Using standardized patients to strengthen nurse practitioner competency in the clinical setting.

Aim: This paper serves as the outline for a simulation that nurse educators can use to better prepare graduate students for the clinical setting and ensure the student's essential competencies prior to clinical practicum.

Background: Educators often struggle with whether nurse practitioner students are sufficiently prepared for their clinical practicum once they have successfully completed the didactic component of their coursework.

Method: This paper addresses the methods by which one institution uses standardized patients in a simulation laboratory to better prepare the graduate students for their first clinical practicum.

Including a screening and brief alcohol intervention program in the care of the obstetric patient.

Alcohol is the drug most commonly abused by pregnant women and the leading cause of preventable birth defects across the United States. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral for Treatment is a program developed by the Emergency Nurses Association that has demonstrated success in treating patients who have alcohol use disorders. This interventional program can be useful to perinatal nurses caring for pregnant women with alcohol use disorders in a variety of settings.