Psychometric properties and development of the competency inventory for Taiwanese nurse managers across all levels.

AIMS: To describe the development and psychometric testing of the competency inventory for nurse managers across all levels in Taiwan. BACKGROUND: The competency-based approach to develop nursing leadership and management competencies for the health care context is still insufficiently explored in terms of professional development in nursing administration. METHODS: This study used mixed methods, including qualitative study for generating the preliminary inventory and a cross-sectional survey of 573 nurse managers for psychometric properties of the inventory. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis revealed four domains with 23 items that explained 58.21% of the overall variance. The overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a well-fitting goodness-of-fit statistics. The construct validity was adequate, with an average variance extracted of 0.68 and composite reliability of 0.90. CONCLUSIONS: Across different levels, nurse managers have 23 essential competencies. The competency inventory demonstrates adequate psychometric properties with good construct validity and internal consistency, thereby reliable and valid for guiding the competency development of nurse managers. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The essential competencies of the inventory serve as a criterion-referenced measurement for competence proficiency in professional development of nursing administration and contribute to performance improvement of nurse managers in practice.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Utilization of Hospice Care Services: A Cohort Study in Taiwan.

CONTEXT: Hospice care focuses on improving the quality of end-of-life care and respecting patients' preferences regarding end-of-life treatment. The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the utilization of hospice services is unknown. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the utilization of hospice care services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: All patients (n = 19,900) cared for at Taipei City Hospital from January 2019 to April 2020 were divided into three time points: January-April 2019 (before COVID-19), May-December 2019 (interim), and January-April 2020 (during COVID-19). This cohort study compared the monthly utilization of hospice services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in hospice home visits (194 vs. 184; P = 0.686) and new enrollments (15 vs. 14; P = 0.743) to hospice home care before and during the pandemic. However, the bed occupancy rate in hospice units in the hospital was significantly reduced from 66.2% before the pandemic to 37.4% during the pandemic (P = 0.029), whereas that in nonhospice units had a nonsignificant decrease from 81.6% before the pandemic to 71.8% during the pandemic (P = 0.086). During the pandemic, the number of inpatient days was affected more severely in hospice units than in nonhospice units (-42.4% vs. -10.9%; P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that hospice home care services were maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the utilization of hospice inpatient care services reduced. Home care for hospice patients is an essential component of palliative care during a pandemic.

Integration of Different Sensory Interventions From Mother's Breast Milk for Preterm Infant Pain During Peripheral Venipuncture Procedures: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of integrating mother's breast milk (BM) with three different combinations of sensory stimuli on preterm infant pain during peripheral venipuncture procedures. DESIGN: A prospective, repeated-measures randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Preterm infants (gestational age between 28 and 37 weeks, and in stable condition) needing venipuncture were recruited by convenience sampling (N = 140) and randomly assigned to four treatment conditions: (a) routine care (condition 1); (b) BM odor or taste (condition 2); (c) BM odor or taste + heartbeat sounds (HBs; condition 3), and (d) BM odor or taste + HBs + non-nutritive sucking (NNS; condition 4). Pain scores were assessed based on the Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised (PIPP-R) over nine phases: baseline (phase 0, 5 min without stimuli before venipuncture), disinfecting (phase 1), during venipuncture (phase 2), and a 10-min recovery (phases 3-8). FINDINGS: Infants who received BM odor or taste + HBs + NNS had significantly lower increases in pain scores from baseline compared with controls across phases 1 through 8. Infants treated with either condition 2 or 3 demonstrated significant reductions in mild pain during disinfecting and recovery phases, as compared with the controls. When condition 2 was used as the reference, there were no significant differences in pain scores between the infants receiving condition 3 across the nine phases, suggesting mothers' HBs have only mild analgesic effects on venipuncture pain. CONCLUSIONS: Integration of mother's BM odor or taste, HBs, and tactile NNS should be considered as an intervention for alleviation of procedural pain for preterm infants. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Clinicians should incorporate the integrated sensory intervention into caregiving support for preterm infants undergoing short painful procedures.

Validation of a concise screening tool for the identification of palliative care needs among inpatients: A prospective study in hospital setting.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Very few studies have investigated the screening tools that aim to identify the need of palliative care services among patients with advanced cancer or chronic non-malignant diseases. This study validated the one-page Taiwanese version-Palliative Care Screening Tool (TW-PCST) for screening inpatients with potential palliative care needs. METHOD: ROC curves were produced to examine the sensitivities and specificities at varying cut-off points. The optimal cut-off value to predict mortality was justified using the Youden's index. The screening was conducted on the first day of admission. Patients were prospectively followed-up after the baseline assessment. Three followed-up periods, namely 14 days, 90 days, and 180 days were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 21,596 patients were screened. AUCs for all cut-off scores varied from 0.84 to 0.88. A total-ABCD score ≥2 gave the highest Youden's index for 90 days and 180 days follow-up periods. The optimal cut-point for 14 days was score ≥3. CONCLUSION: The TW-PCST demonstrated a good sensitivity and specificity in identification of inpatients with palliative care needs. A total-ABCD score ≥2 may be considered as a trigger for further referral.

Constructing an Interdepartmental Information Integration System for Discharge Planning Services.

Discharge planning involves providing appropriate healthcare, assistive devices, and support systems through the collaborative discussion and planning among hospital staff and clients' family members. With seamless transition of patient care as the goal, an intelligent information platform, i.e. an interdepartmental information integration system for discharge planning services, was established. This system is connected with operating systems and clinical care workflows to connect the patient with long-term or home care medical resources. We aimed to provide an ideal healthcare model focusing on staff diligence, patient comfort, and family confidence throughout discharge, thereby achieving the healthcare targets of intelligent care and high-quality nursing.

An Empirical Study on the Successful Implementation of Nursing Information System.

This study investigated the major NIS implementation factors and their capability of predicting the effectiveness of NIS implementation by using the clinical information systems success model. The triangulation method was employed in this study. A total of 348 nurses were recruited from regional hospitals in two districts of Taipei through purposive sampling. Research data were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews 3 and 6 months after an NIS was implemented at their hospital. The result show the explanatory power of use dependence, use satisfaction, and net benefits in predicting NIS effectiveness was approximately 64.5%-89.4%. The explanatory power of net benefits in predicting NIS effectiveness after 3 and 6 months exceeded 80%. The nurses reported that NIS implementation changed their workflow and positively influenced medication administration safety. This study empirically identified the critical factors that affect the successful implementation of NISs and reported the nurses' experience of NIS use.

Developing Evidence-Based Care Standards and a Decision-Making Support System for Pain Management.

Pain is a crucial sign and symptom in hospitalised patients. This paper describes how a medical centre created a knowledge-based, computerised pain management decision-making process to support nurses in personalising preventive interventions based on patient requirements.

Usability of the Clinical Care Classification System for Representing Nursing Practice According to Specialty.

This study examined the ability of the Clinical Care Classification system to represent nursing record data across various nursing specialties. The data comprised nursing care plan records from December 1998 to October 2008 in a medical center. The total number of care plan documentation we analyzed was 2 060 178, and we used a process of knowledge discovery in datasets for data analysis. The results showed that 75.42% of the documented diagnosis terms could be mapped using the Clinical Care Classification system. However, a difference in nursing terminology emerged among various nursing specialties, ranging from 0.1% for otorhinolaryngology to 100% for colorectal surgery and plastic surgery. The top five nursing diagnoses were identified as knowledge deficit, acute pain, infection risk, falling risk, and bleeding risk, which were the most common health problems in an acute care setting but not in non-acute care settings. Overall, we identified a total of 21 established nursing diagnoses, which we recommend adding to the Clinical Care Classification system, most of which are applicable to emergency and intensive care specialties. Our results show that Clinical Care Classification is useful for documenting patient's problems in an acute setting, but we suggest adding new diagnoses to identify health problems in specialty settings.

[The Role Development of Informatics Nurse Specialists in Taiwan].

The development of information technology has changed the world and allowed the innovation of nursing-care services. In recent years, the development of nursing informatics in Taiwan has been catching up with international trends and has been regarded positively by the international medical informatics community. The integration of information technology into medical care system has created the new nursing role of "informatics nurse." Although the certification system and job descriptions for these nurses have become increasingly comprehensive in many nations, Taiwan remains in the early development stage in these regards. Taiwan informatics nurses continue to face unclear and inadequately stated role responsibilities and job titles, undefined training requirements, and a lack of a clear qualification / certification system. This paper introduces the role functions and professional growth of informatics nurses and introduces the framework for a certification system in order to give to various medical and paramedical staffs a better understanding of informatics nursing and to recognize the important role played by informatics nurses in the process of healthcare informatics development.

Endometriosis and the subsequent risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: There is a possible correlation between endometriosis and an increased risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), but many uncertainties remain, including race, exposure or surveillance time, and surgical confirmation. Therefore, we carried out a large-scale, nationwide, controlled cohort study in the Taiwanese women to respond to these uncertainties. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A historical cohort study was performed by linking the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Each patient diagnosed with endometriosis (n = 7537) between 2000 and 2009 was background matched with up to two women without endometriosis (n = 15,074). The total was 136,643 person-years of follow-up and 24 women having new EOC. Cox regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the EOC incidence rate and an endometriosis status. RESULTS: The EOC incidence rate of the endometriosis and non-endometriosis women was 3.31 per 10,000 person-years and 0.99 per 10,000 person-years, respectively, contributing to an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 3.28 (95% confidence interval, 1.37-7.85). The women with surgical confirmation had a much higher adjusted HR (3.87; 95% confidence interval, 1.58-9.47). No significantly statistical difference of surveillance time between women with and without endometriosis (3.87 years vs. 3.73 years). The occurrence of EOC was not also affected by exposure time of women with endometriosis. CONCLUSION: Taiwanese women with endometriosis really had a risk of newly developed EOC, especially those who had a surgical diagnosis, and this three-fold increase of risk was neither influenced by exposure time nor biased by surveillance.

[A new vision of nursing: the evolution and development of nursing informatics].

Technology development trends in the 21st century are increasingly focused on the development of interdisciplinary applications. Advanced information technology may be applied to integrate nursing care information, simplify nursing processes, and reduce the time spent on work tasks, thereby increasing the amount of time that clinical personnel are available to care for patients and ensuring that patients are provided with high-quality and personalized care services. The development of nursing information began in Taiwan in 2003 and has since expanded and thrived. The ability of nursing information to connect formerly insular national nursing communities promotes the international visibility of Taiwan. The rapid development of nursing information in Taiwan, resulting in the production of informative and outstanding results, has received worldwide attention. The Taiwan Nursing Informatics Association was established in 2006 to nurture nursing information professionals, develop and apply information technology in the health care domain, and facilitate international nursing information exchanges. The association actively promotes nursing information in the areas of administration, education, research, and clinical practice, thereby integrating nursing with empirical applications to enhance the service quality and management of nursing and increase the benefits of nursing teaching and research. To convert information into knowledge, the association develops individualized strategies for managing mobile care and employs an interagency network to exchange and reintegrate resources, establishing active, intelligent nursing based on network characteristics and an empirical foundation. The mid- and long-term objectives of the association involve introducing cloud computing and facilitating the meaningful use of nursing information in both public and government settings, thereby creating a milestone of developing and expanding nursing information unique to Taiwan.

A preliminary study on the use of clinical care classification in nursing documentation data sets.

This study analyzed and organized the content coverage of the clinical care classification (CCC) system to represent nursing record data in a medical center in Taiwan. The nursing care plan was analyzed using the process of knowledge discovery in the data set. The nursing documentation was mapped based on the full list of nursing diagnoses and interventions available using the CCC system. The result showed that 75.45% of the documented diagnosis terms can be mapped using the CCC system. A total of 21 established nursing diagnoses were recommended for inclusion in the CCC system. The results also showed that 30.72% of assessment/monitor tasks and 31.16% of care/perform tasks were provided by nursing professionals, whereas manage/refer actions accounted for 15.36% of the tasks involved in nursing care. The results showed that the CCC system is a suitable clinical information system for the majority of nursing care documentation, and is useful for determining the patterns in nursing practices.

Capability of using clinical care classification system to represent nursing practice in acute setting in taiwan.

This study examines the capability of the Clinical Care Classification (CCC) system to represent nursing record data in a medical center in Taiwan. Nursing care records were analyzed using the process of knowledge discovery in data sets. The study data set included all the nursing care plan records from December 1998 to October 2008, totaling 2,060,214 care plan documentation entries. Results show that 75.42% of the documented diagnosis terms could be mapped using the CCC system. A total of 21 established nursing diagnoses were recommended to be added into the CCC system. Results show that one-third of the assessment and care tasks were provided by nursing professionals. This study shows that the CCC system is useful for identifying patterns in nursing practices and can be used to construct a nursing database in the acute setting.

Implementation and Evaluation the Effectiveness of the Bar-coded Medication Administration System in a Medical Center.

The aim of study was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the BCMA systems in medical center. A convenience sample of totally 48 medical-surgical units and 800 staff nurses were recruited to evaluate the systems in 2010. The nurses' perception of the BCMA/eMAR systems were accorded with clinical procedures, guarded the accuracy of patient identification and medication administration processes, and greater than 70% of nurses were willing to use the BCMA/eMAR systems.

Critical thinking competence and disposition of clinical nurses in a medical center.

BACKGROUND: Critical thinking is essential in nursing practice. Promoting critical thinking competence in clinical nurses is an important way to improve problem solving and decision-making competence to further improve the quality of patient care. However, using an adequate tool to test nurses' critical thinking competence and disposition may provide the reference criteria for clinical nurse characterization, training planning, and resource allocation for human resource management. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure the critical thinking competence and critical thinking disposition of clinical nurses as well as to explore the related factors of critical thinking competence. METHODS: Clinical nurses from four different clinical ladders selected from one medical center were stratified randomly. All qualified subjects who submitted valid questionnaires were included in the study. A Taiwan version of the modified Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory was developed to measure the critical thinking competence and critical thinking disposition of clinical nurses. Validity was evaluated using the professional content test (content validity index = .93). Reliability was assessed with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .85. Data were analyzed using the SPSS for Windows (Version 12.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). RESULTS: Results showed that competence of interpretation was the highest critical thinking competence factor. Inference was the lowest, and reflective thinking as a critical thinking disposition was more positive. In addition, age, years of nursing experience, and experiences in other hospitals significantly influenced critical thinking competence (p < .05). Factors of age, years of experience, and nurses clinical ladder were shown to affect critical thinking disposition scores. Clinical ladder N4 nurses had the highest scores in both competence and disposition. A significant relationship was found between critical thinking competence and disposition scores, with 29.3% of the variance in critical thinking competence potentially explained by total years of nurse hospital experience. Clinical ladder and age were predictive factors for critical thinking disposition. Commonality was 27.9%. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nursing experience and clinical ladders positively affect critical thinking competence and disposition. Issues of critical thinking competence increasingly need to be measured. Therefore, appropriate tools for nursing professions should be further developed and explored for specific areas of practice.

[Informatics data quality and management].

While the quality of data affects every aspect of business, it is frequently overlooked in terms of customer data integration, data warehousing, business intelligence and enterprise applications. Regardless of which data terms are used, a high level of data quality is a critical base condition essential to satisfy user needs and facilitate the development of effective applications. In this paper, the author introduces methods, a management framework and the major factors involved in data quality assessment. Author also integrates expert opinions to develop data quality assessment tools.

Evaluation to the informatics system for health promotion management with MedModel simulation project.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the MedModel simulation project system based on the real approach in health promotion management. Used the MedModel simulation project in the physical exam department of a medical center, it's truly promoted the client satisfaction and reduced run-time about 30 minutes, and raised the client attendance about 30%. Actual application in the real health examination, also obtained the same improvement.

Demands and expectation for the e-learning model in clinical nursing education.

The constructed "Nursing e-college" in this study is an online self-learning educational platform developed in a particular medical center. This study was conducted in survey design, and the purpose were (1) to prove the computer skills ,the ability and level of preparation of nursing professionals in learning and using computerized information; (2) to understand the demands and expectations in the clinical nursing curriculum of e-learning. The study utilized randomized sample for data collection during May to December,2005. And then the reliability and validity of the questionnairs in the study were examined. Results indicate that the investigative inventory developed in this study has significant reliability and validity. Also, through statistical calculations (included descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Pearson correlation etc.), results have certain amounts of statistical significance, and demonstrating the functional nature of the study design.

SIGMA simulation for health promotion management.

Health promotion is the key task to achieve global health 2010. Periodical physical check-up have been the most basic manifestation for maintaining personal health care and promotion inverted exclamation markC Sufficient health check facility was provided in a medical center with annual service of 9200~9500. Sixty customers receive around 20 check ups in this physical check up center daily. Smoothness, efficacy and customer satisfaction of the process will be caretakers inverted exclamation mark| concern and target for promotion.