Registered Nurses´ Association of Ontario
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Definition of Terms
- Clinical Practice Guidelines or Best Practice Guidelines
- Consensus
- Education Recommendations
- Family
- Interdisciplinary
- Meta-analysis
- Organization and Policy Recommendations
- Practice Recommendations
- Pressure (Interface Pressure)
- Pressure Redistribution:
- Pressure Ulcers
- Randomized Controlled Trials
- Stakeholder
- Standard Mattresses
- Systematic Review
- Clinical Practice Guidelines or Best Practice Guidelines
- are systematically developed statements (based on best available evidence) to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical (practice) circumstances (Field and Lohr, 1990).
[back to top] - Consensus
- is a process for making policy decisions, not a scientific method for creating new knowledge. At its best, consensus development merely makes the best use of available information, be that scientific data or the collective wisdom of the participants (Black et al., 1999).
[back to top] - Education Recommendations
- are statements of educational requirements and educational approaches/strategies for the introduction, implementation and sustainability of the best practice guideline.
[back to top] - Family
- is whomever the person defines as being family. Family members can include: parents, children, siblings, neighbours, and significant people in the community.
[back to top] - Interdisciplinary
- is a process where health care professionals representing expertise from various health care disciplines participate in the support of clients and their families in health care delivery.
[back to top] - Meta-analysis
- is the use of statistical methods to summarize the results of independent studies, therefore providing more precise estimates of the effects of health care than those derived from the individual studies included in a review (Alderson, Green & Higgins, 2004).
[back to top] - Organization and Policy Recommendations
- are statements of conditions required for a practice setting that enables the successful implementation of the best practice guideline. The conditions for success are largely the responsibility of the organization, although they may have implications for policy at a broader government or societal level.
[back to top] - Practice Recommendations
- are statements of best practice directed at the practice of health care professionals that are ideally evidence-based.
[back to top] - Pressure (Interface Pressure)
- is the force per unit area that acts perpendicularly between the body and the support surface. It is affected by the stiffness and thickness of the support surface, the composition of the body tissue, and the geometry of the body being supported (AHCPR, 1994).
[back to top] - Pressure Redistribution:
- Pressure Reducing Surfaces are surfaces that lower the interface pressure as compared to a standard hospital mattress or chair surface, but do not consistently reduce pressure to less than capillary closing pressure (Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society, 1987).
- Pressure Relieving Surfaces are surfaces that consistently lower interface pressure below capillary closing pressure (WOCN, 1987). Capillary closing pressure is the amount of pressure required to close capillaries, impairing blood flow to tissue and resulting in tissue anoxia and eventual cell death. It is often measured to be between 28-32 mmHg in healthy individuals. The amount of pressure required decreases to 12 or lower in compromised individuals.
[back to top] - Pressure Ulcers
- are any lesions caused by unrelieved pressure that results in damage to underlying tissue. Pressure ulcers usually occur over a bony prominence and are staged to classify the degree of tissue damage observed.
[back to top] - Randomized Controlled Trials
- are clinical trials that involve at least one test treatment and one control treatment, concurrent enrollment and follow-up of the test- and control-treated groups, and in which the treatments to be administered are selected by a random process.
[back to top] - Stakeholder
- is an individual, group, or organization with a vested interest in the decisions and actions of organizations who may attempt to influence decisions and actions (Baker et al., 1999). Stakeholders include all individuals or groups who will be directly or indirectly affected by the change or solution to the problem.
[back to top] - Standard Mattresses
- are ones that do not provide reduced interface pressure, therefore they are not considered preventative of tissue breakdown. Fleck (2001) describes the properties of mattress replacements in lieu of standard mattresses.
[back to top] - Systematic Review
- is an application of a rigorous scientific approach to the preparation of a review article (National Health and Medical Research Centre, 1998). Systematic reviews establish where the effects of health care are consistent and research results can be applied across populations, settings, and differences in treatment (e.g., dose); and where effects may vary significantly. The use of explicit, systematic methods in reviews limits bias (systematic errors) and reduces chance effects, thus providing more reliable results upon which to draw conclusions and make decisions (Alderson, Green & Higgins, 2004).
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