Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2023-10-19"
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- Patient-safety culture among emergency and critical Care Nurses in a Maternal and Child DepartmentPublication . Fuseini, Abdul-Karim Jebuni; Costa, Emília Isabel; Adelaide de Matos, Filomena; Merino-Godoy, Maria-de-los-Angeles; Nave, FilipeIntroduction: The quality of healthcare has multiple dimensions, but the issue of patient safety stands out due to the impact it has on health outcomes, particularly on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), expressly SDG3. In the services that we propose to study, the patient-safety culture had never been evaluated. Aim: To evaluate nurses’ perceptions of the patient-safety culture in the Emergency and Critical Care Services of the Maternal and Child Department of a University Hospital and to identify strengths, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvement. Methods: This an exploratory, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture as an instrument for data collection. The population were all nurses working in the emergency and critical care services of the maternal and child-health department, constituted, at the time of writing, by 184 nurses, with a response rate of 45.7%. Results: Applying the guidelines from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), only teamwork within units had a score greater than 75%. For this reason, it is considered the strength (fortress) in the study. The lowest-rated were non-punitive responses to errors and open communication. Conclusion: The overall average percentage score is below the benchmark of the AHRQ, indicating that issue of patient safety is not considered a high priority, or that the best strategies to make it visible have not yet been found. One of the important implications of this study is the opportunity to carry out a deep reflection, within the organization, that allows the development of a non-punitive work environment that is open to dialogue, and that allows the provision of safe nursing care.
- Impacts of sample storage time on estimates of phytoplankton abundance: how long is too long?Publication . Nogueira, Patricia; Barbosa, Ana; Domingues, RitaPhytoplankton play a key role in marine ecosystems, making the accurate quantification of functional groups/species, using standardized microscopy techniques, essential in many research efforts. In this study we aimed to evaluate the effects of (a) storage time on the abundance of microphytoplankton in samples fixed with acid Lugol’s solution; (b) storage time on the abundance of pico- and nanophytoplankton in frozen microscopy slides; (c) storage time on the abundance of pico- and nanophytoplankton in fixed refrigerated samples and (d) storage protocol (refrigerated versus frozen) on the abundance of pico- and nanophytoplankton. Microphytoplankton were analyzed using inverted microscopy, and pico- and nanophytoplankton using epifluorescence microscopy. Results indicate storage time negatively impacted the abundances of all phytoplankton size classes; however, effects were group-specific. For accurate abundance estimates, we suggest that samples fixed with acid Lugol’s should be analyzed within 30 and 180 days, for dinoflagellates/total microphytoplankton and diatoms, respectively. For picoeukaryotes, glutaraldehyde fixed samples should be kept refrigerated for up to 4 days, and slides should be prepared immediately before observation. It is recommended that authors specify the exact lag times between sample collection, fixation and analysis, to allow the comparability of phytoplankton datasets across different studies and/or monitoring programs.