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1. Nanoparticles in Joint Arthroplasties

   https://doi.org/10.1142/S1793984423300017  

   Thomson, Rebecca J.; Limberg, Afton K.; Van Citters, Douglas W. (March 2023, Nano LIFE)

   Joint arthroplasty, specifically total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA), are two of the highest value surgical procedures. Over the last several decades, the materials utilized in these surgeries have improved and increased device longevity. However, with an increased incidence of TKA and THA surgeries in younger patients, it is crucial to make these materials more durable. The addition of nanoparticles is one technology that is being explored for this purpose. This review focuses on the addition of nanoparticles to the various parts of arthroplasty surgery comprising of the metallic, ceramic, or polyethylene components along with the bone cement used for fixation. Carbon additives proved to be the most widely studied, and could potentially reduce stress shielding, improve wear, and enhance the biocompatibility of arthroplasty implants. 

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2. Identifying factors that nurses consider in the decision-making process related to patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254077  

   Anton, Nicholas; Hornbeck, Tera; Modlin, Susan; Haque, Md Munirul; Crites, Megan; Yu, Denny (July 2021, PLOS ONE)

   Fernández-Alcántara, Manuel (Ed.)

   Background Nurse identification of patient deterioration is critical, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as patients can deteriorate quickly. While the literature has shown that nurses rely on intuition to make decisions, there is limited information on what sources of data experienced nurses utilize to inform their intuition. The objectives of this study were to identify sources of data that inform nurse decision-making related to recognition of deteriorating patients, and explore how COVID-19 has impacted nurse decision-making. Methods In this qualitative study, experienced nurses voluntarily participated in focused interviews. During focused interviews, expert nurses were asked to share descriptions of memorable patient encounters, and questions were posed to facilitate reflections on thoughts and actions that hindered or helped their decision-making. They were also asked to consider the impact of COVID-19 on nursing and decision-making. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, study team members reviewed transcripts and coded responses, and organized key findings into themes. Results Several themes related to decision-making were identified by the research team, including: identifying patient care needs, workload management, and reflecting on missed care opportunities to inform learning. Participants (n = 10) also indicated that COVID-19 presented a number of unique barriers to nurse decision-making. Conclusions Findings from this study indicate that experienced nurses utilize several sources of information to inform their intuition. It is apparent that the demands on nurses in response to pandemics are heightened. Decision-making themes drawn from participants’ experiences can to assist nurse educators for training nursing students on decision-making for deteriorating patients and how to manage the potential barriers (e.g., resource constraints, lack of family) associated with caring for patients during these challenging times prior to encountering these issues in the clinical environment. Nurse practice can utilize these findings to increase awareness among experienced nurses on recognizing how pandemic situations can impact to their decision-making capability. 

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3. How are patient-related characteristics associated with shared decision-making about treatment? A scoping review of quantitative studies

   https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057293  

   Keij, Sascha M; de Boer, Joyce E; Stiggelbout, Anne M; Bruine de Bruin, Wändi; Peters, Ellen; Moaddine, Saïda; Kunneman, Marleen; Pieterse, Arwen H (May 2022, BMJ Open)

   ObjectivesTo identify what patient-related characteristics have been reported to be associated with the occurrence of shared decision-making (SDM) about treatment. DesignScoping review. Eligibility criteriaPeer-reviewed articles in English or Dutch reporting on associations between patient-related characteristics and the occurrence of SDM for actual treatment decisions. Information sourcesCOCHRANE Library, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, PubMed and Web of Science were systematically searched for articles published until 25 March 2019. ResultsThe search yielded 5289 hits of which 53 were retained. Multiple categories of patient characteristics were identified: (1) sociodemographic characteristics (eg, gender), (2) general health and clinical characteristics (eg, symptom severity), (3) psychological characteristics and coping with illness (eg, self-efficacy) and (4) SDM style or preference. Many characteristics showed no association or unclear relationships with SDM occurrence. For example, for female gender positive, negative and, most frequently, non-significant associations were seen. ConclusionsA large variety of patient-related characteristics have been studied, but for many the association with SDM occurrence remains unclear. The results will caution often-made assumptions about associations and provide an important step to target effective interventions to foster SDM with all patients. 

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4. It Depends on the Timing: The Ripple Effect of AI on Team Decision-Making

   Yan, Bei; Gurkan, Necdet (January 2023, Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences)

   Whereas artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used to facilitate team decision-making, little is known about how the timing of AI assistance may impact team performance. The study investigates this question with an online experiment in which teams completed a new product development task with assistance from a chatbot. Information needed for making the decision was distributed among the team members. The chatbot shared information critical to the decision in either the first half or second half of team interaction. The results suggest that teams assisted by the chatbot in the first half of the decision-making task made better decisions than those assisted by the chatbot in the second half. Analysis of team member perceptions and interaction processes suggests that having a chatbot at the beginning of team interaction may have generated a ripple effect in the team that promoted information sharing among team members. 

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5. First-year students’ agency related to engineering requirements

   Olewnik, A.; Svihla, V.; Wild, W. (January 2022, Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exhibition)

   A key challenge in engineering design problem framing is defining requirements and metrics. This is difficult, in part, because engineers must make decisions about how to treat qualitative and subjective issues, like stakeholder preferences, about how to prioritize different requirements, and about how to maintain tentativeness and ill-structuredness in the solution space. And this is made more challenging in light of the function of requirements in other types of engineering problems, like feasibility analysis, in which the requirements should converge on a decision. Given these challenges, it is unsurprising that there is limited research on how first-year students approach such work, how they make sense of requirements, and how their conceptualizations of requirements change with instruction. Our purpose in this study is to investigate students’ initial understanding and use of engineering requirements in a specific problem solving context. We developed a survey to measure students’ perceptions related to engineering requirements based on constructs derived from the literature on engineering requirements. We implemented the survey in a first-year and in senior courses for the purpose of validating items using factor analysis. Following this, we conducted analysis of survey and interview data restricted to the first-year course, including epistemic beliefs and analysis of students’ agency. Through exploratory factor analysis, we found that factors did not converge around constructs as described in the literature. Rather, factors formed around the forms of information leveraged to develop requirements. Through qualitative analysis of students’ responses on the survey and to interviews, we evaluated the extent to which students expressed agency over their use of requirements to make decisions within a course project. We describe implications of this exploratory study in terms of adapting research instruments to better understand this topic. Further, we consider pedagogical implications for first year programs and beyond in supporting students to develop ownership over decision making related to engineering requirements. 

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