"Treat us with dignity": a qualitative study of the experiences and recommendations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients with cancer.

Purpose: Despite indications that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients have unique needs when seeking healthcare, the experiences of LGBTQ patients in the context of cancer care have not been fully explored. This qualitative study investigated recommendations offered by LGBTQ patients with cancer for improving cancer care.

Methods: Two hundred seventy-three LGBTQ people across the USA who had been diagnosed with cancer completed an online survey that included open-ended questions.

Current Trends and Practices of Intensive Care Unit Visitations.

Background: Few topics have existed for decades and created as much of a debate as when discussing appropriate visitation policies for patients. Studies have continued to document the conflicted opinions of nurses to commit to fully open visiting hours for various reasons. Family members are very definite in their desire to be at their loved one's bedside.

"Top Ten" List: A Brief Report of Adult Poisoning and Prevention Tips.

This article reviews the 10 major categories of poisoning exposures, as reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers through the national surveillance system, provides an overview of adult poisonings, and offers tips for home care clinicians to educate themselves and patients on poison exposure, prevention, and response. Home healthcare clinicians provide a critical link in the chain of home safety throughout the care continuum. The phone number for the local poison control center should be readily available in patients' homes and known to all home healthcare staff members.

How to Avoid Doctor of Nursing Practice Reality Shock 2.0: From Clinical Practice to the Classroom.

"Reality shock 1.0," which is experienced by new nursing graduates as they enter the nursing profession, has been an issue of concern for decades. Since the proliferation of multiple nursing doctoral degree programs, beginning in approximately 2004, when the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2013) recommended that the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) replace the master's degree as the minimum for advanced practice nursing, an era of reverse "reality shock 2.

Social support, self-rated health, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identity disclosure to cancer care providers.

Purpose/objectives: To describe factors related to diagnosis, identity disclosure, and social support among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) patients with cancer, and to explore associations between these factors and self-rated health.

Design: Cross-sectional self-report survey design using descriptive and exploratory multivariate statistical approaches.

Setting: Online, Internet-based.

Expanding the concept of patient care: analysis of postmortem policies in California hospitals.

Postmortem care is a component of every clinical specialty in nursing. Yet little systematic study of evidence-based practice has been done on postmortem care. This study analyzed the postmortem policies in some California hospitals in order to describe the current practice.

Teaching patient-centered care during the Silver Hour.

Teaching students and clinicians about end-of-life care is an important part of healthcare. Utilizing the framework of the Silver Hour is one method of illustrating the urgent, intense comfort needs required by patients and families throughout the imminently dying process, wherever the patient may be receiving services. When death is imminent, it is extremely important to provide patient- and family-centered care as the waning moments of life transition to the first moments of death.

Nursing students' concerns about end of life in California, Norway, and Sweden.

Aim: To investigate concerns about dying for newly admitted nursing students from California, Norway, and Sweden.

Method: A total of 389 undergraduate nursing students who had just started their nursing programme participated. Data was collected with a questionnaire that included two instruments-the Concerns about Dying instrument and the Sense of Coherence instrument-and background questions.

Teaching with technology: free Web resources for teaching and learning.

In this bimonthly series, the department editor examines how nurse educators can use Internet and Web-based computer technologies such as search, communication, collaborative writing tools; social networking, and social bookmarking sites; virtual worlds; and Web-based teaching and learning programs. In this article, the department editor and her coauthor describe free Web-based resources that can be used to support teaching and learning.

Webcasting in home and hospice care services: virtual communication in home care.

The access to free live webcasting over home computers was much more available in 2007, when three military leaders from West Point, with the purpose of helping military personnel stay connected with their families when deployed, developed Ustream.tv. There are many types of Web-based video streaming applications.

Developing new writers: answering the call for student manuscripts.

Critical-care nurses play an important role in the development of nursing students' ideas about clinical and professional issues. During a recent critical-care nursing rotation, baccalaureate nursing students learned about evidence-based practice through identifying a policy that needed revision or creation. By integrating clinical issues into an introduction to research and issues and trends, the students were able to answer a call for student abstracts.

10 organizational characteristics that may prevent falls in home healthcare and hospice.

Preventing and managing falls is essential to the safe and effective care of homebound patients. Although the causes of such falls have frequently been discussed, the role of home healthcare agency organizational culture in preventing and managing falls has not been explored. This article discusses our home healthcare agency's fall management program and presents 10 strategies to help other agencies prevent falls among their patients and manage patient care after a fall.

Using moulage to enhance educational instruction.

An understood goal of faculty when using simulations and role play as teaching strategies is to make them as realistic as possible. The author discusses moulage, a makeup technique that can be used to enhance a simulated learning experience and reinforce prior learning regarding cellular damage and repair. The use of moulage in other undergraduate didactic courses such as nursing research is presented.

Collaborative action research: implementation of cooperative learning.

Nurse educators must continually improve their teaching skills through innovation. However, research about the process used by faculty members to transform their teaching methods is limited. This collaborative study uses classroom action research to describe, analyze, and address problems encountered in implementing cooperative learning in two undergraduate nursing courses.

Web-based broadcast of simulations: expanding access to learning.

The implementation of high-fidelity simulation is often impeded by the steep learning curve for faculty and limited availability of simulation space for students. To increase faculty skill in developing simulations and student opportunity for learning through simulation, a method for Internet broadcast of simulations focused on end-of-life care was developed. The author focuses on computer technology related to simulation; the methods described are applicable to many types of staff development and nursing education.

Using high-fidelity simulation to educate nursing students about end-of-life care.

Despite some technical limitations, it is possible to give students a wide range of experiences related to pre- and postmortem care using high-fidelity simulation in a clinical skills lab. Simulations incorporating role play provide important opportunities for students to explore their own ideas about death and caring for patients who are dying. This article reports on the experience of caring for a simulated patient who dies during the scenario and interacting with a family member represented by a standardized actor.

A criminal trial simulation: pathway to transformative learning.

Simulation is gaining popularity as an instructional method in education. The authors describe the simulation of a criminal trial stemming from a medication error. The simulation took place as a collaborative effort between undergraduate and graduate faculty teaching an issues and trends course.

End-of-life preferences for atheists.

Atheists represent an understudied population in palliative care medicine. Although professional and regulatory organizations require an individualized plan of care for each patient and family, little is known about atheist preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. The aims of this pilot study were twofold: (1) to explore the EOL preferences for atheists, and (2) to apply a threefold model of spiritual care (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and natural interconnectedness) to assess the appropriateness of potential interventions for a group of atheists.

Home healthcare nurse recruitment and retention: tips for retaining nurses: one state's experience.

During March 2006, a series of statewide conferences was held to discuss home care outcomes, with a special emphasis on strategies for retaining home care nurses. Administrators and owners of home care agencies in one state with high staff retention and a low rate of turnover participated in four panel discussions to share best practices. The discussions were sponsored by TMF Health Quality Institute, the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO).