Contemporary public image of the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia.

Background: In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the nursing profession faces significant challenges including; failure to recruit high school students into nursing education, poor nursing identity, and lack of awareness about the nursing profession. The level of community awareness and public image of the nursing profession are critical to recruit and retain students into nursing education, and to improve nurses' sense of identity.

Aim: To explore the level of community awareness and public image of the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia.

Learning and Teaching Together to Advance Evidence-Based Clinical Education: A Faculty Learning Community.

Clinical teaching is a cornerstone of health sciences education; it is also the most challenging aspect. The University of Pittsburgh Schools of Dental Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy developed a new evidence-based interprofessional course framed as a faculty learning community (FLC) around the principles of learning in a clinical environment. The aim of this study was to assess the overall effectiveness of this two-semester FLC at four health professions schools in academic year 2014-15.

Setting Kids Up for Success (SKUFS): Outcomes of an Innovation Project for Promoting Healthy Lifestyles in a Pediatric Patient-Centered Medical Home.

Introduction: The greatest increase in childhood obesity prevalence occurs from preschool to school-age (SA). Evidence supports a family-centered approach to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors and weight management among SA children. The purpose of this study was to establish a healthy weight management support group in a pediatric patient-centered medical home.

Policy support for expanding the adolescent vaccine school mandate in Pennsylvania to include the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

Approximately 27,000 men and women are affected by human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancer every year. The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) routinely recommend that adolescents receive HPV, tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis [Tdap]) and meningococcal (MCV) vaccines at age 11-12 years. Although the CDC and professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics make national vaccine recommendations, according to the National Vaccine Information Center, it is the responsibility of "state health departments to make and enforce vaccine mandates for school entry.

An Environmental Scan of the Role of Nurses in Preventing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Nurses are in an ideal position to talk to their patients of reproductive age about alcohol use and encourage the prevention of alcohol-exposed pregnancies. Effective conversations can be efficiently included in the clinical encounter to identify alcohol misuse and offer appropriate follow-up. This report presents results of an environmental scan of resources relevant to nursing professionals and nurses' role in addressing alcohol misuse.

A Call to Action to Address Barriers to Breastfeeding and Lactation Faced by Student-Mothers.

Many new mothers returning to school after childbirth face barriers within their academic settings to meeting their goals for exclusive breastfeeding. Potential barriers to breastfeeding faced by student-mothers include lack of legal protection, lack of breastfeeding-friendly university policies, inadequate availability of breastfeeding facilities, and insufficient awareness of the importance of breastfeeding among mothers, health care providers, and university administrators and faculty. Here we advocate for six action steps to help remove barriers to breastfeeding faced by student-mothers.

Testing a model of health-related quality of life in women living with HIV infection.

Purpose: The purpose of this secondary analysis was to test Ferrans et al.'s (J Nurs Scholarsh 37(4):336-342, 2005) revised model of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (2005) modified from the Wilson and Cleary (J Am Med Assoc 273(1):59-65, 1995) model on women living with HIV. The primary aim was to test this model, examining the relations among the five central components (biological function, symptoms, functional status, general health perceptions, and HRQoL).

Interprofessional Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Education for Registered Nurses and Behavioral Health Professionals.

Although substance use is prevalent in the United States, the majority of people who misuse substances do not receive appropriate treatment. This paper describes, (1) an interprofessional education (IPE) program for health professionals to provide Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment to rural substance use patients, and (2) compares registered nurses' [RNs] and behavioral health professionals' [BHPs] attitudes to work with those patients and their perceptions on IPE. A data analysis of 62 RNs and 36 BHPs shows statistically significant increases in both attitudes and perceptions.

Do American Colleges and Universities Support the Lactation Needs of Students?

Background: Despite strong evidence for the health benefits of breastfeeding, many mothers cannot continue breastfeeding their infants upon their return to work or school. Students are especially affected by this transition because they do not have legal protection that requires designated lactation space or time to express milk to be provided by places of education. Furthermore, limited research has been completed that specifically addresses the return to school of mothers who are students.

Weighing worth against uncertain work: the interplay of exhaustion, ambiguity, hope and disappointment in mothers breastfeeding late preterm infants.

Poor breastfeeding outcomes among late preterm infants (LPIs) have been attributed to inadequate breast milk transfer stemming from physiological immaturities. However, breastfeeding is more than a biological phenomenon, and it is unclear how mothers of LPIs manage other factors that may also impact the breastfeeding course. Using grounded theory methods and incorporating serial post-partum interviews with several novel data collection techniques, we examined breastfeeding establishment over a 6-8-week-period among 10 late preterm mother-infant dyads recruited from a maternity hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

The SUCCESS program for smoking cessation for pregnant women.

The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) developed an evidence-based practice program, Setting Universal Cessation Counseling Education and Screening Standards (SUCCESS), to educate nurses and other health care practitioners about smoking cessation interventions, increase the number of practitioners providing smoking cessation interventions, and deliver a smoking cessation intervention program to childbearing women who smoke. The development, implementation, and outcomes of the SUCCESS program are described.

Is difficult childbirth related to postpartum maternal outcomes in the early postpartum period?

Unplanned, adverse events during labor or delivery may generate a negative response during the early postpartum period, resulting in disruption of usual functioning and mood. High levels of maternal depressive symptoms are associated with parenting, infant attachment, behavioral problems and cognition (Beck 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of adverse events in labor or delivery and depressive symptoms, functional status and infant care at 2-weeks postpartum.

A randomized controlled trial of a smoking cessation intervention for pregnant adolescents.

Background: The smoking prevalence rate among pregnant adolescents has been estimated at 59-62%, and 60-80% of these adolescents continue to smoke throughout their pregnancies.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of smoking cessation strategies tailored to the pregnant adolescent to attain and maintain abstinence. The specific aim was to examine differences in short- and long-term smoking behaviors among three groups: Teen FreshStart (TFS), Teen FreshStart Plus Buddy (TFS-B), and Usual Care (UC) control.

Smoking cessation counseling for pregnant women who smoke: scientific basis for practice for AWHONN's SUCCESS project.

Objectives: To review the literature addressing smoking cessation in pregnant women. To develop the project protocol for the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurse's (AWHONN) 6th research-based practice project titled "Setting Universal Cessation Counseling, Education and Screening Standards (SUCCESS): Nursing Care of Pregnant Women Who Smoke." To evaluate the potential of systematic integration of this protocol in primary care settings in which women seek care at the preconception, pregnant, or postpartum stages.

Implementing evidence-based practice: reducing risk for low birth weight through pregnancy smoking cessation.

In 1989, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) developed a research utilization program to integrate evidence into practice areas where there were large discrepancies between research evidence and clinical practice. The current program, renamed Research-Based Practice (RBP), uses translational research methods to build from evidence such as that in the Cochrane database and to create protocols for integration of research directly into clinical practice. This article describes the development of the sixth project (RBP6), in which an evidence-based protocol to address smoking in pregnancy was integrated into clinical practice.

Predictors of condom use among adolescent Thai vocational students.

Purpose: To describe the prevalence of premarital sexual behavior and condom use, and to identify predictors of condom use using the expanded health belief model (EHBM) among vocational students in Bangkok, Thailand.

Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was used with a cluster-based sample of 425 students aged 18 to 22 years from eight randomly selected private vocational schools in Bangkok. Anonymous self-report questionnaires were used to collect the data.

Characteristics of inner-city pregnant smoking teenagers.

Objective: To describe baseline characteristics of inner-city pregnant adolescent smokers and examine these variables as potential predictors of long-term tobacco abstinence.

Study Design: Descriptive study design of the characteristics of pregnant adolescent smokers, with conceptual underpinnings from the Problem-Behavior Theory.

Setting: Recruitment and data collection were completed in inner-city outpatient clinics and public schools.

Connectedness of pregnant adolescents who smoke.

Purpose: To examine the relationship of the constructs from the family and school environments and protective individual characteristics to health risk behaviors among pregnant adolescents who smoke.

Methods: Inner-city adolescents (N = 53), aged 14-19 years, who were participating in a smoking cessation intervention program, completed self-report demographic, social, and behavioral questionnaires.

Findings: Independent variables included family connectedness, school connectedness, and individual characteristics of religiosity, self-esteem, and grade-point average.