Brain health: Pathway to primary prevention of neurodegenerative disorders of environmental origin.

While rising global rates of neurodegenerative disease encourage early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention to block clinical expression (secondary prevention), a more powerful approach is to identify and remove environmental factors that trigger long-latencybrain disease (primary prevention) by acting on a susceptible genotype or acting alone. The latter is illustrated by the post-World War II decline and disappearance of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinsonism-Dementia Complex (ALS/PDC), a prototypical often-familial neurodegenerative disease formerly present in very high incidence on the island of Guam. Lessons learned from 75 years of investigation on the etiology of ALS/PDC include: the importance of focusing field research on the disease epicenter and patients with early-onset disease; soliciting exposure history from patients, family, and community to guide multidisciplinary biomedical investigation; recognition that disease phenotype may vary with exposure history, and that familial brain disease may have a primarily environmental origin.

Assessing community response to wildfire smoke: A multimethod study using social media.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess health-related responses to wildfire smoke on social media. We examined whether seasonal wildfire smoke is an active topic on Twitter, the correlation between fine particulate matter (PM ) and Twitter search terms, and dimensions of community-level expression to wildfire smoke through tweets.

Design: Search terms were identified using a conceptual model developed and refined by healthcare providers and public health experts.

Integrating Arts with STEM to Foster Systems Thinking.

Interest is growing among out-of-school time (OST) educators in integrating the arts into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programming (e.g., Kelton & Saraniero, 2018).

Psychometric Evaluation of the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument in a Population of Working Nurses.

Background And Purpose: This study explored the psychometric properties of the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument (C-CEI), previously validated for use with nursing students, to assess simulation performance among registered nurses working 12-hour shifts. Valid and reliable measurements are needed to test clinical and simulation competencies and characterize the effects of fatigue on nursing performance.

Methods: Trained raters scored nurses' patient care performance in simulation scenarios using the C-CEI.

Adapting and Testing the Self-Efficacy in Environmental Risk Reduction Instrument Among Spanish-Speaking Populations.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to adapt and test the Self-Efficacy in Environmental Risk Reduction instrument in a Spanish-speaking population.

Methods: Harkness' model of cross-cultural survey design was used to adapt the instrument. We sampled 95 adult, Spanish speakers from a federally qualified health clinic.

The effects of three consecutive 12-hour shifts on cognition, sleepiness, and domains of nursing performance in day and night shift nurses: A quasi-experimental study.

Background: Healthcare systems have widely adopted consecutive 12 h day and night shifts for nurses, but the effects of these shifts on cognition, sleepiness, and nursing performance remains understudied.

Objective: To determine the extent of changes in cognition and sleepiness in nurses working three consecutive 12 h shifts, quantify the respective impacts of these changes on different aspects of nursing performance, and investigate individual differences in all measures.

Design: A quasi-experimental, between-within design collected data from nurses between November 2018 and March 2020.

Sleep health and predicted cognitive effectiveness of nurses working 12-hour shifts: an observational study.

Background: Due to the 24hr nature of society, shift work has become an integral part of many industries. Within the literature there exists an abundance of evidence linking shift work-related sleep restriction and fatigue with errors, accidents, and adverse long-term health outcomes.

Objective: The study goal was to physiologically measure sleep patterns and predicted cognitive decline of nurses working both 12hr day and night shifts to address the growing concern about sleep restriction among healthcare workers.

Stigma resulting from head lice infestation: A concept analysis and implications for public health.

Aim: The aim of this concept analysis was to examine stigma in the context of head lice, illuminating its components and providing insights for the development of appropriate nursing interventions.

Background: Stigma associated with the phenomenon of head lice management is pervasive, promulgating fear and influencing policy and treatment practices. Few studies have examined stigma in this context.

Nursing Students' Sleep Patterns and Perceptions of Safe Practice During Their Entrée to Shift Work.

The transition into shift work represents a critical and challenging time point in a nurse's career. The purpose of this study was to describe nursing students' sleep patterns and perceptions of safe practice during their first semester of clinical rotations. : Repeated measures pertaining to the sleep patterns of 19 full-time junior undergraduate nursing students were measured before, during, and after their first clinical rotations.

Balance, Health, and Workplace Safety: Experiences of New Nurses in the Context of Total Worker Health.

Transitioning into independent professional practice may be a difficult and trying process for newly licensed nurses, who may be at risk for burnout and quitting their jobs. Issues related to new nurses' well-being at work may also impact their personal lives. Using thematic analysis within the framework of Total Worker Health, this study examined factors related to the overall work, safety, and health of newly licensed nurses that should be addressed in work environments to promote well-being and prevent burnout and attrition.

Environmental Health: Advancing Emancipatory Policies for the Common Good.

Human health is substantially impacted by the state of the environment, and environmental degradation has a disproportionate impact on persons with less immediate access to financial and social power. This article calls for upstream nursing action to address the natural environment in order to turn about health injustices and improve health for all. Such action would move nursing towards a greater actualization of the nursing environmental domain.

Nursing Students' Perceptions of the Transition to Shift Work: A Total Worker Health Perspective.

Nursing students make an abrupt transition from traditional classes to clinical rotations and shift work. Little is known about students' sleep, sleep disturbances, and safe practice behaviors during this critical phase of professional development. The purpose of this study was to identify nursing students' perceptions of problems and potential solutions related to shift work and long work hours.

Thinking Upstream: A 25-Year Retrospective and Conceptual Model Aimed at Reducing Health Inequities.

Thinking upstream was first introduced into the nursing vernacular in 1990 with the goal of advancing broad and context-rich perspectives of health. Initially invoked as conceptual framing language, upstream precepts were subsequently adopted and adapted by a generation of thoughtful nursing scholars. Their work reduced health inequities by redirecting actions further up etiologic pathways and by emphasizing economic, political, and environmental health determinants.

Psychometric Properties of the Nurses' Environmental Awareness Tool.

Background And Purpose: Nurses are committed to practice in an environmentally safe and healthy manner. However, nursing practice contributes significant negative impacts to the natural environment. We analyzed the psychometric properties of the Nurses Environmental Awareness Tool (NEAT), composed of 6 subscales, measuring awareness of environmental impacts and their health risks and ecological behaviors at work and home.

Retest of a Principal Components Analysis of Two Household Environmental Risk Instruments.

Household Risk Perception (HRP) and Self-Efficacy in Environmental Risk Reduction (SEERR) instruments were developed for a public health nurse-delivered intervention designed to reduce home-based, environmental health risks among rural, low-income families. The purpose of this study was to test both instruments in a second low-income population that differed geographically and economically from the original sample. Participants (N = 199) were recruited from the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

Workers With Irregular Hours During Seasonal Work Surges: Promoting Healthy Sleep.

A significant proportion of the labor force works irregular hours during harvest, summer, or holiday work surges. Unfortunately such workers are often uninformed about the importance of sleep and fatigue management. Seasonally timed worker training can improve health and safety outcomes during work surges.

Creating the Nurses' Environmental Awareness Tool (NEAT).

Acute care delivery creates secondary health risks to patients, health care workers, and the environment through a complex waste stream, intensive energy use, and frequent use of harmful chemicals. Nurses are among the most affected by these risks and are also pivotal change agents in reducing the negative impacts of health care delivery. Assessing nurses' understanding of health care-associated environmental health risks is essential if care is to be delivered in an environmentally safe and healthy manner, as indicated by published professional standards of nursing practice.

Rural Families' Process of Re-Forming Environmental Health Risk Messages.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to explore how rural low-income families with children process health information following a nurse-delivered intervention designed to reduce environmental risks in their homes.

Design And Method: Grounded theory methodology with a constructivist approach was used to conduct the study. Semistructured interviews of 10 primary child caregivers in rural low-income families who had participated in an environmental risk reduction intervention were completed from 2009 to 2011.

Implementing AACN's recommendations for environmental sustainability in colleges of nursing: from concept to impact.

In 2011, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) released a guidance report titled Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Academic Enterprise: An AACN Guide for Nursing Education. The report was developed in response to a vivid slide presentation at an AACN meeting depicting the deleterious public and environmental health effects of global industrialization. Following the presentation, AACN members capitalized on the opportunity to provide national leadership to U.

The Household Risk Perception instrument and the Self-Efficacy in Environmental Risk Reduction instrument: psychometric testing using principal component analysis.

Aim: To report the psychometric testing of the Household Risk Perception and Self-Efficacy in Environmental Risk Reduction instruments using principal components analysis.

Background: There are limited instruments available to test household risk perception and self-efficacy related to environmental health behaviours. The Household Risk Perception instrument was developed to measure personal perceptions of household environmental health risks.