Comparison of hepatitis C treatment outcomes between primary care and specialty care.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections have increased significantly in the United States recently, having tripled by 2014. Seventy-five percent of those with HCV are aging baby boomers, which places increased pressure on the medical system to provide treatment. There are not enough specialists available to treat everyone infected with HCV.

Developing a screening tool to identify harmful sibling aggression in a primary care setting.

Background: Despite the possibility of adversely affecting the mental health of children, sibling aggression, the most common form of family violence, is often dismissed as normal or less harmful than other types of violence. Currently, there is no easily administered screening method for sibling aggression.

Purpose: The goal of this project was to develop and test a brief sibling aggression screening tool for use in pediatric primary care.

The DNP Degree: Are We Producing the Graduates We Intended?

Objective: This study addressed how recently graduated doctor of nursing practice (DNP) nurses describe their current practice, how their supervisors describe the DNP's current practice, and whether nurse and supervisor descriptions of the practices reflect the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) DNP Essentials and, if so, how?

Background: Introduced in 2004, the goal of DNP programs was to educate advanced practice RNs for effective leadership in complex healthcare environments. The value of the DNP degree for nurses in healthcare systems is evolving.

Methods: We used conventional content analysis to inductively describe how DNP graduates from 7 different schools and their supervisors described the practice of the recently graduated DNPs.

Re-Examining Genetic Screening and Oral Contraceptives: A Patient-Centered Review.

The World Health Organization classifies combined hormonal contraception as an unacceptable health risk in the presence of a known thrombogenic mutation but advises against routine thrombophilia screening before initiating combined oral contraceptives (COCs) on the grounds of high screening costs and low prevalence. From the perspective of patient-centered care, we examine cost, prevalence, and other published arguments for and against thrombophilia screening before initiating COCs. Our patient-centered review draws on relevant empirical evidence concerning the advantages and disadvantages of thrombophilia screening, while placing the discussion in the broader context of evolving attitudes toward genetic testing and a shifting policy landscape that provides many women direct access to COCs and/or thrombophilia screening.

Using the Vulnerability Index® to Assess the Health Needs of a Homeless Community.

Compiling a health needs profile of a difficult-to-reach population such as the homeless can be challenging, particularly when using a community-based participatory research approach. In this article, we describe our experience using the Vulnerability Index® (VI), a questionnaire developed by 100,000 Homes Campaign to assess and prioritize individuals in need of housing based on their risk of mortality. We found the VI easy to administer and helpful in creating a health needs profile of participants.

Economic Evaluations of Thrombophilia Screening Prior to Prescribing Combined Oral Contraceptives: A Systematic and Critical Review.

Background: Combined oral contraceptives (COCs) increase the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), particularly among women with inherited clotting disorders. The World Health Organization classifies combined hormonal contraception as an "unacceptable health risk" for women with thrombogenic mutations but advises against universal thrombophilia screening before prescribing COCs given the low prevalence of thrombophilia and high screening costs.

Objective: Through the lens of lifetime costs and benefits, this paper systematically and critically reviews all published economic evaluations of thrombophilia screening prior to prescribing COCs.

Somali Families' Experiences of Parenting in the United States.

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of first-generation Somali families' experiences of parenting in the United States to discover potential barriers to effective parenting with the goal to design supportive interventions. Using descriptive phenomenological design, 20 Somali families in Seattle, Washington, were interviewed. Interview transcripts were then analyzed using steps outlined by Colaizzi.

Sibling Violence and Children Hospitalized for Serious Mental and Behavioral Health Problems.

Violence between siblings is prevalent, can have long-lasting negative effects, and yet it is often dismissed as normal. This study explores sibling violence (SV) documented in medical records of children hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. Retrospective chart review was conducted of all medical records of children ages 5 years to 12 years, living with a sibling in the home, admitted during the 2007 calendar year to a northwestern psychiatric hospital that serves a five state area ( N = 135).

Perceived discrimination and children's mental health symptoms.

Perceived discrimination has been shown to be strongly associated with mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, chronic stress, post traumatic stress disorder, and low self-esteem. This study (N = 88) examined the effects of perceived discrimination and its association with child mental health symptoms. African American children had a significantly stronger association between social stress and a sense of exclusion/rejection than Multiracial or European American children.

From coach to colleague: adjusting pedagogical approaches and attitudes in accelerated nursing programs.

Accelerated nursing programs are an innovative approach to training nurses and advanced practice nurses that are growing steadily in number and popularity. Although there is ample evidence to show that these programs have good outcomes, acceptance by both faculty and nurses in the community remains low. This article gives a description of the accelerated nursing student, which provides some insight as to why this student is both a challenge and a joy to mentor.

Like parent, like child: parent and child emotion dysregulation.

Purpose: This study examined the association between children's emotion regulatory processes and parents' emotional problems.

Design: A 5-year longitudinal study of families from Northwestern United States with data collected over 3 time points. Families were recruited in an effort to oversample for multiracial and African American families because these families have historically not been well represented in research studies.

The role of culture in parents' socialization of children's emotional development.

Parents' emotion coaching of children and modeling of effective emotional responses are associated with children's positive emotional development. However, much of the research in this area has been with European American families. This study examined parents' self-reports about their emotion regulation patterns and coaching their children about emotions, across three racial and ethnic groups (African American, European American, and Multiracial), to determine how well these parental behaviors predicted their children's self-reports of depressive and anxiety symptoms 18 to 24 months later (N = 99).

Emotion regulation related to children's future externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

Problem: Emotion regulation in children is a construct with important theoretical and clinical implications for healthcare providers, yet currently there is not a reliable and valid instrument that can be easily administered to young children.

Methods: The study was based on interviews with 126 children ages 5.5-12 years from a longitudinal study conducted over 4 years.

Clinical performance expectations: using the "you-attitude" communication approach.

Clinical rotations can be very stressful for nursing students, particularly novice students. Clinical course objectives are normally written from the viewpoint of the faculty, using a specialized professional language that is unfamiliar to the new nursing student. The author discusses use of a communication approach, the You-Attitude, that considers and reflects the viewpoint of the reader and may be able to reduce student anxiety and help them better achieve course objectives.

Understanding the gender differences in pathways to social deviancy: relational aggression and emotion regulation.

This study explored the associations among childhood emotion regulation, overt aggression, relational aggression, and adolescent deviant social behaviors. Data were drawn from the Family Health Project, a longitudinal study conducted over 4 years. The sample consisted of 111 children at Time 1 who ranged in age from 51/2 to 12 years at Time 1 and 8 to 14 years at Time 3.

Relational aggression, gender, and the developmental process.

Topic: Defining and exploring the concept of relational aggression, or the purposeful intent to inflict harm on another through a social relationship.

Purpose: This study aims to describe the concept of relational aggression as it has been shaped through recent research, to contrast relational aggression with other types of aggression, and to explore the influence of gender and the formation of a self-concept in the development of relational aggression.

Sources: A review of the literature from 1969 to 2005 from selected nursing, child development, women's studies, and psychology publications.

Single-room infant care: future trends in special care nursery planning and design.

For the past several years, health care providers specializing in the treatment of neonates have been working steadily to improve the environment for premature and sick neonates in order to optimize outcomes. They have also begun to recognize that involving the family in every aspect of care not only has positive value for the family, but can improve outcomes for neonates as well. This article examines how the staff at one hospital closely utilized and married these two concepts, developmentally supportive care and family-centered care, to design a Level II special care nursery that embraces parents as partners in treatment.