Perspectives on Cancer Pain Assessment and Management in Children.

Objective: To report evidence regarding pain assessment and management for children and adolescents receiving treatment for cancer.

Data Sources: Published research and clinical guidelines.

Conclusion: Children and adolescents experience multiple sources of pain across the cancer continuum.

Experiential Learning to Engage Millennial Learners in an Undergraduate Nursing Research Course.

Baccalaureate-prepared nurses are expected to participate in evidence-based practice by identifying clinical questions, critiquing evidence, and integrating theory into practice. This presents a challenge for faculty to facilitate a research course in a way that is valued by nursing students and will ultimately prepare them to successfully enter the workforce. This article describes an innovative strategy to engage millennial learners in an undergraduate research course by implementing a two-part evidence-based practice project.

Coping with Intradialytic Events and Stress Associated with Hemodialysis.

Intradialytic events (IDEs), such as cramping, loss of consciousness, bleeding, and allergic reactions, are major stressors for persons on hemodialysis (HD). This study examined the association between coping strategies and stress associated with HD in persons who have experienced an IDE. Using a cross-sectional correlation design, a convenience sample of patients (N=73) completed a Hemodialysis Demographic Form, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, and a Hemodialysis Stress Visual Analog Scale.

Growing Your Own: Will Your Associate Degree Nursing Student Consider a Future Faculty Role?

Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the intent of associate degree in nursing (ADN) students to pursue a future nursing faculty role.

Background: Nursing faculty shortages negatively affect the capacity to educate new nurses.

Method: A prospective correlational research design was used to conduct a national survey of ADN students regarding their intent for a future nursing faculty role using constructs of social cognitive career theory.

Sexually transmitted disease services and third-party payer reimbursement: Attitudes, knowledge, and current practices among 60 health departments/districts. Why does this matter to public health nurses?

Objective: To assess staff attitudes, knowledge, and current practices in billing third-party payers for sexually transmitted disease (STD) services in public health departments/districts.

Design And Sample: A cross-sectional, online survey was administered to staff at 60 urban and rural health departments/districts. Snowball sampling was used for greater representation.

A New Leadership Development Model for Nursing Education.

Background: Leadership competency is required throughout nursing. Students have difficulty understanding leadership as integral to education and practice. A consistent framework for nursing leadership education, strong scholarship and an evidence base are limited.

Nurse leaders' strategies to foster nurse resilience.

Aim: To identify nurse leaders' strategies to cultivate nurse resilience.

Background: High nursing turnover rates and nursing shortages are prominent phenomena in health care. Finding ways to promote nurse resilience and reduce nurse burnout is imperative for nursing leaders.

Developing Tomorrow's Leaders: A Medical Student Distinction Track in Health System Transformation and Leadership.

Problem: Calls for medical education reform focus on preparing physicians to meet the challenges of today's complex health care system. Despite implementing curricula focused on health systems science (HSS), including quality improvement (QI), patient safety, team-based care, and population health, a significant gap remains in training students to meet the system's evolving needs.

Approach: Brody School of Medicine redesigned its curriculum to prepare leaders to effect health system change.

A mixed method analysis of patients' complaints: Underpinnings of theory-guided strategies to improve quality of care.

Purpose: Patients' complaints can be predictors of patient care quality and safety. Understanding patients' complaints could help healthcare organizations target the areas for improvements. The purpose of this study is to use a mixed method analysis to a) examine the characteristics and categories of patients' complaints, b) explore the relationships of patients' complaints with professions and units, and c) propose theory-based strategies to improve care quality.

The Impact of New Graduate Nurse Transition Programs on Competency Development and Patient Safety: An Integrative Review.

Stronger evidence on the value of new graduate nurse transition programs is needed to justify the cost and warrant expansion of these programs to more health systems. The aim of this integrative review was to critically analyze published research on the relationship between new graduate nurse transition programs and patient safety outcomes. Limited evidence was found on actual safety improvement; rather, transition programs have predominately measured the development of competency as a process outcome variable for improving patient safety.

Low-salt diet adherence in African Americans with hypertension.

Aims And Objectives: To identify health and physiological measures, depressive symptoms and locus of control (LOC) in adherence to a low salt (1,500 mg sodium), diet in African American (AA) adults with hypertension (HTN).

Background: Adherence determinants to self-management behaviours among AA adults with HTN is essential in prevention of outcomes such as stroke. A low-salt diet is one key factor in the successful management of HTN.

Threshold Concepts in Doctoral Education: A Framework for Writing Development in Novice Nurse Scientists.

Pedagogical practices for writing development in doctoral programs are often the by-product of completing dissertation research and may lack deliberate strategies to assist students with complex genres of writing. This article proposes a framework for doctoral education to assist students with mastery of threshold concepts in writing. Threshold concepts in writing are examined for their applicability to the evolution of writing in PhD nursing students as they begin to think and write like nurse scientists.

The state of the science of nurse work environments in the United States: A systematic review.

A healthy nurse work environment is a workplace that is safe, empowering, and satisfying. Many research studies were conducted on nurse work environments in the last decade; however, it lacks an overview of these research studies. The purpose of this review is to identify, evaluate, and summarize the major foci of studies about nurse work environments in the United States published between January 2005 and December 2017 and provide strategies to improve nurse work environments.

Will BSN Students Consider a Future Nursing Faculty Role?

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the intent of baccalaureate nursing students to pursue a future nursing faculty role.

Background: An impending nursing faculty shortage negatively affects the capacity to meet the need for nurses.

Method: Using the constructs of social cognitive career theory, a prospective correlational research design was used to survey prelicensure BSN nursing students regarding their intent for a future nursing faculty role.

Understanding the Patient Experience of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter-Related Deep Vein Thrombosis Using Interpretive Phenomenology.

The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to determine what it means to patients to live with a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC)-related deep vein thrombosis and to describe the influence of the experience on the individual's quality of life. The sample included 11 adult patients from an acute care setting who developed a PICC-related symptomatic thrombus between November 2014 and March 2016, using purposive sampling. Three distinct themes emerged from the data in this study: a loss of trust in health care providers, additional burdens to existing problems, and a yearning for understanding.

Impact of Diuretic Therapy in the Treatment of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia and Acute Kidney Injury in the Neonatal Population.

Background: Diuretics are among the most frequently prescribed medications in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), despite minimal data regarding the safety and efficacy of their use in the neonatal population. Off-label diuretic therapy is used in preterm and full-term infants to both optimize kidney function and improve respiratory status.

Purpose: This article examines the literature specific to the impact of diuretic therapy in the NICU and compares the benefits versus risks of utilization as they pertain to the prevention and treatment of renal and pulmonary dysfunction in this population.

Effect of Intensive Blood-Pressure Treatment on Patient-Reported Outcomes.

Background: The previously published results of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial showed that among participants with hypertension and an increased cardiovascular risk, but without diabetes, the rates of cardiovascular events were lower among those who were assigned to a target systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg (intensive treatment) than among those who were assigned to a target of less than 140 mm Hg (standard treatment). Whether such intensive treatment affected patient-reported outcomes was uncertain; those results from the trial are reported here.

Methods: We randomly assigned 9361 participants with hypertension to a systolic blood-pressure target of less than 120 mm Hg or a target of less than 140 mm Hg.

Demonstrating the Relationship Between School Nurse Workload and Student Outcomes.

This article describes how one very large, diverse school district developed a Student Acuity Tool for School Nurse Assignment and used a logic model to successfully advocate for additional school nurse positions. The logic model included three student outcomes that were evaluated: provide medications and procedures safely and accurately, increase the number of students with a medical home, and increase the number of students with chronic illness that receive case management. Pairing a staffing formula with an evaluation plan that focuses on student outcomes and the priorities of the school district provides a strong case that school nurses are essential and that they contribute to student success.

Factors Related to School Nurse Workload.

Recognizing the need for a school nurse workload model based on more than the number of students in a caseload, the National Association of School Nurses issued recommendations related to measuring school nurse workload. Next, a workforce acuity task force (WATF) was charged with identifying the steps needed to further the recommendations. As a first step, the WATF focused on identifying existing literature and practices related to school nurse workload.

Seizing the Moment: Experiences of School Nurses Caring for Students With Overweight and Obesity.

School nurses are well positioned to assess, intervene, and evaluate efforts to positively impact students who are overweight or obese. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to explore the experiences of school nurses providing care to children living with overweight and obesity. Data were collected through face-to-face, tape-recorded, in-depth, open-ended interviews with 10 school nurses from rural areas of North Carolina working with minority and low-income children in the public school setting.

Moral Distress Among School Nurses.

School nurses are well positioned to provide care to a diverse population of school-age children, but their role and work environment can present a variety of moral dilemmas leading to moral distress. The purpose of this study is to identify the moral distress level that exists in school nurses and to describe its relationship to common moral dilemmas and school nurse characteristics. Data were collected through face-to-face attendance at school nurse meetings in North Carolina where 307 school nurses participated in the survey.

Nicaraguan and US nursing collaborative evaluation study: Identifying similarities and differences between US and Nicaraguan curricula and teaching modalities using the community engagement model.

Background: Curricula evaluation is an essential phase of curriculum development. Study describes the implementation of a formative evaluation used by faculty members between Universidad Nacional Autonóma de Nicaragua (UNAN-Leon) Escuela de Enfermeriá, Nicaragua and East Carolina University College of Nursing (ECU CON) in North Carolina, US.

Objectives: Program evaluation study to conduct an assessment, comparison of a medical-surgical adult curriculum and teaching modalities.

Primary Care Providers' Barriers and Adherence to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Mammography Screening Guidelines.

Earlier detection through mammography screening, increased awareness, and improved treatment modalities has resulted in a decline in breast cancer incidence. Despite the availability of the clinical guidelines by the U.S.