A scoping review of environmental health nursing research.

Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to determine the extent and focus of published environmental health nursing research.

Design And Sample: The search was limited to peer reviewed, English-language environmental health nursing research with at least one nursing author, published between 1995 and 2015 in a nursing journal, and catalogued in CINAHL.

Results: Publication of the 548 identified articles occurred in 118 different nursing journals.

Public Health Nursing Position Descriptions Congruence with ANA Standards, Public Health Essential Services, and Quad Council Domains.

Objective: To map position descriptions (PDs) for staff public health (PH) nurses to two national frameworks for PH nursing and one framework for PH.

Design And Sample: This descriptive study included PDs (N = 161) from 66 Ohio local health departments.

Measures: Statements in each PD were analyzed for congruence with the twenty 2007 American Nurses Association Public Health Nursing Standards/Substandards (ANA Standards), the 10 Essential Services of Public Health (ES), and the eight 2003 Quad Council Public Health Nursing Skills Domains (QC domains).

The impact of an urban home-based intervention program on asthma outcomes in children.

Objectives: This program evaluation examines the outcomes of a multicomponent urban home-based asthma program implemented through a city health department in a large Midwestern city. The purpose of the program was to improve asthma outcomes by controlling indoor asthma triggers in the home environment.

Design And Sample: This was a pre-post evaluation study.

Congruence between position descriptions for public health nursing directors and supervisors with national professional standards and competencies.

Objectives: This study described the extent to which position descriptions (PDs) for public health directors of nursing (DONs) and non-DON public health nursing (PHN) supervisors in Ohio local health departments incorporate national standards of PHN practice and competencies for public health managers.

Design: Ninety-four PDs were obtained from 66 local health departments. Statements in each PD were analyzed for congruence with the 2007 American Nurses Association Public Health Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice (ANA Standards) and the Council on Linkages Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals (COL Competencies).

Home environmental hazard education for undergraduate and prelicensure nursing students.

This paper presents a Healthy Homes education module for undergraduate and prelicensure nursing students. The education module, which is based on the National Center for Healthy Housing's framework for Healthy Homes, was developed, implemented, and evaluated in three phases. Phase 1 included nine Web-based recorded lectures on the Healthy Homes principles and on home assessment and referral.

Public health nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding climate change.

Background: Climate change affects human health, and health departments are urged to act to reduce the severity of these impacts. Yet little is known about the perspective of public health nurses--the largest component of the public health workforce--regarding their roles in addressing health impacts of climate change.

Objectives: We determined the knowledge and attitudes of public health nurses concerning climate change and the role of public health nursing in divisions of health departments in addressing health-related impacts of climate change.

Regional differences as barriers to body mass index screening described by Ohio school nurses.

Background: Body mass index (BMI) screening is advocated by the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). Research identifying barriers to BMI screening in public elementary school settings has been sparse. The purpose of the study was to identify barriers and facilitating factors of BMI screening practices among Ohio school nurses working in suburban, rural, and urban public elementary schools.

Impact of an urban healthy homes intervention.

In the study described in this article, the authors evaluated the impact of an urban Healthy Homes intervention that included educational home visits. Their one-group, pre-post design used a structured interview at baseline and postintervention. The sample (N = 84) was comprised of low-income children younger than 18 years of age with an asthma diagnosis or with an asthmatic mother.

What young African American women want in a health care provider.

The Institute of Medicine's report on racial and ethnic disparities in health care encourages enhancing patient-provider relationships by building trust. We explored factors important to 19- to 24-year-old African American women (N = 40) in choosing a health care provider. Eight focus groups were held in seven Ohio counties.

Facilitating factors and barriers to BMI screening in schools.

The National Association of School Nurses advocates for body mass index (BMI) screening. Little research describes school nurse practice of BMI screening. In this descriptive study, 25 Ohio school nurses participated in three focus groups.

Using mixed methods to evaluate the Pediatric Lead Assessment Network Education Training Program (PLANET).

The Pediatric Lead Assessment Network Education Training Program (PLANET) is a peer-to-peer in-person 1-hr lead poisoning prevention educational program for health professionals. This evaluation was designed to determine the impact of the PLANET program. Evaluation methods included analyzing data from PLANET sign-in sheets, evaluation forms, pre/postknowledge tests, claims data, and focus groups (FGs) and interviews (IVs) with PLANET attendees and nonattendees.

The Precautionary Principle, public health, and public health nursing.

The Precautionary Principle posits that, in the absence of certainty, the appropriate course of action is to err on the side of caution. The Principle has been applied to decision making and policy development related to environmental health issues both internationally and in the United States. The American Public Health Association and the American Nurses Association (ANA) have issued policy statements that invoke the Precautionary Principle, and the Principle has been incorporated into statements that describe the practice of public health nursing.

Comparison of parental report of blood lead testing in children enrolled in Medicaid with Medicaid claims data and blood lead surveillance reports.

The purposes of this study were to identify the congruence of blood lead testing based on parental self-reports with Medicaid claims and blood lead surveillance records, and to determine factors associated with agreement between parental reports of blood lead tests and Medicaid claims or blood lead surveillance records. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional mailed survey of a randomly selected sample of parents of children 1-2 years old enrolled in Medicaid (n=532) and from existing Medicaid claims and blood lead surveillance records. Fifty-six percent of survey respondents reported their child had a blood lead test completed.

A cohort study of former and current Medicaid recipients in two North Carolina counties, 1996-1999.

This article presents findings of a 1998-99 resurvey of Medicaid recipients (adults and children) who were first surveyed in 1996 in Mecklenburg and New Hanover Counties in North Carolina. It reports the insurance status and health care of former Medicaid recipients and compares them with those still on Medicaid in 1998-99 in respect to access to care and satisfaction. Just under half of those who had left Medicaid were without employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) at the time of the second survey.

Caring for patients under Medicaid mandatory managed care: perspectives of primary care physicians.

The purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of primary care physicians caring for Medicaid recipients in a demonstration mandatory health maintenance organization (HMO) managed care program. The authors collected data through semistructured individual or focus group interviews with 14 physicians and through interviews with the chief executive officers of the three HMOs participating in the demonstration program. Interview questions, developed initially from a review of the literature, addressed physicians' experiences as primary care providers for Medicaid recipients under traditional fee-for-service and under managed care arrangements through the demonstration program.