A professionalism and safety code of conduct designed for undergraduate nursing students.

Nationally, professionalism and safety are key concepts in nursing practice. Although they are traditionally viewed as individual concepts, we believe they are closely linked to and depend on one another. Herein, professionalism and safety are developed as a paired concept with specific indicators. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process used to develop and implement a professionalism and safety Code of Conduct for undergraduate nursing students and to share the end product of this process. Based on input from students, faculty, and health system partners in our academic-service partnership, the current definition and Code include six student behavioral domains: communication, self-awareness, self-care, professional image, responsible learning, and personal accountability. Our Code of Conduct is now a program policy and published in both the Student Handbook and clinical syllabi. Compliance is expected. Still under development are progressive clinical grading rubrics for inclusion in every clinical course.

Reduction of pyramidal and immature hippocampal neurons in pediatric simian immunodeficiency virus infection.

Pediatric HIV infection remains a global health crisis with a worldwide infection rate of 2.5 million (WHO, Geneva Switzerland, 2009). Children are much more susceptible to HIV-1 neurological impairments compared with adults, which is exacerbated by coinfections. A major obstacle in pediatric HIV research is sample access. The proposed studies take advantage of ongoing pediatric simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) pathogenesis and vaccine studies to test the hypothesis that pediatric SIV infection diminishes neuronal populations and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Newborn rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that received intravenous inoculation of highly virulent SIVmac251 (n=3) or vehicle (control n=4) were used in this study. After a 6-18-week survival time, the animals were euthanized and the brains prepared for quantitative histopathological analysis. Systematic sections through the hippocampus were either Nissl stained or immunostained for doublecortin (DCX+), a putative marker of immature neurons. Using design-based stereology, we report a 42% reduction in the pyramidal neuron population of the CA1, CA2, and CA3 fields of the hippocampus (P<0.05) in SIV-infected infants. The DCX+ neuronal population was also significantly reduced within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. The loss of hippocampal neurons and neurogenic capacity may contribute to the rapid neurocognitive decline associated with pediatric HIV infection. These data suggest that pediatric SIV infection, which leads to significant neuronal loss in the hippocampus within 3 months, closely models a subset of pediatric HIV infections with rapid progression.