Urinary tract infections and asymptomatic bacteriuria in older adults.

Overuse of urinalysis in older adults to investigate vague changes in condition such as confusion, lethargy, and anorexia, has led to overtreatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria and associated antibiotic resistance.

Advance directives: empowering patients at the end of life.

Advance directives were conceived as a prospective means of empowering patients to direct their own end-of-life care. Unfortunately, these directives have been inadequately incorporated into healthcare decisions due to less-than-optimal execution and implementation. The authors explore challenges to implementing advance directives and propose potential solutions.

The evolution of a doctor of nursing practice capstone process: programmatic revisions to improve the quality of student projects.

The past several years have seen explosive growth in the number of doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree programs offered by colleges of nursing in the United States. Through a process of trial and error since 2005, the faculty at the University of Colorado, College of Nursing, have revised the course structure and procedures related to the DNP capstone project to improve the quality and usefulness of these student projects. Efforts have focused on educating and involving all nursing faculty in the DNP capstone process, distinguishing between competencies for our PhD and DNP projects, clearly aligning the DNP capstone project with quality improvement methods rather than with research, working with our campus institutional review board to clarify regulatory review requirements for quality improvement studies, developing a review committee to oversee DNP students' projects, and structuring our sequential course requirements to encourage students' professional presentations and publications.

Utility of the theory of planned behavior to predict nursing staff blood pressure monitoring behaviours.

Aims And Objectives: To evaluate constructs from the theory of planned behavior (TPB, Ajzen 2002) - attitudes, sense of control, subjective norms and intentions - as predictors of accuracy in blood pressure monitoring.

Background: Despite numerous initiatives aimed at teaching blood pressure measurement techniques, many healthcare providers measure blood pressures incorrectly.

Design: Descriptive, cohort design.

Comparative effectiveness research: nursing science and health care delivery.

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) is an important foundation in the development of scientific evidence that can assist patients, clinicians, and policy makers in making decisions that improve patient and system outcomes, including cost. CER is a part of what is now called dissemination and implementation science, which focuses on translating knowledge into practice by facilitating stakeholder access to more interpretable findings. CER has evolved from a rich history that aims to compare the effectiveness of select clinical treatments, approaches, or programs.

Hyponatremia in older adults presenting to the emergency department.

Hyponatremia is a common disorder seen in the emergency department and is more prevalent in older adults than in other adult populations (Miller, 2009). Though often discovered by accident, through routine bloodwork, even mild hyponatremia has been shown to have potentially dangerous consequences for older adults, increasing their risks for falls, altered mental status, osteoporosis and fractures, and gastrointestinal disturbances (Soiza and Talbot, 2011). Optimal management of older adults with hyponatremia in the ED involves not only treatment of serum sodium levels and the immediate consequence of the disorder, but exploration and reversal of the causes of the hyponatremia to avoid recurrence.

Transitioning the older adult in the ambulatory care setting.

Transitions between care settings are periods of vulnerability for patients. This is especially true for older adults, for whom comorbidities and functional impairments can increase the complexity of care and the need for multiple caregivers can compromise safety. Poor care transitions can result in costly hospital admissions.

Evaluation of a patient navigation program.

This study examined the value and effectiveness of a patient navigation program in terms of timeliness of access to cancer care, resolution of barriers, and satisfaction in 55 patients over a six-month period. Although not statistically significant, the time interval between diagnostic biopsy to first consultation with a cancer specialist after program implementation was reduced from an average of 14.6 days to 12.

Evaluation of a career ladder program in an ambulatory care environment.

Clinical ladders, or career advancement systems, were designed to enhance professional development, provide a reward system for quality clinical performance, promote quality nursing practice, and improve job satisfaction among nurses. Most of the literature on RN clinical ladder programs is related to the acute care setting, where these programs originated; not much is known about their effectiveness in the ambulatory care environment. The RN Career Ladder at Kaiser Permanente of Colorado was begun by a Labor Management Partnership Committee in 2003, and awards financial incentives to RNs who demonstrate a commitment to continuing education, leadership activities, and program development on a local and regional level.

The relationship between glycemic control and falls in older adults.

Objectives: To determine whether glycemic control contributes to fall risk in frail and nonfrail elderly adults with diabetes mellitus.

Design: Retrospective, case-controlled design.

Setting: Health maintenance organization in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area.