An Exploration of Spiritual Well-being Among Homeless People: A Hierarchical Regression Analysis.

This study explored homeless people's (N = 164) spiritual well-being (SWB) in relation to race, mental illness, physical disease, resilience, and trait mindfulness. The results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that variables of race (p = 0.003), mental illness (p = 0.04), resilience (p < 0.001) and trait mindfulness (p < 0.001) contributed to participants' SWB. These findings were critical to research related to homelessness and service provisions in finding that homeless people with certain backgrounds (e.g., mental illness) might have lower SWB than their counterparts. This research also revealed protective factors (e.g., resilience) that could help promote SWB.

Facilitating the Timely Discharge of Well Newborns by Using Quality Improvement Methods.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Discharges are a key driver of hospital throughput. Our pediatric hospitalist team sought to improve newborn nursery throughput by increasing the percentage of newborns on our service with a discharge order by 11 am. We hypothesized that implementing a discharge checklist would result in earlier discharge times for newborns who met discharge criteria. METHODS: We identified barriers to timely discharge through focus groups with key stakeholders, chart reviews, and brainstorming sessions. We subsequently created and implemented a discharge checklist to identify and address barriers before daily rounds. We tracked mean monthly discharge order times. Finally, we performed chart reviews to determine causes for significantly delayed discharge orders and used this information to modify rounding practices during a second plan-do-study-act cycle. RESULTS: During the 2-year period before the intervention, 24% of 3224 newborns had a discharge order entered by 11 am. In the 20 months after the intervention, 39% of 2739 newborns had a discharge order by 11 am, a 63% increase compared with the baseline. Observation for group B Streptococcus exposure was the most frequent reason for a late discharge order. CONCLUSIONS: There are many factors that affect the timely discharge of well newborns. The development and implementation of a discharge checklist improved our ability to discharge newborns on our pediatric hospitalist service by 11 am. Future studies to identify nonphysician barriers to timely newborn discharges may lead to further improvements in throughput between the labor and delivery and maternity suites units.

Psychological distress among Plains Indian mothers with children referred to screening for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

BACKGROUND: Psychological distress (PD) includes symptoms of depression and anxiety and is associated with considerable emotional suffering, social dysfunction and, often, with problematic alcohol use. The rate of current PD among American Indian women is approximately 2.5 times higher than that of U.S. women in general. Our study aims to fill the current knowledge gap about the prevalence and characteristics of PD and its association with self-reported current drinking problems among American Indian mothers whose children were referred to screening for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). METHODS: Secondary analysis of cross-sectional data was conducted from maternal interviews of referred American Indian mothers (n = 152) and a comparison group of mothers (n = 33) from the same Plains culture tribes who participated in an NIAAA-funded epidemiology study of FASD. Referred women were from one of six Plains Indian reservation communities and one urban area who bore children suspected of having an FASD. A 6-item PD scale (PD-6, Cronbach's alpha = .86) was constructed with a summed score range of 0-12 and a cut-point of 7 indicating serious PD. Multiple statistical tests were used to examine the characteristics of PD and its association with self-reported current drinking problems. RESULTS: Referred and comparison mothers had an average age of 31.3 years but differed (respectively) on: education (