Survey to child/adolescent psychiatry and developmental/behavioral pediatric training directors to expand psychiatric-mental health training to nurse practitioners.

Background: There is an ongoing shortage of child mental health professionals. Nurse practitioners (NPs) who completed behavioral and mental health training have proven that they can diagnose and manage many pediatric problems.

Purpose: To ask the training directors of both child/adolescent psychiatry (CAP) and developmental/behavioral pediatric (DBP) programs about their receptivity and willingness to give additional training for NPs who provide care to children with behavioral and mental health issues and examine the main obstacles to the development of such programs.

A Health-Related Quality of Life Measure for Older Adolescents With Asthma: Child Health Survey for Asthma-T (Teen Version).

Background: Although adolescent substance use can have direct effects on asthma symptoms and interact with medications used to treat asthma, no validated health-related quality of life (HRQL) instrument exists for adolescents 17 to 19 years of age with asthma.

Purpose: The American Academy of Pediatric's HRQL instrument, the Child Health Survey for Asthma (CHSA)-Child version, was modified with a substance use subscale to address outcomes specific to adolescents ages 17 to 19 years with asthma.

Methods: Two cohorts (N = 70) were recruited for instrument testing at pediatric primary care practices and two university clinics.

Managing asthma during pregnancy.

Purpose: Pregnant women with asthma have many concerns about their respiratory health, as well as the health of their baby. A woman's respiratory system experiences many physiological changes during pregnancy and when a diagnosis of asthma is present, the clinical effect of pregnancy on asthma is variable. Regardless of disease years, when asthma patients become pregnant, both patients and healthcare providers want to know how pregnancy affects asthma and how asthma may affect pregnancy outcomes.

National Asthma Education Prevention Program: survey of nurse practitioners' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

Introduction: Much has been written regarding poor physician adherence to the National Asthma Education, Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines, but no data are available regarding nurse practitioners (NP) adherence. This descriptive study compared NP adherence to figures reported for medical doctors (MDs) in the 2001 and 2007 analyses by Cabana and colleagues.

Method: A national, cross-sectional survey approach was used to assess NP knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding the NAEPP guidelines.

A substance use decision aid for medically at-risk adolescents: results of a randomized controlled trial for cancer-surviving adolescents.

Background: Adolescent survivors of childhood cancer engage in risky behaviors.

Objective: This study tested a decision aid for cancer-surviving adolescents aimed at difficult decisions related to engaging in substance use behaviors.

Methods: This randomized controlled trial recruited 243 teen survivors at 3 cancer centers.

An intervention to change clinician behavior: Conceptual framework for the multicolored simplified asthma guideline reminder (MSAGR).

Clinical practice guidelines decrease variation in health care because they standardize the care offered by healthcare providers. Seventeen years after publication, the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) guidelines are considered the "gold standard" in asthma care, yet they remain underutilized despite three revisions with the latest in July 2007. Multiple factors are presented for lack of adherence to the guidelines.