Comparison of communication outcomes in traditional versus simulation strategies in nursing and medical students.

The Institute of Medicine has called for more interprofessional collaboration between physicians and nurses. The purpose of this research was to compare the outcomes in affective and communication domains using a traditional (roundtable) model versus simulation in nursing and medical students. A prospective, descriptive survey design was used to collect data on 41 senior bachelor of science in nursing students, and 19 second-year medical students. The simulation strategy resulted in statistically higher levels of stress as identified by participants. In addition, nearly all participants reported having a better sense of the clinical role, and with 55 percent of participants stating that the experience changed their view of the role of the clinical team. This initial study indicates that interprofessional communication may be enhanced using simulation.

Using service-learning to develop health promotion and research skills in nursing students.

Health promotion skills are a key component of most nursing education programs. While many curricula center around a singular health promotion project contained in one course, this nursing program saw the opportunity to use service-learning as a vehicle for developing a range of both health promotion and research skills. This report details a service-learning research program involving second and third year nursing students. Students conducted a community needs assessment, and designed, implemented, and evaluated health promotion programs that were developed as a result of the community needs assessment. Students collected data on the effectiveness of their programs through pre- and post-test design. Once in their statistics and research courses, students analyzed the data and prepared the data for presentation, developing their research skills. Results from the community on pre- and post-tests indicated significant gains in knowledge regarding hypertension and diabetes risk factors, prevention strategies, and intent to change behavior. Student outcome data was also collected and showed students perceived they had increases in the following skill sets: health promotion, assessment, civic engagement, and research.

Pain intensity and postoperative pulmonary complications among the elderly after abdominal surgery.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether postoperative pain intensity differs between elderly abdominal surgery patients in whom postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC) develop and those in whom they do not. METHODS: The exploratory secondary analysis of data from a prospective study of risk factors for PPC had a convenience sample of 86 patients (> or =60 years old) after abdominal surgery at 3 Midwestern hospitals. Daily measurements from postoperative day (POD) 1 to 6 included: pain (rated 0 to 10) at rest, with coughing, deep breathing, movement and walking, and frequency of ambulation. RESULTS: Sixteen subjects (18.6%) had a PPC develop. Subjects with PPCs had higher mean pain intensities on all measures on each POD than those without. Those with PPCs had significantly higher pain intensities at rest on POD4 (P = .010), with deep breathing on POD2 (P = .015), POD4 (P = .009), POD5 (P = .006), and POD6 (P = .009), were up to a chair significantly fewer times on POD2 (P = .043), and walked significantly fewer times on POD5 (P = .002) and POD6 (P = .000) than those without PPCs. Length of stay for those with PPCs (mean, 17.9 days; standard deviation, 15.9 days; median, 10.0 days) was significantly longer than for those without PPCs (mean, 8.5 days; standard deviation, 4.8 days; median, 7.0 days; P = .000). CONCLUSION: Results provide support for viewing pain as a factor that contributes to the development of PPCs among the elderly population after abdominal surgery. Therefore, nursing interventions of pain assessment and management, deep breathing, and ambulation may influence the incidence of this outcome.