Health-care Workforce Training to Effectively Support Family Caregivers of Seniors in Care.

INTRODUCTION: Family caregivers (FCGs) play an integral, yet often invisible, role in the Canadian health-care system. As the population ages, their presence will become even more essential as they help balance demands on the system and enable community-dwelling seniors to remain so for as long as possible. To preserve their own well-being and capacity to provide ongoing care, FCGs require support to the meet the challenges of their daily caregiving responsibilities. Supporting FCGs results in better care provision to community-dwelling seniors receiving health-care services, as well as enhancing the quality of life for FCGs. Although FCGs rely upon health-care professionals (HCPs) to provide them with support and services, there is a paucity of research pertaining to the type of health workforce training (HWFT) that HCPs should receive to address FCG needs. Programs that train HCPs to engage with, empower, and support FCGs are required. OBJECTIVE: To describe and discuss key findings of a caregiver symposium focused on determining components of HWFT that might better enable HCPs to support FCGs. METHODS: A one-day symposium was held on February 22, 2018 in Edmonton, Alberta, to gather the perspectives of FCGs, HCPs, and stakeholders. Attendees participated in a series of working groups to discuss barriers, facilitators, and recommendations related to HWFT. Proceedings and working group discussions were transcribed, and a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to identify key themes. RESULTS: Participants identified the following topic areas as being essential to training HCPs in the provision of support for FCGs: understanding the FCG role, communicating with FCGs, partnering with FCGs, fostering FCG resilience, navigating healthcare systems and accessing resources, and enhancing the culture and context of care. CONCLUSIONS: FCGs require more support than is currently being provided by HCPs. Training programs need to specifically address topics identified by participants. These findings will be used to develop HWFT for HCPs.

Severe Obesity Is Associated With Increased Risk of Early Complications and Extended Length of Stay Following Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Better understanding of the relationship between obesity and postsurgical adverse outcomes is needed to provide quality and efficient care. We examined the relationship of obesity with the incidence of early adverse outcomes and in-hospital length of stay following coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: We analyzed data from 7560 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting. Using body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) of 18.5 to 24.9 as a reference, the associations of 4 BMI categories (25.0-29.9, 30.0-34.9, 35.0-39.9, and ≥40.0) with rates of operative mortality, overall early complications, subgroups of early complications (ie, infection, renal and pulmonary complications), and length of stay were assessed while adjusting for clinical covariates. There was no difference in operative mortality; however, higher risks of overall complications were observed for patients with BMI 35.0 to 39.9 (adjusted odds ratio 1.35, 95% CI 1.11-1.63) and ≥40.0 (adjusted odds ratio 1.56, 95% CI 1.21-2.01). Subgroup analyses identified obesity as an independent risk factor for infection (BMI 30.0-34.9: adjusted odds ratio 1.60, 95% CI 1.24-2.05; BMI 35.0-39.9: adjusted odds ratio 2.34, 95% CI 1.73-3.17; BMI ≥40.0: adjusted odds ratio 3.29, 95% CI 2.30-4.71). Median length of stay was longer with BMI ≥40.0 than with BMI 18.5 to 24.9 (median 7.0 days [interquartile range 5 to 10] versus 6.0 days [interquartile range 5 to 9], P=0.026). CONCLUSIONS: BMI ≥40.0 was an independent risk factor for longer length of stay, and infection was a potentially modifiable risk factor. Greater perioperative attention and intervention to control the risks associated with infection and length of stay in patients with BMI ≥40.0 may improve patient care quality and efficiency.

Multiple Sclerosis Mortality Rates in Canada, 1975-2009.

BACKGROUND: This study examined mortality due to multiple sclerosis (MS) in Canada, 1975-2009 to determine whether there has been a change in age at death relative to the general population and decrease in MS mortality rates. METHODS: Mortality rates/100,000 population for MS and all causes were calculated using data derived from Statistics Canada, age-standardized to the 2006 population. RESULTS: The average annual Canadian MS mortality rate, 1975-2009 was 1.23/100,000. Five-year rates for 1975-79, 1980-84, 1985-89, 1990-94, 1995-99, 2000-04, 2005-09 were: 1.16, 0.94, 1.01, 1.16, 1.30, 1.43, 1.33. Trend analysis showed mortality rates over the entire 35 years were stable (average annual percent change of less than one percent). The average annual 1975-2009 rates for females and males were 1.45 and 0.99. Five-year female rates were always higher than males. Regardless of gender, there was a decrease in MS mortality rates in the 0-39 age group and increases in the 60-69, 70-79, and 80+ groups over time. In contrast, there were decreases in all-cause mortality rates across each age group. The highest MS mortality rates for 1975-2009 were consistently in the 50-59 and 60-69 groups for both genders, while the highest all-cause mortality rates were in the 80+ group. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in the age distribution of MS mortality rates indicate a shift to later age at death, possibly due to improved health care. However MS patients remain disadvantaged relative to the general population and changes in age at death are not reflected in decreased mortality rates.

Change in the Health-Related Quality of Life of Multiple Sclerosis Patients over 5 Years.

This study examined whether multiple sclerosis (MS) patients (N = 3779) experience change in their perceived health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over a 5-year period, and investigated baseline factors that may be related to change in HRQOL. Data from the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry were used to address the study's research questions. Results for the physical and mental component scores of the 12-item Short Form Health Status Survey, version 2 (SF-12v2), indicated that most of the MS sample experienced no significant changes over a 5-year period. However, 40% and 36% of the sample experienced clinically significant declines in their physical and mental HRQOL, respectively, over the 5-year period. After controlling for baseline scores, having a lower education, having greater duration since disease diagnosis, not being employed, having a lower income, not receiving a disease-modifying therapy, and taking a greater number of prescription medications were significantly associated with a clinically significant decline in physical HRQOL. After controlling for baseline scores, not being married/partnered, experiencing a greater number of relapses, not being employed, having a lower income, and taking a greater number of prescription medications were significantly associated with a clinically significant decline in mental HRQOL. Overall, most of the MS sample remained stable in their HRQOL over time. However, approximately four out of every ten patients experienced a clinically important decline in their HRQOL. While the association was statistically significant, the sociodemographic and disease-related factors linked with decline did not strongly predict decline over a 5-year period.

Caller self-care decisions following teletriage advice.

AIM: To examine caller self-care decisions following teletriage advice provided by nurses. BACKGROUND: The use of teletriage is gaining popularity as one way of enhancing capacity for self-care. Research from several countries suggests that teletriage reduces the use of other healthcare services without compromising safety. However, there is little or no research related to how often self-care advice is provided and whether or not callers follow the advice. DESIGN: A descriptive survey design was used with a random sample of 312 callers who were advised by a teletriage nurse to engage in self-care. METHOD: Callers were randomly selected from all calls to a teletriage service each day of the month for nine months. Data were collected using a researcher-developed interview guide and analysed using a variety of inferential statistics for forced choice questions and content analysis for open-ended questions. RESULTS: The majority of callers who were advised to engage in self-care reported doing so. Callers with greater self-efficacy and satisfaction with the nurse interaction were more likely to follow advice to self-care. All callers would call the teletriage service again for the same or a different issue. CONCLUSION: Teletriage callers were confident in the advice provided and were willing to continue to use the service. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study indicates that teletriage programmes are a cost-effective way of addressing self-care needs of individuals who might otherwise visit an emergency department.

Development of a questionnaire to examine confidence of occupational therapy students during fieldwork experiences.

This paper describes the development of an instrument designed to examine the level of confidence of occupational therapy students during their fieldwork experiences. Confidence in this context refers to Bandura's concept of self-efficacy in Social Cognitive Theory. As this subject has received little formal study, no appropriate tool was found to measure confidence in students. The purpose of this study was to design a measure to provide students with an opportunity to self-assess their levels of confidence both within a placement and throughout their entire fieldwork experiences. The instrument was constructed in three phases: I--Instrument Development; II--Instrument Testing; 111--Instrument Implementation. In Phase III, the instrument was distributed to all students entering the first year of occupational therapy studies at the University of Alberta. Data was collected from these students during their four fieldwork placements to address the questions of whether confidence increases during a fieldwork placement regardless of placement level, whether confidence increases by placement level, and whether student or placement characteristics affect levels of confidence. Results of the study support the hypotheses that confidence levels increase both during a fieldwork placement and with successive placements. Reliability and validity analyses indicated that the measure may be a useful tool to assess confidence in students during fieldwork placements.