Vibroscape analysis reveals acoustic niche overlap and plastic alteration of vibratory courtship signals in ground-dwelling wolf spiders.

To expand the scope of soundscape ecology to encompass substrate-borne vibrations (i.e. vibroscapes), we analyzed the vibroscape of a deciduous forest floor using contact microphone arrays followed by automated processing of large audio datasets. We then focused on vibratory signaling of ground-dwelling Schizocosa wolf spiders to test for (i) acoustic niche partitioning and (ii) plastic behavioral responses that might reduce the risk of signal interference from substrate-borne noise and conspecific/heterospecific signaling. Two closely related species - S. stridulans and S. uetzi - showed high acoustic niche overlap across space, time, and dominant frequency. Both species show plastic behavioral responses - S. uetzi males shorten their courtship in higher abundance of substrate-borne noise, S. stridulans males increased the duration of their vibratory courtship signals in a higher abundance of conspecific signals, and S. stridulans males decreased vibratory signal complexity in a higher abundance of S. uetzi signals.

Mapping communication spaces: The development and use of a tool for analyzing the impact of EHRs on interprofessional collaborative practice.

INTRODUCTION: Members of the healthcare team must access and share patient information to coordinate interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP). Although some evidence suggests that electronic health records (EHRs) contribute to in-team communication breakdowns, EHRs are still widely hailed as tools that support ICP. If EHRs are expected to promote ICP, researchers must be able to longitudinally study the impact of EHRs on ICP across communication types, users, and physical locations. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a data collection and analysis tool, named the Map of the Clinical Interprofessional Communication Spaces (MCICS), which supports examining how EHRs impact ICP over time, and across communication types, users, and physical locations. METHODS: The tool's development evolved during a large prospective longitudinal study conducted at a Canadian pediatric academic tertiary-care hospital. This two-phased study [i.e., pre-implementation (phase 1) and post implementation (phase 2)] of an EHR employed a constructivist grounded theory approach and triangulated data collection strategies (i.e., non-participant observations, interviews, think-alouds, and document analysis). The MCICS was created through a five-step process: (i) preliminary structural development based on the use of the paper-based chart (phase 1); (ii) confirmatory review and modification process (phase 1); (iii) ongoing data collection and analysis facilitated by the map (phase 1); (iv) data collection and modification of map based on impact of EHR (phase 2); and (v) confirmatory review and modification process (phase 2). RESULTS: Creating and using the MCICS enabled our research team to locate, observe, and analyze the impact of the EHR on ICP, (a) across oral, electronic, and paper communications, (b) through a patient's passage across different units in the hospital, (c) across the duration of the patient's stay in hospital, and (d) across multiple healthcare providers. By using the MCICS, we captured a comprehensive, detailed picture of the clinical milieu in which the EHR was implemented, and of the intended and unintended consequences of the EHR's deployment. The map supported our observations and analysis of ICP communication spaces, and of the role of the patient chart in these spaces. CONCLUSIONS: If EHRs are expected to help resolve ICP challenges, it is important that researchers be able to longitudinally assess the impact of EHRs on ICP across multiple modes of communication, users, and physical locations. Mapping the clinical communication spaces can help EHR designers, clinicians, educators and researchers understand these spaces, appreciate their complexity, and navigate their way towards effective use of EHRs as means for supporting ICP. We propose that the MCICS can be used "as is" in other academic tertiary-care pediatric hospitals, and can be tailored for use in other healthcare institutions.

The impact of adopting EHRs: how losing connectivity affects clinical reasoning.

CONTEXT: As electronic health records (EHRs) are adopted by teaching hospitals, educators must examine how this change impacts trainee development. OBJECTIVES: We investigate this influence by studying clinician experiences of a hospital's move from paper charts to an EHR. We ask: how does each chart modality present conceptions of time and data interconnections? How do these conceptions affect clinical reasoning? METHODS: This two-phase, longitudinal study employed constructivist grounded theory. Data were collected at a paediatric teaching hospital before (Phase 1), during and after (Phase 2) the transition from a paper chart to an EHR system. Data collection consisted of field observations (146 hours involving 300 health care providers, 22 patients and 32 patient family members), think-aloud (n = 13) and think-after (n = 11) sessions, interviews (n = 39) and document retrieval (n = 392). Theories of rhetorical genre studies and visual rhetoric informed analysis. RESULTS: In the paper flowsheet, clinicians recorded and viewed patient data in chronologically organised displays that emphasised data interconnections. In the EHR flowsheet, clinicians viewed and recorded individual data points that were largely chronologically and contextually isolated. Clinicians reported that this change resulted in: (i) not knowing the patient's evolving status; (ii) increased cognitive workload, and (iii) loss of clinical reasoning support mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how patient data are interconnected is essential to clinical reasoning. The use of EHRs supports this goal because the EHR is a tool for collecting dispersed data; however, these collections often deconstruct data interconnections. Where the paper flowsheet emphasises chronology and interconnectedness, the EHR flowsheet emphasises individual data values that are largely independent of time and other patient data. To prepare trainees to work with EHRs, the ways of thinking and acting that were implicitly learned through the use of paper charts must be made explicit. To support clinical reasoning, medical educators should provide lessons in connectivity ­ the chronologically framed data interconnections upon which clinicians rely to provide patient care.

Examining the relationships between span of control and manager job and unit performance outcomes.

AIM: Our aim was to examine the combination of frontline manager (FLM) personal characteristics and span of control (SOC) on their job and unit performance outcomes. BACKGROUND: Healthcare downsizing and reform have contributed to larger spans for FLMs in Canadian hospitals and increased concerns about manager workload. Despite a heightened awareness of SOC issues among decision makers, there is limited empirical evidence related to the effects of SOC on outcomes. METHODS: A non-experimental predictive survey design was used to examine FLM SOC in 14 Canadian academic hospitals. Managers (n = 121) completed an online survey of work characteristics and The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) SOC tool. Unit turnover data were collected from organisational databases. RESULTS: The combination of SOC and core self-evaluation significantly predicted role overload, work control and job satisfaction, but only SOC predicted unit adverse outcomes and neither significantly predicted unit turnover. CONCLUSIONS: The findings contribute to an understanding of connections between the combination of SOC and core self-evaluation and manager job and unit performance outcomes. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Organisational strategies to create manageable FLM SOC are essential to ensure exemplary job and unit outcomes. Core self-evaluation is a personality characteristic that may enhance manager performance in the face of high spans of control.

Exploring managers' views on span of control: more than a headcount.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore front-line managers' (FLMs') perceptions of their span of control (SOC) and how they manage it. As part of a larger quantitative study examining relationships between FLMs' SOC and performance outcomes, 10 manager focus groups were conducted by teleconference, involving 48 managers from 14 academic healthcare organizations. Themes and subthemes were identified according to (a) perceptions of the size and scope of SOC; (b) factors influencing the complexity of SOC; (c) supports needed to manage SOC; (d) changing leadership style; and (e) ways of coping with role overload. Participants described system demands as a significant contributor to their work responsibilities and a sense of role overload. About half of managers stated their SOC was unreasonable and that they lacked the necessary supports to manage it. Many managers who described their SOC as reasonable still expressed concerns about internal and external workload pressures that contributed to changing leadership style and role overload. Findings reinforce the importance of organizational strategies to create regular dialogue with FLMs regarding the size, complexity and appropriateness of current spans and to provide the resource supports necessary to ensure they can manage their SOC effectively.

"I like to be an informed person but..." negotiating responsibility for treatment decisions in cancer care.

Social expectations surrounding sickness have undergone a transformation in Western welfare states. Emerging discourses about patients' roles and responsibilities do not however always map neatly onto patients' actions, experiences or desires. This paper emerges from a study in Ontario, Canada. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 5 women diagnosed with breast cancer we explore the activity and effort prompted for patients by the routine professional practice of outlining treatment options and encouraging patients to choose between them. We highlight research participants' complex responses to their responsibility for treatment decisions: their accepting, deflecting and reframing and their active negotiation of responsibility with professionals. The literature on treatment decision making typically characterizes people who resist taking an active role as overwhelmed, misinformed about the nature of treatment decisions, or more generally lacking capacity to participate. In this paper we suggest that patients' expressions of ambivalence about making treatment choices can be understood otherwise: as efforts to recast the identities and positions they and their physicians are assigned in the organization of cancer care. We also begin to map key features of this organization, particularly discourses of patient empowerment, and evidence-based medicine.

Factors influencing best-practice guideline implementation: lessons learned from administrators, nursing staff, and project leaders.

BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines are promising tools for closing the research evidence-practice gap, yet effective and timely implementation of guidelines into practice remains fragmented and inconsistent. Factors influencing effective guideline implementation remain poorly understood, particularly in nursing. A sound understanding of barriers and facilitators is critical for development of effective and targeted guideline implementation strategies. AIM: This paper reports the perceptions of administrators, staff, and project leaders about factors influencing implementation of nursing best practice guidelines. METHODS: Twenty-two organizations, in clusters of two to five, implemented one of seven guidelines in acute, community and long-term care settings. The topics were client centered care, crisis intervention, healthy adolescent development, pain assessment, pressure ulcers, supporting and strengthening families and therapeutic relationships. Fifty-nine administrators, 58 staff and 8 project leaders participated in post implementation semi-structured telephone interviews. Qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. FINDINGS: Factors at individual, organizational and environmental levels were identified as influencing guideline implementation. Facilitators included learning about the guideline through group interaction, positive staff attitudes and beliefs, leadership support, champions, teamwork and collaboration, professional association support, and inter-organizational collaboration and networks. Barriers included negative staff attitudes and beliefs, limited integration of guideline recommendations into organizational structures and processes, time and resource constraints, and organizational and system level change. Similarities and differences in perceptions of these factors were found among staff, project leaders and administrators. IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: Best practice guideline implementation strategies should address barriers related to the individual practitioner, social context, and organizational and environmental context, and should be tailored to different groups of stakeholders (i.e., nursing staff, project leaders and administrators). Health care administrators need to recognize the "real" costs and complexity associated with successful implementation of guidelines and the need to ensure corporate commitment at the onset.

Best practice recommendations for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diabetic foot ulcers: update 2006.

PURPOSE: To provide the specialist in skin and wound care with evidence-based guidelines for care of the person with a diabetic foot ulcer. TARGET AUDIENCE: This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in wound care and related disorders. OBJECTIVES: After reading this article and taking this test, the reader should be able to: 1. Describe the pathophysiology, assessment, and diagnostic techniques related to diabetic foot ulcers. 2. Identify current, evidence-based preventative and treatment options for the diabetic foot ulcer.

Positive-column plasma studied by fast-flow glow discharge mass spectrometry: could it be a "Rydberg gas?".

Ions created from the fast-flowing positive column plasma of a glow discharge were monitored using a high voltage magnetic sector mass spectrometer. Since the field gradient and sheath potentials created by the plasma inside the source opposed cation transfer, it is inferred that the ions detected were the field-ionized Rydberg species. This is supported by the mass spectral changes which occurred when a negative bias was applied to the sampling aperture and by the contrasting behavior when attached to a quadrupole analyzer. Reaction with H2 (titrated into the flowing plasma) quenched not only the ionization of discharge gas Rydberg atoms but also the passage of electric current through the plasma, without significant changes to the field and sheath potentials. Few "free" ions were present and the lifetimes of the Rydberg atoms detected were much longer than seen in lower pressure experiments, indicating additional stabilization in the plasma environment. The observations support the model of the flowing plasma, given previously [R. S. Mason, P. D. Miller, and I. P. Mortimer, Phys. Rev. E 55, 7462 (1997)] as mainly a neutral Rydberg atom gas, rather than a conventional ion-electron plasma.

Six rapid tests for direct detection of Clostridium difficile and its toxins in fecal samples compared with the fibroblast cytotoxicity assay.

Clostridium difficile is one of the most frequent causes of nosocomial gastrointestinal disease. Risk factors include prior antibiotic therapy, bowel surgery, and the immunocompromised state. Direct fecal analysis for C. difficile toxin B by tissue culture cytotoxin B assay (CBA), while only 60 to 85% sensitive overall, is a common laboratory method. We have used 1,003 consecutive, nonduplicate fecal samples to compare six commercially available immunoassays (IA) for C. difficile detection with CBA: Prima System Clostridium difficile Tox A and VIDAS Clostridium difficile Tox A II, which detect C. difficile toxin A; Premier Cytoclone A/B and Techlab Clostridium difficile Tox A/B, which detect toxins A and B; and ImmunoCard Clostridium difficile and Triage Micro C. difficile panels, which detect toxin A and a species-specific antigen. For all tests, Triage antigen was most sensitive (89.1%; negative predictive value [NPV] = 98.7%) while ImmunoCard was most specific (99.7%; positive predictive value [PPV] = 95.0%). For toxin tests only, Prima System had the highest sensitivity (82.2%; NPV = 98.0%) while ImmunoCard had the highest specificity (99.7%; PPV = 95.0%). Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients contributed 44.7% of all samples tested, and no significant differences in sensitivity or specificity were noted between HSCT and non-HSCT patients. IAs, while not as sensitive as direct fecal CBA, produce reasonable predictive values, especially when both antigen and toxin are detected. They also offer significant advantages over CBA in terms of turnaround time and ease of use.