Self-Care in Nursing Education.

BACKGROUND: The mental health of students and faculty has become a growing issue in academia. Faculty need to provide role-modeling early in nursing programs to enhance psychological well-being for future nurses that will have lasting effects throughout their careers. METHOD: A total of 29 faculty members participated in a descriptive study investigating types of self-care goals and how they could be achieved by College of Nursing faculty during their annual performance appraisal. RESULTS: Seventy-three percent of respondents reported they anticipated that achieving these self-care goals would enhance their faculty role. Further, the respondents associated achievement of self-care goals as a way to improve their faculty performance. CONCLUSION: Since every individual has a unique perspective of the world, a self-care approach that works for one person might not work for another. Self-care goals should therefore be tailored to the unique needs and perspectives of each person. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(6):394-398.].

Why are we prolonging QT interval monitoring?

BACKGROUND: At present, monitoring of the QT interval (QTI) is not a standard practice in the medical intensive care unit setting, where many drugs that prolong the QTI are administered. This literature review looked at the current research for evidence-based standards to support QTI monitoring of patients with risk factors for QTI prolongation, which can result in life-threatening arrhythmias such as torsade de pointes. OBJECTIVE/AIM: The objective of this article is to establish the existence of evidence-based standards for monitoring of the QTI and to raise awareness in the nursing profession of the need for such monitoring among patients who are at high risk for prolonged QTI. METHOD: To determine whether published standards for QTI monitoring exist, a search was conducted of the bibliographic databases CINAHL, EBSCOhost, Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Library for the years 2013 and 2014. Also, a survey was conducted to determine whether practice standards for QTI monitoring are being implemented at 4 major hospitals in the Memphis area, including a level 1 trauma center. RESULTS: The database search established the existence of published guidelines that support the need for QTI monitoring. Results of the hospital survey indicated that direct care nurses were not aware of the need to identify high-risk patients, drugs with the potential to prolong QTI that were being administered to their patients, or evidence-based standards for QTI monitoring. DISCUSSION: Review of the research literature underscored the need for QTI monitoring among high-risk patients, that is, those with genetic conditions that predispose them to QTI prolongation, those with existing cardiac conditions being treated with antiarrhythmic medications, or those who are prescribed any new medication classified as high risk on the basis of clinical research. This need is especially crucial in intensive care unit settings, where many antiarrhythmic medications are administered.