Relationship of Age And Mobility Levels During Physical Rehabilitation With Clinical Outcomes in Critical Illness.

Objective: To determine whether age, mobility level, and change in mobility level across the first 3 physical rehabilitation sessions associate with clinical outcomes of patients who are critically ill.

Design: Retrospective, observational cohort study.

Setting: Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU).

The Role of Doctor of Nursing Practice-Prepared Nurses to Improve Quality of Patient Care.

Translating evidence-based practices (EBPs) and quality improvement (QI) initiatives to the bedside is a significant need among hospitals and outpatient settings to improve the provision of quality nursing care. However, health-care systems continue to struggle with implementing and sustaining EBPs. To improve the application of EBPs and QI initiatives, hospitals should consider using Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)-prepared nurses in Quality Improvement roles, as DNP graduates have acquired unique expertise in these topics.

Improving Waste Segregation in the Operating Room to Decrease Overhead Cost.

Background And Objectives: Operating rooms (ORs) disproportionally contribute 20% to 33% of hospital waste nationwide and therefore have a major impact on hospital waste management. Seventy percent of general OR waste is incorrectly eliminated as clinical waste, which compounds unnecessary financial burden and produces negative environmental impact. The primary purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to evaluate the effectiveness of waste segregation education for OR anesthesia staff on improving waste segregation compliance in the OR.

Preoperative Preparation and Guidelines for Cannabis-Using Patients Undergoing Elective Surgery.

Purpose: Appropriate preoperative screening techniques are needed to safely provide anesthesia to increasing numbers of cannabis using surgical patients.

Design: This was a quasi-experimental quality improvement project.

Methods: Preoperative identification of cannabis users by registered nurses (RNs) and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) was compared to baseline identification rates.

Increasing Nursing Documentation Efficiency With Wearable Sensors for Pressure Injury Prevention.

Background: Documentation presents an overwhelming burden to bedside clinical nurses. Nurses must manually enter several hundred data points into electronic health record flow sheets, taking time from direct patient care and introducing opportunity for documentation errors.

Local Problem: A patient record audit revealed a significant gap in documented patient repositioning events.

Characteristics of Nursing Home Resident Movement Patterns: Results from the TEAM-UP Trial.

Objective: To determine movement patterns of nursing home residents, specifically those with dementia or obesity, to improve repositioning approaches to pressure injury (PrI) prevention.

Methods: A descriptive exploratory study was conducted using secondary data from the Turn Everyone And Move for Ulcer Prevention (TEAM-UP) clinical trial examining PrI prevention repositioning intervals. K-means cluster analysis used the average of each resident's multiple days' observations of four summary mean daily variables to create homogeneous movement pattern clusters.

Effect of Varying Repositioning Frequency on Pressure Injury Prevention in Nursing Home Residents: TEAM-UP Trial Results.

Objective: To investigate the clinical effectiveness of three nursing-home-wide repositioning intervals (2-, 3-, or 4-hour) without compromising pressure injury (PrI) incidence in 4 weeks.

Methods: An embedded pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in nine nursing homes (NHs) that were randomly assigned to one of three repositioning intervals. Baseline (12 months) and 4-week intervention data were provided during the TEAM-UP (Turn Everyone And Move for Ulcer Prevention) study.

To Turn or Not to Turn: Exploring Nurses' Decision-Making Processes Concerning Regular Turning of Nursing Home Residents.

: Nursing home (NH) residents are at high-risk for pressure injuries (PrIs), and those living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) are at even greater risk. Understanding how nursing staff approach repositioning remains critical. : As part of an ongoing clinical trial, this mixed-method prospective, exploratory, descriptive study examined repositioning efforts for PrI prevention.

On the Move clinic: A fall prevention nurse practitioner-driven model of care.

Falls in older adults are common and interventions to reduce associated morbidity and mortality remain difficult to implement. This quality improvement project evaluated On the Move, a new clinic designed to provide tailored recommendations to reduce falls risk, based on an adaptation of CDC's STEADI: a falls risk screening, assessment and intervention guide. 89 participants were referred by primary care and emergency services.

Increasing physical activity with African-American women using Facebook™ and Pedometers.

More than 80 percent of African American women struggle with overweight and obesity. We implemented a 5-week physical activity intervention using Facebook™ and pedometers with African American women. Twenty-seven African American women participated in a single-group pre/post design intervention to promote walking and physical activity.

Real-time Positioning Among Nursing Home Residents Living With Dementia: A Case Study.

Unlabelled: Dementia contributes to the development of pressure injuries (PrIs).

Purpose: This study describes the real-time body positions of 2 nursing home (NH) residents, residing in the United States and living with dementia, to inform development of PrI prevention strategies tailored to individual risk profiles.

Methods: As part of a larger study, eligible residents were fitted with a triaxial accelerometer sensor placed on the anterior chest to monitor body positions 24-hours daily through a 4-week monitoring period.

An Assessment of Predatory Publication Use in Reviews.

Purpose/aims: Predatory journals, characterized by poor editorial practices and questionable peer review, constitute a threat to academic literature. Citations to predatory journals in reviews of research potentially weaken the strength of these reviews, which are relied upon by nurses as evidence for practice. The purposes of this study were to assess the (a) extent to which reviews have relied on articles published in predatory journals, (b) nursing research practice areas most reliant on predatory journal citations, and (c) extent to which predatory journal citations are being used in reviews that guide the care of sensitive or vulnerable groups.

Implementing Cardiac Surgical Unit-Advanced Life Support Through Simulation-Based Learning: A Quality Improvement Project.

Background: The European Association for Cardio Thoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons endorse Cardiac Surgical Unit-Advanced Life Support, a protocol designed specifically for cardiothoracic surgical patients who suffer postoperative cardiac arrests. To enhance patient outcomes and to reduce death rates, cardiothoracic intensive care unit nurses must be able to perform the protocol with confidence, proficiency, and without delays. To this end, simulation-based learning (SBL) is a pedagogical method ideal for optimized learning.

Insight Into the Movement Behaviors of Nursing Home Residents Living With Obesity: A Report of Two Cases.

Unlabelled: Obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥30 kg/m2) can have a profound influence on the likelihood of developing a pressure injury (PrI); little is known about the movement behaviors (movement frequency, body position frequency, and position duration) of obese individuals.

Purpose: This report examines 2 cases of obese nursing home residents and their movement behaviors in relation to their potential influence on overall PrI risk.

Methods: Resident movements were monitored 24 hours/day using a wearable sensor, and repositioning events were observed as part of a larger study examining repositioning intervals.

So you want to be a Fellow in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners: Navigating the Fellowship process to ensure your success.

The professional designation as Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) is the highest professional designation for any nurse practitioner (NP). The Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) operate the FAANP program and annually invite colleagues that have made a significant impact on the NP profession for consideration of this prestigious designation. Since its inception in 2000, nearly 700 NPs, or less than 1% of the membership, have been inducted as FAANPs.

Promoting Older Adult Physical Activity Throughout Care Transitions Using an Interprofessional Approach.

The nurse practitioner plays a key role in monitoring and improving physical activity and function of older adults. Physical activity is an essential component of care management for all older adults, even those who are frail with multimorbidities. All physical activity, no matter how small, has the potential to impact functional independence and quality of life.

Using Trigger Films as a Bariatric Sensitivity Intervention: Improving Nursing Students' Attitudes and Beliefs About Caring for Obese Patients.

Nurse educators are uniquely positioned to improve obesity-related attitudes and beliefs among prelicensure nursing students. A bariatric sensitivity intervention using 6 trigger films with facilitated debriefing was designed and delivered to 70 first-semester baccalaureate nursing students. Attitudes and beliefs significantly improved immediately after the intervention on 3 of the 5 attitude measures and on the belief measure.

Evaluation of the effect of the modified early warning system on the nurse-led activation of the rapid response system.

The modified early warning system (MEWS) is a scoring rubric used to detect the earliest signs of a change in a patient's condition. This mixed-methods study used pre- and postintervention data to describe the impact of the MEWS on the frequency of rapid response system activations and cardiopulmonary arrests among patients admitted to medical-surgical units. Focus groups of nursing staff provided insight into the factors that influence how nurses use the MEWS at the bedside as a framework to identify, intervene, and manage patients in need of an advanced level of care.