Background: People with an intellectual disability have a higher risk of developing mental disorders compared to the general population. Available evidence suggests those with an intellectual disability receiving inpatient treatment in general psychiatric wards may have certain unique characteristics. Method: Data gathered from a retrospective…

Learning Disability Liaison Nurses have been shown to improve hospital experiences and this is an emerging role in Ireland. This research qualitatively explored the impact of a Clinical Nurse Specialist Acute Hospital Liaison from the perspective of staff in an intellectual disability community organisation. Participants identified significant…

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is a serious medical disease and the main cause of cardiovascular diseases and premature death worldwide. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of online mindfulness-based stress reduction (OMBSR) on systolic blood pressure (BP), diastolic blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) in…

Using a dialogic framework as the backdrop to course curriculum, I developed an Oral Communication course for pre-med students with the goal to enhance students' public speaking skills while also incorporating health communication and applied communication research and activities to create opportunities for engagement. I propose best practices for…

Heath advocacy (HA) remains a difficult competency to train and assess, in part because practicing physicians and learners carry uncertainty about what HA means and we are missing patients' perspectives about the role HA plays in their care. Visual methods are useful tools for exploring nebulous topics in health professions education; using these…

Problem: The opioid epidemic is a continuing public health threat, growing amongst the pediatric population. Contributing to the issue are their accessibility within the community, and lack of education on safe storage and disposal of opioids. Methods: For this quality improvement (QI) project, a descriptive observational study design was used to…

I propose that the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl provides a meaningful mode of access to the patient experience. By reflecting on a real-life encounter with grief, my own medical training, and two works of literature, "Nausea" and "Love in the Time of Cholera," I illustrate the application of philosophy and specifically…

Background: Children and young people with intellectual disability have poor healthcare and are at risk of patient safety events due to lack of staff training and consensus on competencies for safe and quality care. For the adoption of reasonable adjustments in mainstream paediatric healthcare clinical competencies needed to be adapted to an…

Adapting interventions to new contexts requires consideration of the needs, norms, and delivery structures of the new setting. We describe how we followed the ORBIT model of intervention development to create Health Insurance Navigation Tools (HINT), a health insurance patient navigation intervention for childhood cancer survivors. By engaging…

Background: Understanding the associations among mild intellectual disability (IQ 50-70), borderline intellectual functioning (IQ 70-85) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with treatment outcomes in severely mentally ill patients could contribute to better tailoring of care. Methods: One or more assessments using the Health of the Nation…

A random-effects model is often applied in meta-analysis when considerable heterogeneity among studies is observed due to the differences in patient characteristics, timeframe, treatment regimens, and other study characteristics. Since 2014, the journals "Research Synthesis Methods" and the "Annals of Internal Medicine" have…

Within each of 170 physicians, patients were randomized to access e-assist, an online program that aimed to increase colorectal cancer screening (CRCS), or control. Compliance was partial: 78.34% of the experimental patients accessed e-assist while no controls were provided the access. Of interest are the average causal effect of assignment to…

Elective surgical case cancellation is common and can have significant adverse effects by causing prolonged waiting times, harm to patients, and wasting of scarce resources in countries like Ethiopia. Cancellation of scheduled surgeries may lead to reduced occupation of operation theatres and may be recognized as a major cause of trauma to…

A crucial part of theory-driven realist thinking is retroduction, the process of looking backwards for explanation of how and why things may be. Conducted early in the realist evaluation process, it provides a foundation for evidenced 'theory gleaning'. Despite retroduction being an inherent part of the realist process, it is often 'hidden' in…

Here we demonstrate how data from the clinical pulmonary function lab can help students learn about the principle of airway-parenchymal interdependence. We examined the relationship between airway conductance (Gaw) and lung volume (thoracic gas volume, TGV) in 48 patients: 17 healthy; 20 with emphysema, expected to have reduced airway-parenchymal…