ABSTRACT
Cardiac arrest can occur in any health care setting at any time, requiring nursing staff to be prepared to quickly and adequately perform basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Currently, the American Heart Association certifies health care providers in Basic Life Support (BLS) for a 2-year period, but evidence indicates that psychomotor skills decline well before the end of the certification time frame. Nurses in the ambulatory surgery setting expressed concern regarding their ability to implement CPR successfully, given the infrequent occurrence of cardiac and respiratory arrests. Using a study by Niles et al. as a model, the authors piloted the implementation of brief CPR refresher training at the bedside of an ambulatory surgery center to assess and increase nurse confidence in BLS skills.
Subject(s)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation , Clinical Competence , Education, Nursing, Continuing , Heart Arrest/nursing , Surgicenters , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Quality ImprovementABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors for fighting, factors that protect against fighting, and strategies to prevent fighting, among adolescents who fight and those uninvolved in fighting. METHODS: Focus groups were conducted with middle and high school students, stratified by fighting (fighter/nonfighter) status, race/ethnicity, and gender. Groups were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using margin coding and thematic content analysis. Themes were independently identified by 3 coders; disagreements were resolved by consensus. RESULTS: The 65 participants in the 12 focus groups were 13 to 17 years old. Reasons for fighting include self-defense, to gain/maintain respect, or anger; having goals for the future is protective. Nonfighters state that their parents condone fighting only when physically attacked and that they teach adolescents strategies to avoid fighting. Fighters describe mixed messages from parents, and pro-fighting attitudes and modeling of aggressive behavior among some family members. Nonfighters avoid fighting by ignoring insults or walking away. Fighters feel unable to use nonviolent conflict-resolution methods effectively. Peers may instigate or encourage fights. Suggested prevention strategies include anger-management and conflict-resolution programs, relationships with caring adults, and physicians counseling youth about the consequences of fighting. CONCLUSIONS: Nonfighters use various strategies to avoid fighting, whereas fighters are aware of few alternatives to fighting. Conflicting parental messages about fighting may enhance the likelihood of fighting. Physicians can counsel youth about the negative consequences of fighting. Interventions that teach anger management and conflict resolution, promote adolescent self-efficacy for using nonviolent strategies, and address parental attitudes about fighting may be effective in preventing fighting.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Aggression/psychology , Anger Management Therapy , Anger , Attitude , Negotiating , Violence/psychology , Adolescent , Female , Focus Groups , Humans , Male , Parents , Peer Group , Qualitative Research , Self Efficacy , Violence/prevention & controlSubject(s)
Dentists, Women/history , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , PennsylvaniaABSTRACT
Quantitative measures were not meeting the needs of faculty for evaluating critical thinking among Baccalaureate of Science Nursing students. The authors discuss the critical thinking self-reflection tool that was developed for teaching critical thinking and qualitatively evaluating changes over time with established interrater reliability and content validity. The tool is consistent with the concepts of critical thinking in the curriculum and was implemented systematically in all clinical nursing courses.
Subject(s)
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate , Educational Measurement/methods , Self-Assessment , Teaching/methods , Thinking , Humans , Program Evaluation , Reproducibility of Results , United StatesABSTRACT
Smelt (Osmerus mordax) were maintained at either ambient water temperature or approximately 5 degrees C and various aspects of their freeze-avoidance response were examined from early winter until early spring. Plasma levels of glycerol, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) and urea were elevated by December 15 and continued to increase in fish held in ambient conditions. In contrast, fish held under warm conditions exhibited decreased glycerol and urea content in plasma, muscle and liver. Plasma and liver TMAO levels also decreased in these fish while muscle TMAO did not vary from the initial values. The activity of liver enzymes involved with the production of glycerol did not differ significantly between groups and had decreased by the end of the study. Antifreeze protein (AFP) expression increased over the duration of the experiment. In January samples, AFP activity (thermal hysteresis) did not vary significantly between groups but mRNA levels were significantly lower in the smelt held at warm temperatures.
