International networking guidelines for nurses.

Basic guidelines are necessary for international networking in nursing. This article outlines the benefits of and strategies for networking, highlights the social and behavioral considerations of social networking, and presents potential guidelines for further discourse.

An Examination and Comparison of Stethoscope Hygiene in Nursing Education Programs.

Background: Improper stethoscope hygiene has been found to contribute to the development of health care associated infections, which affects approximately one in every 30 hospitalized patients. Various pathogens have been found on the stethoscopes of health care workers.

Method: A correlational descriptive design was used to compare stethoscopes from 117 nursing students.

Peri-transplant psychosocial factors and neutrophil recovery following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Objective: Multiple psychosocial factors appear to affect cancer progression in various populations; however, research investigating the relationship between psychosocial factors and outcomes following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is scarce. Subject to adverse immunological and psychological conditions, HCT patients may be especially vulnerable to psychosomatic health sequelae; therefore, we studied whether optimism and anxiety influence the pertinent clinical outcome of days to neutrophil engraftment (DTE).

Method: 54 adults undergoing either autologous or allogeneic HCT completed self-report questionnaires measuring optimism and anxiety.

Music therapy as an adjunctive treatment in the management of stress for patients being weaned from mechanical ventilation.

This project investigated music therapy (MT) in managing anxiety associated with weaning from mechanical ventilation. The use of sedation to treat anxiety during weaning is problematic because side effects (e.g.