The purpose of this thesis is to develop a guideline template that should supportthe industrial partner when designing lifting equipment. A newly updated standardwith focus on fatigue was the base of the project. The standard divides load cyclesinto over and under 16 000 cycles and they have different requirements. Thisproject explains how to reach these requirements. By interpretation of neededvariables/calculation and how to solve these calculations. A workflow for Finiteelement analysis is presented and analysis is done on lifting equipment. The resulta guideline template with focus on fatigue which indicates which requirementsneeds which solution.

Childhood bullying can lead to adverse physical and mental health outcomes for both the victim and the bully. Risk factors for bullying can be related to gender, race, sexual preference, and having any type of disability. A pediatric primary care clinic in a large, metropolitan area, the focus for this project, did not have an evidenced-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) for providers to facilitate the management of children who presented with reported bullying. The project, guided by the Tanner'€™s integrated model of clinical judgement, addressed the question whether a CPG would facilitate the early recognition and treatment of bullying in the pediatric clinical site. Using a literature search, a CPG was developed with evidence that included 6 recommendations ranging from clinical assessment and screening to advocacy. The CPG was then evaluated by 4 expert panelists using the AGREE II tool. Panelists included 2 pediatric medical doctors, 1 pediatric school nurse, and 1 mental health nurse practitioner. The panel evaluation results revealed a score of 81 out of a possible 100, where a score of 71 was the standard for acceptable results for the 6 recommendations. Results from the expert panel were used to modify the CPG, after which the guideline was presented to the panel for final approval. One final recommendation of the panel was to include a provision for referral and follow up for children identified with bullying. The finalized CPG was presented to the medical director of the pediatric clinic for implementation. The implications of the project for positive social change include decreased variations in clinical practice, early detection and intervention of bullying, improved effectiveness and quality of care, and decreased costly and preventable adverse events.

Transition of care refers to the movement of patients between health care settings; it occurs each time patients move between providers within the same setting or between settings based on the patient's acute or chronic health care needs. Care transition includes the efficient and accurate exchange of information needed to provide high-quality continuity of care. A rural community hospital in in the northeastern region of the United States has a skilled nursing facility and an acute care hospital on one campus. This project focused on the development of a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the hospital to improve communication during transitions of care. The Iowa model of evidence-based practice informed the development of the guideline. A project team developed the CPG. Five multidisciplinary experts reviewed the CPG using the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE II) evaluative tool. Results for the 6 domains of the AGREE II tool showed experts' agreement greater than 90% with the guideline as developed. The creation of a CPG to improve communication during care transition could benefit nurses with improved clinical decision making and patients with improved outcomes. The CPG could impact social change by supporting the application of the principles of evidence-based nursing practice, which could result in improved care and patient outcomes.

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammatory disease that is characterized by reversible airway obstruction due to hyper-responsiveness of the tracheobronchial tree. The condition disproportionately affects male children, females, and the aged globally, and its prevalence keeps rising despite being a preventable condition in terms of relapse. Most asthmatic patients receive care in primary care settings. Various health agencies have developed asthma management guidelines to improve the quality of asthma care; however, in some cases, adherence to these guidelines is substandard. The overarching aim of this study was to determine whether primary care providers manage asthma in line with the available guidelines. A qualitative systematic review was conducted by searching for journal articles published between 2005 and 2016 relating to guideline use in primary care management of asthma. Twenty-nine primary studies evaluating adherence to asthma management guidelines were included. The collected data were analyzed through thematic data analysis techniques, and various themes emerged with regard to the research questions. Generally, the findings suggest that there is a mismatch between what is needed by patients/caregivers and what is currently provided by primary care providers (PCPs) in primary care settings and that asthma management guidelines are only partially followed or not used. Emerging themes were classified into 3 main categories: physician-, patient-, and institution-related barriers. The study provides recommendations on how adherence to asthma management can be improved.

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No description available.

Background Healthcare-associated infections constitute a threat to patient safety and an economic burden on health systems worldwide. The most effective way to prevent healthcare-associated infections is through proper hand hygiene practice, but studies show that compliance is low. In 2009, the World Health Organization released hand hygiene guidelines and tools to address the issue.  Aim The aim of the study was to measure the compliance to the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care among nursing staff in a private hospital in the Philippines using the evaluation framework of the World Health Organization. Method The method used to assess compliance was structured direct observations using the World Health Organization’s observation form. Data was collected in 15 days, during full shifts, and analyzed quantitatively based on overall compliance, according to indication, ward, week day/weekend and shift. Results A total of 1920 opportunities were recorded, of which 336 were hand rub performances, 168 hand wash and 1416 missed opportunities, giving an overall compliance of 26.25 percent. The ward with the highest compliance rate was the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (45.40 percent) and the lowest was Nursing Station 1 (22.26 percent). Conclusion The overall compliance rate of 26.25 percent is lower compared to most published studies and healthcare workers were more compliant to indications that protect themselves than to indications that protect patients. The results can be useful in improving quality of care and patient safety.

The field of guideline development has made considerable progress in the past twenty years, particularly after the introduction of GRADE in 2004. However, there are many shortcomings in current guideline development including failure to use GRADE, low quality systematic reviews, and excessive delays from the publication of practice changing evidence to new recommendations. The objective of this thesis is to describe the development of evidence-based recommendations, to document methodological issues that arose and describe how the research team addressed the questions, and to document how the ultimate guidelines contributed to optimization of treatment in clinical practice. The relevant guidelines address the issues of gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The thesis begins by presenting three methodological issues that arose during the planning and implementation of the guideline process and the initial process of how the research team addressed the challenges. The thesis subsequently presents a published paper that documents recommendations regarding gastrointestinal bleeding prophylaxis in critically ill patients. Then, this thesis presents a published systematic review and meta-analysis addressing efficacy and safety of corticosteroids in COVID-19 based on direct evidence from patients with COVID-19, and indirect evidence from acute respiratory distress syndrome, community-acquired pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, middle east respiratory syndrome and influenza. Further, the thesis includes a published paper describing recommendations regarding corticosteroids, convalescent plasma and antiviral drugs in COVID-19 on the basis of evidence available very early during the pandemic. This thesis ends by presenting how the methodological issues were ultimately addressed in the relevant guidelines, the importance of the guidelines themselves, and presents perspectives on future research and opportunities in guideline development. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

Rare diseases currently impact over 250 million people worldwide, accounting for over 3.5% of the global population. Clinicians caring for individuals living with rare diseases face difficulties providing accurate diagnosis and effective treatments. The low prevalence of individual rare diseases, and limited data and constrained resources available for research, makes it challenging to develop useful clinical guidelines. The objective of this thesis is to share our experience in conducting evidence synthesis for the guideline development of a rare disease—chronic hypoparathyroidism, and show how we addressed the challenges encountered during the review process. The thesis begins by describing the challenges of evidence synthesis for guideline development in the context of rare diseases. I then present our strategies to overcome these challenges in three systematic reviews prepared for a chronic hypoparathyroidism guideline. The thesis ends by summarizing the challenges and solutions, highlighting strengths and limitations, and describing opportunities and challenges for future research in evidence synthesis for rare diseases. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

In the development of a BMJ Rapid recommendation – an international practice guideline initiative led by the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation, and aiming to produce trustworthy, accessible and timely guidance – of plasma exchange and dosage of corticosteroids for patients with ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) (Chapter 2) two methodological issues arose. The first issue is related to the rating of the certainty of evidence supporting the recommendations. Reviewers experienced challenges in making an explicit statement about what it was in which they were rating their certainty (i.e., the target of the rating of certainty of evidence). Through iterative discussions and presentations at GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations) Working Group meetings, the research team developed new GRADE guidance (Chapter 3 and 4) to help systematic reviewers be aware of the importance of determining the target of their rating of certainty of evidence and provided practical principles to help systematic reviewers specify this target. The second issue arose from the process of moving from evidence to decisions. To help the BMJ Rapid recommendation panel interpret the magnitude of benefit and harm associated with plasma exchange, which required understanding patient values and preferences, the research team created a panel survey for eliciting the panelists’ view regarding patient values and preferences. The research team then applied the panel survey approach in some other guidelines. Based on the experience of developing panel surveys, and through iterative discussions and consensus, the research team developed a framework for using surveys to guide guideline panels in making inferences regarding patient values and preferences (Chapter 5). Using interpretive description, the team conducted a qualitative evaluation regarding the influence of the panel surveys on the panels’ understanding of patient values and preferences, interpretation of magnitude of benefits and harms, and on panels’ decision on guideline recommendations (Chapter 6). The panel surveys proved to help guideline panels explicitly consider and incorporate patient values and preferences in making recommendations. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy