A survey of female nursing students' knowledge, health beliefs, perceptions of risk, and risk behaviors regarding human papillomavirus and cervical cancer.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to assess knowledge of, perceived susceptibility to, perceived seriousness of, and risk behaviors regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer among female nursing students. DATA SOURCES: A 40-item survey of HPV and cervical cancer was distributed to a convenience sample of 240 female nursing students enrolled in a baccalaureate nursing program. CONCLUSIONS: Female nursing students participate in high-risk sexual behaviors and have a fairly low knowledge level, low perceived susceptibility, and low perceived seriousness regarding HPV and cervical cancer. Knowledge and perceived susceptibility were positively related to number of sexual partners. This may indicate that the women who engage in riskier behavior are more knowledgeable about HPV and their risk of contracting the disease. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Results indicate that all practitioners involved in the care of women should educate them about HPV and its relationship to cervical cancer. Education should include the need to use condoms to prevent HPV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Attitudes toward mental illness: does a psychiatric nursing course make a difference?

The purpose of the study presented in this article is to determine if a psychiatric nursing course is effective in favorably changing nursing students' attitudes toward mental illness. Using an abbreviated form of the Cohen and Struening scale. Opinions About Mental Illness (OMI), data were collected over a 3 year period from 185 sophomore nursing students before entering, and after completing, a psychiatric nursing course. The psychiatric nursing course did make a difference: of the five factors in the scale, four changed significantly. Students became less Authoritarian, less Benevolent, more inclined toward Mental Health Ideology, and less Social Restrictive. These results have implications for nursing education and practice.

Clinical and serologic study of four smallpox vaccines comparing variations of dose and route of administration. Basic study and laboratory standardization.

The present four-center collaborative study was undertaken in an attempt to define the best vaccine and/or vaccination procedure for use in areas of the world that are free of smallpox. The study was designed to compare the effect of different vaccinial strains, viral concentrations, and routes of administration on the morbidity and antibody response associated with primary vaccination and standard challenge revaccination. Primary vaccinations were performed on 1,585 children; 49.6% of the children were vaccinated by the percutaneous route, and 50.4% received vaccine subcutaneously. The overall age and sex distributions of percutaneous and subcutaneous vaccinees were comparable, but there were marked differences in participants among the four study centers. Vaccines in Kentucky had a greater mean age; the greatest number of Negroid children were enrolled in St. Louis, and more of them were vaccinated by the subcutaneous route; and the dropout rate was much greater in San Diego and Colorado. An analysis of comparative interlaboratory serologic procedures with the use of 20 coded duplicate samples of serum revealed good agreement in the hemagglutination-inhibition test; results of neutralization tests had greater variability of mean titers. On duplicate samples of serum from study participants there was generally good correlation between each of the four study centers and the Center for Disease Control's reference laboratory in titers of hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody. In contrast, 38% of the neutralization titers determined at the four study centers were greater than or equal to 0.67 log10 higher than the respective titers noted at the Center for Disease Control.