Standardizing Multidisciplinary Discharge Planning Rounds to Improve Patient Perceptions of Care Transitions.

Patients' satisfaction with care transitions is low, especially when it comes to understanding their care when discharged home from the hospital. Therefore, a quality improvement effort was initiated with the aim of improving patients' satisfaction with care transitions. Specific goals of the project were to improve communication between healthcare providers and patients, increase patient satisfaction, and enhance patient education by standardizing multidisciplinary discharge planning rounds.

Effects of a service-learning experience on health-related students' attitudes toward the homeless.

OBJECTIVES: A community engagement service-learning experience was planned to provide health services for the homeless during a local 1-day event. The objectives were to (a) determine the feasibility of a service-learning experience, and to (b) examine the effects on students' attitudes toward persons experiencing homelessness. METHODS: A quasi-experimental, institutional review board approved study, including health-related students enrolled in a local university or community college, was planned. The attitudes toward the homeless survey was administered before and after participation in the service-learning experience. Qualitative data were through student reflections of the experience. RESULTS: Participants (n = 106) completed a pre and post questionnaire and a self-reflection. A statistically significant t(26) = -2.2, p = .04 change in attitudes toward the homeless were found. Three themes were revealed from the reflections: inherent bias, individualized care, and the societal context of people experiencing homelessness. CONCLUSION: Both quantitative and qualitative findings may help students reflect on preconceived stereotypes; therefore, affecting their attitudes toward the homelessness.

School-Based Interprofessional Asthma Self-Management Education Program for Middle School Students: A Feasibility Trial.

BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most common chronic disease among school-aged children under 18 years of age and is a major cause of morbidity, loss of school days, and increased hospitalizations. Asthma disproportionately affects low-income, minority youth in Alabama. The benefits of improving asthma control and self-management have significance for improving health, preventing disease, and reducing health disparities by addressing social, behavioral, environmental, economic, and medical determinants of health. OBJECTIVES: This collaborative community partnership between the Mobile County Public School System, University of South Alabama (USA), and USA Children's and Women's Hospital involved nursing students, respiratory therapy students, and medical residents from three colleges and the hospital. The research question was whether a school-based asthma self-management education program presented by an interprofessional team was feasible for teens with asthma in a medically underserved area (MUA). METHODS: Middle school students with a diagnosis of asthma participated in this institutional review board-approved study. Asthma assessments, one-on-one coaching, and group education were done over five sessions, using Power Breathing for teens curriculum. Instruments were the Childhood Asthma Control Test (ACT), the Asthma Responsibility Questionnaire (ARQ), the Self-Efficacy Scale, the Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ), peak flow monitoring, and spirometry. RESULTS: Eighteen students with moderate to severe persistent asthma completed the program with reduced asthma symptoms and increased asthma control, medication knowledge/skills, self-efficacy, and asthma responsibility. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with asthma need education in medication management, spacer use, peak flow, trigger avoidance, and coaching to take on the responsibility of asthma care. This multidimensional, interprofessional approach can strengthen asthma self-management in a middle school medically underserved community population.