Quality improvement project to reduce pain and distress associated with immunization visits in pediatric primary care.

This quality improvement project implemented an evidence-based immunization protocol aimed at decreasing pain and distress associated with immunizations for children ages 4 to 6 by utilizing distraction and a benzocaine-based anesthetic spray. The original protocol is used at a large, university-based pediatric primary care hospital. A convenience sample of 30 children from a community-based healthcare center was utilized to assess effectiveness in alternate settings. This quasi-experimental project collected survey information from child participants and consenting caregivers. Statistical analysis by paired t-test indicated a statistically significant decrease in reported distress by both the child and the caregiver utilizing the immunization protocol.

A brief, peer-led HIV prevention program for college students in Bangkok, Thailand.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of a brief theory-based HIV prevention program led by peers among college students. DESIGN: A quasi-experimental research using a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design with 2-mo follow-up. SETTING: A university in Bangkok. PARTICIPANTS: For peer leaders, 70 undergrad students taking health sexuality course were invited to participate in the study. Then, a convenience sample of undergraduate students was recruited through peer leaders, 226 for experimental group and 209 for control group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Information, motivation, behavioral skills, and AIDS/STIs preventive behaviors. RESULTS: The study revealed that a Brief, Peer-Led HIV Prevention Program significantly increased knowledge of preventive behaviors (ß = 2.67, P < .000), motivated participants to have a better attitude toward preventive behaviors (ß = -5.26, P < .000), better subjective norms (ß = -1.54, P < .000), and greater intentions to practice preventive behavior (ß = -1.38, P < .000). The program also significantly decreased perceived difficulty of AIDS/STIs preventive behaviors (ß = 2.38, P < .000) and increased perceived effectiveness at AIDS/STIs preventive behavior (ß = -3.03, P < .000). However, it did not significantly increase AIDS/STIs preventive behaviors (ß = 2.13, P > .05). CONCLUSION: Findings of this study provide initial evidence as to how theoretical variables were operated to effectively increase knowledge, change motivation, and behavioral skills of AIDS/STIs preventive behavior among Thai college students. More research is needed to further test the effectiveness of the program on AIDS/STIs preventive behaviors among college students.

Maximizing resources: the S.H.A.R.E. model of collaboration.

This article describes the S.H.A.R.E. model for collaborative programming that evolved from the joint Clarion, Edinboro, and Slippery Rock Universities graduate nursing programs. The five components of the model--students, administrative support, resources, educational technology, humor--are presented in relation to current organizational and leadership concepts that serve as their basis. The authors focus on the use of the model as a framework for meeting the educational and health care needs of rural Pennsylvanians through collaboration and shared interests.

Implementing and evaluating a culturally-focused curriculum in a collaborative graduate nursing program.

For more than a decade, nurses and nurse educators have been held to national and professional goals aimed at affirming diversity, integrating cultural competence, and closing the healthcare disparity gap. Faced with shrinking resources, meeting these goals has been harder to achieve. In September 2004, the Sullivan Commission report renewed attention to the widening gap in healthcare quality for America's growing minority population as well as the shortage of minority healthcare providers. The focus of this article is how faculty at a collaborative nurse practitioner program responded to these concerns. Described is a multifaceted approach, beginning with participation in a nationally recognized cultural awareness workshop and continuing through a process designed to bridge theory with clinical and classroom practice. Emphasis is given to the challenges of meeting the needs of a wide geographic area and the opportunities engendered by shared resources.

Interactive video behavioral intervention to reduce adolescent females' STD risk: a randomized controlled trial.

A longitudinal randomized design was used to evaluate the impact of a theoretically based, stand-alone interactive video intervention on 300 urban adolescent girls' (a) knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), (b) self-reported sexual risk behavior, and (c) STD acquisition. It was compared to two controls, representing high-quality informational interventions. One used the same content in book form; the other used commercially available brochures. Following randomization, the interventions were administered at baseline, with booster sessions at 1, 3, and 6 months. Self-reports revealed that those assigned to the interactive video were significantly more likely to be abstinent in the first 3 months following initial exposure to the intervention, and experienced fewer condom failures in the following 3 months, compared to controls. Six months after enrollment, participants in the video condition were significantly less likely to report having been diagnosed with an STD. A non-significant trend in data from a clinical PCR assay of Chlamydia trachomatis was consistent with that finding.