Professional identity in nursing: Why it is important in graduate education.

Possessing a clear identity in nursing is a guiding principle to professional comportment. In graduate nursing education, transitioning and expanding one's professional identity requires role evolution. Nurses transitioning into the advanced professional nursing role shifts their thinking to a new level. The Conceptual Model of Professional Identity in Nursing constitutes how values and ethics, knowledge, nurse as a leader, and professional comportment are intertwined. Competency-based education requires curricular redesign. The Essentials Tool Kit aligns The Essentials with learning activities to support competency-based curriculum and assessment. The Douglass and Stager Toolkit intertwines these resources for graduate nursing educators to inform professional identity in nursing for curriculum revisions. This article aims to illustrate how faculty educate graduate nursing students in the development of professional identity using a conceptual framework to achieve competencies outlined in The Essentials (AACN, 2021).

The Smart Use of Smartphones in Pediatrics.

The problematic overuse of electronic devices, in particular smartphones, is negatively affecting the lives of American youth. Cell phone technology has advanced its capabilities with smartphones to now easily provide children and teens with endless access to the internet, social media, and other online activities. Research is showing that addictive, smart phone activities of youth in their formative years is directly impacting their wellbeing. The excessive time youth spend on their smartphones results in less human interaction, sleep, exercise, and productivity, as well as, increased risk of exposure to inappropriate or violent online media, anxiety, and depression. The purpose of this column is to explore the potential behavioral and developmental problems in youth related to the problematic overuse of the smartphone; inform the importance of monitoring and controlling indiscriminate youth use of technology, and the approaches pediatric nurses can employ to guide youth and their families to prevent negative outcomes for this evolving public health problem.

The Harmful Consequences of Vaping: A Public Health Threat.

The vaping of nicotine products has overwhelmingly gained national attention as the new public health crisis. The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems and products such as electronic cigarettes, JUUL, pods, or vaporizers is now a worldwide multibillion dollar industry. Despite the notable gains decreasing harmful smoking behaviors of traditional cigarettes among youth, these public health initiatives have been significantly nullified by the indiscriminate exposure of these highly addictive products by nicotine manufacturers to the adolescent population. Although touted as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco smoking and an effective cessation method to quit traditional cigarette smoking, there are no definitive data, to date, substantiating that this is true. Currently, adolescents are the predominant population using electronic nicotine delivery systems and at the greatest risk to the negative effects of nicotine exposure (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2016). The purpose of this article is to identify the health impact and potential dangers related to the vaping epidemic that conflict with teens' risk beliefs that vaping is harmless. To protect American youth, a comprehensive approach for harm reduction to this deadly problem is imperative, including product warnings and regulation, public media campaigns, economic and social strategies, and policy initiatives.

Clearing the air: adolescent smoking trends.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to highlight the emerging smoking behaviors and varied tobacco products elevating public health concerns related to the exposure of these potentially harmful substances in the adolescent population. RECENT FINDINGS: Although adolescent smoking of traditional cigarettes has declined in the last 40 years, the inhalation of other nicotine-containing products using alternative methods and devices, such as smoking electronic cigarettes, using hookahs, vaping, and JUULing are dramatically on the rise in the adolescent population. Regardless of the novel delivery devices or methods, use of nicotine-containing products in any form is hazardous and unsafe. SUMMARY: If adolescent smoking trends continue at the current rate in the United States, 5.6 million of today's American youth under the age of 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness. With the emerging high-risk smoking behaviors resulting in detrimental exposure to nicotine and other harmful substances available to adolescents, pediatric healthcare providers will have an increasing responsibility to screen, to manage, and to educate patients and families to combat this imminent threat to the public health of our next generation.

Urban college student self-report of hookah use with health care providers.

OBJECTIVE: This study's purpose was to describe urban college students' communication about hookah with health care providers. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included a random sample of undergraduate urban college students and health care providers. METHODS: Students surveyed determined the epidemiology of hookah use in this population, how many health care providers asked about hookah, and how many students admitted hookah use to a physician. RESULTS: Of 375 students surveyed, 78 (20.8%) had never tried it, 284 (75.7%) had smoked hookah at least once, and 64 students (22.6%) were classified as frequent hookah smokers. Only 15 (4.7%) reported a health care provider asking about hookah during visits, whereas 36 (12.7%) admitted their hookah use to a health care provider. CONCLUSION: Hookah use was found to be highly prevalent among students in one urban university. This study supports the hypothesis that few health care providers broach the topic with patients. Additional research on health consequences of hookah use, education, and improved screening is warranted.

The Toll of Too Much Technology on Teens' Mental Health.

Technology is here to stay, and forbidding adolescents to access electronic media may not be a sustainable solution. Pediatric health care providers should include technology use and the parents' knowledge of the child's technology use, in their screening practices with patients. With the guidance of pediatric nurses, parents and children together can collaborate on ways to maximize the benefits of technology and decrease its risks.

Integrating clicker technology at nursing conferences: an innovative approach to research data collection.

A pilot demonstration of integrating an audience response system, that is, 'clickers' at a nursing education conference as an engaging tool for using the research process for learning through immediate research results is presented. A convenience sample of nursing conference attendees were surveyed using clicker technology before a panel presentation on the 'Impaired Health Professional'. The 208 subjects who used the clickers were mostly women (93%) and were nurse educators (81%) with at least 20 years of nursing experience (75%). The ease of data collection, real-time analysis, the active engagement of both participant and presenter were all findings of this study. The utility of this tool as a stimulus for discussion and learning was also reported. Pilot testing the clicker at an education conference for data collection and educational purposes was an important goal and positive outcome of this study. Researchers and educators are advised on the planning steps required to make this a successful experience.