Empowering nursing students through inclusivity training for LGBTQIA+ patients: A quasi-experimental study.

Background: The current state of nursing education is concerning, with nearly two-thirds of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) -accredited universities reporting that their nursing graduates are ill-prepared to care for the LGBTQIA+ community (Eickhoff, 2021). This lack of training is alarming, given the ongoing reports of LGBTQIA+ healthcare discrimination and the insufficient knowledge of nursing faculty to guide future nurses in caring for this patient population (Hughes et al., 2022).

The Pathway to Developing a Competency-based Tool for Entry-level Nursing Simulation: A Delphi Study.

Background: Simulation-based learning experiences allow undergraduate nursing students to develop competence and confidence through deliberate practice with immediate feedback on the learner's performance through debriefing. With the transition to competency-based nursing education, nursing faculty need more guidance in implementing competency-based evaluations in the simulation setting.

Purpose: This Delphi study aims to inform the future development of a competency-based tool - SimComp - based on the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Essentials.

A Practical Guide to Implementing an Evidenced-Based Hands-On Naloxone Training.

Synthetic opioids contribute to the majority of opioid overdose-related deaths in the United States. Expansion of naloxone training to community laypersons is one strategy to mitigate opioid overdose-related deaths. A hands-on naloxone training demonstrated efficacy in improving opioid knowledge and overdose response in baccalaureate nursing students, Greek-affiliated students, and rural clinicians and staff post-training.

Substance use and opioid-related stigma among Black communities in the rural South.

Purpose: This study examined perceived substance use, opioid knowledge, and barriers to Black people accessing treatment for substance and opioid use disorder (SUD/OUD).

Methods: Thirty-nine participants completed the community survey and The Brief Opioid Overdose Knowledge questionnaire. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 stakeholders and 9 people with SUD/OUD.

Examining the use of geriatric standardized patients with baccalaureate nursing students.

The need for clinical placements for undergraduate nursing programs heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic as nursing schools across the country faced restrictions with the high-risk geriatric client population. Nursing students experienced increased anxiety levels, decreased learning opportunities, and uncertainties about the decision to enter the workforce as healthcare professionals. In turn, this amplified the need for faculty support and feedback imperative for student success.

Affirmative Palliative Care for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Individuals.

Nurses have a professional and ethical responsibility to provide inclusive, affirmative palliative care to transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals experiencing life-limiting illness or injury. In accordance with standards for professional nursing and health organizations, nurses must continue to take tangible steps to achieve a level of care that is affirming, holistic, nonprejudicial, and collaborative. Providing quality care for TGNC individuals requires informed, competent integration of palliative nursing care, gender-affirmative care, and trans-person-centered health care within nursing practice.

COVID-19 and opioid use disorder: Expanding treatment access in rural settings.

Substance use treatment inequities among rural populations are well documented and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities, forcing healthcare providers to be creative in the delivery of treatment. Systematic reviews on the use of telehealth to treat patients with substance use disorder indicate that it is a promising alternative to in-person services. This article examines the evidence supporting the use of telehealth in treating patients with opioid use disorder and explores other promising options that can help overcome pandemic-related barriers to treatment.

Intravenous Dexamethasone as an Analgesic: A Literature Review.

The management of pain in surgical patients has shifted in recent years from a technique grounded in opioid administration, to a multimodal method that uses the analgesic properties of many drugs to minimize required narcotics. Multimodal analgesia has demonstrated a benefit in patient outcomes following a surgical procedure. Also of consideration is the fact that multimodal analgesia allows for less opioid to be administered to achieve acceptable pain scores, in turn reducing a patient's exposure to a potentially addicting substance.

Improving Screening and Education for Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Primary Care Settings.

: Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), also known as environmental tobacco smoke, adversely affects human health across the life cycle and has important economic consequences. The fact that many health care providers don't routinely screen all patients for SHS exposure and educate them on the risks associated with it is exacerbated by the lack of any requirement to do so, as well as the absence of adequate SHS screening questions in many electronic health record (EHR) systems. Further research on improving screening and education interventions is therefore warranted.

Development of a Program to Support VA Community Living Centers' Quality Improvement.

Through implementation of the LOCK bundle of practices, VA Community Living Center staff develop, pilot, and spread new systems for communication, teamwork, and collaborative problem solving as well as for developing skills to participate effectively in these systems.

Integrating Diabetes Guidelines into a Telehealth Screening Tool.

Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and contributes to long-term complications that are costly to healthcare systems. Twenty-five percent of all veterans in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) have diabetes. The purpose of this article is to describe the development and implementation of a quality improvement project to embed an evidence-based diabetes screening tool, based on Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense diabetes clinical practice guidelines, into the VHA electronic medical record.