[Development of an alarm system for the prevention of falls in hospitalized patients]. / Desenvolvimento de um sistema de alerta para prevenção de quedas em pacientes hospitalizados.

The present study describes the analysis of an online patient assessment system developed to prevent inpatients falls. A chart review was performed in order to identify risk factors present in the Nursing Assessment tool. The identified variables were Functional status including walking, transferring and toilet, sex and patients self-care ability. Authors developed a system using these variables, that is available since February 1997. In a second phase of this study, authors aim to evaluate the effectiveness of this computerized intervention.

Nurses' requirements for information technology in the next millennium.

The main purpose of this study was to identify nurses' requirements for information technology in the next millennium. We distributed 350 questionnaires in a teaching hospital in Brazil and in the USA. We received 86 from Brazil and 78 from USA. Besides the capabilities of computers to be used in different sectors of human actions, nurses' requirements for information technology can not be considered sophisticated. Nurses in Brazil prefer a standalone system. In contrast, in USA they prefer systems that could be integrated to the whole healthcare system. Also, in the USA, nurses were more comfortable with use of computers than nurses in Brazil. In general terms, nurses in both countries feel that computer systems could make their practice easier and more efficient.