Using Adolescent SBIRT With Simulation to Teach Nursing Students Substance Use Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based protocol for early identification and treatment for substance use. Adolescents are a high-risk group for substance use. METHOD: SBIRT simulation was conducted among nursing students (n = 79). Surveys were administered before (pretest), immediately after (posttest 1), and 3 weeks (posttest 2) after simulation. Outcome scores including attitude, role security, therapeutic commitment, knowledge, confidence, competence, readiness, and response to scenarios and cases were compared between traditional undergraduate nursing students who received educational reinforcement before the posttest 2 survey and postbaccalaureate students. RESULTS: Mean scores for attitude, role security, knowledge, confidence, competence, readiness, and scenarios or cases improved significantly after the simulation (p < .005). Traditional undergraduate and postbaccalaureate students had similar posttest 1 and posttest 2 scores. CONCLUSION: After SBIRT simulation, outcomes improved and were maintained after educational reinforcement, which could increase the success of interventions for substance use among adolescents. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(4):247-251.].

Pandemic Footprints of Nursing Professionals: Processing Early Experiences.

Purpose: This study interpreted journaled experiences of registered nurses (RNs) who were working at the bedside early in the pandemic as they were simultaneously enrolled in a baccalaureate (RN-BSN) completion program. Design: This qualitative interpretive descriptive study used purposive sampling. Methods: Eighteen students participated in the journal assignment. Fifteen students consented to participate in journal analyses. Journals were de-identified and a code book was used to document the entirety of journal reflections to identify meaningful text, and, ultimately, assert thematic codes. Thorne's interpretive description guided analysis. Researchers coded four journals together to obtain trustworthiness and rigor. Each doctorally prepared researcher independently coded a subset of the remaining journals. Emerging significant statements and subthemes were discussed and verified as a team. Results: Researchers identified the essence of pandemic footprints as the following themes emerged: Physical Threats to Safety, Emotional Threats to Safety, Workplace Culture, Healing Energies, and Professional Identity. Conclusions: Compared to previously published research conducted at later points of the pandemic this study is unique. Study data captured nurses' expressed voices through journaling at the brink (March 2020) of what became a global reality. Results illuminated dichotomies that existed then, particularly in response to their own and others' safety and security, leaving profound imprints on their identities extending beyond care environments.

Integrating mental health connections in community academic partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Community academic partnerships (CAPs) connect students to interprofessional collaborations and expand clinical experiences beyond traditional settings. Serious and persistent mental health problems represent an important action area within population health. Mental health disorders across the lifespan are often co-morbid with substance use, poverty, and community violence. AIMS: This article describes CAPs in a community course where students impact vulnerable populations while learning new roles and responsibilities. The process explains student engagement with the community, and using best practices for care of community, population health concerns, and mental health and well-being. METHODS: We initiate and maintain collaborative relationships that guide culturally sensitive responses to health and illness. Four well-established CAPs' exemplars describe the interventions and outcomes. RESULTS: Students successfully integrated a variety of health promotion and mental health interventions within the CAPS clinical environments. The Socio-Ecological framework is used to articulate student outcomes. CONCLUSION: The CAPs are a dynamic system requiring ongoing maintenance and response to evolving epidemiological issues, such as increased incidence of alterations in mental health. The educational innovation provides an opportunity for students to understand aspects of holistic health in a community environment as they intervene at individual, relationship, community, and societal levels.

Embracing evidence-based nursing and informational literacy through an innovative undergraduate collaborative project.

Background Nurse educators are challenged to design courses that maintain rigor, promote student learning, maximize resource utilization, and ultimately prepare graduates for clinical practice. Purpose An innovative teaching strategy was used to educate BSN level students in nursing inquiry with a collaborative project. Methods Course faculty incorporated information literacy (IL) and evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies into an undergraduate research course by taking the traditional practicum research project and redesigning it as a longitudinal scoping review (ScR) collaborative project. Results At course conclusion, students verbalized having a deeper appreciation for nursing research, confidence in performing a literature search, and conducting a research critique. Conclusions The students' contributions towards the ScR through their collaborative project work fostered personal growth in IL and EBP competencies through a meaningful project that can extend beyond the classroom to possibly influence patient care.

Support for At-Risk Girls: A School-Based Mental Health Nursing Initiative.

Mental health problems often go undiagnosed or unaddressed until a crisis or extreme event brings the problem to the forefront. Youth are particularly at risk for lack of identification and treatment in regard to mental health issues. This article describes an advanced nursing practice mental health initiative for at-risk teenage girls based on Hildegard Peplau's nursing theory, group process, and healing through holistic health approaches. A support group, RICHES, was developed with focus on core components of relationships, identity, communication, health, esteem, and support. The acronym RICHES was chosen as the name of the support group. Selected themes and issues addressed in this school-based support group are illustrated in case vignettes. Through a collaborative approach with the community and school, this practice initiative presents a unique healing process that extends knowledge in the realm of intervention with at-risk teenage girls. Further research is needed on the efficacy of support groups to modify risk factors and to address goals for primary prevention in at-risk teenage girls.

Oh, the things you will learn: taking undergraduate research to the homeless shelter.

Teaching research to undergraduate students has been described as a challenge. This article describes how a small group of students participated in a service-learning research project that culminated in the development of an educational intervention for volunteers who staff homeless shelters in the local community. By interacting with the homeless population and the volunteer staff who provide their care, students developed a greater understanding of the needs of the homeless, recognized some mental health disorders, and interacted with volunteer staff to assess their educational needs. Students were able to learn the research process through their participation in this collaborative project. The students' learning exceeded typical outcomes, as they displayed leadership skills and advocacy in areas of social justice and made compassionate connections with this vulnerable population. These students also forged new territory for future students who will be working with homeless populations and those who minister to them.

Reclaiming the essence of nursing: the meaning of an immersion experience in Honduras for RN to bachelor of science students.

Cultural immersion experiences incorporated in baccalaureate nursing programs have yielded positive short- and long-term effects on the personal and professional lives of the participants. Despite this evidence, little is known about how immersion experiences affect the RN student returning to school. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to uncover the meaning of a week-long immersion in Honduras for RN students (N = 8) and its impact on their professional practice upon return from Honduras. Data were analyzed through reflective journals and two focus groups conducted postimmersion experience. Transcripts were analyzed, and four themes emerged: from the outside looking in, struggling with dissonance, searching for meaning, and from the inside looking out. These themes combined to form the essence of the meaning of the experience: reclaiming the essence of nursing. Implications for practice, education, and research are addressed.

Managing polycystic ovary syndrome: what our patients are telling us.

UNLABELLED: Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) experience symptoms such as irregular menses, hirsutism, and acne, and are at heightened risk for developing obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, infertility, and some cancers. Data also indicate an inverse correlation between PCOS and health-related quality-of-life indicators and self-image. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of women with PCOS in the management of their disorder and the meaning of that experience for them. DESIGN: This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach based on the guidelines of Van Manen. METHOD: Individual, semistructured interviews were completed with 10 participants who were diagnosed with PCOS and managed by a health care practitioner(s) within the past 5 years. Data were analyzed using the process of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection. FINDINGS: The four major themes that described women's lived experience of managing PCOS were frustration, confusion, searching, and gaining control. CONCLUSIONS: Women with PCOS face many challenges in managing their disorder and desire to gain control, balance, and well-being through a comprehensive treatment plan. The findings have implications for health care providers in addressing quality of life issues and overall health outcomes.

The lived experience of girl-to-girl aggression in marginalized girls.

Girl-to-girl aggression is increasingly being recognized as a health problem, and the number of teenage girls involved in serious fighting is on the rise. Research on the experiences of girl-to-girl aggression in marginalized girls who are out of the mainstream because of poor relationship skills and physical aggression is notably absent, yet this group is at heightened risk for persistent violence. In this study I used the interpretive phenomenological approach to study the lived experience of girl-to-girl aggression in girls who were marginalized and attending an alternative school because of physically aggressive behavior. Data were collected over a 4-month period by means of in-depth interviews and field notes. For this population, girl-to-girl aggression provided self-protection, expressed girls' identity, and was also a means to finding attachment, connection, and friendship. These findings have multidisciplinary implications for interventions with physically aggressive girls, including mentoring programs, in-school support groups, and exploration of a paradigm shift in the use of alternative schools.