The effectiveness of humanoid diagram teaching strategy on care capacity and retention in novice nurses.

AIM: To examine the effectiveness of a Humanoid Diagram Teaching Strategy (HDTS) on care capabilities and retention of novice nurses. BACKGROUND: Guiding novice nurses in clinical practice is a matter of concern and the use of diagrams in assisting the learning process and to promote learning efficiency has been acknowledged. DESIGN: This is a quasi-experimental study with asynchronous repeated measurements for the experimental and control groups. METHODS: The study was conducted in a medical centre in southern Taiwan with 24 novice nurses. The intervention, Humanoid Diagrams Teaching Strategy, contained three parts: the head and neck; trunk; and limbs. The HDTS was applied three time weekly. Each session lasted approximately 30 min and the training lasted 4 weeks. The effectiveness of HDTS was measured using Mini-CEX, CbD and retention rates in the 3rd and 6th months of novice nurses' experience. RESULTS: After the HDTS, although increases in mini-CEX and CbD scores in the experimental group were greater than the control group, these differences were not statistically significant after considering the time interaction. But the 3rd month and 6th month novice nurses' retention rates were statistically significantly different by comparing the differences under the time interaction effects in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The Humanoid Diagram Teaching Strategy is an effective tool for preceptors to use in assisting novice nurses in learning, improving their nursing care knowledge and technical skills and to increase their retention rate.

[Ultrasound-guided suprascapular nerve block combined with acupuncture for the treatment of calcified tendinitis of rotator cuff].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the method and effect of ultrasound-guided suprascapular nerve block combined with acupuncture in the treatment of calcified tendinitis of rotator cuff. METHODS: From January 2015 to December 2017, total 30 patients with calcified tendinitis, including 23 cases of supraspinatus tendon, 5 cases of infraspinatus tendon and 2 cases of subscapular tendon, were treated with ultrasound-guided suprascapular nerve block combined with acupuncture. There were 7 males and 23 females, ranging in age from 36 to 71 years old, with an average of 51.6 years old. There were 17 cases on the right and 13 cases on the left. VAS pain score, Constant-murley score, UCLA score and X-ray examination were used to evaluate the clinical results before and after surgery. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 14.3 months (6 to 30 months). The preoperative VAS score was 3.82±1.13, Constant-Murley score was 36.91±7.95 and UCLA score was 11.35±2.17. The final follow-up scores were 1.32±1.06, 90.61±2.89 and 33.22±1.51, respectively. The final follow-up scores were improved significantly(P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Conservative treatment of calcified rotator cuff tendinitis is ineffective. Suprascapular nerve block guided by ultrasound combined with acupuncture has a good therapeutic effect. It is a minimally invasive, economic, safe and effective method, which is worth promoting.

Trace detection of nitro aromatic explosives by highly fluorescent g-C3N4 nanosheets.

Highly fluorescent g-C3N4 nanosheets were facilely fabricated by exfoliating bulk g-C3N4 under ultrasonic irradiation for 1 h. The atomic force microscopy (AFM) image shows that the resultant g-C3N4 nanosheets are ∼6-14 nm thick, and the suspension is stable in air for several weeks. Remarkably, the obtained nanosheets exhibited strong fluorescence with an extremely high quantum yield (QY) up to 32%, and high sensitivity, selectivity, as well as a fast response to nitro aromatic explosives were observed. Typically, the quenching efficiency coefficient Ksv for PNP was 30,460 M(-1), which proved that the resultant nanosheets possessed an extremely high sensitivity for nitro-phenol PNP detection.