Pressure injury is the most important issue facing paralysis patients and the elderly, especially in long-term care or nursing. A new interfacial pressure sensing system combined with a flexible textile-based pressure sensor array and a real-time readout system improved by the Kalman filter is proposed to monitor interfacial pressure progress in the cardiac operation. With the design of the Kalman filter and parameter optimization, noise immunity can be improved by approximately 72%. Additionally, cardiac operation patients were selected to test this developed system for the direct correlation between pressure injury and interfacial pressure for the first time. The pressure progress of the operation time was recorded and presented with the visible data by time- and 2-dimension-dependent characteristics. In the data for 47 cardiac operation patients, an extreme body mass index (BMI) and significantly increased pressure after 2 h are the top 2 factors associated with the occurrence of pressure injury. This methodology can be used to prevent high interfacial pressure in high-risk patients before and during operation. It can be suggested that this system, integrated with air mattresses, can improve the quality of care and reduce the burden of the workforce and medical cost, especially for pressure injury.

Background: Physical restraint (PR) has to be performed in a well-organized, structured, and careful manner. The safety and effectiveness of the PR procedure in clinical practice are crucial to patient care. Purposes: The aim of this study was to examine the effect in neurological intensive care units of a multidisciplinary PR reduction program on the overall incidence rate of PR, the monthly rate of PR, and the monthly rate of PR of more than and less than 24 hours, respectively, after controlling for associated factors. Methods: A before-and-after study design was conducted in three neurological intensive care units (total of 45 beds) of a medical center in northern Taiwan. A multidisciplinary PR reduction program was implemented, with four phases of data collection. Data on the number and duration of PR were extracted from a database. In the first preintervention phase, data on the rate (number or frequency) and duration of PR were collected for 12 months before program implementation. The next three data collection phases were 1 month (introduction), 3 months (intermediate), and 6 months (maintenance) after program implementation. The chi-square test, one-way analysis of variance with Scheffe’s post hoc tests, and logistic regression method were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that PR was used 72.8 mean times per month before program implementation. After implementation, the mean times per month fell to 40 after the first postimplementation month (introduction), 53.3 after 3 months (intermediate), and 36.2 after 6 months (maintenance). Implementation of the PR reduction program resulted in a decreased incidence rate of PR from 6.1% to 3.2% (event/total patient day) and a decrease in the percentage of patients who were restrained for more than 24 hours from 69.6% to 34.1%. The results of the logistic regression model showed that PR of more than 24 hours was significantly less in the postintervention phases: introduction phase (odds ratio [OR] = 0.31), intermediate phase (OR = 0.16), and maintenance phase (OR = 0.18). Moreover, PR of more than 24 hours was significantly higher in patients with endotracheal intubation (OR = 1.51) and nasogastric intubation (OR = 2.16) and with Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 6–8 (OR = 2.36), 9–12 (OR = 2.40), and 13–15 (OR = 2.15). Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The results support that a multidisciplinary collaborative program has the potential to decrease the incidence of PR in neurological intensive care units. A standardized protocol and policies are essential for healthcare professionals to effectively use PR as well as to effectively improve the quality of care that is provided to intensive care patients.

Across their lifespans, and in many clinical settings, patients have spiritual care needs. Many nurses lack competence related to providing spiritual care. Popular educational strategies, such as simulated educational programs and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), have not been widely adopted in nursing spiritual care education. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of a scenario-based spiritual care course on spiritual care competence in nurses. This quasi-experimental study employed a repeated-measures pre-test/post-test design with assessments immediately before, immediately after, and 3 months post-intervention. Nurses providing direct patient care in diverse clinical settings were recruited from a large medical foundation in northern Taiwan. The intervention was a one day scenario-based spiritual care course and OSCE. The experimental group (n = 53) and controls (n = 85) were matched for their similar units, ages, working experience, and clinical ladder status. The Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS), Spiritual Perspective Scale (SPS), Spiritual Care Perspective Scale-Revised (SCPS-R), and reflection logs were completed by both experimental and control groups. The Course Satisfaction Scale, OSCE Checklist, and Standardized Patient Feedback Scale (SPFS) were completed by the experimental group only. The experimental group had significantly higher SPS scores and self-evaluated SCCS scores, and lower SCPS-R scores (more positive spiritual perspectives), than controls at 3 months post-intervention. The experimental group showed significant within-subject effects at three time points on SPS scores, SCPS-R scores, and self-evaluated SCCS scores. Mean global performance of OSCE was 3.40 ± 0.91, and SP feedback indicated strengths and areas for improvement. In conclusion, the scenario-based spiritual care course effectively enhanced nurses’ spiritual care competence, competence, and skills. Blended education techniques can therefore enhance nurses’ ability to support patients with spiritual care needs.

Aims and objectives: To develop the newly designed thermal gown to test the effectiveness in relieving postoperative hypothermia as compared to traditional cotton cloth.Background: Hypothermia is a common problem after spinal surgery. A patient's safety and comfort are significant. Currently, most research is focused on instruments that relieve a patient's hypothermia. Studies have rarely considered a patient's comfort while caring for their body temperature.Design: This study employed an experimental design. The participants were assigned randomly to two groups: the experimental group (N = 50) and the control group (N = 50).Methods: The experimental group received the newly designed thermal gown intervention. The control group received the standard postanaesthesia care unit re‐warming intervention. The material used to collect data included demographic data, postoperative management and comfort level. Nurses measured patients' vital signs and asked for patients' subjective comfort level on admission to the postanaesthesia care unit every 10 minutes until their discharge from the postanaesthesia care unit.Result: The accumulated percentage for thermal gown group patients in reaching 36 °C during the first 20 minutes of admission was significantly higher than that of the cotton cloth group. The thermal gown group individuals showed significantly higher comfort levels (score = 4) at 10 minutes, when compared to the cotton cloth group.Conclusion: Results suggested that the newly designed thermal gown had effectively improved postoperative temperature and comfort level with an evidence‐based intervention.Relevance to clinical practice: Maintaining a patient's body temperature is a major task for nurses working in the post‐anaesthesia care unit. With the newly designed thermal gown, the duration of a patient's stay in the postanaesthesia care unit was shortened and the patient's comfort was increased.

Liver transplantation is a very important surgery. In many cases, it involves two loved ones (receiver and donor in the same family) and causes stress and feelings of burden in family caregivers. The purpose of this study was to investigate post-traumatic growth in primary caregivers of liver transplant patients. A cross-sectional research design was adopted to recruit 84 participants. The Perceived Stress Scale, Short-Form Coping Strategies Scale, and Post-traumatic Growth Scale were used. The results revealed that the total score of perceived stress of the main caregivers of liver transplantation was 27.27 ± 6.63; problem-oriented coping and emotion-oriented coping were used as the main coping strategies, and the traumatic growth score was 42.01 ± 13.84. All three variables were significant predictors of post-traumatic growth (F = 13.71, p < 0.05), explaining 38% of the total variance. This study can help nurses understand the post-traumatic growth status and related factors of the main caregivers of liver transplant patients. It can also help caregivers understand their own perceived pressure and then take relevant care measures to reduce the degree of physical and mental load and achieve a balanced state.

(1) Background: This study aimed to test the feasibility of utilizing the screening tool for fall risk assessment in adult inpatient and verify its accuracy in a medical center in Taiwan. (2) Methods: This study retrospectively collected all adult fall cases among inpatients occurring in the general wards of a medical center between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2015. This inpatient fall risk screening scale was measured by the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. (3) Results: There were 1331 (0.4%) falls among a total of 357,395 inpatients during this period. Factors predictive of falling risk included: age, consciousness, body shift assistance, use of fall risk medications, fall history, dizziness or weakness, toileting, and impaired mobility. Using the eight-factor assessment, two was the best cutoff point for identifying the fall risk group, with area under Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) = 0.817, sensitivity = 80.93%, specificity = 73.0%, accuracy = 73.03%, and likelihood ratio = 11.48. (4) Conclusions: The accuracy of the eight-item fall risk assessment tool created for this study was validated. These results can serve as a reference for institutions to develop more effective fall risk assessment scale for inpatients, enabling clinical nurses to identify and more comprehensively assess the groups at highest risk for falling during their hospital stay.