ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9971-9343
Current Organisation
University of Technology Sydney
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Publisher: Atlantis Press International BV
Date: 10-2023
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2019
DOI: 10.1111/JSPN.12268
Abstract: While there has been extensive published research into adult inpatient falls, less is known about pediatric falls in Australia. Falls pose a safety risk to pediatric patients potentially causing harm, increased length of stay, and death. Parents play a central role in reducing falls-related incidents given that, as parents, they provide care and/or oversee care delivered to their child at the bedside. Developing a better understanding of what parents and carers know about falls and associated risks, particularly those hospital-naïve, is central to developing family centered strategies and targeted education to meet the needs of parents. Our study aimed to explore Australian parents' knowledge and awareness of pediatric inpatient falls. Qualitative methods utilizing descriptive thematic analysis. Parents of children and/or young people hospitalized during the last 6 months were eligible to participate. Potential participants attending the outpatient clinics of two tertiary pediatric outpatient clinics hospitals in Sydney, Australia were invited to participate in the study. Willing participants consented to complete a face to face in-depth interview. Open-ended questions sought to explore participants' knowledge, knowledge acquisition, and awareness of inpatient falls. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data familiarization and open coding were completed by researchers independently. Researchers explored and discussed emerging categories until patterns emerged and a consensus of dominant themes were agreed upon. Interviews were conducted with mothers (n = 17), fathers ( n = 4), or both parents together (n = 2) of a child or a young person who had been recently hospitalized. Four dominant themes emerged from the data namely: Supervision: falls won't happen, unexpected, parent priorities, and ways of learning about inpatient falls and risks. Despite parents' awareness of falls risk, parents were unaware that falls occur within a hospital setting and did not prioritize "falls prevention" during admission. Findings have implications for nursing practice, particularly in the delivery, content, and timing of falls prevention education.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-02-2022
DOI: 10.1111/JSPN.12368
Abstract: This study aimed to validate and to determine the in idual characteristics and demographic factors associated with parents' knowledge of hospital-based pediatric falls and to identify parent populations more likely to report low levels of falls-related knowledge. Validation of a questionnaire and a cross-sectional survey design. Parents (n = 200) of hospitalized children admitted to a tertiary specialist pediatric hospital in Australia completed an online questionnaire. Parents were asked to rate their hospital-based falls knowledge using a Likert scale (1-5). The questionnaire was administered to parents across six hospital wards, 1 day a week, from May to August 2019. Validation of the questionnaire involved factor analyses and reliability tests. Finally, descriptive analysis measured parents' knowledge, and a multivariate logistic regression analysis reported factors associated with parents' falls knowledge. All data were analyzed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (V27). Ethical approval was received for all stages. The final version of the parent knowledge of falls (PKOF) questionnaire consisted of 23 questions across five domains (Cronbach α = .929-.70). Parents' knowledge of hospital-based falls ranged from 2.5 to 4.5, while knowledge that children may fall during parental presence rated the lowest score. Knowledge of inpatient falls was higher if their child had a high risk of falls (odds ratio [OR]: 2.1, p = .04) and they were Australian-born parents (OR: 1.9, p = .05). The PKOF questionnaire is an evidence-based instrument developed for a pediatric hospital setting. Findings highlight knowledge gaps and parent groups with the highest risk of having inadequate hospital-based falls knowledge. The questionnaire enables pediatric nurses and educators to measure parents' knowledge of hospital-based falls accurately and consistently, and so to identify gaps and, subsequently, develop, implement, and evaluate falls education using an evidence-based approach.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-05-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.16374
Abstract: To measure text similarity in electronic nursing progress notes and determine factors associated with text similarity. Electronic clinical notes with redundant information masks clinically relevant information, increases clinicians’ cognitive burden and undermines patient safety. Retrospective review of electronic medical record nursing progress notes. The study was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019 in two Australian Paediatric Intensive Care Units. De‐identified, randomly selected inpatient data were extracted from the network's database. Manually classified shift summary progress notes for each admission were sequenced from admission to discharge. Text similarity was calculated for consecutive pairs of nursing progress notes. Linear regression was undertaken to determine the association between the similarity scores and variables of interest: note word count, total number of notes and unit. The STROBE checklist was used for reporting. 921 shift summary nursing progress notes were analysed. Similarity scores were widely distributed with a median of 10.37%. Only 17.2% ( n = 144) of the notes have similarity scores above 20%. Of these, 5% ( n = 47) were above 50% similar in comparison with a previously written note. Similarity above 50% was observed as early as the first note pair in the course of a patient's admission. A significant difference was found between the similarity scores of Unit 1 and Unit 2. Hospital unit was the only variable of interest significantly associated with similarity scores. Text similarity among electronic nursing progress notes in Australian Paediatric ICUs is minimal however, notes with % similarity have been identified. Text analytics provides measurable data and insights about electronic clinical documentation to inform future nursing practice, research and eMR design. Findings have implications for nursing practice in the way that nursing staff are educated to maintain data quality, professional accountability and effective communication in electronic documentation and to avoid unnecessary repetition of text.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-07-2020
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.15374
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-05-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.14367
Abstract: To investigate hepatocellular carcinoma screening utilisation and factors associated with utilisation among patients prescribed hepatitis B virus anti-viral therapy and at risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma has increased in Australia over the past three decades with chronic hepatitis B virus infection a major contributor. hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance programs aim to detect cancers early enabling curative treatment options, longer survival and longer times to recurrence. Multi-site cross-sectional survey. An online study questionnaire was administered to eligible participants attending three Sydney tertiary hospitals. Data were grouped into six mutually exclusive hepatocellular carcinoma risk factor categories as per American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines. All analyses were undertaken in STATA. Logistic regression was used to assess the associations between covariates and screening utilisation. Multivariate models described were assessed using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit. Of the 177 participants, 137 (77.4%) self-reported that US had been performed in the last six months. Awareness that screening should be performed and knowing the correct frequency of US screening were independently associated with screening utilisation. Participants who knew that screening should be undertaken were three times more likely to have had pretreatment education or were prescribed hepatitis B virus anti-viral treatment for >4 years. Participants reporting a family history of hepatocellular carcinoma were less likely to know that screening should be undertaken every 6 months. While utilisation of hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance programs was higher in this study than in previous reports, strategies to further improve surveillance remain necessary. Findings from this research form the basis for proposing strategies to improve utilisation of hepatocellular carcinoma screening, inform hepatitis B virus-related clinical practice and for the delivery of care and nursing education to people receiving hepatitis B virus anti-viral therapy and at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-10-2023
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.16921
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-11-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JOCN.15559
No related grants have been discovered for Suzanne Sheppard-Law.