Text messaging support to enhance nurses' well-being and connectedness.

ABSTRACT: Nurses face numerous stressors due to increasing patient acuity, challenging staffing ratios, and trauma from the COVID-19 pandemic, among many other factors. To help improve nurses' daily self-care, nurses need diverse tools and interventions, such as peer support through text messaging (TM). This article evaluates the benefits of TM and strategies to use TM in providing effective peer support among nurses.

Nursing Care of Childbearing Families After Previous Perinatal Loss.

Nurses who care for childbearing families facilitate the family's adaptation to the arrival of a newborn through assessment of physical, emotional, and psychological needs. After experiencing a perinatal loss, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death, a woman's perception of pregnancy and of her sense of control in becoming a mother can include fear and anxiety, and she may have significantly different needs than a pregnant woman who has not experienced perinatal loss. In this article, we provide evidence-based information and recommendations for maternal-child nurses caring for childbearing families who are preparing to welcome a new baby (sometimes called a "rainbow baby") after a previous perinatal loss.

Why I Haven't Left.

A labor and delivery nurse describes the moments of grace that have sustained her during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early pregnancy loss: Invisible but real.

ABSTRACT: One of every five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, disputing the common misconception that miscarriage is rare. Early pregnancy loss has a complex impact on women's mental health, requiring compassionate, trauma-informed care. This article explores the emotional and psychological impacts of miscarriage, and strategies for nurses to support the needs of patients after a miscarriage.

Before Journal Submission, Build Your Own Peer Review Board.

As professionals and potential leaders in health care, nurses should be committed to advancing practice through publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Asking trusted and experienced colleagues to critique a manuscript before its submission to a journal is a useful strategy to improve the quality of the manuscript and increase its chances of publication.

Peer to Peer Education: OB Visits the ED.

Ongoing education, an ever-present challenge in a hectic clinical environment, can be addressed by utilizing peer-to-peer education. Enhancing nurses' comfort level with specialty topics can reduce anxiety while enhancing core knowledge and skill proficiency for the provision of safe care. Increased self-confidence in a nurse's ability to detect a new or developing concern can lead to fewer delays in care. Critical problems identified and addressed promptly support better outcomes.

The Meaning of Food and Multicultural Implications for Perinatal Palliative Care.

Feeding an infant is a bonding experience for parents, particularly for women from cultures in which breastfeeding is the norm. When an infant is unexpectedly ill, or his or her life is expected to be brief, challenges surrounding infant feeding can occur. Regardless of ethnicity or culture, parents facing the death of their infant have difficult decisions to make and need time to process those decisions. Given the social, cultural and spiritual nature of food and water, withdrawing or withholding nutrition and/or hydration for infants can be one of the most difficult decisions for parents. This article considers the clinical and cultural ramifications of infant feeding decisions when a shift occurs from curative interventions to palliative care.

A cost-effective approach to simulation-based team training in obstetrics.

Many larger facilities regularly stage obstetric drills in modern simulation departments equipped with expensive simulators. Despite lacking these resources, we wanted to provide effective simulation training at our rural hospital. A team of clinicians and educators developed a cost-effective and time-efficient simulation drill for nurses, which included both a didactic review and a simulation day. The drill included obstetric providers and incorporated scenarios for shoulder dystocia, neonatal resuscitation and postpartum hemorrhage. This was a successful multidisciplinary learning experience that was high in creativity and teamwork, but low in cost.

How to succeed as an adjunct clinical nurse instructor.

Adjunct clinical nurse instructors who are proactive about staying clinically current and who form collaborative relationships with nurses, physicians and other health care professionals are able to teach safe care and engender staff nurses' trust. It's important for nurse educators to continually work to remain effective in the clinical setting to provide an optimal learning environment for students and optimal working environment for staff.

Making connections to develop a professional network.

Developing a professional network is important for career growth and professional development. Networking can open doors for countless opportunities to gain new knowledge, meet new people, visit new places and advance your career. Successful networking involves identifying opportunities to meet and interact with people and to do so in a genuine way that fosters the development of a professional relationship.

The rewards and challenges of becoming a clinical instructor.

Frontline nurses working in the clinical area are a vital component to nursing education. Taking on the role of adjunct clinical instructor can be a rewarding way to increase one's own knowledge while performing the important task of educating the next generation of nurses.

Maternal risk factors for peripartum transfusion.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum hemorrhage remains one of the most significant maternal complications of childbirth in the United States, with peripartum transfusion the most commonly identified morbidity. METHODS: We completed a retrospective cohort study of women delivering at 20+ weeks at a large regional obstetric hospital between 2000 and 2008. Data were extracted from the institutional data warehouse; women with a potential coagulopathy were excluded. The association of maternal and obstetric factors with odds of transfusion was explored using univariate and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: We identified 59,282 deliveries and 614 cases of transfusion, an incidence rate of 10.4/1,000 deliveries. Rates were highest for black (14.1/1,000 deliveries) and lowest for white (8.4/1,000 deliveries) women. Increased odds of perinatal transfusion were seen for women with anemia at entry to labor and delivery (odds ratio [OR] 3.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.43-3.79 for hemoglobin (Hgb) 9.5-10.5 g/dL; OR 12.65, 95% CI 10.35-15.46 for Hgb<9.5 g/dL) and those undergoing a cesarean delivery (OR 4.28, 95% CI 3.62-5.05). The excess risk associated with black race was eliminated after adjusting for anemia and other covariates. A synergistic effect of anemia with delivery method was observed. Anemia was estimated to account for 31.7% of transfusions. CONCLUSIONS: Potentially modifiable factors most strongly associated with risk for transfusion were antenatal anemia and cesarean delivery, and their co-occurrence was synergistic. Anemia is an easily identified and treatable risk factor and warrants focus as part of preconception and interconception care in childbearing women.