Consulting with an embedded librarian: student perceptions on the value of required research meetings.

Objective: This qualitative research project was undertaken to discover how students perceive the embedded librarian in their nursing class. The researchers determined how a required group research meeting was valued by students and whether that value warranted the necessary time and energy by an embedded librarian.

Methods: Researchers conducted focus groups with twenty-three students from two different sections of the same nursing research methods undergraduate course.

Longitudinal effects of Youth Empowerment Solutions: Preventing youth aggression and increasing prosocial behavior.

Youth violence remains a significant public health problem despite efforts to address it. We describe the evaluation results of Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES), an after-school active learning program implemented by trained local teachers and designed to engage middle school youth in multi-systematic promotive behaviors at the individual-, interpersonal-, and community-level to make lasting positive changes within the context of institutional disadvantages, such as racism. First, we used a modified randomized controlled trial design to examine the direct and indirect influence of YES on prosocial and delinquent behaviors 12 months after the conclusion of the program, through youth empowerment.

Impact of embedded librarianship on undergraduate nursing students' information skills.

Background: One-shot library sessions have numerous drawbacks; most notably, they rarely have a long-term impact on students' research behavior or skill sets. Library literature notes that when students interact with an embedded librarian, their skills improve. While close partnerships with subject faculty are important, librarians must also assess students' skill sets to determine the impact of these teaching efforts.

Uptake of and Engagement With an Online Sexual Health Intervention (HOPE eIntervention) Among African American Young Adults: Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Regarding health technologies, African American young adults have low rates of uptake, ongoing usage, and engagement, which may widen sexual health inequalities.

Objective: We aimed to examine rates of uptake and ongoing usage, and factors influencing uptake, ongoing usage, and engagement for a consumer health informatics (CHI) intervention for HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention among African American young adults, using the diffusion of innovation theory, trust-centered design framework, and O'Brien and Toms' model of engagement.

Methods: This community-based participatory mixed methods study included surveys at four time points (n=315; 280 African American participants) among young adults aged 18 to 24 years involved in a blended offline/online HIV/STI prevention intervention (HIV Outreach, Prevention, and Education [HOPE] eIntervention), which was described as a "HOPE party.

Flipping to Motivate: Perceptions Among Prelicensure Nursing Students.

Background: Research suggests flipped learning may improve student motivation to learn.

Purpose: This study examined motivation and learning strategies among prelicensure BSN students in a course taught using the flipped learning model. The hypothesis was that flipped learning may improve motivation and learning strategies of students.

Comprehensive approaches to addressing mental health needs and enhancing school security: a hybrid type II cluster randomized trial.

Background: School safety is fundamental to fostering positive outcomes for children. Violence remains a critical public health issue with 8.1% of elementary and 21.

INPUT: An academic-practice partnership to an underserved rural community.

The INPUT project is a model partnership that changed the way health care was offered to the underserved in rural Western North Carolina. Grant funding provided a full-time Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) to a free clinic and created clinical placements for FNP students. Students had opportunities to learn about unique aspects of care for vulnerable, underserved populations to encourage them to consider working in rural communities.

Busy Streets Theory: The Effects of Community-engaged Greening on Violence.

Lack of maintenance on vacant neighborhood lots is associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress for nearby residents. Overgrown grasses and dense brush provide hiding spots for criminals and space to conduct illicit activities. This study builds upon previous research by investigating greening programs that engage community members to conduct routine maintenance on vacant lots within their neighborhoods.

Measuring the Implementation of Youth Empowerment Solutions.

Scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of using evidence-based programs to promote health and prevent disease. While theoretically and empirically based programs may be effective in carefully controlled conditions, many fail to achieve desired outcomes when implemented in real-world settings. Ensuring high-quality implementation of health promotion programs is critically important as variation in implementation is closely associated with program effectiveness.

Youth Empowerment Solutions: Evaluation of an After-School Program to Engage Middle School Students in Community Change.

We report on an effectiveness evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) program. YES applies empowerment theory to an after-school program for middle school students. YES is an active learning curriculum designed to help youth gain confidence in themselves, think critically about their community, and work with adults to create positive community change.

Psychological Empowerment Among Urban Youth: Measurement Model and Associations with Youth Outcomes.

Empowerment-based strategies have become widely used method to address health inequities and promote social change. Few researchers, however, have tested theoretical models of empowerment, including multidimensional, higher-order models. We test empirically a multidimensional, higher-order model of psychological empowerment (PE), guided by Zimmerman's conceptual framework including three components of PE: intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral.

The Role of Present Time Perspective in Predicting Early Adolescent Violence.

This study investigated the role of present and future time perspectives, and their relationships with subjective norms and beliefs regarding violence, in predicting violent behaviors among urban middle school students in the Midwestern United States. Although present time perspective covaried with subjective norms and beliefs, each made a unique prediction of self-reported violent behaviors. Future time perspective was not a significant predictor when accounting for these relationships.

Parenting While Incarcerated: Tailoring the Strengthening Families Program for Use with Jailed Mothers.

Most incarcerated women are mothers. Parenting programs may benefit women, children and families, yet effectively intervening in correctional settings is a challenge. An evidence-based parenting intervention (the Strengthening Families Program) was tailored and implemented with women in a jail setting.

Strengthening Incarcerated Families: Evaluating a Pilot Program for Children of Incarcerated Parents and Their Caregivers.

Parental incarceration can be devastating for families. Children may experience difficulties, and the stress on caregivers who take on unexpected childrearing is high. We implemented and evaluated a family-level intervention with caregivers and children experiencing parental (typically maternal) incarceration, in a community setting.

Partnering to translate evidence-based programs to community settings: bridging the gap between research and practice.

Implementing evidence-based programming in diverse community settings is an essential translational research step to make effective programs widely accepted and accessible and thereby improve public health. This process is challenging and complex, yet there are few examples to guide the efforts. The authors present their experience as an example of using a university-community partnership approach to aid in translating an evidence-based program (EBP) into a small community setting as a resource for researchers and community partners wishing to implement evidence-based programming in community settings.

Youth empowerment solutions for violence prevention.

The limited success of youth violence prevention interventions suggests that effective prevention needs to address causes at multiple levels of analysis and empower youth in developing and implementing prevention programs. In this article, we review published studies of youth violence prevention efforts that engage youth in developing or implementing violence prevention activities. The reviewed studies suggest the promise of youth empowerment strategies and the need for systematic outcome studies of empowerment programs.

Drama and danger: the opportunities and challenges of promoting youth sexual health through online social networks.

Social networks affect both exposure to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and associated risk behavior. Networks may also play a role in disparities in STI/HIV rates among African American youth. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the potential of social network-based interventions to reduce STI/HIV incidence in this group.

Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities: combining theory and practice in a community-level violence prevention curriculum.

This article describes the development and evaluation of an after-school curriculum designed to prepare adolescents to prevent violence through community change. This curriculum, part of the Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES) program, is guided by empowerment and ecological theories within a positive youth development context. YES is designed to enhance the capacity of adolescents and adults to work together to plan and implement community change projects.

Using process evaluation to strengthen intergenerational partnerships in the Youth Empowerment Solutions program.

This study illustrates the utility of process evaluation methods for improving a new violence prevention program, Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES). The YES program empowered young adolescents to plan and complete community improvement projects with neighborhood adult advocates. The process evaluation methods included questionnaires and focus groups with students and interviews with neighborhood advocates.