Assessing the impact of academic-practice partnerships on nursing staff.

Background: The 'spillover effect' of academic-practice partnerships on hospital nursing staff has received limited attention. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) created the VA Nursing Academy (VANA) to fund fifteen partnerships between schools of nursing and local VA healthcare facilities. In this paper, we examine the experiences of the VA staff nurses who worked on the units used for VANA clinical training.

Improving secondary prevention screening in clinical encounters using mhealth among prelicensure master's entry clinical nursing students.

Aims: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of a mHealth application among nursing students for health promotion and secondary prevention health recommendations for hospitalized adult patients.

Methods: A pretest-posttest design with a convenience sample of 169 prelicensure master's entry clinical nursing students in a large urban public university. Survey questions assessed intention to use, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, voluntariness, clinical area relevance, output quality, and result demonstrability of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) evidence-based practice guidelines via the mHealth application.

The critical elements of effective academic-practice partnerships: a framework derived from the Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Academy.

Background: The nursing profession is exploring how academic-practice partnerships should be structured to maximize the potential benefits for each partner. As part of an evaluation of the U.S.

Impact of VANA academic-practice partnership participation on educational mobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses.

This study reports findings assessing the influence of the Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Academy (VANA) academic-practice partnership program on nurse decision making regarding educational mobility and teaching aspirations. We conducted national surveys with nursing faculty from VANA partnership sites in 2011 (N = 133) and 2012 (N = 74). Faculty who spent more hours per week in the VANA role and who reported an increase in satisfaction with their participation in VANA were more likely to have been influenced by their VANA experience in choosing to pursue a higher degree (p < .

Children's health care and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: what's at stake?

and Affordable Care Act (hereafter referred to as the ACA) of 2010 does not explicitly target the health care needs of children, its significant reforms and cascading effects throughout our complex health system are likely to directly and indirectly affect children’s health care. The ACA increases insurance coverage for children and their families by covering comprehensive preventive services with no cost sharing, eliminating exclusions for preexisting conditions, prohibiting lifetime dollar limits, extending dependent health benefits to 26 years of age, and expanding coverage to many previously uninsured parents. Despite these advances, some provisions of the ACA have the potential to compromise children’s health care in unanticipated ways.

Heart rate responses to autonomic challenges in obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is accompanied by structural alterations and dysfunction in central autonomic regulatory regions, which may impair dynamic and static cardiovascular regulation, and contribute to other syndrome pathologies. Characterizing cardiovascular responses to autonomic challenges may provide insights into central nervous system impairments, including contributions by sex, since structural alterations are enhanced in OSA females over males. The objective was to assess heart rate responses in OSA versus healthy control subjects to autonomic challenges, and, separately, characterize female and male patterns.

Adolescent pediatric pain tool for multidimensional measurement of pain in children and adolescents.

Very few multidimensional tools are available for measurement of pain in children and adolescents. We critically reviewed the scientific literature to examine the psychometrics and utility of the Adolescent Pediatric Pain Tool (APPT), a multidimensional self-report tool that evaluates the intensity, location, and quality (including affective, evaluative, sensory, and temporal) dimensions of pain. The APPT is available in English and Spanish for children and adolescents, and was modeled after the McGill Pain Questionnaire in adults.

Weaving dreamcatchers: mothering among American Indian women who were teen mothers.

Aims: The aim of this study was to explore the mothering experience and practice among reservation-based adult American Indian women who had been adolescent mothers.

Background: Adolescent American Indian women are at an elevated risk for teen pregnancy and poor maternal/child outcomes. Identifying mothering practices among this population may help guide intervention development that will improve health outcomes.

Making the call: a proactive ethics framework.

This manuscript proposes a proactive framework for preventing or mitigating disruptive ethical conflicts that often result from delayed or avoided conversations about the ethics of care. Four components of the framework are explained and illustrated with evidenced-based actions. Clinical implications of adopting a prevention-based, system-wide ethics framework are discussed.

Remote monitoring of pain and symptoms using wireless technology in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine (a) symptoms, (b) pain characteristics (intensity, location, quality), (c) pain medications and nonpharmacological strategies used for pain, (d) thoughts and feelings, and (e) healthcare visits. We also examined the relationship between pain and sleep.

Data Sources: Pain and symptoms were entered on an electronic e-Diary using a smartphone and were remotely monitored by an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN).

Embodied meanings of early childbearing among American Indian women: a turning point.

Introduction: American Indian women often have poor perinatal outcomes and are at risk for early childbearing. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the experience and meaning of early childbearing among American Indian women.

Methods: Employing interpretive phenomenology and a semistructured interview guide, we interviewed 30 adult American Indian women residing in a northwestern American Indian reservation about their experiences and meaning of early childbearing.

Usability testing of a Smartphone for accessing a web-based e-diary for self-monitoring of pain and symptoms in sickle cell disease.

We examined the usability of smartphones for accessing a web-based e-Diary for self-monitoring symptoms in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD). One group of participants (n = 10; mean age, 13.1 ± 2.

HPV vaccine readiness among American Indian college students.

Introduction: Young adults experience high rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. This article reports on American Indian (AI) university students' HPV vaccine readiness and female vaccine decision-making.

Methods: Eight focus groups were held with AI students attending four universities.

Commonalities and differences in correlates of depressive symptoms in men and women with heart failure.

Objective: (i) To compare the prevalence and severity of depressive symptoms between men and women enrolled in a large heart failure (HF) registry. (ii) To determine gender differences in predictors of depressive symptoms from demographic, behavioral, clinical, and psychosocial factors in HF patients.

Methods: In 622 HF patients (70% male, 61 ± 13 years, 59% NYHA class III/IV), depressive symptoms were assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

The development of direct-care staff social interaction coding schemas for nursing home residents with dementia.

Two social interaction coding schemas were developed to measure the dementia competent (DSI) and culturally competent (CSI) social interaction of direct-care staff for persons with dementia in a Korean American nursing home. A pilot study was conducted to assess: feasibility, content validity, inter-rater reliability and the ease of use of both schemas. An expert panel evaluated the content validity of the DSI/CSI.

Raising the index of suspicion for elder abuse: cognitive impairment, falls, and injury patterns in the emergency department.

Cognitive impairment limits older adults' abilities to advocate for themselves, thus heightening their risk for abuse. Some older adults with cognitive impairments who seek emergency department (ED) services may present with injuries suspicious of abuse. A portion of these injuries may be erroneously attributed to accidents such as falls.

Cardiac risk scores in high-risk Hispanics and the predictive value of BNP.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to calculate cardiac risk scores in Hispanic subjects and to determine the predictive value of adding B-type natriuretic peptide in identifying those with asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction as a measure of cardiovascular disease.

Background: Hispanics have higher rates of cardiovascular risk factors leading to coronary heart disease, asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction and cardiovascular events. Assessing cardiac risk in these groups is important to identify those at high risk for future cardiovascular events.

A literature review of depression, anxiety, and cardiovascular disease in women.

Objective: To review current literature regarding depression and anxiety in women with cardiovascular disease.

Data Sources: Publications retrieved from database searches using multiple medical subject headings including depression, anxiety, behavioral symptoms, affective symptoms, cardiovascular disease.

Study Selection: Large clinical trials, cohort studies, studies reporting gender-specific outcomes were included in the review.

Human patient simulation: state of the science in prelicensure nursing education.

Nurse educators strive to engage students in an active learning process. Human patient simulation (HPS) may provide an interactive learning experience for nursing students. However, the current literature and research published on HPS is restricted and lacks objective evidence supporting this educational method in prelicensure nursing education.

Correlates of adult assault among homeless women.

The purpose of this study was to assess predictors of sexual and physical assault among homeless women. A multivariate, correlation design was utilized to identify independent correlates of adult physical and sexual assault. The sample consisted of 202 homeless women residing in shelters or living on the street in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.

"I can't do it on my own": motivation to enter therapy for depression among low income, second generation, Latinas.

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of 12 low income, second generation, Latinas seeking to enter therapy for depression. Qualitative data collected at the time of a diagnostic interview (SCID) using Motivational Interviewing techniques, included an assessment of the woman's motivation to enter therapy and confidence that she could follow through with treatment. Data were analyzed using Constructivist Grounded Theory and revealed six positive and six painful motivators that catalyzed the women towards treatment amidst complications related to "self" and "time.

Annual checkup: the CMS pressure ulcer present-on-admission indicator.

Purpose: To provide the wound care practitioner with information about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pressure ulcer present-on-admission (POA) indicators.

Target Audience: This continuing education activity is intended for physicians and nurses with an interest in skin and wound care.

Objectives: After reading this article and taking this test, the reader should be able to: 1.

Perceptions and health care needs of HIV-Positive mothers in India.

Background: An estimated 2.5 million Indians live with HIV/AIDS. Spread primarily through heterosexual contact, the epidemic is shifting toward women, 29% of whom are currently infected, with still more cases going unreported.