Background: Operating rooms (ORs) are healthcare areas that are high-risk regarding patient safety (PS). The prevention of PS errors such as wrong-site surgery, medication errors, and patient falls is important in the OR. Causes such as having insufficient information, not taking enough care and precautions, and inattention may lead to errors. Ensuring PS in an organization depends on the composition of a PS culture. Method: This study, as equivalent-control-group pretest–posttest research, aimed to develop and apply a simulation-based patient safety education program for operating room nurses and then to examine the influence of the program on patient safety management and compliance. Participants included a total of 45 operating room nurses: 22 in the experimental group and 23 in the control group. In the program, each member of the experimental and control groups underwent two 60 min sessions for a total of 120 min. Person-to-person individual lectures and simulation-based practice were provided to the experimental group, whereas booklets and person-to-person individual lectures were provided to the control group. Compliance with patient safety, the perception of patient safety culture, and satisfaction were measured using a structured Likert questionnaire. Intervention effects were analyzed using a t-test and ANCOVA. Results: As a result of the analysis, we found that the experimental group was significantly higher in terms of compliance with patient safety (p = 0.021), the perception of patient safety culture (p = 0.039), and education satisfaction (p < 0.001) than the control group. Conclusions: The results indicate that implementing a simulation-based patient safety education program can improve the patient safety competency of operating room nurses and, ultimately, prevent patient safety accidents in the operating room.

This study aimed to analyze the influence of patient-selected music listening on the pain and anxiety levels of hemodialysis patients after undergoing a vascular access operation. Methods: Sixty five patients were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 32) or the control group (n = 33). The experimental group was instructed to listen to their favorite music using headphones during their operations at the center. The control group underwent the operations without listening to any music. The pain measurement during vascular access operation was measured by subjective pain and objective pain behavior; anxiety was measured by subjective anxiety and anxiety states. Results: The experimental group reported significantly lower subjective pain levels than the control group (t = 9.36, p = 0.003). Regarding objective pain behaviors, the experimental group had a significantly lower score than the control group (t = 4.59, p = 0.036). The experimental group had significantly lowered subjective anxiety compared to the control group (F = 10.10, p = 0.002). Regarding anxiety states, the experimental group had significantly lower scores than the control group (F = 23.34, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results suggest that patient-selected music listening reduced hemodialysis patients’ pain and anxiety levels during vascular access operations. Therefore, music medicine can be included as a new clinical intervention.

BACKGROUND:To prevent stroke from occurring, stroke risk factors in at-risk subjects should be controlled and the diseases causing stroke should be managed. This study evaluated a nursing intervention to prevent stroke in at-risk elderly living at ho...

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data on cognitive therapy and to improve social support programs for the elderly with dementia by identifying the difficulties they experienced in emotional communication by identifying how they recognized emotions in verbal reactions to facial expressions using Ekman’s photographs of facial expressions and comparing their responses with the general elderly population. There were 141 participants in this study. Data collection was conducted from 3 April 2019 to 30 June 2019 in Seoul, in the Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do provinces of South Korea. This study performed descriptive research in which subjects made participative decisions with their guardian through recruitment. The tools used in this study included a general characteristic questionnaire and the Ekman 6 facial expressions photographs tool, which underwent intensive validity studies. The collected data were analyzed using the R version 3.5.1 statistic computing platform. The ability of the elderly with dementia to associate verbal expressions with facial expressions differed from that of the general elderly population. The rates of correct associations of verbal expressions to facial expressions were similar across dementia grades. There was a significant difference in the proportion of correct associations between positive and negative emotions in the elderly with dementia compared to the general elderly population. In the elderly with dementia, pictures showing fear, anger, and disgust had higher wrong rates of incorrect answers than correct answers. The average score of elderly with dementia in associating verbal expressions with six facial expressions was 2.69, which was even lower when they were asked to associate verbal expressions with pictures showing facial expressions of anger or disgust. This study shows that elderly persons with dementia have difficulties identifying two negative emotions (anger, disgust) and find it much easier to identify a positive emotion of happiness represented by a smiling face. Since the ability of the elderly with dementia to interpret verbal expressions to facial expressions was different from that of the general elderly population, careful attention and consideration are needed to support and communicate emotions to the elderly with dementia.

Seongeun Kim, Miseon Kim, Hyeoncheol Jeong. PTRS 2021;10:197-204. https://doi.org/10.14474/ptrs.2021.10.2.197