Nonpharmacologic Pain Management for Patients in Ambulatory Extended Recovery After Minimally Invasive Gynecologic and Urologic Surgery.

Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of an evidence-based postoperation nonpharmacologic pain management bundle for patients recovering from minimally invasive gynecologic and urologic surgeries.

Participants & Setting: This study focused on patients recovering from minimally invasive gynecologic and urologic surgery at a comprehensive cancer center. The first cohort consisted of patients three months preimplementation (n = 96) and the second consisted of those three months postimplementation (n = 86).

Biobehavioral Influences of Stress and Inflammation on Mucositis in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: Results from a Pilot Study.

Chemotherapy-induced mucositis is a prevalent and burdensome toxicity among adolescent and young adults (AYAs) with cancer and impedes the delivery of optimal therapy. Its development is not well understood, but baseline stress and inflammation may be contributory factors. This pilot study evaluates stress and inflammation as risk factors for mucositis, identifies effect size estimates, and evaluates the feasibility of a prospective study to investigate mucositis development.

Study Protocol to Evaluate Influences of Stress and Inflammation on Mucositis in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer.

Background: Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer diagnoses are rising, and gains in survivorship are falling behind for this age group. Dose-limiting toxicities of therapy, including mucositis, are more frequent in this age group and may be contributing to poorer survivorship. Animal models and observational studies suggest that stress and inflammation may be contributing to the high prevalence of dose-limiting mucositis in this age demographic.

Recommendations for Emergency Departments Caring for Persons with Opioid Use and Opioid Use Disorders: An Integrative Review.

Introduction: The emergency department is a primary portal to care for persons after an opioid overdose and those with an opioid use disorder. The aim of this integrative review was to provide best practice recommendations for nurses caring for this highly stigmatized and often undertreated population.

Methods: An integrative review was conducted using studies focusing on adults treated with opioid agonist-antagonist medications in the emergency department.

The Suprasellar Meningioma Patient-Reported Outcome Survey: a disease-specific patient-reported outcome measure for resection of suprasellar meningioma.

Objective: Suprasellar meningioma resection via either the transcranial approach (TCA) or the endoscopic endonasal approach (EEA) is an area of controversy and active evaluation. Skull base surgeons increasingly consider patient-reported outcomes (PROs) when choosing an approach. No PRO measure currently exists to assess quality of life for suprasellar meningiomas.

American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel consensus statement on nursing's roles in ensuring universal palliative care access.

The purpose of this consensus paper was to convene leaders and scholars from eight Expert Panels of the American Academy of Nursing and provide recommendations to advance nursing's roles and responsibility to ensure universal access to palliative care. Part I of this consensus paper herein provides the rationale and background to support the policy, education, research, and clinical practice recommendations put forward in Part II. On behalf of the Academy, the evidence-based recommendations will guide nurses, policy makers, government representatives, professional associations, and interdisciplinary and community partners to integrate palliative nursing services across health and social care settings.

Integrating Culturally Competent Advance Care Planning for Korean Immigrants: An Integrative Review.

Aims: This review aims to explore the extant literature on the current utilization of ACP in Kisin order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of their health disparities and to determineevidence-based best practices to integrate culturally-competent ACP for EOL care of KIs.

Design: A systematic integrative review of the literature Data Sources:  Four electronic databases including PubMed, the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Cochrane Library, and Embase.

Method: The detailed search strategy for databases implicated a combination of MeSHkeywords and associated terms, which can be found in Table A.

Psychosocial Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer: An Integrative Review.

Adolescents and young adults with cancer sit in a precarious position facing an increasing cancer incidence while incidence in other age groups has been declining. A cancer diagnosis at this age imposes undue distress in a demographic with limited coping resources creating psychosocial needs that differ from children and older adults. Addressing psychosocial needs early in the cancer trajectory is postulated as an approach to address distress, improve quality of life, and promote optimal outcomes from therapy.

Scrambler therapy improves pain in neuromyelitis optica: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether Scrambler therapy is an effective, acceptable, and feasible treatment of persistent central neuropathic pain in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and to explore the effect of Scrambler therapy on co-occurring symptoms.

Methods: We conducted a randomized single-blind, sham-controlled trial in patients with NMOSD who have central neuropathic pain using Scrambler therapy for 10 consecutive weekdays. Pain severity, pain interference, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance were assessed at baseline, at the end of treatment, and at the 30- and 60-day follow-up.

Advance Care Planning in Chronically Ill Persons Diagnosed With Heart Failure or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An Integrative Review.

Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) discussions help guide future medical care consistent with patient wishes. These discussions should be a part of routine care and should be readdressed frequently as a patient's medical condition changes. Limited literature exists supporting structured processes for identifying persons who may benefit from these conversations.

Educating Ambulatory Care Nurses to Address Substance Use.

Background: Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) for substance use has an impact on morbidity and mortality and health care cost.

Local Problem: Nurses in ambulatory care settings may lack knowledge about evidence-based substance use SBIRT.

Methods: A comparison of pre- and postintervention data was performed to determine whether knowledge improved and to identify facilitators and barriers to SBIRT implementation.

Evaluating the Outcomes of a Web-Based Stress Management Program for Nurses and Nursing Assistants.

Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to determine the utilization, satisfaction, and effect of a web-based stress management program for nurses and nursing assistants (NAs).

Methods: This quality improvement project provided BREATHE, a web-based stress management program that consisted of six modules that describe, identify, and help nurses manage stress for 31 nurses and NAs working on a subacute rehabilitation unit at a mid-Atlantic community hospital.

Measurements: The number of login attempts and time spent on the program were included, as were the nurse stress scale (NSS), a 34-item validated instrument that captures seven dimensions of stress, and a seven-item satisfaction survey given at the end of the modules.

How Patient Education Influences Utilization of Nonpharmacological Modalities for Persistent Pain Management: An Integrative Review.

Objectives: Opioid analgesic misuse and abuse has given rise to an epidemic that has added to an increase in opioid-related overdoses and deaths. Adults with persistent noncancer pain (PNCP) are primarily treated with opioid analgesics. Many remain on these medications long term.

Nurse-Led Delivery of Brief Interventions for At-Risk Alcohol Use: An Integrative Review.

Nurses are in key positions to reduce the global burden associated with alcohol, yet many are ill-prepared to screen for alcohol use and intervene accordingly. The purpose of this integrative review was to identify best practices for educating nurses to work with patients who are at risk for alcohol-related adverse consequences, implement alcohol screening, and deliver alcohol brief interventions (ABIs). To identify and synthesize findings from randomized control trials of ABIs delivered by nurses to patients identified through screening to be at risk because of alcohol use.

Review of Treatment for Central Spinal Neuropathic Pain and Its Effect on Quality of Life: Implications for Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder.

Objectives: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) causes disabling and persistent central neuropathic pain (NP). Because the pain syndrome in NMOSD is severe and often intractable to analgesic treatment, it interferes with quality of life in patients. No interventional trials have been published looking at response to interventions for pain in NMOSD.

Scrambler Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Central Neuropathic Pain in a Patient with Transverse Myelitis.

Central neuropathic pain is a severely disabling consequence of conditions that cause tissue damage in the central nervous system. It is often refractory to treatments commonly used for peripheral neuropathy. Scrambler therapy is an emerging noninvasive pain-modifying technique that uses transcutaneous electrical stimulation of nociceptive fibers with the intent of reorganizing maladaptive signaling pathways.

Increasing Competence in Pressure Injury Prevention Using Competency-Based Education in Adult Intensive Care Unit.

Background: There is a significant focus on pressure injury prevention to promote better patient outcomes and control health care cost.

Local Problem: In 2016, the institution's pressure injury quarterly prevalence survey showed that two-thirds of the patients surveyed who developed unit-acquired pressure injury stage 2 and greater were in the adult intensive care units.

Methods: The quality improvement project used a pre- and postintervention design.

Improving the Pain Experience for Hospitalized Patients With Cancer.

Purpose: To determine the effect of an evidence-based Pain Stoppers bundled intervention on pain management satisfaction scores and actual pain intensity scores of hospitalized patients with cancer, as well as nurses' knowledge and attitudes on pain.

Participants & Setting: Participants and nurses took part in a preintervention group (n = 173 and 11, respectively) and a postintervention group (n = 157 and 9, respectively) at a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.

Methodologic Approach: A pre- and postintervention design was used.

Descriptions of the Pain Experience in Adults and Adolescents with Cystic Fibrosis.

Background: People living with cystic fibrosis experience pain that is associated with decreased quality of life, poorer health outcomes, and increased mortality. Though pain is highly prevalent as a symptom, it is currently unknown how persons with CF describe their pain experiences or the ways those experiences impact their lives.

Aims: To explore and describe ways adolescents and adults with CF experience pain.

Scrambler Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Central Pain: A Case Report.

Central pain syndromes affect several million people worldwide. A 52-year-old woman had central pain manifest as burning pain from her left foot to the knee for 12 years after treatment for a medullary cavernoma diagnosed after a right-sided brainstem bleeding episode. All this time, her baseline pain was 5-6/10 with spikes to 9-10/10 during activity.

Differences in Coping Among African American Women With Breast Cancer and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Purpose/objectives: To determine differences in psychological distress, symptoms, coping capacity, and coping abilities among African American (AA) women with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and non-TNBC and to explore differences in relationships among these variables.
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Design: A prospective, descriptive, comparative, and correlational design.

Sex differences in sleep, anhedonia, and HPA axis activity in a rat model of chronic social defeat.

Repeated bouts of a major stressor such as social defeat are well known to induce a depression phenotype in male rats. Despite strong evidence and acknowledgement that women have a two-fold lifetime greater risk of developing major depression compared to men, the inclusion of female rats in studies employing social defeat are very rare; their absence is attributed to less aggressive interactions. This study sought to compare in male and female rats the impact of repeated social defeat, three times per week for four weeks, on the development of changes in sleep architecture and continuity, sucrose preference as a measure of anhedonia, changes in body weight, and basal plasma corticosterone levels.

The Effects of Symptoms on Quality of Life during Chemotherapy in African-American Women with Breast Cancer.

Little is known about the effects of burdensome symptoms dur- ing chemotherapy treatment in African-American women. This study explored the symptom burden occurring during chemotherapy treatment and how these symptoms impacted functional well-being and quality of life (QOL). A sample of 30 African-American women with breast cancer (BC) completed a battery of questionnaires that were used to collect the data at baseline, midpoint, and at the completion of chemotherapy.

Acute Pain and Depressive Symptoms: Independent Predictors of Insomnia Symptoms among Adults with Sickle Cell Disease.

No studies to date have systematically investigated insomnia symptoms among adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). The purpose of this study was to (1) describe the prevalence of insomnia symptoms and (2) identify biopsychosocial predictors in community-dwelling adults with SCD. Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 263 African American adults with SCD (aged 18 years or older).