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Childhood obesity is an escalating crisis in the United States. Health policy may impact this epidemic which disproportionally affects underserved populations.
The aim was to use the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to assess health policy impact on preventing or treating school-aged children (5 > 18 years) with obesity in underserved populations.
A scoping review of 842 articles was conducted. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and underwent data extraction.
Twelve studies included subgroup analysis, with four suggesting an impact of policy on at-risk groups. None of the 24 studies fully applied the RE-AIM framework. Policies positively impacted childhood obesity in 12 studies across the sample.
Our review revealed inconsistent evidence for the effectiveness of policy on childhood obesity, perhaps due to the lack of focus on the social determinants of health. In addition, many studies did not evaluate the outcomes for underserved populations. Therefore, we propose more attention to social determinants in future legislation and evaluation of policy effectiveness on underserved populations. Findings identify an urgent need for the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies specifically directed to address the inequities of racism, social injustices, and social determinants of health that impact childhood obesity in the United States. Future work needs to identify who was reached by the policy, who benefitted from the policy, and how policies were implemented to address obesity-related health disparities. Nurses should advocate for the evaluation of childhood obesity policies, particularly in underserved populations, to determine effectiveness. Nurses, particularly those trained in population and community health and research, should advocate for policy research that considers inequities rather than controls for these variables. Multi-layered interventions can then be tailored to sub-populations and evaluated more effectively.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC's) Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP) establishes standards for nurse residency programs to elevate and optimize the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of new nurses participating in nurse residency programs. Evidence-based practice (EBP) is foundational to providing safe nursing care. One of the National Academy of Medicine's (NAM's) 2020 goals stated that 90% of clinical decisions would be supported by the best available evidence to attain the best patient outcomes. Nurse residency programs can benefit from evidence-based strategies to develop EBP competencies in new nurses.
The purpose of this scoping review was to synthesize the literature around strategies for incorporating EBP into nurse residency programs across the United States.
This scoping review was informed by the JBI (formerly known as the Joanna Briggs Institute) methodology for scoping reviews. Searches were conducted by a health science librarian in PubMed and CINAHL with Full Text. Keywords and their synonyms, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH; PubMed), and Subject Headings (CINAHL with Full Text) were used. Covidence, a literature review management program, was used to organize the literature and manage the review. Title, abstract, and full-text reviews were completed within Covidence using three teams of two independent reviewers.
Four hundred and thirty-eight citations were imported into Covidence. Ten articles were retained for the final review. Three strategies for incorporating EBP into nurse residency programs emerged from the literature: (1) exposure of nurse residents to existing organizational resources, (2) completion of online EBP modules, and (3) completion of an EBP project.
The incorporation of EBP competencies in nurse residency programs aligns with NAM's and ANCC's goals, yet a paucity of evidence exists to guide curriculum development in nurse residency programs. This scoping review corroborates the need for further research to inform best practices for implementing EBP into nurse residency programs.
Nurses play a critical role in providing evidence-based, high-quality care to optimize patient outcomes. Models from implementation science suggest social networks may influence the adoption of evidence-based practices (EBPs). However, few studies have examined this relationship among hospital nurses. Social network analysis (SNA) mathematically evaluates patterns of communication, a critical step in implementation. Exploring hospital nurses' communication networks may provide insight into influences on the adoption of EBPs.
This study aimed to describe complete communication networks of hospital nurses for practice changes on inpatient units, including upper level nursing administrators.
This descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional study used SNA on two inpatient units from one hospital. A sociometric survey was completed by nurses (unit to executive level) regarding communication frequency about practice changes. Network-level density, diameter, average path length, centralization, and arc reciprocity were measured. Attribute data were used to explore subnetworks.
Surveys from 148 nurses on two inpatient adult intensive care units (response rates 90% and 98%) revealed high communication frequency. Network measures were similar across the two units and among subnetworks. Analysis identified central (charge nurses and nurse leaders) and peripheral members of the network (new-to-practice nurses). Subnetworks aligned with the weekend and shift worked.
Established communication channels, including subnetworks and opinion leaders, should be used to maximize and optimize implementation strategies and facilitate the uptake of EBPs. Future work should employ SNA to measure the impact of communication networks on promoting the uptake of EBP and to improve patient outcomes.
The intent of the PICOT (i.e., Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Time) method is to formulate focused clinical questions to facilitate the discovery of relevant evidence through systematic searching, with the components of the question serving as the foundation for the search. Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) graduates use evidence-based practices to institute changes in their organizations' systems and policies, thereby yielding positive effects on both patient and system outcomes. Given that the clinical question is the foundation of the evidence-based practice process, DNP graduates' competence in the PICOT method needs to be better understood.
This analysis aimed to describe how DNP students used the PICOT method to ask clinical questions in their DNP projects.
Project questions were retrieved from a subset (n = 129, 60.56%) of an existing national random sample of publicly available DNP projects spanning the years 2010 to 2021 from Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education-accredited schools (n = 213). Project questions using the PICOT method were further evaluated with a scoring system of 0 = no and 1 = yes for missing elements, formatting, directional outcome, and project purpose. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 8, with higher scores indicating more errors. Discussion among five researchers, until agreement was achieved, yielded consensus.
Although the PICOT method was project author-identified in 66 (31.0%) projects, only four (6%) followed the PICOT method. All 66 (100%) were intervention questions. There were 2.74 (SD 1.55) mean errors, ranging from 0 to 6. No questions were missing P or O. Specific errors included missing I 3 (4.5%) or missing C 37 (56%), poor formatting 34 (51.5%), directional outcome 44 (66.7%), and project purpose 38 (57.6%). Thirty-three (50%) of the questions were missing T; however, T is not used for searching, so researchers recalculated the mean error without T (M = 2.24, SD = 1.28, range 0–5).
Gaps in the accurate use of the PICOT method to construct clinical questions can lead to biased searches, inaccurate clinical problem identification, and, when used as the project purpose, jumping to non-evidence-based solutions. Academic faculty and clinical educators can mitigate these skewed outcomes and enhance their impact on quality outcomes by helping DNP-prepared nurses shore up this foundational skill.
Basing practice on evidence is a widely acknowledged requirement for nursing, but shortcomings still exist. An increased understanding of the actualization of evidence-based nursing (EBN) across different nursing contexts is needed to develop better support for EBN and promote uniform high-quality nursing.
The aim of this study was to compare the actualization of EBN in different organizational contexts in Finland.
Data for this survey were collected in 2021. The actualization of EBN in primary, specialized, and social care organizations was evaluated with the Actualization of Evidence-Based Nursing instrument, nurses' version, which focuses on individual and organizational-level EBN support structures. Differences between (1) specialized and primary healthcare, and (2) different nursing practice settings were tested with Welch's two sample t-test, the Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test, and the Wilcoxon rank sum test.
Based on nurse (n = 1020) evaluations, those working in specialized healthcare hold more positive attitudes toward EBN (p = .021) and evaluated their organization's methods for monitoring and evaluating nursing practices (p = .004) more positively than those working in primary healthcare. Regarding different nursing practice settings (n = 1241), the most positive results were observed within preventive healthcare where nurses evaluated their attitudes toward EBN, EBN competence, and personal evidence-based practices more positively compared to other nursing practice settings. The results were parallel regarding several organizational structures for EBN. Positive results were also observed within somatic units at university hospitals, and most negative results were within institutional care settings, health centers, and home care settings.
There is a need for targeted support to strengthen EBN across different organizational contexts, with special attention to those contexts where nursing professionals with lower education levels work. Future research needs to focus on further analyzing the organizational differences and what can be learned, especially from preventive healthcare but also somatic units at university hospitals.
Menopausal women often complain of a range of physical and psychological symptoms known as menopausal syndrome. These symptoms are associated with fluctuating hormone levels, sleep disturbances, and mood swings.
This study aimed to examine the efficacy of a program-based cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBT) for insomnia and depression among women experiencing menopause.
A randomized controlled trial of 88 women experiencing menopause was conducted in Egypt from June to September 2022 in outpatient clinics at Mansoura University Hospitals in Egypt. Participants were randomly assigned to a control group (45 women) and an intervention group (43 women). The intervention group received 7 weeks of CBT sessions. Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Beck Depression Inventory 2nd Edition (BDI-II) were administered before and after the intervention.
In the intervention group, there was a significant difference in scores of the subdomains of PSQI, including sleep efficiency, daytime dysfunction, subjective sleep quality, and sleep disturbance (t = 8.911, 11.77, 7.638, and 11.054, respectively), while no significant difference in domains of using sleep medication, sleep duration, and sleep latency. Significant improvements were observed between pre-and-post-intervention in the intervention group for the total scores of PSQI, ISI, and BDII-II (t = 12.711, 16.272, and 12.384, respectively), indicating a large effect size for the three studied variables (r = .81, .87, .8, respectively).
This study demonstrated the efficacy of group CBT for lowering insomnia and depression in women experiencing menopause. Thus, results indicated the need of considering prompt and appropriate interventions such as CBT as a safe treatment option to prevent the aggravation of sleep and emotional problems for menopausal women.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05920460.
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a cornerstone for safe, high-quality care. Implementation science recognizes that many factors influence the successful use of EBP, from attitudes and beliefs, self-efficacy, and knowledge and skills to contextual factors related to unit and organizational culture. This integrative review aimed to identify valid and reliable instruments measuring critical EBP domains with nursing professionals.
A systematic search of the literature was conducted. CINAHL, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Joanna Briggs were searched to identify original research publications testing the reliability and validity of EBP nursing instruments.
Of 347 records, 48 studies representing 50 instruments were identified as having undergone psychometric testing, thus meeting the inclusion criteria. Most instruments were validated in English-speaking countries. Content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency standards were met for 70%, 62%, and 94% of instruments, respectively. Limited testing was found for other types of validity, test–retest reliability, acceptability, feasibility, or responsivity and sensitivity, thus representing gaps in psychometric validation. Less than 20% of instruments have been translated to other languages limiting their use to advance EBP worldwide.
Eighty-two percent of instruments met minimal psychometric standards and are sound for education, practice, and research. Expanding psychometric testing and utilizing validated EBP instruments will further the EBP movement to improve global population health.
Post-stroke depression is the most common neuropsychiatric consequence and reduces rehabilitation effectiveness. However, the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) on mental health treatment for patients after a stroke is uncertain.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of VR as a co-adjuvant form of treatment to reduce depression in stroke patients admitted to neurorehabilitation units.
We systematically searched medical databases including PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov from inception to November 16, 2023. Clinical trials comparing the use of VR as an adjuvant form of treatment in stroke patients' rehabilitation with the usual treatment were included. Pooled standardized mean differences were calculated using a random-effects model. Subgroup analyses were performed according to type of stroke, VR characteristics, and the scale used to measure depression. Meta-regression analysis was performed for intervention duration and to determine the mean age of the participants.
Eight studies and 388 stroke patients were included. The VR interventions were associated with a lower risk of depression in patients (ES = −0.69; 95% CI [−1.05, −0.33]; I 2 = 57.6%; p ≤ .02). The estimates were not affected by the type of stroke, the type of VR used, the blinding process, the type of scale used to detect depression, the duration of the intervention (weeks and minutes), and the total number of sessions. Meta-regression shows that younger samples (p = .00; 95% CI [0.01, 0.08) and longer interventions (p = < .05; 95% CI [−0.00, −0.00) lead to a greater reduction in depression.
This review provides an important basis for treating depression in patients after a stroke. Professionals working in stroke neurorehabilitation units should consider VR as a form of co-adjuvant treatment for depression in patients.
CRD42022303968.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many registered nurses (RNs) worked on the frontline caring for severely ill patients. They did so with limited knowledge of how to treat and prevent the disease. This extreme situation puts pressure on RNs to find evidence on which to base the care of their patients.
To examine: (1) the extent to which evidence-based practice (EBP) process was applied by Swedish RN cohorts 15–19 years after graduation during the pandemic, (2) whether there was any change to their EBP process from pre-pandemic to late pandemic, (3) the relationship between RNs' use of the EBP process and the duration of exposure to work situations severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and (4) whether level of education, position and care setting were associated with the extent of RNs' EBP process.
In 2021, the level of EBP activities was investigated among 2237 RNs 15–19 years after graduation. The scale used to measure EBP consisted of six items of the EBP process. Unpaired t-tests or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the analysis.
RNs used the EBP process to a moderate extent to inform and transform their clinical practice. There was a minor but significant decrease in practicing the EBP process from pre-pandemic to late in the pandemic. RNs who were most affected by the pandemic scored higher on the scale than less-affected colleagues. RNs in nonclinical positions reported more EBP activities, as did RNs in management positions. RNs working in outpatient settings reported more EBP activities than their colleagues in hospitals.
It is imperative that RNs hone their skills in EBP if they are to be prepared for future healthcare crises. Healthcare providers have a duty to facilitate the development of EBP and, in this regard, RNs in clinical positions in hospitals need particular support.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, acute care nurse managers functioned in a critical role by helping to advance the mission and goals of their organization while navigating a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. This resulted in high levels of ongoing job-related stress which is linked to negative physical, psychological, and job-related outcomes. Little is known about the perceptions regarding their own professional well-being during this time.
The aim of this study was to qualitatively describe acute care nurse managers' perceptions of and barriers to their professional well-being.
Using a qualitative descriptive approach, nurse managers from a hospital system in the southwestern United States responded to two short-answer, survey-based questions in 2022: (1) “Describe the definition of nurse-manager well-being in your own words” and (2) “What do you feel is your biggest barrier to professional well-being?” Reflexive thematic analysis was utilized to analyze participant responses (N = 80).
Professional well-being is a complex concept influenced by the nurse manager's ability to navigate work–life balance; care for their own physical, emotional, and spiritual selves; give and receive support from stakeholders; and manage feelings of thriving vs. struggling in the role. Barriers most cited as influencing well-being included having too little time to get things done coupled with increasing workloads, feeling stuck in the middle among stakeholders, and coping with ongoing staffing challenges.
The definition of and barriers to well-being are influenced by the specific needs and experiences of the nurse manager. While not all barriers can be immediately removed, the identification of individual and organization-specific barriers needs to be taken seriously, reviewed by those who can promote change, and evidence-based solutions for improvement piloted or implemented when feasible.
Elopement jeopardizes patient safety, affects the hospital's reputation, and results in financial ramifications. In an academic community hospital, executive leadership approached a team of nurse leaders for expertise following the elopement of a vulnerable patient.
The team's goal was to identify evidence-based strategies to mitigate future elopement events. Following an extensive literature review and gap analysis, the organization recognized opportunities pertaining to elopement management, including patient assessment, prevention strategies, and facility-wide response when events occur. The nurse leader team thoroughly searched current literature to answer the Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (i.e., PICO) questions of interest. Following a critical appraisal of 55 articles, 26 were utilized to make practice change recommendations. The body of evidence included a variety of age groups and diagnoses.
After the synthesis of the literature, the team provided recommendations to the organization. These recommendations included the assessment of patient-specific risks and the implementation of elopement prevention measures as fundamental elements for incidence reduction. The team partnered with multidisciplinary stakeholders for the revision of policies, processes, and electronic medical record documentation.
The organization monitored elopement events and the duration of each event throughout the phases of implementation. Pre-implementation data, collected from January to June 2021, demonstrated 34 individual elopement cases lasting an average of 118 min each. In comparison, post-implementation data collected during the same time frame in 2022 found only 12 events lasting an average of 24 min each.
The organization implemented evidence-based recommendations to standardize the facility's approach to elopement. With structured assessment, precautions, and response, the organization demonstrated a notable decline in the number and duration of elopement events. Hardwiring processes, analyzing data, and adjusting expectations within an evidence-based framework should assist the organization's drive to further enhance patient safety surrounding elopement events.
Missed nursing care is defined as care that is delayed, partially completed, or not completed at all. The scenario created by the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced multifactorial determinants related to the care environment, nursing processes, internal processes, and decision-making processes, increasing missed nursing care.
This scoping review aimed to establish the quantity and type of research undertaken on missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. We searched CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, two national and regional databases, two dissertations and theses databases, a gray literature database, two study registers, and a search engine from November 1, 2019, to March 23, 2023. We included quantitative, qualitative, and mixed studies carried out in all healthcare settings that examined missed nursing care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Language restrictions were not applied. Two independent reviewers conducted study selection and data extraction. Disagreements between the reviewers were resolved through discussion or with an additional reviewer.
We included 25 studies with different designs, the most common being acute care cross-sectional survey designs. Studies focused on determining the frequency and reasons for missed nursing care and its influence on nurses and organizational outcomes.
Missed nursing care studies during the COVID-19 pandemic were essentially nurses-based prevalence surveys. There is an urgent need to advance the design and development of longitudinal and intervention studies, as well as to broaden the focus of research beyond acute care. Further research is needed to determine the impact of missed nursing care on nursing-sensitive outcomes and from the patient's perspective.
Patient safety is one of the cornerstones of high-quality healthcare systems. Evidence-based practice is one way to improve patient safety from the nursing perspective. Another aspect of care that directly influences patient safety is missed nursing care. However, research on possible associations between evidence-based practice and missed nursing care is lacking.
The aim of this study was to examine associations between registered nurses' educational level, the capability beliefs and use of evidence-based practice, and missed nursing care.
This study had a cross-sectional design. A total of 228 registered nurses from adult inpatient wards at a university hospital participated. Data were collected with the MISSCARE Survey-Swedish version of Evidence-Based Practice Capabilities Beliefs Scale.
Most missed nursing care was reported within the subscales Basic Care and Planning. Nurses holding a higher educational level and being low evidence-based practice users reported significantly more missed nursing care. They also scored significantly higher on the Evidence-based Practice Capabilities Beliefs Scale. The analyses showed a limited explanation of the variance of missed nursing care and revealed that being a high user of evidence-based practice indicated less reported missed nursing care, while a higher educational level meant more reported missed nursing care.
Most missed nursing care was reported within the subscales Planning and Basic Care. Thus, nursing activities are deprioritized in comparison to medical activities. Nurses holding a higher education reported more missed nursing care, indicating that higher education entails deeper knowledge of the consequences when rationing nursing care. They also reported varied use of evidence-based practice, showing that higher education is not the only factor that matters. To decrease missed nursing care in clinical practice, and thereby increase the quality of care, educational level, use of evidence-based practice, and organizational factors must be considered.
It has been suggested that nursing shift-to-shift handover should be a more team-based dialogue with and for the patient rather than about a patient.
The aim of this study was to evaluate patient participation in relation to the implementation of the person-centered handover (PCH).
A pretest–posttest design was used without a comparison group, including patients from nine units in a university hospital at pretest (n = 228) and after implementing PCH (posttest, n = 253) per the framework integrated-Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services. The PCH is inspired by an Australian bedside handover model. The Patient Preferences for the Patient Participation tool was used to rate the preference for and experience of participation on 12 items, combined into three levels of preference-based participation (insufficient–fair–sufficient).
There were no differences regarding experience or preference-based participation between patients at pretest–posttest; however, posttest patients experienced participation in the item Reciprocal communication to a lesser extent than the pretest patients. Only 49% of the posttest group received PCH; of those not receiving PCH, some would have wanted PCH (27%), while some would have declined (24%). Patients receiving PCH had sufficient participation (82%), to a greater extent, regarding the item Sharing one's symptoms with staff than patients at pretest (72%). Patients receiving PCH also had sufficient participation, to a greater extent, than patients at posttest who did not receive, but would have wanted PCH, regarding four items: (1) sharing one's symptoms with staff, (2) reciprocal communication, (3) being told what was done, and (4) taking part in planning.
Most patients want to be present at PCH. Therefore, nurses should ask for the patients' preferences regarding PCH and act accordingly. Not inviting patients who want PCH could contribute to insufficient patient participation. Further studies are needed to capture what assistance nurses would want in identifying and acting in alignment with patient preferences.
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