An Immersive and Interactive Platform for Cognitive Assessment and Rehabilitation (bWell): Design and Iterative Development Process.

Background: Immersive technologies like virtual reality can enable clinical care that meaningfully aligns with real-world deficits in cognitive functioning. However, options in immersive 3D environments are limited, partly because of the unique challenges presented by the development of a clinical care platform. These challenges include selecting clinically relevant features, enabling tasks that capture the full breadth of deficits, ensuring longevity in a rapidly changing technology landscape, and performing the extensive technical and clinical validation required for digital interventions.

Preparing Nurse Educators: The Current Landscape.

There is an urgent need to address the nursing faculty shortage and evaluate current enrollment in nurse educator programs across the country. In this article, we describe a nationwide review of graduate nursing programs focusing on the nursing education shortage; program, faculty, and student demographics; methodological approaches; concentrations, content and practice areas; and future directions for graduate program development.

Quantitative nonlinear optical assessment of atherosclerosis progression in rabbits.

Quantification of atherosclerosis has been a challenging task owing to its complex pathology. In this study, we validated a quantitative approach for assessing atherosclerosis progression in a rabbit model using a numerical matrix, optical index for plaque burden, derived directly from the nonlinear optical microscopic images captured on the atherosclerosis-affected blood vessel. A positive correlation between this optical index and the severity of atherosclerotic lesions, represented by the age of the rabbits, was established based on data collected from 21 myocardial infarction-prone Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits with age ranging between new-born and 27 months old.

Emancipated minors: health policy and implications for nursing.

Emancipation is a process that offers adolescents a solution to serve in the role of an adult in circumstances that warrant the need for more autonomy. The process and definitions of emancipation are often ambiguous for adolescents, nurses, and other health care providers that provide services for these individuals. Emancipation can be additionally perplexing with the lack of overarching federal guidelines and the fragmented definitions among various states.

Contribution of nursing education programs to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in North Carolina.

Registered nurses play an important role in ensuring the delivery of quality health care, and their education is one key to achieving the goals of the Affordable Care Act. This article explores the contributions that nursing education programs in North Carolina can make in helping this legislation achieve its objectives.

Evaluation of texture parameters for the quantitative description of multimodal nonlinear optical images from atherosclerotic rabbit arteries.

The composition and structure of atherosclerotic lesions can be directly related to the risk they pose to the patient. Multimodal nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy provides a powerful means to visualize the major extracellular components of the plaque that critically determine its structure. Textural features extracted from NLO images were investigated for their utility in providing quantitative descriptors of structural and compositional changes associated with plaque development.

Preparing the nurse scientist for academia and industry.

The number of doctoral programs in nursing has been increasing. However, these programs tend to focus on preparing nurse scientists to conduct research, and many spend little time preparing doctoral students for the educator, clinical researcher, or administrator role. Leaders of doctoral programs have identified the need to prepare doctoral students in the functional roles they will assume upon graduation, in addition to the researcher role.

Differentiating atherosclerotic plaque burden in arterial tissues using femtosecond CARS-based multimodal nonlinear optical imaging.

A femtosecond CARS-based nonlinear optical microscope was used to simultaneously image extracellular structural proteins and lipid-rich structures within intact aortic tissue obtained from myocardial infarction-prone Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits (WHHLMI). Clear differences in the NLO microscopic images were observed between healthy arterial tissue and regions dominated by atherosclerotic lesions. In the current ex-vivo study, we present a single parameter based on intensity changes derived from multi-channel NLO image to classify plaque burden within the vessel.

Assessment of local hemodynamics in periodontal inflammation using optical spectroscopy.

Background: Among the newly emerging diagnostic approaches for periodontitis, optical spectroscopy is a promising complementary diagnostic tool. The objective of this study is to verify the reproducibility of this method at a geographically distinct location (Suzhou, China) to a broader patient population using similar instrumentation to that in a previous report.

Methods: Using a portable optical near-infrared spectrometer, optical spectra were obtained, processed, and evaluated from healthy (n = 62), gingivitis (n = 98), and periodontitis (n = 47) sites from a total of 51 patients.

The future of baccalaureate degrees for nurses.

PROBLEM.  Unlike other professional healthcare disciplines, the profession of nursing has multiple levels of entry. Recently, several states have proposed legislation to mandate completion of baccalaureate education after 10 years of nursing licensure.

Multimodal nonlinear optical imaging of atherosclerotic plaque development in myocardial infarction-prone rabbits.

Label-free imaging of bulk arterial tissue is demonstrated using a multimodal nonlinear optical microscope based on a photonic crystal fiber and a single femtosecond oscillator operating at 800 nm. Colocalized imaging of extracellular elastin fibers, fibrillar collagen, and lipid-rich structures within aortic tissue obtained from atherosclerosis-prone myocardial infarction-prone Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHLMI) rabbits is demonstrated through two-photon excited fluorescence, second harmonic generation, and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, respectively. These images are shown to differentiate healthy arterial wall, early atherosclerotic lesions, and advanced plaques.

Infusing gerontological nursing content into advanced practice nursing education.

The inclusion of gerontology content in the nursing curriculum is paramount as our population of older adults grows. As one of 10 recipients of the John A. Hartford Foundation/AACN awards for Enhancing Gerontological and Geriatric Nursing Education for Advanced Practice Nursing Programs, we successfully integrated gerontological/ geriatric content throughout core courses for all concentrations taught at the master's level.

Assessment of skin flaps using optically based methods for measuring blood flow and oxygenation.

The objective of this study was to compare two noninvasive techniques, laser Doppler and optical spectroscopy, for monitoring hemodynamic changes in skin flaps. Animal models for assessing these changes in microvascular free flaps and pedicle flaps were investigated. A 2 x 3-cm free flap model based on the epigastric vein-artery pair and a reversed MacFarlane 3 x 10-cm pedicle flap model were used in this study.

Expansion of nurse anesthesia educational programs: where are the barriers?

CRNAs have been a major contributor to direct patient anesthesia care for more than 100 years. All indicators suggest a greater need for nurse anesthetist services in the future. Our ability to meet this increased demand will depend on wise decisions in accreditation and professional agendas and support of all CRNAs in this critical issue.

Use of writing portfolios for interdisciplinary assessment of critical thinking outcomes of nursing students.

This article discusses an interdisciplinary research project in which faculty from nursing and english collaborated in the assessment of students' critical thinking skills as reflected in writing portfolios. Faculty reviewed students' writing portfolios and then corresponded on email from two different universities about evidence of critical thinking in the portfolios. Findings suggest that writing portfolios can provide important evidence of critical thinking outcomes.

Searching for a dean: getting the qualities you want.

The committee had a strong sense of accomplishment when they submitted the names to the Provost. Both the process and the screening tool worked well for the search process.

Quality of life in elderly renovascular hypertensive patients.

This study assessed perceived quality of life in elderly, surgically managed renovascular hypertension patients. Twenty-three patients, aged 55 to 90 years, with unilateral or bilateral aortorenal bypass grafting or transrenal or transaortic endarterectomy, participated in the study. The Sickness Impact Profile was used to measure perceived quality of life.

Faculty research productivity and organizational structure in schools of nursing.

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between faculty research productivity and organizational structure in schools of nursing. The need for nursing research has been widely recognized by members of the nursing profession, yet comparatively few engage in conducting research. Although contextual variables have been investigated that facilitate or inhibit nursing research, the relationship between organizational structure and nursing research productivity has not been examined.

Patterns of rural hospital closure in the United States.

This is a case-control study of rural hospitals which closed between 1970 and 1980. Nonmetropolitan hospitals which closed were matched with a comparable set of hospitals which remained open, yielding 148 closures (cases) and 310 controls. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicate that closed hospitals differ from open hospitals in their internal characteristics, and that their geographical service areas also are significantly different.