Continuous glucose monitors: use of waveform versus glycemic values in the improvements of glucose control, quality of life, and fear of hypoglycemia.

How patients are benefitting from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) remains poorly understood. The focus on numerical glucose values persists, even though access to the glucose waveform and rate of change may contribute more to improved control. This pilot study compared outcomes of patients using CGMs with or without access to the numerical values on their CGM.

An advanced practice nursing program for foreign medical doctors: a practical approach.

Aim: This article articulates lessons learned about an accelerated family nurse practitioner course offered to foreign medical doctors who also held baccalaureate nursing degrees (BSN).

Background: In the last decade, many physicians in the Philippines returned to school to obtain BSN degrees and licensure as registered nurses (referred to as nurse-medics) to emigrate to the United States in the hope of a better life. Once in the United States, many remain in nursing even though they prefer the practice of medicine.

Biofeedback-assisted relaxation training to decrease test anxiety in nursing students.

Background: Nursing students experiencing debilitating test anxiety may be unable to demonstrate their knowledge and have potential for poor academic performance.

Method: A biofeedback-assisted relaxation training program was created to reduce test anxiety. Anxiety was measured using Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory and monitoring peripheral skin temperature, pulse, and respiration rates during the training.

Research support in doctoral-granting schools of nursing: a decade later.

Many nursing schools invest resources in offices to support research efforts and to strengthen research programs for external funding. This article will describe the resources available for research support in schools of nursing with doctoral degree-granting programs. Using a descriptive survey design, invitations and links to the online survey were sent to deans of nursing schools offering doctoral degrees as identified by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Methodological quality and scientific impact of quantitative nursing education research over 18 months.

The methodological quality of nursing education research has not been rigorously studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the methodological quality and scientific impact of nursing education research reports. The methodological quality of 133 quantitative nursing education research articles published between July 2006 and December 2007 was evaluated using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI).

Student stress and academic performance: home hospital program.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether nursing students assigned to a home hospital experience less stress and improved academic performance. Students were assigned to a home hospital clinical placement (n = 78) or a control clinical placement (n = 79). Stress was measured using the Student Nurse Stress Index (SNSI) and Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory.

Leveraging higher salaries for nursing faculty.

The nursing faculty pay scale at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has increased significantly over the past 5 years. This increase was driven by a number of factors: (a) the rapidly expanding population in Nevada, (b) the nursing shortage and the Nevada legislative mandate to double nursing enrollment in state schools, (c) the national nursing faculty shortage, and (d) the opening of private nursing schools in Nevada. This article describes how, given these factors, the faculty members were able to leverage a pay scale that is finally competitive with clinical appointments.

Altered beta-2 adrenergic receptor gene expression in human clinical hypertension.

Objectives: The beta-2 adrenergic receptor is involved in mediating vasodilatation via neurohumoral and sympathetic nervous system pathways. Alterations in beta-2 adrenergic receptor gene expression (mRNA transcription) may contribute to the hypertensive phenotype. Human gene expression in clinical phenotypes remains largely unexplored due to ethical constraints involved in obtaining human tissue.

Using rare diseases as models for biobehavioral research: allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.

Biobehavioral science explores links between biological, psychosocial, and behavioral factors and health. Maintaining positive health outcomes over time and across a variety of populations and settings requires understanding interactions among biological, behavioral, and social risk factors as well as other variables that influence behavior. Some barriers to biobehavioral research are related to performing biobehavioral research along the natural history of an illness, limitations in existing methodologies to assess the biological impact of behavior, the unknowns relating to impact of behavior on biology, and lack of valid and reliable biobehavioral methods to assess outcomes.

Psychosocial and physiological stress among women leaving welfare.

Women receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) report more stress and have poorer health than women in the general population. Studies suggest chronic stress may contribute to poor health via physiological mechanisms, yet little is known about these mechanisms in this population. This study examined psychosocial stress, salivary cortisol, 24-hr ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate, and health among 40 single mothers before and after exiting TANF.

Physiological wet laboratory facilities in colleges of nursing.

The purpose of this study was to describe physiological wet laboratories as they exist within colleges of nursing with doctoral programs. Surveys were sent to the current deans and directors of all 96 nursing colleges/schools with doctoral programs as of January 2004, obtained from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Web site. Only 26 (37%) of 71 responding schools operate their own wet laboratory, either singly or with another college.

Biofeedback-assisted relaxation training for essential hypertension: who is most likely to benefit?

The main purpose of this study was to develop a way to predict which persons with essential hypertension would benefit most from biofeedback-assisted relaxation (BFAR) training. Second, the authors evaluated the effect of BFAR on blood pressure (BP) reduction, which was measured in the clinic and outside the clinic using an ambulatory BP monitor. Fifty-four adults with stage 1 or 2 hypertension (78% taking BP medications) received 8 weeks of relaxation training coupled with thermal, electromyographic, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia biofeedback.

Obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors: intervention recommendations to decrease adolescent obesity.

The incidence of adolescent obesity is increasing dramatically in the United States with associated risks of hypertension, adverse lipid profiles, and Type II diabetes. Unless reversed, this trend predicts an epidemic of adult cardiovascular disease. Interventions at home, at school, and in the community are required to empower teens to increase physical activity and to modify eating habits.

Comparison of blood pressure measurement consistency using tonometric and automated oscillometric instruments.

To effectively evaluate treatments for hypertension, researchers and clinicians must be able to measure blood pressure (BP) in a valid and reliable way. The purpose of this study is to compare measurements made in the clinic using beat-to-beat radial BP tonometry, measurements made during 24 hours using an ambulatory BP monitor, and measurements made in the clinic using an automated oscillometric BP monitor. Fifty-seven adults with primary hypertension participated in this study, which used a repeated measures descriptive design.

Hemodynamics and arterial properties in response to mental stress in individuals with mild hypertension.

Objective: The role of tonic sympathetic stimulation on the properties of large arteries is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of mental stress on hemodynamics and arterial properties in mild hypertensives.

Method: Twenty-three subjects with mild hypertension and 19 age-matched normotensives were compared to examine changes in hemodynamics and central arterial wave reflection before, during, and after mental stress.

Effects of daily activities on ambulatory blood pressure during menstrual cycle in normotensive women.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether (1) there is a menstrual phase effect on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), and (2) the effects of physical effort, posture, or moods on BP and HR is mediated by the menstrual phase. Twelve normotensive women, aged between 28 and 50, with normal menstrual cycles were studied. BP was measured at 30- to 60-min intervals during a 24-hr period using an ambulatory BP monitor on Days 1, 8, 15, and 22 of the menstrual cycle.

Physiologic correlates of comfort in healthy children.

Pain assessment is particularly challenging when children are unable or unwilling to provide a self-report. Although clinicians frequently use vital signs as an adjunct to pain assessment, little evidence exists to support this practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the ability of selected physiologic variables (peripheral skin temperature, heart rate, skin conductance activity [SCA], respiratory rate, electromyogram [EMG] of the frontalis and right forearm muscles, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure [BP]) to detect changes in children's autonomic arousal from baseline.