Using objective structured clinical examination to teach medication rights in undergraduate nursing education.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical partner feedback identified insubstantial student preparation and limited understanding of safe medication administration process. Faculty initiated a new teaching and evaluation approach to prepare students for safe medication administration processes in the practice setting. METHODS: The teaching method is a synthesis of situated cognition learning theory that emphasizes use of deliberate practice case scenarios in low fidelity simulation. Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) evaluates student critical thinking and application of the medication rights administration process. OUTCOMES: Data collection includes first and second attempt OSCE pass rates, occurrence of incorrect answers, and student feedback regarding the testing experience. Findings include a greater than 90 % pass rate on first attempt, 100 % pass rate on second attempt, and positive testing experience. CONCLUSION: Faculty now use situated cognition learning methods and OSCE in one course within the curriculum.

"I Don't Want to Die in Here": Absence and Vulnerability in COVID-19 News Coverage of Prisons.

This research examines how news constructed vulnerability in the coverage of COVID-19 and populations in prisons and jails. Focused on key moments during the moral panic around the pandemic, the analysis of publications from across the U.S. found substantial reporting earlier in 2020, and a striking absence and ignorance of key developments later into 2021. Six news discourses - journalistic objectivity, blaming and abandonment, vulnerability, compassion, vilification, and absence - were complicated by the climate of demonstrations for racial justice.

"It's natural and healthy, but I don't want to see it": Using Entertainment-Education to Improve Attitudes Toward Breastfeeding in Public.

While it has been well established that breastfeeding provides the best nourishment for children, few women achieve the recommended breastfeeding duration. Negative media messages have been identified as one explanation for the lack of individual and public support for breastfeeding. This study explored the influence of media on the knowledge and attitudes of a nearly childless population to ascertain if and how entertainment media can positively impact perceptions of breastfeeding. Using cultivation and parasocial interaction, this research measured entertainment television's effect on breastfeeding attitudes using randomized-group experiments involving 375 students. Overall, participants generally held positive attitudes but were uncomfortable seeing breastfeeding. Moreover, results indicate that viewing a prime-time television clip that depicted public breastfeeding not only significantly lessened the extent to which participants believed that breastfeeding was a private activity but also improved attitudes and support for breastfeeding in public. This study concludes that more pro-breastfeeding media messages in entertainment media could help create a climate conducive to breastfeeding success.

(De)stigmatizing the silent epidemic: representations of hearing loss in entertainment television.

The number of adolescents, young adults, and senior citizens experiencing hearing loss has significantly increased over the last 30 years. Despite this prevalence, hearing loss receives little attention in popular and political discourse, except in its connection to aging. Thus, hearing loss and the use of hearing aids have been stigmatized, discouraging adults from seeking hearing evaluation and screening, and justifying the lack of insurance coverage for hearing devices. This research explored how and why hearing loss continues to be stigmatized through a study of media messages about hearing loss. A textual analysis was conducted on 276 television episodes that involved d/Deaf characters and/or storylines about hearing loss and deafness from 1987 through 2013 (see Table 1). Only 11 fictional programs addressed the experience of hearing loss through 47 episodes, including Criminal Minds, Switched at Birth, House, M.D., and New Girl. Contrary to the assumption that hearing loss exclusively impacts older people, characters were typically young, attractive, working professionals who held prominent roles in the programs. For most characters, hearing loss developed suddenly and was restored by the end of the episode, with only four characters using hearing aids. Hearing loss was depicted as comical, embarrassing, lonely, and threatening to one's work. The scarcity of hearing loss portrayals, combined with the negative representations of hearing loss, could help explain why hearing loss continues to be stigmatized and overlooked, even though almost half of all Americans will eventually experience difficulty hearing.

"That's not a beer bong, it's a breast pump!" representations of breastfeeding in prime-time fictional television.

Breastfeeding has been recognized as one of the key determinant in one's future health. Yet although most people are aware of the benefits, many women do not breastfeed their babies past the first few months. These low rates can be partially explained by negative cultural attitudes toward breastfeeding, which have been reinforced by media messages. This research explored representations of breastfeeding in entertainment media-an area that has been overlooked. A textual analysis was conducted on 53 fictional television breastfeeding representations, ranging in genre and audience, from Beavis and Butthead to Criminal Minds. Findings indicate that breastfeeding depictions are generally positive, but limited in scope to educated, older, Caucasian women breastfeeding newborns, with little discussion about how to overcome problems. Extended breastfeeding and nursing in public were conveyed as socially unacceptable, making other characters uncomfortable, often within the same storylines that sexualized breasts. While the frequency of representations in recent years was encouraging, the narrow definition of the "normal" nursing experience excluded many types of women and breastfeeding experiences. And, by failing to address breastfeeding challenges and conveying that extended breastfeeding or nursing in public is abnormal or obscene, these depictions reinforce myths about the ease of breastfeeding and may discourage women from breastfeeding past the newborn phase, and outside the privacy of their homes. These portrayals may help explain why breastfeeding has not been "normalized," despite an international consensus that it is the best health choice for babies.

Perpetuating "scientific motherhood": infant feeding discourse in Parents magazine, 1930-2007.

Although breastfeeding initiation rates have recently been at an all-time high, duration continues to be considerably low. Given the health benefits associated with extended breastfeeding, this discrepancy is cause for concern. This research examined the messages conveyed about infant feeding in a popular parenting magazine, Parents magazine, from 1930 through 2007. Findings indicated that the messages about infant feeding shifted in accordance with changing ideologies about the means of infant feeding-from bottle-feeding to breastfeeding. However, even with changing attitudes toward infant feeding, writers used scientific evidence and the advice of "experts" to justify the dominant form of feeding. The absence of practical advice regarding breastfeeding challenges, especially from "real" women set up false expectations about the breastfeeding experience, painting it as "natural" and best for the baby. The dependency on experts and lack of practical advice in popular media, like Parents magazine, may help explain a societal trend that downplays breastfeeding obstacles, giving insight into the vast discrepancy between breastfeeding initiation and duration.

Nursing clinical faculty revisited: the benefits of developing staff nurses as clinical scholars.

One of the major contributing factors to the nursing shortage in Colorado and nationally is a scarcity of clinical faculty required to prepare new nurses. This article describes an innovative, collaborative project that purposefully prepares staff nurses to assume the role of clinical scholar. Although there are several models that have sought to make clinically expert nurses available as teaching faculty, the breadth and scope of the described project with its multiple partners is unique. In the first year of this grant, the identified goals were achieved. In addition, there have been significant serendipitous outcomes.

Infant feeding and the media: the relationship between Parents' Magazine content and breastfeeding, 1972-2000.

Mass media content likely influences the decision of women to breastfeed their newborn children. Relatively few studies have empirically assessed such a hypothesis to date, however. Most work has tended to focus either on specific interventions or on broad general commentary about the role of media. In this study, we examined infant feeding advertisements in 87 issues of Parents' Magazine, a popular parenting magazine, from the years 1971 through 1999. We then used content analysis results to predict subsequent changes in levels of breastfeeding among U.S. women. When the frequency of hand feeding advertisements increased, the percentage change in breastfeeding rates reported the next year generally tended to decrease. These results underscore the need to acknowledge the potential role of popular media content in understanding breastfeeding patterns and public health trends.