and uncertainty. In order to deal with this problem, the nurses in this study used a basic social process termed: "Enabling Care: Working through obscurity and uncertainty". The first phase of the core process, termed: Putting the pieces together: making sense, involved four subprocesses. These subprocesses were labelled: drawing on the known, collecting and combining information, checking and integrating information, and sustaining communication. The second phase of the core process was termed Minimising uncertainty. It involved three subprocesses which were named: adapting work practices, taking control, and backing-up.The findings of this study have implications for nursing practice, research, theory, and education, as it exposes problems with the clinical application of the nursing process in acute care settings. In addition, it further explicates a substantive theory that describes a ++ / process of nursing used by nurses in these settings. As the articulated process was supported by a number of studies and opinions of nurse scholars it is worthy of being considered as being foundational to an understanding of a process of nursing used in acute care hospital settings in Western Australia.

Canadians are living longer with multiple complex illnesses. In turn, older adults are often in need of complex medical attention in crisis situations in acute care hospital settings. Although acute care settings are equipped with a growing variety of life saving technologies, hospitals are still the setting in which most people die. Yet, almost half of the Canadians who have been admitted to acute care centres with chronic life-limiting illnesses have not had advance care planning (ACP) conversations with their substitute decision-maker (SDM) about the personal values that bring quality to their lives. In fact, only 8% of the general Canadian population are ACP ready. Consequently, many SDMs are unprepared to make end of life (EOL) treatment decisions for their loved ones. One way to promote patient-centred care and ease the burden of in-the-moment EOL treatment decisions made by SDMs, is for nurses to engage their patients in ACP. However, very few registered nurses regularly engage their patients in ACP. The purpose of this research is to better understand the organizational factors influencing nurses’ decisions related to ACP in their hospital-based work. This ethnographic study was conducted on three acute care wards in two hospital sites located in Northern Ontario. Data collection methods included observational fieldwork, semi-structured interviews with administrators and registered nurses (n=23), and the collection of documents pertinent to the study purpose (i.e., accreditation reports, practice guidelines, etc.). Findings reveal that the work of nurses in hospital settings is embedded within a context that prioritizes patient flow, and efficiency. Consequently, hospitals often function at overcapacity, and nurses have extremely heavy workloads caring for complex patients with diagnoses that do not match the medical specialty of the units. Although participants state that they value ACP, they maintain that nurses have very little capacity to engage patients in these conversations in their practice. Findings support that expectations for hospital nurses to fully engage in ACP with their patients may be unrealistic given the context within which they work. Alternative models for considering ACP in acute care could be explored to ensure that patients with life-limiting conditions receive care that is best matched to their needs, values, and wishes. / Graduate

The number of adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioners is increasing, as well as the number of patients requiring care in the northern Nevada region. The specialty training of adult gerontology nurse practitioners (AGACNPs) enables them to provide care for the increasing number of patients in the acute setting. Unfortunately, there are perceived barriers that inhibit the implementation of AGACNP into practice within this region. There is a need to understand the barriers to use of AGACNPs and provide feedback to organizational leaders throughout the region. Purpose and Objective: While many studies show the benefits of adding AGACNPs or nurse practitioners in general to an organization, there is a need for further literature on the evidence of the barriers to AGACNP use. This study attempts to identify those barriers, specifically looking into the northern Nevada region. Methods: A survey was sent out to 19 hospital and critical care group administrators in the northern Nevada region. There was an attempt made for phone interviews, if the survey was not completed during the allotted timeframe. The survey consisted of both quantitative and qualitative questions that were used to identify potential barriers influencing AGACNP role use. Results: Out of the 19 surveys sent out, six surveys were returned. A total of six surveys from six different organizations were completed for this study. Five of the six respondents do not currently have any AGACNPs within their organizations and the one that did use AGACNPs had less than 10. Four out of six respondents reported confusion on scope of practice as a current barrier to use within their organization. Conclusions: This survey helps AGACNPs understand the barriers to use within the northern Nevada region when looking for an acute care job. For the organizations in the northern Nevada region, there is a need for organizational education regarding the scope of practice of AGACNPs and how to utilize them within their organization, as well as create an effective collaborative practice model for their acute care organization.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is recognized as a means for providing safe, cost-effective, and quality healthcare. Registered Nurses (RNs), like other disciplines, are accountable for providing patient care based on the best evidence. The greatest majority of RNs are employed within the acute care setting. Unknown is what type of organizational infrastructure is necessary to support RNs in EBP. The business community reports positive performance outcomes through development of learning organizations (LO). LOs are reputed to be high functioning, supportive, adaptive, and continuously learning systems, compatible with the needs reflected in today's complex, turbulent healthcare. This descriptive study used a survey methodology to identify relationships between the dimensions of a LO as perceived by RNs within the context of the acute care hospital and their beliefs about and implementation of EBP. Six hospitals, two magnet designated, two non-magnet, and two Veterans Administration Medical Centers in one southwestern state were invited to participate. Three established instruments were used. Distribution of questionnaires to 1750 RNs resulted in a return of 592, for a 34% response rate. Instruments demonstrated adequate reliability and validity for this sample. Psychometrics on the EBP Beliefs Scale resulted in the identification of four subscales that were subsequently included in the analyses. Descriptive statistics indicated differences in characteristics of nurses from the different types organizations. The VA nurse's average age was 48 years, worked 19 years as an RN and 64% reported their highest educational degree as bachelor or above. Nurses responding from the other two types of organizations, on the average, were 42 years old, had 14 years experience, and 52% reported an educational degree of bachelor or above. Relationships were identified between RNs' perceived beliefs about EBP and their reported frequency of EBP implementation. Regressing beliefs on the dependent variable of implementation with the full sample (n=543) resulted in R2=.23, p<.05. Slight variation was noted in the analysis per organizational type. Relationships among the dimensions of the learning organization and the subscales of the Belief scale were analyzed using regression analysis. Significant relationships were noted but were demonstrated differently among the three different types of organizations.