Reliability and Validity of the NDNQI® Injury Falls Measure.

Although remarkable efforts have been made to improve patient fall reporting through the utilization of standardized definitions, injury falls reporting has rarely been examined. This study used an overall intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) estimate and factor analysis to assess the reliability and validity of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®) falls with injury measure. Data were collected from an online Fall Injury Level Survey that was administered to 1,159 NDNQI site coordinators (39.

Patients' annual income adequacy, insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses related to heart failure care.

Objectives: To (1) identify the amount patients spend for insurance premiums, co-payments, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs related to HF and chronic health care services and estimate their annual non-reimbursed and out-of-pocket costs; and (2) identify patients' concerns about nonreimbursed and out-of-pocket expenses.

Background: HF is one of the most expensive illnesses for our society with multiple health services and financial burdens for families.

Methods: Mixed methods with quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews.

Expediting Clinical and Translational Research via Bayesian Instrument Development.

Developing valid and reliable instruments is crucial but costly and time-consuming in health care research and evaluation. The Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health have set up guidelines for developing patient-reported outcome instruments. However, the guidelines are not applicable to cases of small sample sizes.

The prevalence of infections and patient risk factors in home health care: a systematic review.

Background: Home health care (HHC) has been the fastest growing health care sector for the past 3 decades. The uncontrolled home environment, increased use of indwelling devices, and the complexity of illnesses among HHC patients lead to increased risk for infections.

Methods: A systematic review of studies evaluating infection prevalence and risk factors among adult patients who received HHC services was conducted and guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Parental caregiving of children with cancer and family impact, economic burden: nursing perspectives.

Pediatric cancer diagnoses affect the entire family: parents, well siblings, the ill child, and others. The objective of this study was to review nursing studies on parental caregiving of children with cancer, family impact, and costs. The study used inclusion/exclusion criteria and family systems theory, self/dependent-care, and symptom management (monitoring, alleviation) concepts.

Linking RN workgroup job satisfaction to pressure ulcers among older adults on acute care hospital units.

We examined the relationship between registered nurse (RN) workgroup job satisfaction and hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (HAPUs) among older adults on six types of acute care units. Random-intercept logistic regression analyses were performed using 2009 unit-level data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®) and the NDNQI RN Survey. Overall, RN workgroup job satisfaction was negatively associated with HAPU rates, although the relationship varied by unit type.

Data Envelopment Analysis in the Presence of Measurement Error: Case Study from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®).

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the most commonly used approach for evaluating healthcare efficiency (Hollingsworth, 2008), but a long-standing concern is that DEA assumes that data are measured without error. This is quite unlikely, and DEA and other efficiency analysis techniques may yield biased efficiency estimates if it is not realized (Gajewski, Lee, Bott, Piamjariyakul and Taunton, 2009; Ruggiero, 2004). We propose to address measurement error systematically using a Bayesian method (Bayesian DEA).

Identifying individual changes in performance with composite quality indicators while accounting for regression to the mean.

Almost a decade ago Morton and Torgerson indicated that perceived medical benefits could be due to "regression to the mean." Despite this caution, the regression to the mean "effects on the identification of changes in institutional performance do not seem to have been considered previously in any depth" (Jones and Spiegelhalter). As a response, Jones and Spiegelhalter provide a methodology to adjust for regression to the mean when modeling recent changes in institutional performance for one-variable quality indicators.

Biomarkers: an important clinical assessment tool.

Helping clinicians to predict, diagnose, and monitor disease.

Reliability of the nursing care hour measure: a descriptive study.

Background: The nursing care hour has become an international standard unit of measure in research where nurse staffing is a key variable. Until now, there have been no studies verifying whether nursing care hours obtained from hospital data sources can be collected reliably.

Objectives: To examine the processes used by hospitals to generate nursing care hour data and to evaluate inter-rater reliability and guideline compliance with standards of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators(®) (NDNQI(®)) and the National Quality Forum.

Well-being in refugee women experiencing cultural transition.

This article presents a situation-specific theory of well-being in refugee women experiencing cultural transition. The theory resulted from 2 studies, an ethnography and a community-based collaborative action research project, with refugee women from South Sudan, who were resettled to the United States. The theory extends the middle-range theory of transition to include cultural transition as a distinct type of transition with a unique set of properties and conditions including 3 phases-separation, liminality, and integration.

Sleep disturbance in women before myocardial infarction.

Objective: The study objective was to describe the prevalence and correlates of sleep disturbances among women who retrospectively reported sleep disturbance before their myocardial infarction (MI). MI is frequently unrecognized in women because they may have only vague symptoms, such as sleep disturbance. Describing correlates of sleep disturbance before MI may assist in recognizing women at risk for coronary heart disease.

From daunting task to new beginnings: bachelor of science in nursing curriculum revision using the new essentials.

Undergraduate curriculum revision is a daunting task, particularly when new accreditation criteria clearly call for substantive changes in how baccalaureate generalist nurses are educated. Using the nine essentials of The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2008) and the 109 Essential outcomes, the University of Kansas School of Nursing undergraduate faculty employed three phases of change: (a) understanding, (b) analysis, and (c) design to create an innovative curriculum. Theoretical influences from E.

Targeting memory improvement in assisted living: a pilot study.

This pilot study tested an intervention designed to improve memory for assisted-living (AL) residents. Seven residents in one Midwestern AL facility participated in a six-session memory program based on qualitative research that identified typical memory challenges of residents (e.g.

Gradually Guiding Nursing Students through Their Capstone Course: Registered Nurse Preceptors Share Their Experiences.

Professional precepted immersion courses (capstone) have become the standard as a means to prepare senior nursing students to enter the workforce. Preceptors have a significant role in developing the student nurse, yet exactly how to prepare preceptors for this role has been an ongoing discussion. This qualitative inquiry explored the educational needs of clinical registered nurse (RN) preceptors who work directly with senior nursing students in a professional precepted immersion (capstone) course.

Visual cues for person-centered communication.

Nursing home communication is frequently limited and task-focused and fails to affirm resident personhood. We tested the feasibility and effects of automated digital displays of resident photographs to remind staff (N = 11) of resident (n = 6) personhood. Historical photographs were displayed in digital photo frames mounted in each resident's room.

The effect of simulation on clinical performance: a junior nursing student clinical comparison study.

Introduction: Patient simulation has been used to augment the traditional clinical model, but its value is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a theory-driven pediatric simulation curriculum on nursing students' clinical performance.

Methods: The convenience sample included 116 junior nursing students enrolled in a pediatric course.

Improving feedback to students online: teaching tips from experienced faculty.

Background: As nurses seek to advance their education through online courses, considering best practices in feedback is especially important. Rich and rapid feedback has long been considered a best teaching practice, but how to provide this feedback in an online course environment is not always clear. This study was conducted to identify how experienced faculty provide feedback to online students.

Descriptive study of shared decision making about lifestyle modifications with individuals who have psychiatric disabilities.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) is a process of active participation by clients with practitioners in weighing the risks and benefits of treatments. It has not been extended to decisions about making lifestyle modifications.

Objective: Describe how frequently health lifestyle behaviors are addressed in 15- to 20-minute medicine clinic visits with individuals who have psychiatric disabilities and how often SDM is used in reaching decisions.

Complex home care: Part I--Utilization and costs to families for health care services each year.

As many as 120 persons per million people in the United States are dependent on the lifelong, complex, technology-based care of home parenteral nutrition (HPN) infusions. However, data for costs paid by families for HPN-related health care services and for non-reimbursed expenditures are rarely tabulated and most often underestimated. The goals of this study were to describe health care services used by families to manage HPN, report the frequency of each service used annually, and estimate the average annual non-reimbursed costs to families for these health services.

Common themes in clinical education partnerships.

The concurrent nursing and faculty shortages continue to be critical issues for the nation's health care system. As academic nursing programs struggle with maintaining and increasing enrollment in the midst of a faculty shortage, one solution is to expand the faculty's capacity through innovative academic-service partnerships. Schools and clinical partners identified as having implemented innovative partnerships were invited to participate in this descriptive study.

Nurse residency graduates' commitment to their first positions.

Between 27% and 53% of new graduates change jobs during the first year of work. One program to address this issue is a national nurse residency program, in which the University of Kansas Hospital has enrolled new graduates since 2003. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among job satisfaction, reasons for staying, and satisfaction with the nurse residency program to job commitment and retention of nurses who completed the program.