Teachers' and Principals' Familiarity with School Wellness Policy: A Health Promoting Schools Assessment.

The current study explored teacher and principal familiarity with school wellness polices in primary schools, including who serves on school wellness committees, and who should implement and enforce wellness policies in the school. An electronic survey guided by the Health Promoting Schools framework was administered from February to May 2020 to teachers and principals from one urban and one suburban school district in the Midwestern United States. There were 450 participants; response rates were 28% (urban), 33% (suburban), and 51% (school principals).

Changes in HIV knowledge and interest among nursing and public health students at a large Midwest University: Outcomes of implementing the National HIV Curriculum.

Background: Ending the HIV epidemic requires additional healthcare and public health workers who are competent in HIV prevention and treatment. The National HIV Curriculum was developed to increase competency in HIV among healthcare workers in the US.

Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of implementing the National HIV Curriculum (NHC) for nursing and public health students.

Familiarity and Use of MyPlate: An Online Focus Group Exploration Among Midwestern K-12 Teachers.

Objective: To examine teachers' familiarity and use of MyPlate, including barriers to using it.

Methods: Twenty kindergarten through grade 12 teachers were recruited from 1 urban and suburban school district in the Midwest to participate in virtual focus groups regarding familiarity, use, and barriers to MyPlate. A basic descriptive qualitative approach with thematic analysis was guided by systems thinking.

Nursing Work Environment Staffing Councils: An Alternative to Mandatory Regulated Staffing Ratios.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the self-reported perceptions of the healthy work environment (HWE) of nurses who are members of Nursing Workplace Environment and Staffing Councils (NWESCs).

Background: In a statewide initiative, NWESCs were established at hospitals throughout the state of New Jersey as an alternative to nurse staffing ratio laws and to provide clinical nurses a voice in determining resources needed for patient care and support an HWE.

Methods: This quantitative descriptive study presents the results of the Healthy Workplace Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) and open-ended questions about NWESCs among a sample of 352 nurses.

Challenges of Preparing Nursing Students for Practice: The Faculty Perspective.

Background: A significant challenge facing nursing is new graduate RNs' unreadiness for practice. To better understand the issue, this study presents the challenges nursing faculty encounter in preparing nursing students for clinical practice through semi-structured interviews.

Method: Eight faculty from a private midwestern university's prelicensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program participated in the study.

The courage to speak out: A study describing nurses' attitudes to report unsafe practices in patient care.

Aim: To identify workplace factors that influence patient advocacy among registered nurses (RNs) and their willingness to report unsafe practices.

Background: A prior study by Black illustrated that 34% of respondents were aware of conditions that may have caused patient harm but had not reported the issue. The most common reasons identified for failing to report issues were fear of retaliation and a belief that nothing would prevail from the reports.

Parental Self-Efficacy: A Concept Analysis Related to Teen Parenting and Implications for School Nurses.

Levels of parental self-efficacy are correlated with both positive and negative care delivery and developmental outcomes for parents and their infants. School nurses are in a unique position to facilitate parenting self-efficacy in teen parents. Using the concept analysis framework of Walker and Avant, parental self-efficacy is analyzed and elucidated to distinguish the concept's defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents.

A Phenomenological Study of Nurse Manager Interventions Related to Workplace Bullying.

Objective: The aim of this study was to acquire nurse managers' perspectives as to the scope of workplace bullying, which interventions were deemed as effective and ineffective, and what environmental characteristics cultivated a healthy, caring work environment.

Background: Research has linked workplace bullying among RNs to medical errors, unsafe hospital environments, and negative patient outcomes. Limited research had been conducted with nurse managers to discern their perspectives.

Evaluating undergraduate nursing students' self-efficacy and competence in writing: Effects of a writing intensive intervention.

While professional nurses are expected to communicate clearly, these skills are often not explicitly taught in undergraduate nursing education. In this research study, writing self-efficacy and writing competency were evaluated in 52 nontraditional undergraduate baccalaureate completion students in two distance-mediated 16-week capstone courses. The intervention group (n = 44) experienced various genres and modalities of written assignments set in the context of evidence-based nursing practice; the comparison group (n = 8) received usual writing undergraduate curriculum instruction.