Interprofessional "on-call" e-learning for family nurse practitioner students: Preparing for primary care across the life span.

Background And Purpose: Nurse practitioners (NPs) are expected to fill gaps in providing primary care in the United States and need vital skills to meet the growing need for primary care providers. One necessary skill is managing "on-call" clinical questions/concerns by patients across the life span. To date, there are no published studies that address "on-call" simulations for family NP (FNP) students across the life span.

Managing Celiac Disease for Women: Implications for the Primary Care Provider.

Although many people have symptoms of celiac disease, it can take a while to diagnose. Villous atrophy may be present long before any gastrointestinal symptoms. An important point to acknowledge is that celiac disease could be identified earlier in some women with a positive family history.

Managing Sjogren's Syndrome.

There are approximately 4 million Americans diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome. This article discusses the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnostics, and implications for home care clinicians who may encounter patients with this syndrome. Chronic pain is discussed as well as interventions to manage symptoms such fatigue, dry eyes mouth and skin.

Nurses' Knowledge of Heart Failure: Implications for Decreasing 30-Day Re-Admission Rates.

Heart failure affects 5.1 million Americans. It is the leading cause of hospitalization in older adults and the most common cause of readmissions, which cost approximately $12 billion annually.

Simulation Pedagogy With Nurse Practitioner Students: Impact of Receiving Immediate Individualized Faculty Feedback.

Family nurse practitioner (FNP) students must achieve basic competency in managing patients' primary care needs across the lifespan. Students in the FNP program have simulations integrated throughout their clinical theory courses to increase practice time with various patient cases. Students who received individualized faculty feedback immediately after self-evaluation of simulation performance showed statistically significantly increased knowledge (as evidenced by higher grades in course examinations and preceptor evaluations) than a control group of students who received feedback in a group class via a rubric grading guide 2-4 weeks after all students completed their individual simulations.

Transforming doctoral education through the clinical electronic portfolio.

The DNP is a terminal degree focusing on the preparation of expert clinicians with advanced leadership, evidence-based practice, and systems management skills. An electronic clinical portfolio (e-portfolio) allows students to showcase their individual experiences, provides an objective measure of their achievement, and demonstrates integration of the core doctoral competencies within each specialty. The purpose of this article was to describe the development of an e-portfolio and provide general guidelines for successful implementation and evaluation.

Seeing the forest and the trees: increasing nurse practitioner students' observational and mindfulness skills.

Accurate, objective observation is a critical component of clinical diagnosis and patient management, which in turn is essential for successful diagnostic reasoning by advanced practice nurses. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to enhance nurse practitioner students' observation and reflective thinking skills using Looking Is Not Seeing, a reflective practice/experiential learning technique that uses art objects to teach observation (Pellico, Friedlaender, & Fennie, 2009). Students' posttest observation and interpretation scores showed statistically significant improvement over pretest scores.

Promoting nursing students' understanding and reflection on cultural awareness with older adults in home care.

It is important for nursing programs to use culturally focused activities to increase student preparation in caring for diverse older adults in their homes. The purpose of this study was to examine strategies that promote students' reflection on cultural awareness using home care-focused case studies, simulations, and self-reflective writing activities. Cases and simulations were designed to depict diverse patients living at home with a variety of demographic characteristics, such as health history, age, culture, religion, dietary preferences, marital status, family involvement, and socioeconomic status.

Validity and reliability of the geriatric sexuality inventory.

Effective health care for older adults requires that providers assess and manage sexual health needs with high priority. This assessment begins with an effective sexuality assessment tool. A two-step, research approach was undertaken to develop and test the Geriatric Sexuality Inventory (GSI).

Nursing students identify fears regarding working with diverse critically ill patients: development of guidelines for caring for diverse critically ill older adults.

Undergraduate students need to gain more exposure to communicating, assessing, and planning appropriate care and evaluating outcomes of care with diverse critically ill geriatric patients. This project developed teaching strategies that facilitated additional opportunities for gaining these valuable learning experiences for students. Nurse educators can use the Guidelines for Caring for Diverse Critically Ill Older Adults, the case study and simulation examples, and topical outline to assist them in teaching critical care students and nurses about diverse critically ill older adults.

Course strategies for clinical nurse leader development.

The scope of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) is evolving in practice across the country. The preparation of this pivotal role in a complex healthcare environment has prompted the collaboration of nurse academics, nurse administrators, and clinicians to design unique educational experiences to maximize best practice. Knowledge attained regarding healthcare improvement and patient safety must not only be theoretical, but personal and application focused.

Celiac disease: implications for patient management.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that is known specifically for causing inflammation of the mucosa in the small intestine. Through multiple diagnostic and screening tools such as small intestinal biopsy sample, serological testing, and human leukocyte antigen testing, healthcare providers can diagnose this disease that contains components related to genetic predisposition and intake of gluten proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. There are some who believe that having an autoimmune disease may predispose one to acquiring another disease.

Innovative solutions: using case studies to generate increased nurse's clinical decision-making ability in critical care.

Learning to care for critically ill patients requires a high level of critical thinking, clinical decision-making ability, and a substantial knowledge base. At this nursing school, an elective Critical Care Nursing course for last-semester seniors was designed to include active learning strategies, focusing on the use of case studies to facilitate learning. Results indicate significantly improved final examination scores for those involved with the case-study pedagogy.

Assessment of advanced practice palliative care nursing competencies in nurse practitioner students: implications for the integration of ELNEC curricular modules.

Advanced practice nurses (APRNs) have key roles in the care of patients who are nearing death and those living with a disabling chronic disease. This article describes a mixed-method formative assessment of 36 graduate nursing students' knowledge about and attitudes toward palliative care preliminary to curricular integration of the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) graduate core modules. Students' knowledge about palliative care was assessed using the 106-item ELNEC examination.

Peering: the essence of collaborative mentoring in critical care.

To provide and sustain high-quality patient care, nurses must collaborate and gain strength and vision for the future from their peers, young and old. It is known that mentoring assists all people, both mentors and mentees, to be better than what they would be by themselves. This underlying philosophy seems to improve recruitment and retention of staff by fostering a collegial and respectful unit culture.

Integration of end-of-life care content in undergraduate nursing curricula: student knowledge and perceptions.

Studies indicate that nurses spend more time with patients at the end of life than any other health care discipline (K. M. Foley & H.

Teaching about cardiac emergencies: implications for maternal/child nurse educators.

Women with comorbidities and obesity and aging women are presenting obstetrical challenges to healthcare providers. Cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction, spontaneous coronary artery dissection, and stroke on obstetrical units are not as rare as they may have been even 5 years ago. Early recognition and treatment of these maladies can assist in decreasing the mortality of both the mother and unborn baby.

Managing the threat of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in home care.

Severe fatal complications such as pneumonia, cutaneous abscesses, empyema, necrotizing fasciitis, and sepsis can result from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) even for healthy people. An overview of managing the threat of MRSA in home care is presented. The home healthcare nurse can be proactive with MRSA infections by following and teaching strict medical asepsis while assessing the slightest signs and symptoms indicating that a patient is deteriorating or not responding to the prescribed antibiotic or wound care.

Integrating spirituality into undergraduate nursing curricula.

Nursing programs have done a commendable job keeping pace with the rapid advances in disease management. Yet, spirituality has received far less attention in nursing curricula (Keefe, 2005) and nursing students often do not have a strong foundation in this area. The purpose of this project was to integrate spirituality into the undergraduate nursing curricula and measure student outcomes related to spiritual knowledge and attitudes.

A comprehensive guide to patient-focused management strategies for Crohn disease.

In Crohn disease, a vigorous inflammatory cascade is caused by the overactivation of helper T-cells in the gastrointestinal system. The results of this inflammation manifest themselves as the symptoms of Crohn disease. This article describes the pathophysiology of Crohn disease as well as multiple pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions that may assist patients with Crohn disease in preventing exacerbations and maintaining longer remissions.

Assisting critical care nurses in acquiring leadership skills: development of a leadership and management competency checklist.

Critical care nurses need to be more effective leaders and managers in healthcare. Delivering quality and cost-effective patient outcomes have become goals of all nurses. To achieve these goals, nurses must practice and attain leadership ability.

Development, implementation, and evaluation of a geriatric nurse education program.

Substantial gaps exist between the number of older adults requiring competent geriatric care and the number of nurses able to provide it. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate a geriatric nurse education program to ensure nurses meet the needs of the increasing elderly population. Establishing partnerships between individuals in academia and those in a clinical practice was imperative in the development of the program.

Theories of aging as basis for assessment.

Based on biopsychosocial theories of aging, a tool was developed to assist nurses in conducting holistic adult admission assessments. The Adult Assessment Tool can facilitate comprehensive, best-practice decisions in caring for hospitalized middle-aged and older adults.