Statewide Assessment of North Carolina Nurse Practitioners' Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Suicide Awareness and Prevention: Protocol for a Statewide Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Suicide is a major public health problem, which affects people of all ages and ethnicities. Despite being preventable, the rates of suicide have steadily climbed (more than a third) over the past 2 decades. OBJECTIVE: Nurse practitioners (NPs) must be responsible for recognizing suicide risk and providing appropriate treatment referrals in addition to having an important role in suicide prevention. The reasons why NPs may not pursue suicide prevention training are their lack of suicide awareness and prevention, limited experiences with suicidal patients, and the stigma associated with mental illness. Before we begin to address the gaps within suicide awareness and prevention skills, we need to first examine NPs' knowledge of and attitudes (stigma) toward suicide prevention. METHODS: This study will comprise a mixed methods approach. First, quantitative data will be collected using the Suicide Knowledge and Skills Questionnaireand the Suicide Stigma Scale (Brief version) questionnaire. An email will be sent to the NPs explaining the purpose of the study. If they consent, they will click on a link to access the surveys on a secure site. In our previous research with this sample, email reminders to nonresponders after 2 and 4 weeks were sent. The quantitative component will be used to inform the qualitative interviews of this study. The Suicide Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire is a 13-item questionnaire comprising 2 subscales: suicide knowledge and suicide skills. All questions are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=completely disagree to 5=completely agree). The survey has been shown to differentiate between those with suicide training and those without and has a Cronbach α score of .84. The Suicide Stigma Scale (Brief version) is a 16-item survey that assesses stigma regarding suicide. The items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree) and have a Cronbach α of .98. RESULTS: This study was funded by the Faculty Research Grants program through the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Institutional review board approval was obtained in April 2022. Recruitment occurred between summer and winter 2022. Interview conduction began in December 2022 and will conclude in March 2023. Data will be analyzed during spring and summer 2023. CONCLUSIONS: The study results will add to the literature on NPs' knowledge of and attitudes (stigma) toward suicide prevention. It represents a first step in addressing gaps within suicide awareness and prevention skills, among NPs in their respective practice settings. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/39675.

The Impact of Technology on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Needs.

The call for articles for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Special Issue "Using mobile technology to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health (SRH)" was proposed to identify efforts to provide adolescent SRH services during the COVID-19 pandemic [...].

Sexual communication needs of African American families in relation to faith-based HIV prevention.

In this study, we examined the sexual communication needs of African-American parents and their adolescent children in relation to faith-based HIV prevention. Eight focus groups of 10 members each were conducted, four with parents and four with adolescents. The sessions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Findings indicated that some African Americans are not knowledgeable about sexually transmitted infections. The sample members were not in agreement about when sexual communications should begin, yet the majority felt that the church was the best place to have these discussions. Healthcare professionals can use the findings from this study to assist faith-based organizations to strengthen the sexual communication skills of African-American families.

The birds, the bees, and the Bible: single African American mothers' perceptions of a faith-based sexuality educaton program.

This exploratory study examined single mothers' ideas on the development of a faith-based sexuality program. Twenty African American single mothers with adolescent children (11 to 13 years of age) who were of the same faith and members of one church, participated in two focus groups about how a faith-based sexuality program could be designed and implemented. The findings call attention to the need for research on the design of faith-based sexuality education programs for ethnic minority families headed by single mothers.

African American grandparents' and adolescent grandchildren's sexuality communication.

This exploratory study uses survey methodology to generate data on grandparent-grandchild sexuality communications and attitudes and feelings about these processes. The sample includes 40 African American grandparent- grandchild dyads for a total of 80 participants recruited from five churches. One open-ended question asks the participants about their willingness to use churches as venues in HIV prevention. Grandparents have more positive attitudes and feelings about sexuality communications than their adolescent grandchildren. Both grandparents and their adolescent grandchildren are receptive to the idea of using churches as venues in HIV prevention and provide recommendations about how a church-based sexuality program could be developed. The role of grandparents is constantly being redefined; therefore, we must continue to examine the needs of this population and the grandchildren they are raising. Nurses can build on the study's findings to develop church-based sexuality programs.

Senior nursing students respond to an HIV experiential-teaching method with an African-American female.

This experimental study compared an HIV experiential-teaching method to the traditional lecture and discussion method to determine if one method was more likely to produce significant indications of senior nursing students' willingness and perceived preparedness to provide HIV-patient care to affected clients. The sample included 70 (N = 70) baccalaureate senior nursing students from one university. In this study, 35 (n = 35) students were randomized into either the experimental group or into the control lecture and discussion group (n = 351 Unlike the traditional lecture and discussion method, the experiential-teaching method entitled "To be Touched by AIDS" included an affective component with an African-American female who was an HIV-Positive intravenous drug user. Findings from this study indicated that the experiential-teaching method was efficacious in increasing willingness to provide HIV patient care to affected clients using a Wilcoxon (Z = -251 p< 0.05) test as compared to the traditional lecture and discussion method of teaching Further findings from this study also suggested that there was a weak inverse correlation found using a Spearman Rho. Nonetheless, there was a statistically significant relationship between perceived preparedness and willingness to provide care to affected HIV clients (r(s) = -0.26, p = 0.05) in the experiential-teaching group as compared to the traditional lecture and discussion group. It is plausible to assume that in light of these statistical findings, nurse educators need to incorporate components of HIV experiential-teaching methods in an effort to assist future nurses. These experiential-teaching methods, such as situational role-playing and patients recollections of lived experiences as HIV-Positive individuals would aid future nurses in providing optimal healthcare to all patients, but particularly to those who are HIV-Positive.