Publications by authors named "Cindy Sickora"

The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education (2021) published by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing encourages bridging the gap between education and practice and continues to support the importance of providing clinical educational experiences in diverse settings. Another AACN document, Defining Scholarship for Academic Nursing Task Force Consensus Position Statement (2018), strongly encourages nursing faculty to engage in scholarship, a tradition that is integral to academic positions. This article demonstrates how these two important documents, one aimed at student competencies and curriculum and the other at nursing faculty development, can be connected to the mutual benefit of faculty and students alike.

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Nursing has been criticized for inconsistent and episodic attention to disaster response training in academic settings. The work described herein demonstrates that nursing was not only prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic but was able to mobilize and lead a large-scale response that benefited a university community and the larger surrounding communities and neighborhoods paying particular attention to marginalized populations. For healthcare providers outside of hospitals, it was clear that disaster response methods would need to be implemented.

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Background: Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey, can provide unique hands-on learning experiences for nursing students.

Method: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing deployed teams of faculty and students to Rockport, Texas, two to three times per week to provide post-disaster relief following Hurricane Harvey. Each team included a minimum of 10 students and two faculty to provide primary care, prevention, and door-to-door canvassing.

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This study developed and evaluated an instrument to measure the patient-nurse trust relationship in a medically underserved community. An exploratory sequential design was employed. In-depth interviews with 20 patients and 15 nurses were conducted to elicit their experiences regarding trust.

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Background: On August 25th 2017 Harvey, a category 4 hurricane, made landfall on the south coast of Texas with heavy winds and rain that severely damaged the seaside town of Rockport. The challenge facing healthcare providers following a natural disaster is timely assessments of community need and available resources. One week later, faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, School of Nursing (SON) completed a community assessment and developed valuable partnerships.

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Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of and/or have an unusually close understanding of the community served (APHA 2009). Among other roles, they are effective in closing critical communication gap between healthcare providers and patients as they possess key abilities to overcome cultural barriers, minimize disparities, and maximize adherence to clinical directions. In previous descriptions of the selection of CHWs, the role of community is clearly emphasized, but residence in the community is not indicated.

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Successful health care reform will require more than insuring 32 million additional Americans. It will demand that our expensive, hospital and provider-driven model of care adopt a community-driven wellness model that emphasizes disease prevention. Nursing is perfectly situated to lead this transformation.

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