Role and quality of nurse practitioner practice: a policy issue.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) are at a crucial period in the development of their profession. The increasing demand for primary care practitioners is changing the environment in which they practice. As they face both increased opportunity and continuing opposition to independent practice, NPs must define their role in healthcare delivery and establish their capabilities.

Cultural tailoring for mammography and fruit and vegetable intake among low-income African-American women in urban public health centers.

Background: It is widely accepted that disease prevention efforts should consider cultural factors when addressing the needs of diverse populations, yet there is surprisingly little evidence that doing so enhances effectiveness. The Institute of Medicine has called for randomized studies directly comparing approaches that do and do not consider culture.

Methods: In a randomized trial, 1227 lower-income African-American women from 10 urban public health centers were assigned to either a usual care control group, or to receive a series of six women's health magazines with content tailored to each individual.

Responses to behaviorally vs culturally tailored cancer communication among African American women.

Objective: To examine whether tailored cancer communication for African American women can be enhanced by tailoring on 4 sociocultural constructs: religiosity, collectivism, racial pride, and time orientation.

Methods: In a randomized trial, participants (n=1,227) received a women's health magazine tailored using behavioral construct tailoring (BCT), culturally relevant tailoring (CRT), or both (COMBINED). Two follow-up interviews assessed responses to the magazines.