Background: Phantom limb pain is a frequent and persistent problem following amputation. Achieving sustainable favorable effects on phantom limb pain requires therapeutic interventions such as mirror therapy that target maladaptive neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system. Unfortunately, patients’ adherence to unsupervised exercises is generally poor and there is a need for effective strategies such as telerehabilitation to support long-term self-management of patients with phantom limb pain. Objective: The main aim of this study was to describe the user-centered approach that guided the design and development of a telerehabilitation platform for patients with phantom limb pain. We addressed 3 research questions: (1) Which requirements are defined by patients and therapists for the content and functions of a telerehabilitation platform and how can these requirements be prioritized to develop a first prototype of the platform? (2) How can the user interface of the telerehabilitation platform be designed so as to match the predefined critical user requirements and how can this interface be translated into a medium-fidelity prototype of the platform? (3) How do patients with phantom limb pain and their treating therapists judge the usability of the medium-fidelity prototype of the telerehabilitation platform in routine care and how can the platform be redesigned based on their feedback to achieve a high-fidelity prototype?
One approach to nursing is to value person-centred care as the preferred way of caring. Undergraduate nursing education may include specific courses that facilitate the development of person-centred care in students but it is not known which learning experiences students report as influential in this respect or which components of the courses contribute.The aims of this empirical study is to describe the perceived learning experiences gained during a one-semester course and their impact on the development of person-centred care in undergraduate nursing students, and to gain insight into which course components contributed to this development. In: In: International Practice Development Journal 8 (1)
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Background: Transmural palliative care interventions aim to identify older persons with palliative care needs and timely provide advance care planning, symptom management, and coordination of care. Nurses can have an important role in these interventions; however, their expertise is currently underused. A new transmural care pathway with a central role for the community care registered nurse in advance care planning aims to contribute to the quality of palliative care for older persons. Objective: To examine the perspectives of community nurses on the feasibility of a new transmural care pathway for advance care planning for older persons. Design: A qualitative study design using semi-structured interviews. Setting(s): Interviews were performed with community nurses of three participating homecare organizations in the Netherlands between March and May 2023. Participants: 19 community nurses. Methods: A topic guide was based on (1) challenges in advance care planning identified from the literature and (2) concepts that are important in assessing the feasibility of complex healthcare interventions provided by the Normalisation Process Theory framework. A combined inductive and deductive thematic analysis was performed. Results: Four themes were identified: views on the transmural care pathway, community nurses’ needs to fulfil their role, key points regarding implementation, and evaluation of the new practice. In general, community nurses were positive about the feasibility of the new practice as it provided a more structured work process that could facilitate interprofessional collaboration and improve the quality of palliative care. Overall, the feasibility of the new practice, from community nurses perspective, was determined by (1) clear roles and responsibilities in the transmural care pathway, (2) standardized registration of advance care planning, and (3) close involvement of community nurses in the whole implementation process. Conclusions: We highlighted important factors, from the perspectives of community nurses, that need to be considered in the implementation of a new transmural care pathway for advance care planning. A clear division of roles and responsibilities, standardized registration of advance care planning, and involvement of community nurses during the whole implementation process were mentioned as important enabling factors. This knowledge might contribute to successful implementation of a transmural care pathway that aims to enhance the quality of palliative care for older persons. Tweetable abstract: Community nurses’ perspectives on the feasibility of a transmural care pathway for advance care planning for older persons.
-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
Hart- en Vaatziekten zijn doodsoorzaak nummer 1, wereldwijd. Het is een aanzienlijk probleem. In de grote stad, in Nederland, en ook daarbuiten. Aan dit probleem is wel wat te doen, het is belangrijk om gezonde leefgewoonten te hebben, daar zit heel veel gezondheidswinst in. We weten hoe we gezond moeten leven: niet roken, een gezond gewicht hebben en voldoende lichaamsbeweging elke dag. Richtlijnen voor zorgprofessionals geven deze doelen aan, maar deze doelen worden, bijvoorbeeld door hartpatiënten, bij lange na niet gehaald. Richtlijnen in de zorg benadrukken ook het belang van het concept ‘personalised prevention’ en ’patient centered care’, om doelen te behalen, maar geven deze concepten tot op heden geen concrete, wetenschappelijk onderbouwde betekenis. Met het toenemende aantal beschikbare behandelingen voor leefstijlverandering, neem de complexiteit toe, niet alleen voor hulpverleners, maar ook voor patiënten. Consistentie in de behandeling van alle betrokken hulpverleners in alle fasen van de zorg en deze laten leiden door de voorkeur van de patiënt kan beter en lijkt noodzakelijk voor het volhouden van een leefstijlaanpassing. De keuze voor een behandeling laten leiden door de voorkeuren en waarden van de patiënt kan beter en is noodzakelijk voor het volhouden van leefstijlaanpassingen in het dagelijks leven. Er is schrijnend tekort aan kennis en hulpmiddelen om leefstijlverandering op patiëntniveau te realiseren, om de (hart)patiënt te bereiken. Mijn hypothese is dat de kans op het aannemen van een gezonde leefstijl groter is wanneer de voorkeur van de individuele patiënt meer leidend is in de afweging van behandelstrategieën. Voor toetsing van deze hypothese ontbreekt nog veel kennis, bijvoorbeeld over wat de behandelvoorkeuren van patiënten zijn, in hoeverre deze afwijken van de voorkeuren van de behandelende hulpverleners (medisch specialisten, huisarts, verpleegkundige, fysiotherapeut, diëtist, psycholoog) en op welke manier technologie de behandelvoorkeuren kan verhelderen.
