The number of people suffering from diabetes in Taiwan has continued to rise in recent years. According to the statistics of the International Diabetes Federation, about 537 million people worldwide (10.5% of the global population) suffer from diabetes, and it is estimated that 643 million people will develop the condition (11.3% of the total population) by 2030. If this trend continues, the number will jump to 783 million (12.2%) by 2045. At present, the number of people with diabetes in Taiwan has reached 2.18 million, with an average of one in ten people suffering from the disease. In addition, according to the Bureau of National Health Insurance in Taiwan, the prevalence rate of diabetes among adults in Taiwan has reached 5% and is increasing each year. Diabetes can cause acute and chronic complications that can be fatal. Meanwhile, chronic complications can result in a variety of disabilities or organ decline. If holistic treatments and preventions are not provided to diabetic patients, it will lead to the consumption of more medical resources and a rapid decline in the quality of life of society as a whole. In this study, based on the outpatient examination data of a Taipei Municipal medical center, 15,000 women aged between 20 and 80 were selected as the subjects. These women were patients who had gone to the medical center during 2018–2020 and 2021–2022 with or without the diagnosis of diabetes. This study investigated eight different characteristics of the subjects, including the number of pregnancies, plasma glucose level, diastolic blood pressure, sebum thickness, insulin level, body mass index, diabetes pedigree function, and age. After sorting out the complete data of the patients, this study used Microsoft Machine Learning Studio to train the models of various kinds of neural networks, and the prediction results were used to compare the predictive ability of the various parameters for diabetes. Finally, this study found that after comparing the models using two-class logistic regression as well as the two-class neural network, two-class decision jungle, or two-class boosted decision tree for prediction, the best model was the two-class boosted decision tree, as its area under the curve could reach a score of 0.991, which was better than other models.

Little is known about the effectiveness of Interdisciplinary teaching (IDT) in higher education, particularly for healthcare education in Taiwan. It is vital to determine if IDT could enhance divergent creative thinking and team creativity among nursing students. A quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design. Students enrolled in a capstone nursing course for the development of healthcare-related products were divided into two groups. The intervention group (n = 61) was taught creative thinking skills with IDT by faculty. The control group (n = 84) was taught by nursing faculty with traditional teaching. This study found that students who received the IDT intervention scored significantly higher on measures of creative thinking and team creativity compared with students in the control group. These findings suggest integrating IDT from nursing and design faculty into the teaching curriculum to foster students’ creative thinking abilities when formulating interdisciplinary student teams to develop innovative, creative healthcare products.

The complexity of healthcare and concurrent advances in technology have promoted Interprofessional Education (IPE) in healthcare schools to prepare students to collaborate on interdisciplinary teams. Since 2016, healthcare curricula in Taiwan have incorporated IPE-based capstone courses to enhance creativity. To better understand the predictors of team creativity could help educators improve IPE and outcomes for nursing students and patients. To determine whether nursing students' demographic characteristics, individual creativity, and perceived team interaction behaviors, team swift trust, team conflict, and team task interdependence may predict high perceived team creativity in IPE settings. A cross-sectional study design included nursing students (N = 99) at a science and technology university in Taiwan. Data from self-report questionnaires included variables for demographic characteristics, individual creativity, and perceived team characteristics. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed predictors of high perceived team creativity. Nursing students who perceived high team creativity also perceived higher interaction behaviors and lower process conflict than those who perceived less creativity. Spontaneous communication and team task conflict predicted high perceived team creativity. Nursing educators could increase team creativity in IPE by encouraging spontaneous communication and constructive task-oriented conflict management. This may benefit patient outcomes in the future.

Recently, empirical researchers have observed direct associations between conflict and interaction behaviors within organizational teams. However, research concerning indirect links between conflict and interaction behaviors on interdisciplinary teams in nursing school is scant, particularly in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships among various types of conflict and interaction behaviors on interdisciplinary nursing education teams. This study utilized a cross-sectional, quantitative, descriptive design. The authors collected survey data from 99 nursing students who participated in 18-week capstone courses of small interdisciplinary groups collaborating to design healthcare products in Taiwan during 2018 and 2019. Questionnaires assessed the nursing students' perceptions about their teams' conflicts (of task, process, and relationship), and interaction behaviors (constructive controversy, helping behaviors, and spontaneous communication). The authors used descriptive statistics to compare demographics, conflict scores, and interaction behavior scores for collocated and distributed interdisciplinary teams. A Pearson's analysis identified correlations among the variables and their components, and the SPSS PROCESS macro showed moderating effects of spontaneous communication on the relationship between distributed team and conflict subscales. After confirming the distributed team experienced significantly more conflict than the collocated team, we found significant negative correlations between constructive controversy and both process conflict and relationship conflict on the distributed team. Another interaction behavior, spontaneous communication, had a moderating effect on the relationships between the distributed team and both task conflict and relationship conflict. In interdisciplinary educational settings for nursing students, spontaneous communication may moderate the types of conflict that distributed teams are more likely than collocated teams to experience. Constructive controversy may be especially effective at mitigating conflict on distributed teams. Nursing educators may refer to these insights to improve outcomes for educational interdisciplinary healthcare teams.

Background: Prior studies have indicated team members’ interaction behaviors may predict creativity among nursing students. Methods: This study investigated the correlation between interaction behaviors and creativity, both individual- and team-level, among nursing students. In this cross-sectional quantitative study, data were obtained from self-reported questionnaires. Individual creativity was assessed using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking scale; the perceived team interaction behavior and team creativity were assessed using validated instruments. Canonical correlation analysis was conducted to determine the overall correlation between interaction behaviors, and creativity, and the moderating effect of female proportion dominance was also examined. Results: A total of 164 nursing students (84.1% female) arranged into 14 teams were included in this study. Canonical correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between interaction behaviors and creativity (correlation = 0.88). All dimensions of interactive behaviors were positively related to creativity dimensions. A stronger correlation to team creativity (correlation = 1) was found compared to individual creativity (correlation = 0.07). This study demonstrated that individual interactive behaviors including spontaneous communication and helping behavior predicted high team creativity. Conclusions: This insight may be valuable for nursing education programs seeking to foster creativity and effective teamwork. The potential moderating effect of female proportions on team interaction behaviors and creativity should be investigated further.

This study explores the application of virtual reality (VR) technology to enhance the solemnity and immersion of digital religious rituals. The study evaluates how VR impacts users' perceptions of sacredness and their intentions to reuse the system by replicating a traditional temple setting and integrating key rituals such as lighting ceremonial lamps and offering incense. Quantitative and qualitative data from 30 participants revealed that VR significantly enhances the sense of solemnity, mainly through auditory elements like ritual music. However, limitations were noted, such as the absence of multisensory integration. The findings underscore VR's potential to redefine religious practices digitally while emphasizing the need for continuous technological improvements.