Nursing research priorities for the care of the naval hospital patient: a Delphi survey.

The purpose of this study was to identify priorities for nursing research in a naval hospital using the Delphi technique. A general objective was to provide empirically based information to guide the development of a nursing research program at a regional medical treatment facility. Via a three-round Delphi survey, priority research questions were identified for the nursing department of a naval regional medical treatment facility. A serendipitous result was the identification of nursing research priorities within a deployed naval fleet hospital.

Direct sibling contact and bacterial colonization in newborns.

A two-phase, experimental study tested the hypothesis that no significant association exists between direct sibling contact and the bacterial colonization rates of neonates during their initial hospital stay. In Phase I, 44 infants were randomly assigned to experimental (N = 23) and control (N = 21) groups. Infants in the experimental group had direct contact with an older sibling who had been screened for communicable diseases; infants in the control group did not. The dependent variable, bacterial colonization, was measured using cultures of nasal and umbilical swabs of all neonates in the study. Swabs were taken at admission and discharge. In Phase II, the same procedures were followed except that swabs were taken from the neonates (N = 33 in each group) at admission, before the sibling contact, and at discharge. Analysis of the data using the standard error of the difference between proportions showed no significant differences in the proportion of infants colonized by staphylococcal and streptococcal organisms. Thus, bacterial colonization rates and older sibling contact were not associated. Implications for care and further research are discussed.