Infodemiological patterns in searching medication errors: relationship with risk management and shift work

Care call requests and inpatient beds modernization: Is there any link? A prospective observational study in the oncological setting

AIM

The study aims to analyse the principal causes of patients' care calls and compare differences before and after inpatient beds' technological modernization in a surgical breast oncological ward.

DESIGN

A prospective observational study was conducted under the STROBE guidelines. Data were collected from June to September 2022.

METHODS

Statistical analyses were performed to compare each reason for care calls, by shifts and pre and post-inpatient bed modernization.

RESULTS

Two thousand five hundred and fifty-nine care request calls were analysed during the 202 observed shifts. The most frequent reason was related to the requests for positions.

CONCLUSION

Technological modernization of the beds has not led to effective-positive-changes; on the contrary, it seems at first glance to show an upward trend in calls above all in the short period after the changes.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE

What problem did the study address? By analysing the principal causes of care calls and comparing the differences before and after inpatient beds' technological modernization, this study evaluates if inpatient gear or device modernization can impact care call requests. What were the main findings? The results show that the most frequent reasons for care calls were position, possession and other. These findings seem not superimposable; the hypothesis supported by the international literature in which the causes relating to potty and pain were found among the main reasons. Where and on whom will the research have an impact? These results could impact the care organizational area in nursing care and could improve care quality, patient satisfaction and safety.

REPORTING METHOD

This prospective observational study was conducted following STROBE guidelines.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

After adequate information (presentation, design methods and objectives), all unit healthcare staff agreed to collaborate in the study.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Conspiracy Hypotheses and Risk Perception in Italy: Infodemiological Survey Study Using Google Trends

Background

COVID-19 has caused the worst international crisis since World War II. Italy was one of the countries most affected by both the pandemic and the related infodemic. The success of anti–COVID-19 strategies and future public health policies in Italy cannot separate itself from the containment of fake news and the divulgation of correct information.

Objective

The aim of this paper was to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on web interest in conspiracy hypotheses and risk perception of Italian web users.

Methods

Google Trends was used to monitor users’ web interest in specific topics, such as conspiracy hypotheses, vaccine side effects, and pollution and climate change. The keywords adopted to represent these topics were mined from Bufale.net—an Italian website specializing in detecting online hoaxes—and Google Trends suggestions (ie, related topics and related queries). Relative search volumes (RSVs) of the time-lapse periods of 2016-2020 (pre–COVID-19) and 2020-2021 (post–COVID-19) were compared through percentage difference (∆_%) and the Welch t test (t). When data series were not stationary, other ad hoc criteria were used. The trend slopes were assessed through Sen slope (SS). The significance thresholds have been indicatively set at P=.05 and t=1.9.

Results

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically increased Italian netizens’ interest in conspiracies (∆_% ∈ [60, 288], t ∈ [6, 12]). Web interest in conspiracy-related queries across Italian regions increased and became more homogeneous compared to the pre–COVID-19 period (average RSV=80±2.8, t_min=1.8, ∆_min%=+12.4, min∆_SD%=–25.8). In addition, a growing trend in web interest in the infodemic YouTube channel ByoBlu has been highlighted. Web interest in hoaxes has increased more than interest in antihoax services (t₁=11.3 vs t₂=4.5; Δ_1%=+157.6 vs Δ_2%=+84.7). Equivalently, web interest in vaccine side effects exceeded interest in pollution and climate change (SS_vaccines=0.22, P<.001 vs SS_pollution=0.05, P<.001; ∆_%=+296.4). To date, a significant amount of fake news related to COVID-19 vaccines, unproven remedies, and origin has continued to circulate. In particular, the creation of SARS-CoV-2 in a Chinese laboratory constituted about 0.04% of the entire web interest in the pandemic.

Conclusions

COVID-19 has given a significant boost to web interest in conspiracy hypotheses and has made it more uniform across regions in Italy. The pandemic accelerated an already-growing trend in users’ interest toward some fake news sources, including the 500,000-subscriber YouTube channel ByoBlu, which was removed from the platform by YouTube for disinformation in March 2021. The risk perception related to COVID-19 vaccines has been so distorted that vaccine side effect–related queries outweighed those relating to pollution and climate change, which are much more urgent issues. Moreover, a large amount of fake news has circulated about COVID-19 vaccines, remedies, and origin. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the Italian authorities implement more effective infoveillance systems, and that communication by the mass media be less sensationalistic and more consistent with the available scientific evidence. In this context, Google Trends can be used to monitor users’ response to specific infodemiological countermeasures. Further research is needed to understand the psychological mechanisms that regulate risk perception.

Google Trends on Obesity, Smoking and Alcoholism: Global and Country-Specific Interest

Unhealthy habits or lifestyles, such as obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption, are involved in the development of non-communicable diseases. The aim of this study was to analyze different communities' interest in seeking obesity, smoking, and alcohol-related terms through relative search volumes (RSVs) of Google Trends (GT). Internet search query data on obesity, smoking, and alcohol-related terms were obtained from GT from the period between 2010 and 2020. Comparisons and correlations between different topics were calculated considering both global searches and English-, Spanish-, and Italian-speaking areas. Globally, the RSVs for obesity and alcohol-related terms were similar (mean RSVs: 76% and 77%), but they were lower for smoking (65%). High RSVs were found in winter for obesity and smoking-related terms. Worldwide, a negative correlation was found between alcohol and smoking terms (r = -0.72, p < 0.01). In Italy, the correlation was positive (r = 0.58). The correlation between obesity and alcohol was positive in all the cases considered. The interest of global citizens in obesity, smoking, and alcohol was high. The RSVs for obesity were globally higher and correlated with alcohol. Alcohol and smoking terms were related depending on the area considered.

Safety Assessment of the Pharmacotherapy Process at the Nurse and Midwife Level - An Observational Study

Purpose

Pharmacological errors are among the most common in the healthcare system. This study aimed to determine the level of safety of the pharmacotherapy process at the stage performed by nurses and midwives by indicating the key risk factors affecting patients’ safety.

Methods

A group of 1276 nurses and 136 midwives in Poland participated in the study. The survey was conducted in the period from May 2019 to August 2019. The original Nursing Risk in Pharmacotherapy (NURIPH) tool was used.

Results

The Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.832. The low legibility of the medical orders (item 1) was indicated as the highest risk. A mean of 4.50 means that this factor’s significance is assessed between “very significant” and “significant.” The communication between physician, nurse and midwife, time pressure, and work organization were also rated high (Items 2, 3, and 4). The averages for these factors are higher than 4, so their evaluation is more than “significant.”.

Conclusion

Nurses and midwives involved in the pharmacotherapy process are exposed to many ergonomic factors triggering risk. A huge problem is the lack of readability of medical orders, which may be a factor triggering a medical error.

The application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to prevent medication errors: a scoping review

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK

A safer drug therapy is a relevant aspect of nursing care and an essential component of the clinical governance function. Nurses are key players in the identification and prevention of medication errors that could occur in the drug management process. In the literature there is a particular interest to environmental and organizational factors, while, as we know, the subjective components are little considered. In psychology, the theory that prefers individual factor, at the expense of the environmental one, is Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), although it has been  little applied in the health field. The aim is to search the existing literature on the medication errors and the TPB to predict the intentions that foreshadow risk behaviours of nursing interns.

METHODS

This scoping review is grounded by Arksey and O'Malley's framework.

RESULTS

Attitude is the most determining predictor of intention. For many students reporting an error would lead to a loss of trust in the nursing profession and this could prevent the report. Nevertheless, some of them affirmed to be positively judged when they did it. It was then observed that a better education on safety raised the level of self-confidence and the sense of responsibility of the students, making them more inclined to the drug therapy management.

CONCLUSIONS

The Theory of planned behaviour  is essential to forerun the behavioural intention of students on the pharmacological safety and the collaborative practice through predictive factors, as attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.