Daily Care Information System Requirements: Professional Service-Driven Service Blueprint Approach.

BACKGROUND: Long-term care (LTC) services are a professional service-driven (PSD) system; to deliver appropriate care services to residents, health care providers first need to collect appropriate patient data and make a professional assessment. A well-designed LTC information system should therefore consider the information requirements of multidisciplinary health care providers to adequately support their care services. OBJECTIVES: This study proposed a modified service blueprint-the PSD service blueprint-for visualizing interdisciplinary service providers' input and output information requirements, which correspond to their service activities. METHODS: The PSD service blueprint comprises five layers and seven elements. We also present a case study to illustrate the blueprint's application to daily LTC services. RESULTS: Our proposed approach could clearly illustrate the daily care activities, service providers (main actors), actors' input and output information, and suggestions for LTC information system-related applications. CONCLUSION: The proposed PSD service blueprint can not only gather interdisciplinary LTC service providers' information system requirements but also act as a mapping tool for visualizing the care service process.

Drivers of participation in Facebook long-term care groups: Applying the use and gratification theory, social identification theory, and the modulating role of group diversity.

Facebook long-term care groups have been established by long-term care workers, and few studies have explored the related drivers of participation from the perspective of caregivers. This study applied a mixed-methods approach; the qualitative component conducted a pilot study to explore the drivers of participation in Facebook long-term care groups and found that the use and gratification theory provides a valid approach for explaining these drivers. Subsequently, the quantitative component, based on the use and gratification theory, proposed a conceptual model to examine the effect of these drivers on the social identity of these groups as well as the modulating effects of extraversion and group diversity in terms of age and educational background. The results showed that the most important social identification-related driver underlying participation in these groups was self-discovery. In addition, the relationship among these drivers and social identification was found to be modulated by extraversion, age, and educational background.

Effects of argument quality, source credibility and self-reported diabetes knowledge on message attitudes: an experiment using diabetes related messages.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have reported that credibility and content (argument quality) are the most critical factors affecting the quality of health information and its acceptance and use; however, this causal relationship merits further investigation in the context of health education. Moreover, message recipients' prior knowledge may moderate these relationships. OBJECTIVES: This study used the elaboration likelihood model to determine the main effects of argument quality, source credibility and the moderating effect of self-reported diabetes knowledge on message attitudes. METHODS: A between-subjects experimental design using an educational message concerning diabetes for manipulation was applied to validate the effects empirically. A total of 181 participants without diabetes were recruited from the Department of Health, Taipei City Government. Four group messages were manipulated in terms of argument quality (high and low) × source credibility (high and low). RESULTS: Argument quality and source credibility of health information significantly influenced the attitude of message recipients. The participants with high self-reported knowledge participants exhibited significant disapproval for messages with low argument quality. CONCLUSION: Effective health information should provide objective descriptions and cite reliable sources; in addition, it should provide accurate, customised messages for recipients who have high background knowledge level and ability to discern message quality.

Factors influencing physicians' knowledge sharing on web medical forums.

Web medical forums are relatively unique as knowledge-sharing platforms because physicians participate exclusively as knowledge contributors and not as knowledge recipients. Using the perspective of social exchange theory and considering both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, this study aims to elicit the factors that significantly influence the willingness of physicians to share professional knowledge on web medical forums and develops a research model to explore the motivations that underlie physicians' knowledge-sharing attitudes. This model hypothesizes that constructs, including shared vision, reputation, altruism, and self-efficacy, positively influence these attitudes and, by extension, positively impact knowledge-sharing intention. A conventional sampling method and the direct recruitment of physicians at their outpatient clinic gathered valid data from a total of 164 physicians for analysis in the model. The empirical results support the validity of the proposed model and identified shared vision as the most significant factor of influence on knowledge-sharing attitudes, followed in descending order by knowledge-sharing self-efficacy, reputation, and altruism.

Mobile nursing information system utilization: the task-technology fit perspective.

Task-technology fit theory considers how technology may best be deployed to support individuals and facilitate the completion of tasks. This study separates the fit construct into the two realms of task-technology fit and technology-individual fit and integrates organization readiness with the objective of investigating the effectiveness of mobile nursing information systems in terms of helping nursing staff to accomplish daily clinical tasks. Study participants were clinical professionals with system usage experience who work at one medical center. Results indicated that technology-individual fit is the factor that most strongly influences usage, followed respectively by task-technology fit and organization readiness. Therefore, strategies designed to implement mobile nursing information systems should focus greater effort on fitting the system to system users by making these systems easy to learn and use, and training easy to complete. System functions should not only facilitate accomplishment of daily clinical tasks such as quickly obtaining information and accurate data but also be portable and provide a user-friendly, easy-to-operate interface. Organizational readiness, the commitment and support of top management, and nursing staff willingness to learn and use the new system are also important factors that influence system usage.

Effects of gender and game type on autonomic nervous system physiological parameters in long-hour online game players.

Online game playing may induce physiological effects. However, the physical mechanisms that cause these effects remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the physiological effects of long-hour online gaming from an autonomic nervous system (ANS) perspective. Heart rate variability (HRV), a valid and noninvasive electrocardiographic method widely used to investigate ANS balance, was used to measure physiological effect parameters. This study used a five-time, repeated measures, mixed factorial design. Results found that playing violent games causes significantly higher sympathetic activity and diastolic blood pressure than playing nonviolent games. Long-hour online game playing resulted in the gradual dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system due to physical exhaustion. Gaming workload was found to modulate the gender effects, with males registering significantly higher sympathetic activity and females significantly higher parasympathetic activity in the higher gaming workload group.

Molecular characterization of three major outer membrane proteins, TSA56, TSA47 and TSA22, in Orientia tsutsugamushi.

Orientia tsutsugamushi (O. tsutsugamushi), the causative agent of scrub typhus, is an obligate intracellular pathogen. Recent studies have demonstrated the complete genome of O. tsutsugamushi. However, the route and detailed molecular mechanism for O. tsutsugamushi to get accessed into mammalian cells remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated different adhesive properties of three major outer membrane proteins of O. tsutsugamushi, TSA56, TSA47 and TSA22. TSA56 showed higher antibody responses against patient serum samples compared with those of TSA47 and TSA22. In the adhesion assay, TSA56 exhibited a relative higher adhesion to host cells than TSA47 and TSA22, suggesting that TSA56 is the major outer membrane protein required for O. tsutsugamushi adhesion. Furthermore, the antigen domain (AD) I (residues 19-114) corresponding to the extracellular domain of TSA56 demonstrated a relative high antibody response against the patients' sera than the previously reported ADIII (residues 237-366), which has been suggested to facilitate the invasion of O. tsutsugamushi through interaction with fibronectin. Taken together, our results consistently showed that TSA56 of O. tsutsugamushi is important in the adhesion of Escherichia coli (E. coli) transformants to Vero cells. Moreover, in contrast to known ADIII-fibronectin interactions, TSA56-ADI may also play a role in the adhesion and/or invasion of O. tsutsugamushi to its host cells through unidentified receptors. A further study aimed at delineating the receptor of TSA56-ADI during O. tsutsugamushi infection is warranted.

A computer literacy scale for newly enrolled nursing college students: development and validation.

BACKGROUND: Increasing application and use of information systems and mobile technologies in the healthcare industry require increasing nurse competency in computer use. Computer literacy is defined as basic computer skills, whereas computer competency is defined as the computer skills necessary to accomplish job tasks. Inadequate attention has been paid to computer literacy and computer competency scale validity. PURPOSE: This study developed a computer literacy scale with good reliability and validity and investigated the current computer literacy of newly enrolled students to develop computer courses appropriate to students' skill levels and needs. METHODS: This study referenced Hinkin's process to develop a computer literacy scale. Participants were newly enrolled first-year undergraduate students, with nursing or nursing-related backgrounds, currently attending a course entitled Information Literacy and Internet Applications. Researchers examined reliability and validity using confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: The final version of the developed computer literacy scale included six constructs (software, hardware, multimedia, networks, information ethics, and information security) and 22 measurement items. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale possessed good content validity, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. This study also found that participants earned the highest scores for the network domain and the lowest score for the hardware domain. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: With increasing use of information technology applications, courses related to hardware topic should be increased to improve nurse problem-solving abilities. This study recommends that emphases on word processing and network-related topics may be reduced in favor of an increased emphasis on database, statistical software, hospital information systems, and information ethics.