Relationship Between Environmental Air Quality and Congenital Heart Defects.

Background: Congenital heart defects (CHDs) affect 40,000 U.S. infants annually.

Evaluation of methods used to verify nasogastric feeding tube placement in hospitalized infants and children - A follow-up study.

Background: Nasogastric (NG) feeding tubes are used to deliver nutrition, hydration, and medications to hospitalized infants and children but the ongoing use of non-evidence-based practice (EBP) methods to confirm NG tube (NGT) placement has been associated with adverse patient events.

Methods: A study was undertaken to ascertain if practice changes have occurred since findings from a previous study were published by the New Opportunities for Verification of Enteral tube Location (NOVEL) project. The NOVEL project was an initiative of the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).

Pediatric Nasogastric Tube Placement and Verification: Best Practice Recommendations From the NOVEL Project.

The placement of a nasogastric tube (NGT) in a pediatric patient is a common practice that is generally perceived as a benign bedside procedure. There is potential risk for NGT misplacement with each insertion. A misplaced NGT compromises patient safety, increasing the risk for serious and even fatal complications.

Pediatric Nasogastric Tubes in the Home: Recommendations for Practice.

One of the dilemmas facing home healthcare nurses is the placement of a nasogastric tube (NGT) in the home setting coupled with being assured and confident that the NGT tip is in the correct position, that is, the stomach. There are very limited data to address the issue of management of an NGT in the home care setting with even less guidance for the pediatric population. Therefore, home healthcare nurses must use agency policy and procedures coupled with their own education, knowledge, experience, and skills when performing this procedure.

Current Practices in Home Management of Nasogastric Tube Placement in Pediatric Patients: A Survey of Parents and Homecare Providers.

Unlabelled: Enteral feeding tubes are used in pediatric patients to deliver nutrition, fluids or medications. The literature related to short-term feeding tube (nasogastric [NG], hereafter known as NGT, or orogastric [OGT],) use in pediatric homecare patients is sparse. This descriptive study sought to gather baseline information about these children and how their feeding tubes are managed at home.

Use of Temporary Enteral Access Devices in Hospitalized Neonatal and Pediatric Patients in the United States.

Background: Temporary enteral access devices (EADs), such as nasogastric (NG), orogastric (OG), and postpyloric (PP), are used in pediatric and neonatal patients to administer nutrition, fluids, and medications. While the use of these temporary EADs is common in pediatric care, it is not known how often these devices are used, what inpatient locations have the highest usage, what size tube is used for a given weight or age of patient, and how placement is verified per hospital policy.

Materials And Methods: This was a multicenter 1-day prevalence study.

An Interactive Evaluation of Patient/Family Centered Rounds on Pediatric Inpatient Units.

In order to provide excellent patient care and customer service, patient rounds should be efficient, effective, and timely. Also, essential healthcare team members should be present in rounds, to ensure interprofessional collaboration. Patients and families should also be included in rounds, to ensure accurate information is relayed and to ensure involvement in care planning.

An impact evaluation of a newly developed pediatric cardiac intensive care unit.

Purpose: The highly complex pediatric patients with congenital heart disease require interprofessional teamwork and collaboration to ensure high-quality outcomes with low mortality and morbidity (Congenit Heart Dis. 2013;8:3-19). The purpose of this study was to conduct an impact evaluation for a newly formed pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU) and to answer: Is there a difference between the pediatric intensive care unit and the PCICU on clinical outcome measures of pediatric cardiac postoperative patients and nursing resources?

Design: A retrospective pretest/posttest design was used with the independent variables being type of intensive care unit.

A call to action: the development of enteral access safety teams.

Safety concerns regarding the verification of nasogastric feeding tube placement prompted the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition to call for an interdisciplinary, interorganizational group to work on best practices and new technologies to address this issue in pediatric patients. This commentary calls for the development of specialized teams within hospitals to improve the quality of care provided to children and infants who require nasogastric feeding tubes. It is expands on the information presented in an article in the issue by Irving et al regarding the current status of nasogastric tube placement and verification methods.

Nasogastric tube placement and verification in children: review of the current literature.

Placement of a nasogastric enteral access device (NG-EAD), often referred to as a nasogastric tube, is a common practice and largely in the domain of nursing care. Most often an NG-EAD is placed at the bedside without radiographic assistance. Correct initial placement and ongoing location verification are the primary challenges surrounding NG-EAD use and have implications for patient safety.

Nasogastric tube placement and verification in children: review of the current literature.

Placement of a nasogastric enteral access device (NG-EAD), often referred to as a nasogastric tube, is common practice and largely in the domain of nursing care. Most often an NG-EAD is placed at the bedside without radiographic assistance. Correct initial placement and ongoing location verification are the primary challenges surrounding NG-EAD use and have implications for patient safety.

Assessing knowledge of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome among African American women in two Mississippi communities.

Purpose: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the third leading cause of Mississippi infant mortality with nonwhite infants dying of SIDS at two to three times the rate of white infants. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of SIDS related knowledge among African American women in two geographical areas of Mississippi and gain insight on improving methods for SIDS education and outreach.

Design: An African American faculty was contracted to conduct six focus groups among African American women (n = 57) in two geographical areas of the state.

Integrated community education model: breast health awareness to impact late-stage breast cancer.

Race and ethnicity play roles in breast cancer mortality, particularly for African American women. As a result, a three-pronged integrated community education model (i.e.

Stemming the tide of childhood obesity in an underserved urban African American population: a pilot study.

Recent data indicate that Americans are gaining weight at an alarming rate. It is estimated that over 12 million American children ages 2-19 years are overweight, with African American (AA) children comprising 20% of this cohort. The problem of obesity appears to be more prominent in some southern states.

Enhancing nursing students' clinical experiences using aesthetics.

Traditional nursing education is based strongly in empiric knowledge. However, just as important as empiric knowledge is aesthetic knowledge. Nursing involves multiple ways of knowing, and as such, educational institutions have a responsibility to assist students in gaining knowledge in nontraditonal ways.

Recruitment, retention and matriculation of ethnic minority nursing students: a University of Mississippi School of Nursing approach.

According to Bednash (2000), the future of health care pivots on an adequate supply of appropriately educated and skilled professional registered nurses. Recognizing the long history of and the struggles by African-American (AA) nurses for education and equality in the nursing profession, it is essential that more African-American students be recruited, retained, and matriculated into the profession of nursing. African-American nurses have always contributed to the care of the poor and the sick and played a decisive role in the improvement of the health of their communities.

Childhood obesity reduction by school based programs.

Childhood obesity has become one of the most common health problems facing children in America. Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reveal that ethnic minority children in the United States are at particular risk for development of cardiovascular disease due to their disproportionate levels of obesity. In treating childhood obesity among ethnic minorities, practitioners need to be mindful of the cultural norms surrounding body size.