A Systematic Review of Psychometric Properties of Health-Related Quality-of-Life and Symptom Instruments in Adult Acute Leukemia Survivors.

Background: Acute leukemia represents 4% of cancer cases in the United States annually. There are more than 302 000 people living with acute and chronic leukemia in the United States. Treatment has been shown to have both positive and negative effects on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Patient-reported symptoms and quality of life in adults with acute leukemia: a systematic review.

Purpose/objectives: Systematically summarize findings from research conducted on adult acute leukemia survivors as they relate to symptoms and quality of life (QOL). 


Data Sources: Systematic review of the literature from 1990–2013 found in the PubMed, PsycINFO®, EMBASE, and CINAHL® databases, as well as manual searches. 


Data Synthesis: The review identified 16 quantitative studies and 1 qualitative study published from 1990–2013 that used a self-reported QOL or symptom questionnaire.

An integrative review: fatigue among nurses in acute care settings.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine current research related to nurse fatigue and identify effective prevention strategies.

Background: Work-related fatigue negatively affects patient safety and nurses' well-being and increases employer costs. Preventing fatigue and minimizing its negative consequences require knowledge of the contributing factors if effective interventions are to be designed and implemented.

Managing large-volume literature searches in research synthesis studies.

Background: Systematic reviews typically require searching for, retrieving, and screening a large volume of literature, yet little guidance is available on how to manage this volume.

Purpose: We detail methods used to search for and manage the yield of relevant citations for a mixed-methods, mixed research synthesis study focused on the intersection between family life and childhood chronic physical conditions.

Methods: We designed inclusive search strings and searched nine bibliographic databases to identify relevant research regardless of methodological origin.

Evaluation of heart failure websites for patient education.

Eight of 10 people use the Internet to find health information. Considering the prevalence of heart failure (HF), there are many websites dedicated to patient education, disease management, and symptom prevention of HF. However, some of these websites may not offer accurate and up-to-date information.

Impact factors of nursing journals: what nurses need to know.

Impact factors (IFs) are scores based on the frequency with which articles in a journal have been cited in other journals during a 2-year or 5-year period. Impact factors vary across disciplines and even within fields because of differences in citing behaviors, types of publications, and other factors. Nurses need to understand IFs and the implications for them as authors, particularly in light of the small number of nursing journals with IFs.

Dissemination of research into clinical nursing literature.

Aim: The purpose of our study was to describe the dissemination of research into the clinical nursing literature.

Background: The literature provides a means of transferring knowledge from a research study through citations of the work by other authors.

Design: This was a citation analysis study to explore the dissemination of research into the clinical nursing literature, beginning with the publication of an original research study and including all of the citations to that article through 2009.

MRSQ Informatics Education columns: past, present and future.

This is the last Informatics Education column under the current editors. The outgoing editors identify six key themes that reflect the changes in informatics education over their seven-year tenure. The themes are picked from the 29 previous columns published under their editorship.

A study of personal digital assistants to enhance undergraduate clinical nursing education.

This study reports on personal digital assistants (PDAs) as a means to prepare nurse professionals who value and seek current information. An interdisciplinary team of nursing and library faculty, information technology and bookstore staff, students, and educational consultants developed this project. A pre-post and comparative group design of second-degree students in the accelerated and traditional baccalaureate nursing degree (BSN) options was used to examine students' information-seeking behaviors, and the effectiveness and cost of innovation strategies associated with incorporation of PDAs into students' clinical practice.

Extending the hand of knowledge: promoting mobile technologies.

The widespread use of handheld computers and other mobile devices in the healthcare environment and their potential for providing access to information has prompted health sciences librarians everywhere to learn more about this technology. Early in 2001, the Health Sciences Library (HSL) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began exploring ways to support mobile computing. This paper describes the four basic approaches taken by the librarians that helped establish the HSL as a leader in the area of mobile technologies.