Advanced Practice Nurse-Led Research: Challenges and Approaches to Digital Health Programs' Evaluation Using Big Data.

Advanced practice nurse leaders are in key positions within health systems to provide time and resources for implementation and evaluation of digital health services. As virtual monitoring programs become more embedded within nursing, nurse leaders and educators need to ensure that nurses are prepared to work within interprofessional teams to administer and evaluate them. This article discusses challenges and implementation strategy considerations for data curation and analysis using large datasets from the Medicaid population for research.

Supporting a rural wellness intervention through assessing and mapping rural physical activity environments.

Rural residents are more likely to be physically inactive than their urban counterparts and are therefore at higher risk for obesity and cardiovascular disease. Research has shown that these disparities are driven in part by the physical environment, policies, and programming in rural communities. The purpose of this study was to use the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) to assess the physical activity environment of four Midwestern towns and to develop physical activity maps to support Enhanced Win With Wellness, a community-based cardiovascular risk reduction program.

Quality of Life: A Nurse-Led Physical Activity Coaching Program to Improve the Quality of Life of Patients With Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Physical activity has been shown to mitigate many of the effects of cancer treatment, yet it often is not embraced by the patient or made part of the nursing standard of care.

Objectives: This pilot study evaluates the impact of the Oncology Nursing Society's Get Up, Get Moving program, a personalized, home-based, nurse-led physical activity coaching program.

Methods: Patients with cancer in the intervention and control groups completed the SF-36® and the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire at weeks 1 and 12.

Investigating practice-level and individual factors of advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants and their relationship to resilience.

Background: Gaps in research persist related to practitioners' resilience, although much has been written about the need for strategies to strengthen personal resilience.

Purpose: The study's purpose was to examine practice-level (quality of physician relationship, physician presence, and autonomy) and individual factors and how they affect resilience.

Methodology: An online survey invited advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and physician assistants (PAs) from four states to participate in a cross-sectional study.

Medicaid expansion and accessibility to healthcare: The Illinois experience.

Objective: The study examined the impact that the Medicaid expansion in Illinois had upon insurance rates, access to medical care, dental care, pharmaceuticals, and mental-health counseling between rural and urban counties.

Design And Sample: A serial cross-sectional design was used to assess the health perceptions of adults living in Illinois.

Measures: Survey data were collected in 2012 (n = 6,149) before the Medicaid expansion in Illinois and in 2015 (n = 3,532) after the expansion from rural (n = 4) and urban counties (n = 4).

Strategies of Advanced Practice Providers to Reduce Stress at Work.

High levels of stress and burnout, documented among healthcare professionals, result in high levels of job turnover. However, little is known about personal strategies employed by advanced practice providers (APPs) to mitigate stress. : 3,939 APPs were invited to complete an online, anonymous, cross-sectional survey to examine work stress and burnout among APPs using quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Advanced Practice Provider Perspectives on Organizational Strategies for Work Stress Reduction.

Unresolved work stress contributes to burnout, compassion fatigue, disengagement, and other work-contextualized factors. The impact of occupational stressors extends to the organization in a negative fashion as well. In 2017, advanced practice providers (APPs) from four health systems, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, and physician assistants, participated in a quantitative online cross-sectional survey; 754 participants responded to a free-text question related to work stress and work-family balance.

Exploring burnout and job stressors among advanced practice providers.

Background: Minimal research exists on how engagement, burnout, work-family balance, and job stressors impact advanced practice nurses and physician assistants, collectively referred to advanced practice providers (APPs).

Purpose: To investigate the interrelationships among burnout, job stressors, work-family balance, and engagement with APPs.

Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to APPs working in four healthcare systems.

Impacting Health through Cross-Border Pharmaceutical Purchases.

Annually, retirees known as Winter Texans travel to spend the winter along the Texas/Mexico border and while there, many purchase medicine in Mexico. However, strategies that are used when purchasing Mexican medicine and the health implications of doing so have not been adequately explored. The results of the study we report illustrate that Winter Texans are knowledgeable about their healthcare and act more as choice-making consumers than patients seeking care.

Medicaid, motherhood, and the challenges of having a healthy pregnancy amidst changing social networks.

Background: African American women with low income face various challenges to having a healthy pregnancy. Unplanned pregnancies often amplify those challenges and negatively impact women's ability to get the care that she needs. Research has shown that social networks can improve pregnancy outcomes by helping women cope with and address the problems that they face.

I am insured but how do I use my coverage: Lessons from the front lines of Medicaid reform.

Objective: When Illinois expanded Medicaid in 2014, the state also passed legislation requiring that 50% of Medicaid recipients be enrolled in a managed care plan. The purpose of this project was to identify the barriers and facilitators that Medicaid enrollees have understanding and using their managed care plans.

Design And Sample: In this descriptive study, participants included Medicaid enrollees, community workers, health care navigators, and a state health insurance representative.

Medical travel facilitators: connecting patients and providers in a globalized world.

International medical travel is a rapidly developing phenomenon that promises patients cheap and affordable medical care abroad. However, the logistics of making travel arrangements, selecting a medical provider, and evaluating quality can be a daunting task for even the most experienced traveler. At the nexus, connecting patients and providers are medical travel facilitators (MTFs), who are individuals and companies that market foreign medical care to patients.

Winter Texans and the re-creation of the American medical experience in Mexico.

Rising medical costs and decreasing health insurance coverage are fueling the health care crisis in the United States. Often, patients have to make tough decisions about whether to forgo care or risk bankruptcy. This conundrum has encouraged some patients to use Mexican health care as an alternative to the high costs in the United States.