A framework for describing health care delivery organizations and systems.

Describing, evaluating, and conducting research on the questions raised by comparative effectiveness research and characterizing care delivery organizations of all kinds, from independent individual provider units to large integrated health systems, has become imperative. Recognizing this challenge, the Delivery Systems Committee, a subgroup of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Effective Health Care Stakeholders Group, which represents a wide diversity of perspectives on health care, created a draft framework with domains and elements that may be useful in characterizing various sizes and types of care delivery organizations and may contribute to key outcomes of interest. The framework may serve as the door to further studies in areas in which clear definitions and descriptions are lacking.

Pediatric sepsis and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome: progress and continued challenges.

Sepsis, septic shock, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and Multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) remain clinical challenges in pediatric critical care. Understanding of the immune response has increased greatly over the past decade, which has certainly increased the understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of these conditions. The future promises more exciting discoveries as we understand cellular physiology, immunity, and host responses even better.

The use of discriminant function analysis to predict student success on the NCLEX-RN.

Predicting whether a student will be successful on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) has been an important endeavor for faculty in schools of nursing for the past 2 decades. Extensive documentation exists in the literature concerning research aimed at exploring the academic and nonacademic predictors of success on the NCLEX-RN. Reviews of the findings of these studies indicate that various factors emerge as academic predictors of success.

Retention of African-American students in baccalaureate nursing programs: are we doing enough?

With the increasing minority population in the United States, much attention has been given to the lack of diversity among health care professionals, specifically nursing. Since the 1960s, the federal government has provided financial resources to institutions of higher education whose purpose was to diversify the health care profession. Historically, these resources have supported initiatives that primarily focused on the recruitment of minority students into higher education.

Tenderfoot Preemie vs a manual lancet: a clinical evaluation.

Purpose: To compare the amount of time required to collect a blood specimen, the number of heel punctures required, and the rate of hematology re-collections required when using a Monolet lancet vs a Tenderfoot Preemie device.

Design: Randomized, two-group, quasi-experimental.

Sample: Neonates with a birth weight >800 gm were eligible to participate in the study.

Meeting national tobacco challenges: recommendations for smoking cessation groups.

Purpose: To review the literature on model smoking cessation programs and provide an overview of the practice guidelines for intensive smoking cessation groups.

Data Sources: Selected evidence-based literature and AHCPR/AHRQ clinical practice guidelines.

Conclusions: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in our global society and is expected to kill more people than any other disease within 20 years.

Health care participation of perinatal women with HIV: what helps and what gets in the way?

Dealing with the reality of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a life-changing challenge to perinatal women as they try to care for themselves and their children in environments that often include stigma, uncertainty, and limited access to information and health care. Our purpose for this interpretive hermeneutic study was to identify factors that women with HIV saw as helping or impeding their participation in their health care. We analyzed the qualitative data from open-ended interviews conducted with 18 women.

Alpha 2-agonist agents: a review for CRNAs.

Over 300 clonidine-related research articles have been prominently featured in anesthesia journals over the last 4 to 5 years. Nurse anesthetists may already find themselves administering alpha 2-adrenergic agents to help control hypertension; however, in the future their use as anesthetic adjuncts to control pain may also become important. This article reviews the alpha 2-adrenergic (A2) receptor and one of its agonist agents, clonidine.

Using the human patient simulator to test the efficacy of an experimental emergency percutaneous transtracheal airway.

As clinicians continue to gain experience with the use of emergency cricothyrotomy, a need exists to continue to explore methods to perfect both the technique and the equipment used. The clinician in the austere military environment may be forced to be innovative in the design of such a device. A combination of commonly used disposable intravenous equipment for emergency cricothyrotomy is described.

Applying a feminist analysis model to selected nursing studies of women with HIV.

Women's mental health has been linked to oppression and to oppressive practices in health care. Feminist approaches to health care delivery and research have been suggested as a remedy for the subtle and overt oppression faced by women, and many nurses have used feminist principles to conduct and report their research and to critique existing studies. Though nursing authors have identified useful feminist guides for conducting and reporting research, few examples of the practice of feminist critiques of research are available in the nursing literature.

Clarifying the concept of critical thinking in nursing.

Nursing must chart a course between the pedagogical extremes of process versus content-focused courses. No one would deny the fact that nurses must have a solid knowledge base in addition to demonstrating an ability to think critically. Reason favors a "both-and" rather than an "either-or" approach to this issue.

Relationships among faculty practice involvement, perception of role stress, and psychological hardiness of nurse educators.

This study examined the relationships of role stress and psychological hardiness and identified predictors of role stress in nurse educators overall and in those either involved or not involved in faculty practice. In addition, the study examined differences in psychological hardiness and role stress between nurse educators either involved or not involved in faculty practice. Data were obtained through three mailed self-report questionnaires from 871 nurse educators employed full-time in a National League for Nursing (NLN)-accredited school of nursing with both undergraduate and graduate programs.