Navigating COVID-19 Educational Challenges: Transitioning an In-Person Mentoring Program to a Virtual Learning Environment.

Nursing professional development practitioners and leadership staff implemented a second Transitional Mentor Education Program. The pilot program was classroom based; however, with pandemic restrictions, a shift to deliver a hybrid mentoring program was needed. Learning needs, clinician well-being, and professional development were addressed.

Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurse Spirituality, Stress, Coping, Spiritual Well-being, and Intent to Leave: A Mixed-method Study.

Intense emotional demands of oncology nursing create a stressful work environment and increase the likelihood of leaving. The study aims to explore, describe, and understand how pediatric hematology/oncology nurses caring for chronically ill or dying patients use their spirituality to cope with job stress, maintain spiritual well-being (SWB), and continue to work in this specialty. A concurrent mixed-method research design consisted of a web-based survey and interview.

Transitional Mentor Education Program Pilot: Preparing Nurses to Adapt to Changing Acute Care Settings.

Nursing professional development practitioners and nursing leadership identified a need for a transitional mentoring program to assist staff nurses' transition beyond orientation. Mentoring was identified as an effective strategy to promote professional development. The benefits of this year-long transitional mentoring program include an increase in clinical confidence, integration of stress reduction strategies, and reflective practice into daily practice.

Neurological soft signs and cognitive performance in early childhood.

Neurological soft signs (NSSs), minor neurological abnormalities, have been implicated as risk factors for poor cognitive performance in small-scale studies. Here we investigate the associations between NSSs and multiple domains of cognitive performance in a large, population-based cohort and evaluate sex differences in these associations. We analyzed data from 35,710 seven-year-old children in the Collaborative Perinatal Project to study the association between the number of NSSs and cognitive test scores using multiple linear regression models adjusting for risk factors for brain injury and aberrant neurodevelopment.

Reducing Readmissions Post-tonsillectomy: A Quality Improvement Study on Intravenous Hydration.

Introduction: Dehydration is a potentially preventable complication post-tonsillectomy and can result in an Emergency Department visit and/or readmission. Our objectives were to identify risk factors for dehydration readmissions and develop interventions to prevent them.

Methods: We used retrospective chart reviews to determine if increased intravenous (IV) hydration post-tonsillectomy prevented hospital readmissions for dehydration.

Depressive and anxious symptoms and 20-year mortality: Evidence from the Stirling County study.

Background: Depression and anxiety disorders are highly comorbid, and share significant symptom overlap. Whereas depression has been consistently associated with excess mortality, the association between anxiety and mortality is less clear. Our aim was to identify constellations of anxious and depressive symptoms and examine their associations with mortality.

Depression and mortality in a longitudinal study: 1952-2011.

Background: Many studies have shown that depression increases mortality risk. We aimed to investigate the duration of time over which depression is associated with increased risk of mortality, secular trends in the association between depression and mortality, and sex differences in the association between depression and mortality.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study of 3410 adults enrolled in 3 representative samples of a county in Atlantic Canada in 1952 ( = 1003), 1970 ( = 1203) or 1992 ( = 1402) (the Stirling County Study).

Bereavement and the diagnosis of major depressive episode in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

Objective: Bereavement-related depression is excluded from a diagnosis of major depressive episode (MDE) in DSM-IV, unless the syndrome is prolonged or complicated. The objective of this study is to assess the validity of the bereavement exclusion by comparing characteristics of bereavement-related episodes that are excluded from a diagnosis and bereavement-related episodes that qualify for a diagnosis (complicated bereavement) to MDE.

Method: We used data from 2 waves of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (n = 43,093) to compare bereavement-excluded depression and complicated bereavement to MDE with respect to indicators of preexisting risk for psychopathology (antecedent indicators) and indicators of disorder severity measured at baseline and at the study's 3-year follow-up interview (consequent indicators).

Time trends in mortality associated with depression: findings from the Stirling County study.

Objective: to address the question of whether a mortality risk associated with depression in a 1952 representative sample of Stirling County adults changed in a new sample in 1970, and whether there was a change in associations with cigarette smoking and alcoholism.

Method: sample members were interviewed about depression and cigarette smoking. General physicians were interviewed by psychiatrists regarding alcoholism.

Career mapping: developing nurse leaders, reinvigorating careers.

Nurse leaders must ensure the continued development and learning of all nurses, including those who postpone participation in existing professional development activities. In this article, the authors describe a career mapping program for nurses who have demonstrated reluctance in establishing and pursuing career advancement goals. The program incorporates a 2-tiered mentoring strategy and guides nurses in assessing their strengths and interests, developing career goals, and mapping out and implementing a career plan to meet personal and professional needs.

Differential item functioning between ethnic groups in the epidemiological assessment of depression.

A potential explanation for the finding that disadvantaged minority status is associated with a lower lifetime risk for depression is that individuals from minority ethnic groups may be less likely to endorse survey questions about depression even when they have the same level of depression. We examine this possibility using a nonparametric item response theory approach to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in a national survey of psychiatric disorders, the National Comorbidity Survey. Of 20 questions used to assess depression symptoms, we found evidence of DIF in 3 questions when comparing non-Hispanic blacks with non-Hispanic whites and in 3 questions when comparing Hispanics with non-Hispanic whites.

Mortality associated with depression: a forty-year perspective from the Stirling County Study.

Background: This report concerns long-term mortality risks associated with depression, and the potentially confounding factors of alcoholism and cigarette smoking, as experienced by a general population assessed at a baseline in 1952, followed for re-assessment of survivors in 1968, and for death by 1992.

Methods: Self-report and physician-report information was gathered in 1952 and again in 1968 about a sample of 1,079 adults. At the end of follow-up in 1992, the vital status of all subjects was known.

Marginal regression models with a time to event outcome and discrete multiple source predictors.

Information from multiple informants is frequently used to assess psychopathology. We consider marginal regression models with multiple informants as discrete predictors and a time to event outcome. We fit these models to data from the Stirling County Study; specifically, the models predict mortality from self report of psychiatric disorders and also predict mortality from physician report of psychiatric disorders.

Comparison of self-report and clinician-rated measures of psychiatric symptoms and functioning in predicting 1-year hospital readmission.

This study compared the self-report Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-32) and clinician-rated Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) in their ability to predict a measure of psychiatric outcome, 1-year psychiatric hospital readmission. BASIS-32 and GAF were completed at admission for 1034 patients in an inpatient psychiatric facility. Multiple informants analysis was used to determine the difference between the two in predicting readmission within 1 year.

Depression and modernization: a cross-cultural study of women.

Background: This study concerns depression among women living in developing and developed parts of the world. Using a continuum of environments conceptualized as ranging from traditional to modern, the goal is to explore the hypothesis that the prevalence of depression will be higher among those living in modern compared to traditional societies. This issue is examined among samples from West Africa and North America.

Cigarette smoking in relation to depression: historical trends from the Stirling County Study.

Objective: Building on findings about the prevalence and incidence of depression over a 40-year period, the authors provide data on trends in cigarette smoking and associations with depression.

Method: Data come from interviews with adult population samples (1952, 1970, and 1992) and followed cohorts (1952-1970 and 1970-1992). Logistic regression models and survival regressions were used to analyze the data.

Characteristics of the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam among elderly persons.

This study assesses psychometric properties of the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam (3MS) and present population norms and demographic risk factors for low 3MS scores. The subjects were 885 persons aged 65 and older who took the 3MS as part of the Stirling County Study, a population-based longitudinal study of adult residents of a county in Atlantic Canada. 3MS scores were not dependent on the specific rater who scored the test; thus, the 3MS is free of rater bias.

A clinical practice guideline for treatment of septic arthritis in children: efficacy in improving process of care and effect on outcome of septic arthritis of the hip.

Background: The development of clinical practice guidelines is a central precept of the evidence-based-medicine movement. The purposes of this study were to develop a guideline for the treatment of septic arthritis in children and to evaluate its efficacy with regard to improving the process of care and its effect on the outcome of septic arthritis of the hip in children.

Methods: A clinical practice guideline was developed by an interdisciplinary expert committee using evidence-based techniques.

A collaborative model: twenty healthcare agencies and academic institutions share resources to educate preceptors.

The Boston Collaborative Learning Group (BCLG), a 20-member consortium of healthcare agencies and academic institutions, originated in 1996 in response to a demand for innovative cost-effective measures. Directors of Staff Development and academicians collaborate and share resources in planning preceptor education programs. Over 750 Boston area nurses have attended 1 of 10 programs offered.

Incidence of major depression: prediction from subthreshold categories in the Stirling County Study.

Background: Validity of the newly-proposed categories of Minor Depression (MinD) and Subsyndromal Depression (SSD) would be strengthened if they were found to be related to the incidence of Major Depressive Episode (MDE). In this report, the subsequent incidence of MDE was assessed in terms of baseline evidence about the two subthreshold categories and Dysthymic Disorder (DysD).

Methods: The Diagnostic Interview Schedule was used to interview 489 subjects twice between 1991 and 1995 as part of the Stirling County Study.

Self-disparagement as feature and forerunner of depression: findings from the Stirling County Study.

Sleep disturbance has attracted considerable attention as an early indicator of depression. However, three epidemiologic investigations have shown psychological symptoms, such as self-disparagement, to be stronger predictors. This report examines the depressive symptoms commonly assessed in modern epidemiologic surveys and estimates the generalizability of this information using data from the Stirling County Study, a long-term epidemiologic investigation of psychiatric disorders.