The aim of this dissertation is to examine empirically what Evidence-based practice (EBP) and its standardized procedures become when put into practice in social work. EBP builds on the idea that professional practice should be based on systematic and reliable knowledge of the interventions and instruments used in this work. This implies a standardization of both research and practice that has been highly contested. Inspired by works within science and technology studies (STS), this dissertation analyses the actual content of the standardized procedures and their uses in social work practice. The dissertation examines a ‘critical case’, a substance abuse social services agency that has worked extensively for several years at implementing EBP, and consists of four papers focusing on three standardized procedures used by the agency in order to enact EBP: 1) the Addiction severity index (ASI) assessment instrument; 2) the psychosocial intervention Motivational interviewing, and 3) the decision-making model Critical appraisal (CA). Ethnographic methods were employed to study the agency’s concrete uses of the standardized procedures in daily practice. MI was also followed in the research literature as it became established as an ‘evidence-based’ intervention. Fundamentally, the development of the standards of EBP can be a messy and paradoxical process. In the stabilization of MI, its differences and ‘fluidity’ have eventually been made to disappear and left a stable ‘evidence-based’ object. Findings from the ethnographic studies show that EBP, as enacted in the agency’s daily practice, is a bureaucratic project where the agency’s managers have decided on and control the use of a set of standards. Thus, what constitutes relevant evidence is based not on professional discussion within the agency but is ultimately determined by the managers. In practice, the standards introduce new logics that cause tensions within the agency, tensions which the social workers are left to handle. Main conflicts concern how the client work is ordered and contradictory organizational rationales. The three standards are used to varying extent, which can be understood by examining what they seek to standardize and how they are put to work. CA was not used at all, mainly due to its design. Disregarding organizational rationales that are unavoidable within the social services, it could not be adapted to the agency’s work. With ASI and MI the situation was different, mostly because of their organizational adaptability. ASI could be implemented in several phases of the agency’s work flow resulting in adjustments of both the instrument and the work flow. As a ‘fluid intervention’, MI was constrained by, but also adjustable to the organization. It was thus possible for both ASI and MI to transform and be transformed by pre-existing practices, in effect creating new practices. A major conclusion is that EBP and its standardized procedures is a more dynamic and multifaceted process than previously acknowledged in social work. Rather than a deterministic one-way path, there are different kinds, degrees, and mutual transformations of standardization processes, which must be appreciated in research and in practical efforts to implement EBP. Given the importance of the organization in professional social work, there is a need to move away from individualistic conceptions of EBP and to consider what evidence use might mean from an organizational perspective. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Recent federal legislation has incentivized hospitals to focus on quality of patient care. A primary metric of care quality is patient readmissions. Many methods exist to statistically identify patients most likely to require hospital readmission. Correct identification of high-risk patients allows hospitals to intelligently utilize limited resources in mitigating hospital readmissions. However, these methods have seen little practical adoption in the clinical setting. This research attempts to identify the many open research questions that have impeded widespread adoption of predictive hospital readmission systems. Current systems often rely on structured data extracted from health records systems. This data can be expensive and time consuming to extract. Unstructured clinical notes are agnostic to the underlying records system and would decouple the predictive analytics system from the underlying records system. However, additional concerns in clinical natural language processing must be addressed before such a system can be implemented. Current systems often perform poorly using standard statistical measures. Misclassification cost of patient readmissions has yet to be addressed and there currently exists a gap between current readmission system evaluation metrics and those most appropriate in the clinical setting. Additionally, data availability for localized model creation has yet to be addressed by the research community. Large research hospitals may have sufficient data to build models, but many others do not. Simply combining data from many hospitals often results in a model which performs worse than using data from a single hospital. Current systems often produce a binary readmission classification. However, patients are often readmitted for differing reasons than index admission. There exists little research into predicting primary cause of readmission. Furthermore, co-occurring evidence discovery of clinical terms with primary diagnosis has seen only simplistic methods applied. This research addresses these concerns to increase adoption of predictive hospital readmission systems. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

O uso do cateter venoso central é apontado como um importante fator de risco para infecção da corrente sanguínea, acarretando no prolongamento da internação, aumento da morbimortalidade, e elevação dos custos de hospitalização. Frente ao exposto objetivou-se avaliar as evidências científicas sobre o controle de infecção relacionada ao cateter venoso central utilizado em pacientes adultos hospitalizados. A prática baseada em evidências representou o referencial teórico-metodológico. E, como recurso para obtenção das evidências de Níveis I e II realizou-se a revisão integrativa da literatura nas bases de dados LILACS, CINAHL e MEDLINE. Totalizou-se 17 publicações nos últimos dez anos. A análise dos estudos culminou em 03 categorias temáticas: cateteres impregnados com anti-sépticos, dispositivos seguros e manutenção do cateter. Como resultado obteve-se o apontamento de diversos aspectos no controle da infecção relacionada a cateter, dentre eles: uso de cateter de lúmen único, inserção por via subclávia com técnica estéril e aplicação de anti-séptico a base de clorexidine. Acresce-se que a indicação de cateteres impregnados com anti-sépticos, bem como de sistemas valvulados sem agulha, ainda é controversa. Em geral, os estudiosos sobre a temática alertaram que a qualidade da assistência à pacientes com cateter venoso central está diretamente relacionada com o risco de infecção. Assim, esforços têm sido recomendados a fim de viabilizar a aplicação das evidências advindas das pesquisas e conseqüentemente nortear o poder de decisão na prática clínica, contribuindo para a melhoria da qualidade da assistência. / The use of central venous catheter is pointed as a factor of risk to the infection of the blood stream, which increases the hospitalization period, the morbidity and mortality, and also the hospitalization costs. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate scientific evidences about the control of infection related to the central venous catheter used in hospitalized adult patients. The evidence based practice is the theoretical-methodological reference. To obtain evidences Level I and II, an integrative literature review was performed on the databases LILACS, CINAHL e MEDLINE. In the last ten years was found a total of 17 publications. From the analysis of these studies emerged three thematic categories: catheters impregnated with antiseptics, safe devices and maintenance of the catheter. As a result, several aspects of the control of infection related to the catheter were pointed, such as: the use of the single lumen catheter, insertion through the subclavian with sterile technique and application of clorexidine based antiseptic. It is important to mention that the indication of catheters impregnated with antiseptics, as the use of needleless valve systems are still controversy. In general, researchers alerted that the quality of assistance to patients with venous catheter is directly related to the risk of infection. Therefore, efforts are recommended in order to facilitate the implementation of evidences found in research, and consequently, guide the decision making process in the clinical practice, contributing to the improvement of the quality of assistance.

No Brasil, os avanços nas pesquisas nacionais e internacionais não têm sido traduzidos na construção de diretrizes para nortear o tratamento tópico da úlcera venosa. Ainda persistem muitas dúvidas a respeito dos melhores tratamentos, o que gera uma diversidade de condutas. Este estudo foi desenvolvido em três etapas, com o objetivo de construir uma proposta de diretriz para tratamento tópico de úlcera venosa, a partir de evidências da literatura, e avaliar a concordância de especialistas das áreas de enfermagem e medicina antes e após duas intervenções. Na primeira etapa, buscaram-se as evidências pelo levantamento bibliográfico de publicações indexadas em diversas bases de dados. Para serem elegíveis, as publicações tinham que avaliar a terapia de compressão ou tópica no tratamento de úlcera venosa e relatar uma medida objetiva de redução de edema ou cicatrização de ferida. Na segunda etapa foi construída a proposta de diretriz, amparada nas evidências da literatura e diretrizes internacionais. Na terceira etapa, de delineamento quase-experimental, utilizou-se a técnica Delphi (Delfos) para identificar a opinião dos especialistas a respeito das recomendações e a influência das evidências e da opinião dos pares para a busca de concordância. Pela revisão sistemática de 33 estudos primários, 2 metanálises e 4 diretrizes, concluiu-se que o uso de terapia compressiva por bandagens ou meias aumenta as taxas de cicatrização e o não uso está associado com a recorrência da úlcera. O tratamento com compressão resulta em cicatrização confiável na maioria dos pacientes, mas deve ser associado a coberturas. Ao final da revisão sistemática, extraíram-se 82 recomendações que constituíram a proposta de diretriz, composta de 8 domínios: 1 avaliação do paciente e de sua ferida; 2 documentação dos achados clínicos; 3 cuidado com a ferida e pele ao redor; 4 indicação da cobertura; 5 uso de antibiótico; 6 melhoria do retorno venoso e prevenção de recidiva; 7 encaminhamentos dos pacientes; 8 capacitação profissional. O estudo quase-experimental foi desenvolvido com 42 médicos dermatologistas, angiologistas e cirurgiões vasculares e 31 enfermeiros membros da Sociedade Brasileira de Enfermagem em Dermatologia ou estomaterapeutas de várias cidades do Brasil. Durante a pesquisa, houve perda de 15 participantes. No primeiro momento, quando os participantes receberam as recomendações para a prática baseada em evidências, as melhores concordâncias ocorreram em quatro domínios. Após a primeira intervenção, quando os participantes receberam a proposta de diretriz com os estudos que as embasavam e o nível de evidência, houve aumento dos participantes na posição concordante em todos os domínios, sendo que o domínio 2 manteve-se como o melhor aceito e o 4 como o menos aceito. Após a segunda intervenção, quando os participantes tomaram conhecimento da opinião dos seus pares, houve aumento de participantes na posição concordante na maioria dos domínios, com exceção do domínio 4. O melhor aceito passou a ser o domínio 8 e o menos aceito manteve-se o domínio 4. Observou-se que as intervenções resultaram em mudanças estatisticamente significativas nos domínios 1, 3, 6 e 7. Pode-se afirmar que ambas intervenções foram capazes de modificar a posição dos participantes, levando-os para a posição de concordância quanto às recomendações baseadas em evidências para o tratamento de úlceras venosas. / In Brazil, advances in national and international research have not been translated in the construction of topic treatment guidelines for venous ulcers. Many doubts remain about what the best treatments are, which gives rise to a variety of behaviors. This three-phase study aimed to elaborate a guideline proposal for topic treatment of venous ulcers, based on evidence from literature, as well as to evaluate nursing and medical specialists’ agreements before and after two interventions. In the first phase, evidences were collected through a bibliographic survey of publications that were indexed in different databases. Publications were included if they evaluated compression or topic therapy in venous ulcer treatment and reported on an objective edema reduction or wound healing measure. In the second phase, a guideline proposal was elaborated on the basis of the evidence collected in literature and international guidelines. In the third phase, a quasi-experimental design was adopted, using the Delphi technique to identify specialists’ opinion on the recommendations and how the evidence and peer opinions influenced the search for an agreement. The systematic review of 33 primary studies, 2 meta-analyses and 4 guidelines revealed that using compression therapy by means of bandages or stockings increases healing rates and that non-use is associated with ulcer recurrence. In most patients, compression treatment results in a reliable result, although it should be associated with dressings. The systematic review resulted in 82 recommendations, which constituted the guideline proposal, covering 8 domains: 1 patient and wound assessment, 2 documentation of clinical findings, 3 wound and surrounding skin care, 4 dressing indication, 5 use of antibiotics, 6 venous return improvement and relapse prevention, 7 patient referrals, 8 professional training. The quasi-experimental study involved 42 dermatologists, angiologists and vascular surgeons and 31 nurses who were members of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology Nursing or stomal therapists from different Brazilian cities. 15 participants left the study while in course. At the beginning, when the participants received evidence-based practice recommendations, the highest agreement levels were concentrated in four domains. After the first intervention, when the participants received the guideline proposal, including the studies it was based on and the level of evidence, agreement levels increased across all domains. Domain 2 continued as the most accepted and 4 as the least accepted domain. After the second intervention, when the participants got to know their peers’ opinions, agreement levels increased in most domains, except for domain 4. Domain 8 became the most accepted, while 4 continued as the least accepted domain. The interventions brought about statistically significant changes in domains 1, 3, 6 and 7. Both interventions were capable of changing the participants’ position towards agreement on evidence-based recommendations for venous ulcer treatment.

Introdução: o hábito pela busca de informações que subsidiem a prática clínica e a pesquisa está cada vez mais presente na vida dos profissionais da saúde e o uso das fontes de informação especializadas tornou-se imprescindível. Nesse contexto, destaca-se o profissional bibliotecário, por suas habilidades e o senso do trabalho multidisciplinar, o que permite sua atuação como um elo com o profissional da saúde e as melhores evidências disponíveis por possuírem em seu arsenal de conhecimento técnicas para a busca e recuperação da informação relevante, sendo esta sua oportunidade com a medicina baseada em evidências. Objetivo: avaliar a produção científica dos pesquisadores da pós-graduação em Ortopedia e Traumatologia e a contribuição do bibliotecário no processo da comunicação científica, a partir da avaliação qualitativa e quantitativa de artigos publicados, frente aos requisitos vigentes estabelecidos no sistema de avaliação da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Metodologia: foram pesquisados os artigos publicados com a autoria vinculada ao programa de Pós-Graduação em Ortopedia e Traumatologia da FMUSP, no período de 2012 a 2014. Descartados os editoriais, os eventos e as cartas aos editores, resultou num corpus de 157 artigos. Para avaliação da qualidade do conteúdo dos artigos, foi aplicado o protocolo de avaliação criado por Amatuzzi e para determinação do nível de evidência foi utilizada a classificação proposta pelo Centro de Medicina Baseada em Evidências de Oxford e adaptado pelo periódico Acta Ortopédica Brasileira. Para a análise bibliométrica foi considerada uma janela de citação de quatro anos dos artigos indexados na base de dados Scopus e como classificação dos periódicos utilizamos o Qualis referente aos anos de 2010 a 2012. Foram analisados, tanto o total de artigos quanto a média de citações na referida janela de citação, segundo as seguintes variáveis: nível de evidência e estrato Qualis do periódico. Resultados: os pesquisadores costumam publicar em coautoria e houve uma nítida preferência por Estudos Terapêuticos, sendo grande parte das publicações em nível IV de evidência, priorizando periódicos nacionais classificados no estrato Qualis B3. Apesar da baixa frequência de publicações de nível I de evidência, sua média de citações se mostrou significativa. Analogamente, Estudos Diagnósticos e Estudos Anatômicos de nível I, em sua maior parte, igualmente foram publicados em estratos Qualis mais baixos, contudo, receberam mais citações. Sobre a qualidade metodológica dos artigos publicados, os Estudos Terapêuticos demostraram maior quantidade de respostas \"SIM\" no protocolo de avaliação utilizado, no entanto, foram publicados em periódicos com estrato Qualis menor (B4). E quanto à relação entre o impacto dos artigos com os níveis de evidência e os níveis dos periódicos, constatou-se que os estudos classificados com nível I de evidência foram os mais citados, sendo os estudos sobre anatomia, de ciências básicas, que se destacaram nas médias de citações. Percebeu-se ainda que a média de citações apresenta relação mais forte com os estratos Qualis do que com os níveis de evidência. Conclusões e considerações finais: os pesquisadores da Pós-Graduação em Ortopedia e Traumatologia devem acentuar a prática da Medicina Baseada em Evidências e inseri-la no processo da comunicação científica, buscando aperfeiçoamento, de suas pesquisas e, elevando assim, seu nível de evidência para aprimorar sua performance no exercício avaliativo empreendido pela Capes. A relação profissional do bibliotecário em ciência da saúde e dos pesquisadores deve ser estreitada, estabelecendo um esforço conjunto na busca da qualidade das publicações em Ortopedia e Traumatologia. / Introduction: the practice for the search of information which underpin the clinical practice and research is increasingly present in the lives of health professionals and the use of information sources specialized has become indispensable. In this context, highlights the professional librarian for their skills and the sense of the multidisciplinary work, which allows them to act as a link with the health professional and the best available evidence they have in their arsenal of technical knowledge for the search and retrieval of relevant information, and this is their opportunity with evidence-based medicine. Objective: to evaluate the scientific production of the post-graduate researchers in Orthopedics and Traumatology and the contribution of the librarian in the scientific communication process, based on the qualitative and quantitative assessment of published articles, in face of the requirements established in the evaluation system of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Level (CAPES). Methodology: the articles published were searched with the authorship associated to the post-graduation program in Orthopedics and Traumatology of FMUSP, from 2012 to 2014. Discarded the editorial, events and letters to the editors, has resulted in a corpus of 157 articles. To evaluate the quality of the content of the articles, was applied the evaluation protocol created by Amatuzzi and for the determination of the level of evidence was used the classification proposed by the Evidence-Based Medicine Center of Oxford and adapted by the journal Acta Ortopedica Brasileira. For the bibliometric analysis a four-year citation window of the articles indexed in the Scopus database was considered and as a classification of the journals we used Qualis for the years 2010 to 2012. We analyzed both the total number of articles and the mean number of citations in the mentioned citation window, according to the following variables: level of evidence and Qualis stratum. Results: researchers usually publish in co-authorship, and there is a clear preference for Therapeutic Studies, being a large part of the publications in level IV of evidence, prioritizing national journals classified in the Qualis B3 stratum. Despite the low frequency of publications of level I evidence, its average citation proved to be significant. Similarly, level I Diagnostic and Anatomical Studies, for the most part, were also published in lower Qualis stratum, however, they received more citations. On the methodological quality of the published articles, the Therapeutic Studies demonstrated a greater amount of \"YES\" responses in the evaluation protocol used, however, they were published in journals with lower Qualis stratum (B4). Regarding the relation between the impact of the articles with the levels of evidence and levels of the journals, it was found that the studies classified level I of evidence are the most cited, and the studies on anatomy, of basic sciences, stand out in the averages of citations. It is also realized that the average citation has most strong relation with the Qualis stratum of that with the levels of evidence. Conclusions and final considerations: the researchers of the postgraduate in Orthopedics and Traumatology must emphasize the practice of Evidence-Based Medicine and insert it in the process of scientific communication, seeking enhancement of their research, and thereby raising their level of evidence, thus improving their performance in the exercise of evaluation undertaken by CAPES. The professional relationship of the librarian in health science and researchers should be narrowed, establishing a joint effort in the pursuit of the quality of publications in Orthopedics and Traumatology.

Evidenzbasierte Medizin (EbM) versteht sich als Disziplin, die zwischen der klinischen Forschung und der Gesundheitsversorgung eine Brücke schlägt. Die vorliegende Habilitationsschrift behandelt in 4 Einzelprojekten das Thema "Die klinische Epidemiologie in der ärztlichen Entscheidungsfindung". In dem ersten Projekt "Beobachtung oder Experiment" haben wir nachgewiesen, dass die Randomisierung für den Wirksamkeitsnachweis klinischer Interventionen unverzichtbar ist, um eine möglichst unverzerrte Effektmessung sicherzustellen. Die Studienpopulation waren systematische Übersichtsarbeiten, die randomisierte und nicht-randomisierte Studien zu einem breiten Spektrum an Interventionen aus dem Gesundheitsbereich einschlossen und mehr als 3000 Primärstudien umfassten. In der Auswertung konnten wir zeigen, dass - verglichen mit einer randomisierten Patientenzuordnung - bei einer nicht-randomisierten Patientenzuordnung in Studien der Effekt der Intervention häufig überschätzt wird, aber auch unterschätzt oder sogar invers geschätzt werden kann. Allerdings ist es auch möglich, dass vergleichbare Effekte beobachtet werden. Aufgrund der grossen Gefahr für Effektverzerrung in nicht vorhersagbarer Richtung ist die Randomisierung bei Interventionsstudien absolut erforderlich, um Gruppen mit vergleichbaren Ausgangskriterien zu generieren und damit eine möglichst biasfreie Effektschätzung sicherzustellen. In dem zweiten Projekt haben wir in einer Simulationsstudie demonstriert, wie es durch systematische Fehler in der Durchführung klinischer Studien zu klinischen Fehlentscheidungen kommen kann. Mit Hilfe klinischer Daten von Intensivpatienten, unterschiedlichen Annahmen über das Ausgangsrisiko für gastrointestinale Blutungen und der relativen Risikoreduktion für gastrointestinale Blutung durch H2-Blocker wurden typische Risikokonstellationen identifiziert: Klinische Situationen mit einem moderaten bis niedrigen Patienten-Grundrisiko und moderater bis geringer Wirksamkeit der medizinischen Maßnahme waren für Fehlentscheidungen infolge verzerrter Studienergebnisse besonders anfällig. Diese Konstellation kommt in der Patientenversorgung häufig vor, wodurch die Erkenntnisse unserer Studie einen ganz konkreten Praxisbezug erhalten. In dem dritten Projekt, einer klinischen Studie über die Wirksamkeit von ärztlichen Fortbildungen in evidenzbasierter Medizin ("Berliner EbM-Studie"), haben wir auf der Grundlage des Berliner Gegenstandskatalogs EbM ein Instrument (2 Fragebögen à 15 Fragen) entwickelt und validiert, mit dem man zuverlässig und reproduzierbar zwischen unterschiedlichen Kenntnissen und Fertigkeiten von EbM differenzieren kann. In einer dreijährigen Studie konnten wir nachweisen, dass durch kurze intensive Kurse in evidenzbasierter Medizin (wie z.B. den Berliner EbM-Kursen) bei den 203 Teilnehmern ein statistisch signifikanter und klinisch relevanter Wissenszuwachs erzielt werden kann (vor dem Kurs 6,3 + 2,9, nach dem Kurs 9,9 + 2,4 richtige Antworten; p< 0.001). Im vierten Projekt ging es um die Implementierung der evidenzbasierten Medizin in die tägliche Praxis von Hausärzten. In einer clusterrandomisierten Studie unter Hausärzten hatten wir untersucht, ob man durch kurze, evidenzbasierte Erläuterungen zu im Krankenhaus neu angesetzten Behandlungen, die im Entlassungsbrief beigefügt werden, Hausärzte motivieren kann, diese Behandlung fortzusetzen. 178 Praxen nahmen an der Studie teil. Dabei wurden 417 Entlassungsbriefe mit insgesamt 59 unterschiedlichen evidenzbasierten Medikamentenempfehlungen versandt und nach 3-4 Monaten 268 Interviews erfolgreich durchgeführt. Ärzte in der Interventionsgruppe hatten eine statistisch signifikant geringere Wahrscheinlichkeit, von den Krankenhausempfehlungen abzuweichen als Ärzte in der Kontrollgruppe, die nur den üblichen Entlassungsbrief enthielten (absolute Risikoreduktion 12,5%; p=0.039). Die Ärzte waren über die zusätzliche Information sehr zufrieden, auch wenn diese Information i.a. keine neuen Erkenntnisse lieferte, vielmehr den gegenwärtigen Kenntnisstand der Ärzte bestätigte. Kurze evidenzbasierte Medikamenteninformationen können das rationale Verschreibungsverhalten von Hausärzten positiv beeinflussen. / Evidence-based medicine (ebm) can be described as the discipline bridging research and health care. This thesis covers 4 individual projects on the role of clinical epidemiology / evidence-based medicine in rational clinical decision-making. The first study "Observation or Experiment" addressed the methodological issue of the impact of observational studies versus randomised allocation to any intervention on the estimated effect of the intervention. The study population were systematic reviews including randomised and non-randomised studies on a broad spectrum of interventions and comprising more than 3000 primary studies. In the empirical assessment, we could demonstrate that lack of randomisation tended to exaggerate the estimated effect of the intervention, but could also result in underestimation of the effect, in similar effect sizes or even in inverse effects. Therefore randomisation is mandatory in intervention studies to generate comparable baseline groups and thereby ensure an unbiased assessment of the underlying treatment effect. The second project was a simulation study investigating the impact of bias on clinical decision-making. Based on empirical data from ITU-patients, various assumptions on baseline risks of gastrointestinal bleeding and an estimate of the relative risk reduction for bleeding by H2-antagonists from a recent meta-analysis we investigated the potential for erroneous clinical decisions induced by systematic errors in the performance of clinical trials. We could demonstrate that certain clinical situations are particularly susceptible for errors in decision-making, in particular, if a patient’s baseline risk for an adverse event or the effectiveness of the intervention is only moderate or small. As low baseline risk and / or moderate treatment effects tend to occur frequently in physician-patient-encounters, physicians need to be aware of the increased risk for errors and pay meticulous attention on a reliable evidence base. The third project was a clinical trial on the effectiveness of teaching evidence-based medicine to physicians. The trial comprises two phases: Instrument development and performance of the trial. Starting from a comprehensive curriculum of evidence-based-medicine we identified relevant core items of ebm. Based on this curriculum we developed and validated a before-after instrument with 15 questions each that was able to distinguish varying degrees of knowledge and skills of ebm. Over a period of 3 years, the instrument was randomly administered to 203 participants in consecutive ebm-courses. Prior to the course, the participants scored a mean of 6,3 + 2,9, after the course the number of correct answers increased to 9,9 + 2,4 (p< 0.001). The scores of ebm-experts or ebm-naïve controls was significantly higher resp. lower. Thereby we could demonstrate that short intensive courses in evidence-based medicine (such as the Berlin courses) can lead to a significant and clinically meaningful increase in knowledge and skills. The forth project focussed on the implementation of evidence-based medicine in the day-to-day practice of family doctors. In a cluster-randomised study we investigated whether short evidence-based drug information in hospital discharge letters can influence the prescribing behaviour of general practitioners. 178 practices participated in the study, 417 discharge letters with 59 different evidence-based drug information were sent out and 268 interviews were successfully performed after an interval of 3 - 4 months. Physicians in the intervention group were statistically less likely to depart from the hospital recommendations than physicians in the control group who only received a regular discharge letter group (absolute risk reduction 12,5%; p=0.039). Furthermore, physicians were very satisfied with this additional piece of information, which tended to assure their own knowledge and reminded them to apply it in this individual patient (rather than providing new information). It was concluded that short evidence-based information in discharge letters could have a positive impact on a rational prescribing behaviour of physicians.

The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is an electronic medical device that was invented by Dr. Michael Mirowski and his team in 1980. The purpose of the ICD, which is implanted in a person's chest, is to sense and shock the heart when detecting a lethal cardiac arrhythmia into a rhythm that can sustain life. While the ICD saves lives, it also has the potential to deliver painful shocks when it is activated. The ICD was initially inserted in people who had survived a sudden cardiac arrest; the device is now being implanted in older adults with heart failure and no known history of cardiac arrhythmias. When talking with patients and personal family members who had an ICD, it was unclear what influenced their decision to have an ICD implanted. Understanding the experience of decision-making for older adults who had an ICD has added to nursing knowledge, practice, and education when working with people who had an ICD inserted. To understand the lived experience, the researcher conducted a phenomenological research study, guided by the theoretical lens of Paterson and Zderad's (1976/1988) humanistic nursing and analyzed the data as outlined by Giorgi (2009). The results of the study indicated the participants' lived experience of decision-making for older adults who had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator inserted was influenced by the following : trust in their physician's decision; accepting the device was necessary; the decision was easy to make; and hope and desire to live longer. / by Louise A. Lucas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to examine the effects of a standardized case conceptualization training workshop on 104 psychotherapy practitioners recruited from the community. A secondary purpose was to examine the relationship between participants’ attitudes about evidence-based practice and the effects of the training. Participants attended two 3-hour training workshops, which taught the integrative case conceptualization model developed by Sperry (2010b). Pre- and postintervention case conceptualization skills were assessed using the Case Conceptualization Evaluation Form (CCEF) 2.0, an updated version of the instrument used in previous studies. Additionally, participants’ views about case conceptualization were assessed before and after training using the Views about Case Conceptualization (VACC) instrument. Participants’ attitudes about evidence-based practice were also examined as a possible mediating variable between training and effect. These attitudes were assessed using the Evidence-Based Practice Attitudes Scale (EBPAS). Workshops were separated by four weeks in order to assess whether initial training effects persisted over time. Change in case conceptualization skill was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA. Participants’ mean CCEF 2.0 scores significantly increased (p < .001) from pre-test (M = 11.9; SD = 7.74) to post-test (M = 36.7; SD = 7.80) following the first workshop. The second workshop took place four weeks later with 74 of the original 104 participants. It built on the content of the first workshop and introduced advanced concepts such as client culture, strengths and protective factors, and predictive ability. Participants’ mean CCEF 2.0 scores also significantly increased (p < .001) from pre-test (M = 35.1; SD = 8.11) to post-test (M = 66.3; SD = 10.95) following the second workshop. There was a small but statistically significant (p < .005) decrease of 1.5 points in mean scores from the end of Workshop I to Workshop II, indicating that the effects of the training deteriorate slowly over time. Participants’ attitudes about evidence based practice and some demographic variables were significantly related to training effects. Stepwise hierarchical regression analysis determined that these individual variables account for various portions of the variance in CCEF 2.0 scores. This study’s theoretical, practice, and research implications are discussed in detail. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:46:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OTAVIO BALESTRA NETO.pdf: 1689471 bytes, checksum: b8633eda7f4c9e527d83c8d39b5f523c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-26 / Este trabalho analisa a recente judicialização do direito à saúde no Brasil, fruto da edição da Constituição Federal de 1988 e da sensibilidade dos operadores do direito ao tema, em especial a partir de meados da década de 1990. A questão é essencialmente dramática por envolver a intervenção judicial em políticas públicas e tensão dialética entre a reserva do possível e o mínimo existencial, como supostas cláusulas impeditivas da atuação do Poder Judiciário nesta seara. A ideia central da dissertação é que o direito à saúde no Brasil deve ser garantido da forma mais ampla possível, sem amarras de natureza hermenêutica ou de prevalência da reserva do possível sobre o mínimo existencial, já que se trata de uma extensão direta do direito à vida. Por outro lado, o grande número de ações judiciais que discutem o assunto, crescente ano a ano, exige que essa judicialização se dê em parâmetros racionais, sem que o direito à saúde constitucionalmente previsto se torne um direito a toda e qualquer prestação material pleiteada, prestigiando-se a medicina baseada em evidências como limite adotado pelo legislador. Neste ponto, é realizado estudo histórico da jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal e do Superior Tribunal de Justiça, demonstrando a evolução do entendimento das Cortes em três fases bem delimitadas: uma fase inicial, na década de 1990, em que o direito à saúde no Brasil era encarado como mera norma constitucional programática e, portanto, passível de eficácia ao talante do administrador público; uma segunda fase, até meados da década de 2000, em que o direito à saúde passou a ser entendido como quase absoluto, bastando o pleito do interessado e a invocação do art. 196 da Constituição Federal, com o mote da saúde como direito de todos e dever do Estado ; uma terceira fase, em que se buscou o equilíbrio, admitindo-se que alguns pedidos formulados ao Poder Judiciário não mereciam acolhimento em nome da racionalidade e da própria preservação do sistema. Assim, o trabalho propõe alguns marcos para a prática judiciária no direito à saúde, considerando a recente legislação editada sobre o assunto em especial a Lei n° 12.401, de 28 de abril de 2011 concluindo pela aplicabilidade de todas as normas e alguns critérios hermenêuticos para situações especiais e por vezes dramáticas encontradas no cotidiano forense.

O banho do paciente em estado crítico constitui uma atividade que exige ordenamento das diversas etapas, dadas as características e peculiaridades. O aparato tecnológico peculiar das unidades de alta complexidade permite a monitoração, mas dificulta o acesso e mobilização do paciente. As repercussões oxi-hemodinâmicas do banho no paciente adulto internado em estado crítico no contexto relativo à etiologia/dano foram investigadas por meio dessa revisão sistemática de literatura, que objetivou identificar a existência de evidências científicas sobre as referidas repercussões naquela população e; verificar a possibilidade de estabelecimento de critérios para indicação do banho em diferentes situações clínicas. Foram considerados estudos primários e secundários com metodologia explícita, sem recorte temporal ou idiomas predeterminados. Os critérios de inclusão envolveram a mensuração de variável hemodinâmica ou oximétrica no decurso do banho de adultos críticos internados em meio hospitalar. Foi utilizada uma adaptação da estratégia PICO, o PIO, donde: P (pacientes, problema) = \"Intensive Care Units\" e variações; I (intervenção) = banho e variações; O (desfecho) = \"Hemodynamic Phenomena\" / \"Oxygen Consumption\" e variações. Foram pesquisadas: as bases eletrônicas CINAHL, DEDALUS; EMBASE, COCHRANE, LILACS, PubMed/MEDLINE; manualmente as bibliotecas das Escolas de Enfermagem da Universidade Federal Fluminense e Federal do Rio de Janeiro; referências cruzadas das publicações e; artigos relacionados do Pubmed e ISI. Os 44597 resultados iniciais das bases eletrônicas foram exportados para um programa de gerenciamento de referências, submetidos a filtros sucessivos, resultando em 23 publicações que, somadas a duas monografias obtidas em bibliotecas convencionais, perfez 25 referências. Após leitura na íntegra e reuniões de consenso foram descartadas 19, totalizando uma amostra de 6 publicações. Resultados explicitaram a baixa publicação sobre a temática, com predomínio de estudos nacionais. Dada a heterogeneidade e fragilidade dos estudos não foi possível um mapeamento consistente de todas as respostas oximéricas e hemodimâmicas importantes para os pacientes em questão. Os desfechos mais abordados foram a saturação venosa mista de oxigênio e o índice cardíaco, representantes respectivos dos segmentos. À exceção da saturação, não se identificaram diferenças importantes quando comparadas aos baselines. A saturação declinou durante o banho e se restabeleceu 30 minutos ao término. Conclui-se que medidas operacionais parecem atuar como fatores de risco: banho em menos de 4 h após a cirurgia cardíaca, posicionamento prolongado em decúbito lateral e tempo de banho superior a 20 minutos ou; fator de proteção: manutenção da temperatura da água em 40°C. Quanto à evidência dos achados, por derivarem de quase-experimentos, foram qualificados em nível C por Oxford e pontuados entre 11 e 18 pelo check list de Downs & Black que, mostrou associação entre maiores pontuações e melhores controles de validades internas. Sugere-se a utilização de estratégias que maximizem os indícios de proteção e de outras que minimizem os indícios de risco / The bath of the patient in critical state is an activity that requires several stages of planning, because of the characteristics and peculiarities. The peculiar technological apparatus of high complexity units allow for monitoring, but difficult access and mobilization of the patient. The oxy-hemodynamic effects of bath in adult patients hospitalized in critical condition in context on etiology / damage were investigated by this systematic review of literature, which aimed to identify the existence of scientific evidence about these impacts on that population and; to verify the possibility of establishment of criteria for baths indication in different clinical situations. Primary and secondary studies with explicit methodology, without clipping on languages or predetermined time were considered. The inclusion criteria involved the measurement of hemodynamic or oxymetric variable during the bath of adults hospitalized in critical care units. It was used an adaptation of the PICO strategy, the PIO, where: P (patients, problem) = \"Intensive Care Units\" and variations, I (intervention) = bath and variations, O (outcome) = \"Hemodynamic Phenomena\" / \"Oxygen Consumption \"and variations. Were investigated: the electronic databases CINAHL, DEDALUS, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, LILACS, PubMed / MEDLINE; manually the libraries of the Nursing Schools of Universidade Federal Fluminense and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; cross references of publications and; related articles of Pubmed and ISI. The 44,597 initial results of the electronic databases were exported to a program for managing references, submitted to successive filters, resulting in 23 publications which, added to two monographs obtained in conventional libraries, totalize 25 references. After reading full publications and having consensus meetings, 19 studies were discarded, totalizing a sample of 6 publications. Results explained the low publication on the subject, with a predominance of national studies. In view of the fragility and heterogeneity of the studies, it was not possible to do a consistent mapping of all the important oximetric and hemodynamic answers for these patients. The further discussed outcomes were the mixed venous oxygen saturation and heart rate, representatives of the respective segments. With the exception of saturation, it was not identified important differences when compared to the baselines. The saturation declined during the bath and was restored 30 minutes at the end. It is concluded that operational measures seem act as risk factors: bath in less than 4 hours after cardiac surgery, prolonged positioning in lateral decubitus and showers time over 20 minutes or; a protective factor: maintenance of water temperature at 40 ° C. As the findings were derived from quasi-experiments, their evidences were qualified to level C for Oxford and scored between 11 and 18 by the check list of Downs & Black, that showed an association between higher scores and better control of internal validity. It is suggested the use of strategies that maximize the indications of protection and other that minimize the indications of risk