Utility, Caller, and Patient Profile of a Novel Chemotherapy Telephone Helpline Service Within a Regional Cancer Centre in Northern Ireland

Background: The telephone is an accepted and useful means of communication for the management of patient care. The Chemotherapy Telephone Helpline (CTH) service, located in a large inner-city Trust within the United Kingdom, is a unique nurse-led service within Northern Ireland.

Objective: The objective of the study was to investigate the utility, caller, and patient profile of a novel CTH.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of telephone contacts during 2007 to the CTH. Calls were categorized by caller and patient characteristics, reason for call, and subsequent action.

Results: A total of 7498 calls were made to the CTH during 2007. Of these, 25.6% occurred outside 8AM-4PM. Callers included patients (45.8%), lay carers (31%), and health care professionals (20.5%); 35.2% of calls concerned patients with polysymptomatic problems; 36.8% of calls led directly to patients being medically assessed.

Conclusions: The utility of the CTH service confirms the need of this nurse-led service. This service facilitates access to specialist advice and support for patients, their families, and allied health care professionals.

Implications for Practice: The international significance of these findings for practice includes its demonstration of the multifaceted symptom experience of patients receiving chemotherapy and highlights the importance of rapid access to specialist cancer services for patients and their lay and professional carers. In addition, it demonstrates the capacity of helplines to identify gaps in professional skills and training.

Patient anxiety and IV sedation in Northern Ireland

Background In recent years there has been an increase in the provision of conscious sedation, which is said to be a safe and effective means of managing the anxious patient. However, there are no guidelines to aid the dental practitioner in assessing the patient's need for sedation based on their level of anxiety.

Aims and methods The present study investigated the importance of patient anxiety as an indicator for IV sedation, using focus groups to inform the development of narrative vignettes. Ninety-nine practitioners responded to a series of scenarios to determine whether the level of patient anxiety and the patient's demand for IV sedation influenced their decision making.

Results Level of dental anxiety had a stronger influence on the clinician's decision making than patient demand, with increasing levels of dental anxiety being positively associated with the likelihood of clinicians indicating a need for IV patient sedation and also, the likelihood of clinicians providing IV sedation to these patients. Only 14% (n = 14) of respondents reported formally assessing dental anxiety.

Conclusions While dental anxiety is considered to be a key factor in determining the need for IV sedation, there is a lack of guidance regarding the assessment of anxiety among patients.

A virtual surgery in general practice: evaluation of a novel undergraduate virtual patient learning package

Background: A suite of 10 online virtual patients developed using the IVIMEDS ‘Riverside’ authoring tool has been introduced into our undergraduate general practice clerkship. These cases provide a multimedia-rich experience to students. Their interactive nature promotes the development of clinical reasoning skills such as discriminating key clinical features, integrating information from a variety of sources and forming diagnoses and management plans.

Aims: To evaluate the usefulness and usability of a set of online virtual patients in an undergraduate general practice clerkship.
Method: Online questionnaire completed by students after their general practice placement incorporating the System Usability Scale questionnaire.

Results: There was a 57% response rate. Ninety-five per cent of students agreed that the online package was a useful learning tool and ranked virtual patients third out of six learning modalities. Questions and answers and the use of images and videos were all rated highly by students as useful learning methods. The package was perceived to have a high level of usability among respondents.

Conclusion: Feedback from students suggest that this implementation of virtual patients, set in primary care, is user friendly and rated as a valuable adjunct to their learning. The cost of production of such learning resources demands close attention to design.

Low-power radio telemetry: the potential for remote patient monitoring

Radio-based signalling devices will play an important role in future generations of remote patient monitoring equipment, both at home and in hospital. Ultimately, it will be possible to sample vital signs frompatients, whatever their location and without them necessarily being aware that a measurement is being taken. This paper reviews currentmethods for the transmission by radio of physiological parameters over ranges of 0.3, 3 and 30 m, and describes the radiofrequency hardware required and the carrier frequencies commonly used. Future developments, including full duplex systems and the use of more advanced modulation schemes, are described. The paper concludeswith a case studyof a humantemperature telemeter built to indicateovulation. Clinical results clearly show the advantage to be had in adopting radio biotelemetry in this instance.