Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners最新文献

Background: Nurse practitioners and physician associates are an essential part of the multidisciplinary cancer care team with expanding and evolving roles within cancer specialties.

Local problem: As these clinicians flourish, a parallel need for leadership rises to optimize scope of practice, mentor, and retain this crucial workforce. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to development a nurse practitioner and physician associate leadership structure within an academic cancer center.

Methods: Development of this nurse practitioner and physician associate leadership structure was guided by transformational leadership theory. In collaboration with nursing, business, and physician leadership, a quad structure was supported.

Interventions: Implementation of a leadership structure included the establishment of eight team leaders and two managers. These leaders identified multiple opportunities for improvement including improved communications, offload of nonbillable work, development of incentive programs, provision of equipment, specialty practice alignment, hematology/oncology fellowship, and professional development.

Results: Overall, a nurse practitioner and physician associate leadership structure allowed for representation across the cancer center. Such inclusion supported multiple quality improvement projects developed in partnership with nursing, business, and physician leaders. Cumulatively, these interventions yielded efficient workflows and expansion of services. Consistent with reported evidence, these efforts contributed to nurse practitioner and physician associate retention as well as improved job satisfaction.

Conclusions: Advanced practice leadership is essential to recruiting, developing, supporting, and retaining nurse practitioner and physician assistant colleagues in cancer care.

Abstract: New graduate nurse practitioners (NPs) often face a challenging learning curve, especially in specialized fields. The quality of clinical experiences and education varies widely across NP programs, and NP Fellowships offer an extension of formal education and clinical experiences. This editorial offers a personal perspective into the NP Fellowship experience and affirms their value to improve the standard of patient care and equip novice NPs for a sustainable career.

Background: Prematurity represents a critical health disparity. It is important to note that late preterm (LPT) infants comprise the majority of preterm births, yet they are the least studied within the premature population. Evidence-based practice guidelines are now a decade old, indicating the potential need for review and revision.

Objectives: This systematic review proposed the assessment of sociodemographic characteristics of LPT infants, clinical practice standards, and associated hospital readmission rates, mortality, and morbidity to determine the need for revision of evidence-based practice guidelines for these infants.

Data sources: The Preferred Reporting System Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis methodology provided the framework for the completion of this review. Literature searches of PubMed/Medline (Ovid), Web of Science, Cumulative Index of Nursing, and Allied Health Literature Plus databases and citation searches included articles published after 2012 using the search terms "late preterm infants," "readmissions," and "readmission rates."

Conclusions: The literature search identified 11 studies meeting search criteria. These studies included quasi experimental, retrospective, and prospective cohort studies. These studies highlighted the characteristics of LPT infants that potentially contribute to increased readmission rates, morbidity and mortality rates, health care costs, and long-term health inequities. Overall findings indicate the need for review and revision of evidence-based practice guidelines for these infants.

Implications for practice: This systematic review manifests the vulnerability of LPT infants and the accompanying need for up-to-date clinical practice guidelines to effectively reduce their morbidity and mortality rates, hospital readmissions rates, and burden of health care costs.

Background: Mental illnesses are leading causes of disability in the United States. Some evidence supports that pharmacogenetic testing may be beneficial in select populations and that lithium is beneficial for treating mood disorders and anxiety in some populations.

Purpose: This research aimed to determine whether low-dose lithium effectively decreases depression and anxiety in adults with a risk allele for CACNA1C genotypes.

Methodology: The study design was correlational. Fifty patients were treated at a nurse practitioner-owned clinic in Prairie Village, Kansas. Chart review was used. Adults older than 18 years diagnosed with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder presenting with an abnormality in the CACNA1C gene single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1006737 were included in this research. Assessment tools used were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression and GAD-7 for anxiety.

Results: Low-dose lithium significantly decreased depression by 66% ( p < .001) and anxiety by 65% ( p = <.001). There was a significant difference in pretest depression levels based on CACNA1C genotype ( p = .033). The A allele frequency was 60% higher (48%) in this population than found in general population (30%).

Conclusions: Low-dose lithium significantly decreased anxiety and depression compared with baseline. People with different versions of the CACNA1C genotype had responses that differed significantly. The A risk allele was 60% more common than in the general population.

Implications: This study could aid in establishing genetic testing as an effective clinical tool for treating depression and anxiety using lithium, an inexpensive and widely available medication.

Abstract: Nurse practitioners who publish contribute to the profession's body of knowledge. Today's digitally inclined environment easily allows for the tracking of contributing to knowledge and impact. Four popular measures for tracking include Altmetric, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. Authors should understand each tracking source's purpose, process, and value. The strengths and limitations of the tracking sources are reviewed. Awareness of the tracking sources and knowing how to influence the tools will bring additional attention to the authors.

Background: Haitian Americans have been disproportionately exposed to risk factors known to play a significant role in the development of mental illness. Yet despite the documented effectiveness of mental health treatment, a high proportion of Haitian Americans with mental health disorders have not received care.

Local problem: Internalized stigma of mental illness (ISMI) was reported as one of the primary reasons Haitian Americans do not seek help for mental illnesses, resulting in poor long-term outcomes for individuals and families in this community. This quality improvement project characterized ISMI among Haitian Americans, examined associated demographic factors, and tested the impact of a culturally relevant ISMI educational video intervention on willingness to seek mental health treatment.

Methods: Haitian Americans who self-reported mental illness ( N = 20) were recruited from a South Florida clinic. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and thematic analyses were completed to analyze the data.

Interventions: Participants completed the nine-item ISMI scale, watched an educational video about ISMI, completed a post-intervention survey, and engaged in conversations about mental health and ISMI.

Results: Sixty-five percent of participants reported mild levels of ISMI. Sex was significantly correlated with ISMI ( r = -0.458, p = .042); male participants experienced higher levels of ISMI. The educational video improved participants' knowledge of ISMI, and 85% indicated increased willingness to seek treatment.

Conclusions: When caring for Haitian Americans with mental illnesses, nurse practitioners should initiate conversations about ISMI, consider gender differences in mental illness beliefs and attitudes, and provide culturally responsive psychoeducational interventions to promote more mental health treatment utilization.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a costly chronic disease affecting more than 15 million Americans. The prevalence among US veterans is 3 times higher than the general population.

Local problem: The Veteran Health Administration developed a standardized, evidence-based COPD educational tool called Green Light to Go (GLTG) designed to educate patients on managing their COPD symptoms at home. Despite the availability of this resource, inpatient education on COPD self-management practices is highly variable across different medical teams. This quality improvement (QI) initiative sought to standardize inpatient COPD patient education using the GLTG tool. This initiative also assessed whether patients receiving standardized patient education during their index hospitalization had lower COPD 30-day readmission rates.

Method: The QI initiative followed the LEAN methodology and the A3 framework. The team performed rapid tests of change (plan-do-study-act cycles) to increase the percentage of veterans receiving COPD education.

Interventions: The interventions implemented for this QI initiative focused on clinical, patient, and system improvements.

Results: This initiative standardized COPD patient education and increased the percentage of veterans receiving (a) daily COPD education from 0% to 66%, (b) verbal COPD education on discharge from a baseline of 20% to 100%, (c) receipt of written educational material on discharge from 20% to 100%, and (d) the cohort all-cause 30-day readmission rate declined from 19.3% to 14.3%.

Conclusions: Given the substantial economic burden of COPD readmissions on the health care system and patients, evidence-based educational interventions may potentially improve outcomes and reduce hospital readmissions in this veteran population.