Examining factors associated withpre-admission to discharge of stroke patients&Assessing the reliability and validity a scale measuring critical thinking disposition for medical care professionals

part 1Background: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and a major cause of adult disability in Taiwan. This research established correlations between pre-admission and discharge data in stroke patients to promote education of the general public, prevention, treatment and high standards of chronic care. Methods: A total of 790 stroke patients at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital from 2007 to 2009 contained in the Taiwan Stroke Registry were included in this study. The patients were classified into two major categories: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Thirteen variables, including time series variables: (1) Gender (2) Age (3) Education (4) Mode of arrival (5) Time from symptom onset to ED arrival (6) Time from ED arrival to ED physician assessment (7) Time from ED arrival to neurologist assessment (8) Thrombolytic therapy (9) Discharge status from ED (10) Reason for leaving ED (11) Reason for transfer to another facility (12) In-hospital main caregiver (13) Length of stay, were explored. Results: Our results showed that age, education, hours from symptom onset to the emergency department (ED) arrival, and length of stay in hospital were significantly associated with stroke incidence.Conclusions: These findings show the present situation and medical quality of medical care for stroke patients in Taiwan. The factors association model may assist in developing a set of improvement plans for the coming year. part 2Background: This paper described the validation of a critical thinking disposition assessment (CTDA) to assess medical care professionals’ or students’ level of critical thinking disposition and to assess the psychometric properties of this instrument. Methods: To undertake and determine the reliability and validity of the CTDA. Assessments of psychometric equivalencies and similarities in reliability and validity across the CTDA and CTDS were conducted. Using Pearson product-moment correlations to determine the concurrent validity between the scores of the CTDA and CTDS. Statistics were calculated using the SPSS (version 14.0), set at a significance level of 0.05.Conclusions: In light of these findings, CTDA was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure critical thinking disposition for medical care professionals and students.