Engaging patients through your website.

Legislation requires the healthcare industry to directly engage patients through technology. This paper proposes a model that can be used to review hospital websites for features that engage patients in their healthcare. The model describes four levels of patient engagement in website design.

A pilot study examining exercise self-efficacy as a mediator for walking behavior in college-age women.

This pilot study examined the possible mediation of walking behavior by exercise self-efficacy in an Internet-delivered intervention in a sample of college-age women. Exercise self-efficacy did not mediate walking behavior as determined using nonparametric bootstrapping methods.

Evaluating a modified exercise self-efficacy scale for college-age women.

This pilot study examined test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities of original and modified formats of the Exercise Self-efficacy Scale in college-age women. 30 completed original and modified versions of the scale. Data from both tests, administered 1 wk.

Computer competencies in a BSN program.

Beginning nurses need informatics skills to work efficiently in an environment that increasingly relies on information technology to promote patient safety. In addition, a federal order mandates that all Americans have an electronic medical record by 2014. Nursing programs must integrate informatics content into their curricula to prepare nurses to use information technology.

Prescription drug re-importation: a balanced look.

The rising cost of prescription drugs has decreased access for some older adults to purchase needed medications. For this reason, some older adults are purchasing prescriptions from foreign and Internet mail-order sites. There are two main concerns related to drug re-importation--price and safety.

A 6-month pilot study of effects of a physical activity intervention on life satisfaction with a sample of three generations of women.

This pilot study assessed possible changes in Life Satisfaction across three generations of women after a 6-mo. physical activity intervention. The primary purpose of the study was to test the study design and discover critical issues that should be controlled for or changed in a follow-up study.

Generations Exercising Together to Improve Fitness (GET FIT): a pilot study designed to increase physical activity and improve health-related fitness in three generations of women.

A 6-month home-based (HB) physical activity program was compared to a control (CTL) condition in terms of effect on physical activity and health-related fitness in three generations of women (daughter/ mother/maternal grandmother). Volunteers were randomly assigned to a HB or CTL condition. HB participants (n = 28) were asked to participate in lifestyle, aerobic, muscular strength, and flexibility activities at least 3 times per week and they completed 73% of the recommended PA bouts.