Quantifying and Qualifying Nursing Professional Development Practitioner Workload.

Nursing professional development practitioners are integral leaders who continue to seek tangible ways to show their value. A tool was designed to capture workload based upon the scope and standards of nursing professional development practice and successfully captured the workload of over 200 practitioners. The measures used in this project can serve as a guide for others to describe nursing professional development practitioner workload.

Registered nurse intent to promote physical activity for hospitalised liver transplant recipients.

AIM: To describe how registered nurse work motivation, attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control influence intention to promote physical activity in hospitalised adult liver transplant recipients. DESIGN: Descriptive study of clinical registered nurses caring for recipients of liver transplant at a tertiary medical centre. METHODS: Intent to Mobilise Liver Transplant Recipient Scale, Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale, and demographics were used to explore registered nurses' work motivation, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and intention to promote physical activity of hospitalised adult liver transplant recipients during the acute postoperative phase. Data analysis included demographics, comparison between scale items and analysis of factors predicting intent to mobilise. RESULTS: Factors predictive of intention to promote physical activity after liver transplant included appropriate knowledge to mobilise patients (R2  = .40) and identification of physical activity as nursing staff priority (R2  = .15) and responsibility (R2  = .03). DISCUSSION/IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: When implementing an early mobilisation protocol after the liver transplant, education on effects of physical activity in the immediate postoperative period are essential to promote implementation in practice. Nursing care environment and leadership must be supportive to ensure mobility is a registered nurse priority and responsibility. Nursing managers can leverage results to implement a mobility protocol.

A magnetoencephalography investigation of coherence source imaging in panic disorder.

Limbic and frontal structures are largely implicated in panic disorder (PD). Decreased coherence imaging values, as determined by magnetoencephalography (MEG), are suggestive of decreased or inefficient communication among these structures. We have previously demonstrated that coherence source imaging (CSI) values could be similar or higher in some PD patients. The purpose of the current investigation was to replicate these finding in a larger sample. Nine strictly diagnosed PD patients and nine age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were examined. The CSI-MEG values of 26 frontotemporal regions (FTRs) and 28 extra-frontotemporal regions (ex-FTR; Brodmann areas) were determined for each participant. MEG scans were acquired using a 151-channel whole-head biomagnetometer system. Despite the relatively small sample size, CSI values were significantly lower in a number of FTRs in PD patients. In none of the ex-FTRs (i.e. posterior regions) were there differences between panic and control groups. The above data add to the complexity of understanding the nature of the pathophysiology of PD. Our finding of decreased focal coherence imaging values may reflect decreased excitability in these areas. The preliminary finding could be interpreted as an inhibitory process guarding against the spread of activity in closer hyperexcitable areas as seen in epilepsy. The current data provide evidence for dysfunctional communication within the frontotemporal structures. The findings have implications for the understanding of the neural circuitry underlying PD.

Making Sense of Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators.

Developing the capability to interpret nursing-sensitive quality indicators and other outcome data can be a challenge for registered nurses. An interactive, facilitator-led learning activity effectively addressed this issue in one organization. Registered nurses identified solutions to quality measures in an environment that engaged all levels of Benner's novice-to-expert continuum. The activity had positive outcomes, and learning was shown after the activity.