Food security, maternal feeding practices and child weight-for-length.

Background: Over consumption of energy-dense nutrient-poor foods may contribute to childhood obesity. We hypothesized that greater than recommended servings of sugar sweetened beverages and foods, indicators of food security, and a high maternal recumbent weight-for-length are positively associated with high percentages of child overweight/obesity.

Methods: This secondary data analysis consisted of a sample of 240 mother-child dyads.

Reduced breastfeeding rates among obese mothers: a review of contributing factors, clinical considerations and future directions.

Maternal obesity is associated with significantly lower rates of breastfeeding initiation, duration and exclusivity. Increasing rates of obesity among reproductive-age women has prompted the need to carefully examine factors contributing to lower breastfeeding rates in this population. Recent research has demonstrated a significant impact of breastfeeding to reduce the risk of obesity in both mothers and their children.

We stop for no storm: coping with an environmental disaster and public health research.

Coping with natural disasters is part of the public nurses' role, and the public health nursing (PHN) researcher is doubly challenged with continuing to conduct community-based research in the midst of the disaster. The PHN may provide service along with attempting to continue the research. The challenges faced by public/community health nurse researchers as a result of hurricane Ike are discussed to provide lessons for other public/community health researchers who may be affected by natural disasters in the future.

Community-Acquired Infection: Awareness and Clinical Implications.

The epidemiology of infection is changing. CDI, usually depicted as a nosocomial infection in the elderly, is now occurring in community-dwelling persons who are younger and otherwise dissimilar. A more virulent isolate (North American Pulsed Field type (NAP) associated with increased morbidity and mortality, has been identified.

Low-income Euro-American mothers' perceptions of health and self-care practices.

Objective: Health promotion activities may decrease preventable diseases and health system overuse. This study examined how low-income Euro-American mothers described their health/wellness, self-care practices (SCP), and SCP benefits, barriers, and interpersonal influences (norms, modeling, and social support) affecting their SCP.

Design And Sample: This descriptive qualitative study used a convenience sample of 10 low-income, English-speaking mothers, 25-43 years old, seeking women's/children's health services at a large urban Texas health clinic.

Nurses' intentions to respond to bioterrorism and other infectious disease emergencies.

Although nurses historically have responded to natural disasters, little is known about nurses' intentions to respond during bioterrorism and other infectious disease emergencies where they and their families may be at risk. To investigate that question, we surveyed nurses following their participation in a class on bioterrorism. Participants (N = 292) completed a Personal/Professional Profile (PPP), Test of Bioterrorism Knowledge (BT Knowledge), and an Intention to Respond (IR) instrument.

Perceptions of health and self-care learning needs of outpatients with HIV/AIDS.

Health promotion increases healthy behaviors, enhances health status, and decreases health care costs of chronically ill persons. As HIV has become a chronic illness, many HIV-positive persons may have health learning needs that affect their behaviors, health status, and health care costs. Health learning needs may be general or HIV specific.

Being a supportive presence in online courses: attending to students' online presence with each other.

As a teacher involved in distance education, being a supportive presence includes attending to and facilitating students' knowing and connecting with other. This creates places for learning that are safe, fair, and respectful, which reflects the concerns of the interpretive pedagogies (Diekelmann & Diekelmann, in press). Reflecting a larger issue is the importance of contemporary nurses' knowing and connecting with other team members, and with patients, online in ways that engender community and achieve desired outcomes.

Being a supportive presence in online courses: knowing and connecting with students through writing.

Enacting Narrative Pedagogy, teachers often reflect on how practices, such as knowing and connecting, influence the nature of the experiences they co-create with students. There is a reciprocity in the tone of both students' and teachers' communication-in both classroom and online environments. Through attention to how teachers know and connect with students, the words and phrases they use can help put students at ease and preserve a continual future openness for learning.

A comparative analysis of the changes in nursing practice related to health sector reform in five countries of the Americas.

Objective: To identify changes in nursing practice and the nursing-practice environment that have occurred with implementation of health sector reform in five countries in the Americas.

Methods: An exploratory study of selected settings in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States of America was conducted between 1997 and 1999 to collect narrative data from 125 professional nurses about their perceptions of nursing practice and changes in work environments. Descriptions of characteristics and trends in nursing practice in the study sites were also obtained.

Women's self-perception and self-care practice: implications for health care delivery.

Mexican American women experience unique health care needs related to integration of Mexican and American cultures. To learn how to better promote self-care practices and service utilization in women of Mexican origin living in Texas, researchers used a qualitative approach to interview a convenience sample of 11 low-income women attending a health clinic. Researchers collected narrative data about the women's perceptions of health, wellness, and self-care.

Assessing culturally competent scholarship.

Cultural competence is a necessity for nursing practice in a global society, and use of objective criteria to measure cultural competence is a critical need. We used Meleis's eight criteria for assessing culturally competent scholarship as an analytical framework for reviewing an international educational/research experience. We developed operational measures for each criterion, then applied the measures to our experience, citing discrete examples for adherence.

Health professional students' occupational exposures to blood-borne pathogens: primary and secondary prevention strategies.

Health science students, along with the health professionals they hope to become, are at increased risk for certain occupational injuries and illnesses. One of these risks is occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis, which may result in severe illnesses or even death. Two case studies demonstrate postexposure care of exposed individuals at the University of Texas Medical Branch Student Health Services before and after policy changes and prevention strategies were strengthened in response to exposure incidents.