Experimental design applications and methodology

¶ … population sample will be a convenience one -- at least 500 individuals between ages 18 to 50 - acquired from 5 different sites in Connecticut

Inclusion symptoms will be people who experienced a minor emergency and that the respondent be cognitively able to participate, speak English, and have telephone access. Participants will be matched as to age, condition of emergency, intelligence, and gender, and effort will made to gain a diverse ethic sample.

The intervention: random sampling will be conducted on survivors of an emergency incident in an emergency unit in Connecticut. 500 individuals will be targeted. 250 will be in the experimental group and 250 will be in the control group. All will be closely matched in terms of demographics and similarity of condition necessitating their hospitalization. The nurses who will be involved in the experiment will receive a one-hour course of special training on how to provide patient-centered nursing. The participants in the experimental group will receive patient-centered nursing where attention will be dedicated to their needs in that, for instance, nurse response will be instant, nurses emphasize their interest in patient via inquiries, and rooms are arranged so as to be most solicitous and comfortable to patients. Conditions in the control group will remain unchanged. Trained nurse assistants (RA) will telephone the people form both groups 4 to 6 months after they have been released from the center. This will give them time to recuperate as well as to give participants time to reflect on their experience in the emergency wards. RAs will conduct a 60-minute telephone survey, using the well-being instrument.

The intent will be to assess whether those in the experimental group who received preferred treatment indicate greater well being and enhanced mental results, as well as improved physical outcome in comparison to those in the control group.

If a significant comparison is seen with those in the experimental group indicating far better physical and emotional results, conclusion may point to enhanced emergency response as providing improved outcome.

Problems with this is that although correlation may be found between hospital conditions and outcome, correlation does not indicate causality and the improved outcome may be traceable to various other factors such as socio-economic background, circumstances happening to patients, existence of support group, and so forth. Nonetheless, a significant outcome of 0.05 -- which indicates that the chance of this happening is only 5 times in a 100 may tell us that improved emergency conditions and preparedness is not only cost-effective in that it reduces patent's stay in the hospital and quickens his recovery thereby freeing more hospital beds and shortening hospital stay (as well as reducing other costs), but is also more advantageous for patients and caregivers and is positive all around.

The survey used in this study will be the MOS- short form 36 item Health Survey (SF-36) (Ware & Sherbourne, 1992). The participant answers questions about health conditions, chronic conditions, pain and conditions impeding normal work. The respondent also reports height in feet and inches, weight in pounds and frequency of physical activity.