Pressure Mapping Comparison of Four OR Surfaces.

Mortality and health care costs associated with hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) increase yearly. After four hours of surgery, the risk of developing a pressure ulcer increases by 33% for every 30 minutes of surgery. Prolonged immobility, lower blood pressures, and increased surface interface pressure may hinder the blood supply delivered to the skin, eventually leading to pressure ulcers.

Nurse perspectives regarding the meaningfulness of oncology nursing practice.

Background: Recruiting, retaining, and training oncology nurses is challenging given the stress levels associated with a field with constantly evolving treatments and a need for expertise in death and dying.

Objectives: This research was conducted to assess what is unique about oncology nursing, to identify what motivates oncology nurses to continue working in the specialty, and to determine what sustains them in daily practice.

Methods: A phenomenologic approach was used to analyze data.

Educational needs of inpatient oncology nurses in providing psychosocial care.

Patients with cancer have multiple psychosocial needs during inpatient admissions. However, nurses often are not sure how to best approach those psychosocial needs. Therefore, the purpose of this survey was to determine the educational needs of inpatient oncology nurses in terms of providing psychosocial care to patients and to determine the barriers that inpatient nurses experience when providing psychosocial care.

The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions with cancer patients: an integrative review of the literature (2006-2011).

Unlabelled: Background. Previous integrative literature reviews and meta-analyses have yielded conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for cancer patients. Methods.

Effect of student nurse intern position on ease of transition from student nurse to registered nurse.

This quantitative study investigated the effect of the student nurse intern position on the ease of transition from student nurse to registered nurse. Results indicated that interns believed the program increased their confidence in performing nursing tasks and in interacting with patients and families and also created opportunities for career advancement. The study results demonstrate that internship programs for nurses can significantly contribute to the success of new graduate nurses and consequently the quality of staff development.

Using the Mehran risk scoring tool to predict risk for contrast medium-induced nephropathy in patients undergoing percutaneous angiography.

Background: Patients who have radiological imaging with contrast material are at risk for contrast medium-induced nephropathy, reduced renal function, longer hospitalizations, and renal failure requiring dialysis.

Objective: To determine whether the Mehran risk scoring tool can be used to predict changes in hospitalized patients who had percutaneous angiography.

Methods: Data on 196 patients admitted for cardiac angiography who had Mehran risk scores higher than 6 were analyzed retrospectively.

Registered nurses' views about work and retirement.

Study Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify what motivates experienced nurses to continue working and to consider retirement.

Method: A total of 16 intensive care nurses completed phenomenological interviews. The experienced nurses were split into two groups: 31 to 49 years old (younger nurses) and 50 to 65 years old (older nurses).

Women's voices: attitudes and behaviors of female Ghanaian sex workers regarding HIV prevention and AIDS-related stigma.

Attitudes and behaviors of sex workers have a pivotal influence on the spread of AIDS. A qualitative descriptive study was undertaken to elicit Ghanaian female sex workers' perspectives regarding effective methods of HIV prevention, sources of AIDS-related stigma, and challenges associated with sex work. Women described that: (1) sex work is hard; (2) they felt God would protect their health; (3) staying safe is both a gift and a priority; (4) sex work allows for autonomy; and (5) AIDS-related stigma is very real.

Assigning poetry reading as a way of introducing students to qualitative data analysis.

Aim: The aim of the paper is to explain how poetry reading can be used to teach interpretive analysis of qualitative data.

Background: A number of studies were located in the nursing literature that focused on using poetry to help students develop empathy for patients, to teach students to reflect on their own practice, and to assist them in developing self-understanding. No studies were found that described the use of poetry reading as a way of teaching the skill of interpretive analysis.

Burnout assessment in house officers: evaluation of an intervention to reduce stress.

Background: Medical house officers are at increased risk for stress related symptoms leading to professional burnout.

Aims: Measure burnout in house officers and establish whether utilization of a psychotherapeutic tool individually by physicians reduces symptoms characteristic of burnout.

Method: Two groups of pediatric house officers at the University of California Davis Health System completed a Maslach Burnout Survey (MBS) at the beginning and end of a three-month period in 2003.

Choreographing the end of life in a neonate.

As caregivers, we often have the privilege of accompanying patients and their families at the end of life. When the patients are newborn infants, the parents are totally unprepared cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually. Their experience represents uncharted territory.

The effectiveness of Tai Chi, yoga, meditation, and Reiki healing sessions in promoting health and enhancing problem solving abilities of registered nurses.

Given the current necessity of retaining qualified nurses, a self-care program consisting of Yoga, Tai Chi, Meditation classes, and Reiki healing sessions was designed for a university-based hospital. The effectiveness of these interventions was evaluated using self-care journals and analyzed using a Heideggerian phenomenological approach. Outcomes of the self-care classes described by nurses included: (a) noticing sensations of warmth, tingling, and pulsation which were relaxing, (b) becoming aware of an enhanced problem solving ability, and (c) noticing an increased ability to focus on patient needs.

The use of knee-length versus thigh-length compression stockings and sequential compression devices.

Background: Nurses on an Acute Care Evidence Based Practice Committee, creating a policy to increase patient compliance with thromboembolic deterrent stockings (TEDS) and sequential compression devices (SCDs) for deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, found limited literature on patient preference and response to this treatment.

Study Aim: The study purpose was to determine whether knee-length or thigh-length TEDS and/or SCDs were more comfortable, correctly applied, and worn by patients, and to assess patient reasons for noncompliance.

Method: A patient survey and observational data tool was designed.

Searching for circles of meaning and using spiritual experiences to help parents of infants with life-threatening illness cope.

One of the major challenges parents can face is learning that their child has a life-threatening illness. A phenomenological study was completed to identify which interactions with health care providers were and were not helpful. Parents discussed what it was like to have an infant with a life-threatening illness and what helped them to cope.

Freshman seminars. Do they help pre-nursing students adjust to college life?

One purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify challenges pre-nursing students face as they enter college. A second purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a Freshman seminar in helping students develop a sense of belonging on campus. An interpretive analysis was completed of 20 student essays focused on these challenges and the effectiveness of the Freshman seminar.

Using poetry to discover and share significant meanings in child and adolescent mental health nursing.

Topic: Does writing and reading poetry help nurse-therapists, students, and clients reflect on significant meanings and gain a greater understanding of intense clinical situations?

Purpose: To describe the use of poetry in managing intense feelings, discuss the relevant literature, articulate how students and clients responded to the use of poetry, and address the limitations of such an approach.

Sources: Published literature, clinical expertise, and poems written by the author.

Conclusions: Writing and reading poetry helps clinicians, students, and clients give voice to situations that touch their hearts.

Intensity and challenge as an aspect of work satisfaction in an urban emergency room.

This phenomenological study examined the lived experience of expert emergency room nurses in order to describe their sources of work satisfaction. An interpretive analysis was completed of interviews with 13 nurses in addition to observations of their practice. Experienced nurses described appreciating the challenge of working with complex patients, valuing the unpredictable nature of their work, and enjoying the intensity and fast pace of the emergency room as it helped them to focus.

Nurture: the fundamental significance of relationship as a paradigm for mental health nursing.

Topic: Whether nature or nurture is the most appropriate paradigm for mental health nursing practice, education, and research.

Purpose: To present detailed information that nurture is the most inclusive and sustaining paradigm for mental health nursing.

Sources: Published literature.

Video-cued narrative reflection: a research approach for articulating tacit, relational, and embodied understandings.

The author's purpose in this article is to describe the effectiveness of video-cued narrative reflection as a research approach for accessing relational, practice-based, and lived understandings. Video-cued narrative reflection provides moment-by-moment access to tacit experience. The immediate nature of the videotape captures emotional nuances, embodied perceptions, spatial influences, relational understandings, situational factors, and temporal manifestations.

Integrating aesthetics into advanced practice mental health nursing: commercial film as a suggested modality.

The purpose of this study was to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using feature films in teaching advanced practice mental health nursing. A phenomenological investigation was conducted of 11 master's student perspectives regarding the use of movies in an on-line course. According to the students, the disadvantages of movies were that films are time consuming to watch and often more dramatic than real-life situations.

Attending to embodied responses: a way to identify practice-based and human meanings associated with secondary trauma.

Most researchers of secondary trauma have focused on the pathological aspects of embodied responses rather than their usefulness in interpreting clinical situations. In this study, the authors completed a phenomenological investigation of nursing and social work faculty and student experiences with secondary trauma. They focused on how physical sensations and perceptions alert clinicians to reflect on human meanings associated with traumatic events.