Health coaching for undergraduate nursing students: a pilot study for an action research.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The Nursing undergraduate degree educational program represents an intensive and complex course, and includes a number of professionalizing practical internships, and for these reasons it requires an action to support and improve. Coaching is based on the premise that people have personal strengths and abilities which, through a interview, can be directed to solving their problems. Several studies demonstrate the efficacy of Health Coaching in different University, but never have been measured benefits regard skills improving. The objective of the study is to assess the impact of a health coaching program on the nursing students. METHOD: A pre-post quasi-experimental study was conducted, involving the activation of a Health Coaching Program for 25 nursing students selected through convenience sampling, based on their fulfillment of the inclusion criteria. The Health Coaching Program was administered by the Health Coaching Academy. RESULT: This study also evaluated parameters such as: level of concentration in study, motivation, problem solving and reorganization skills, study organization skills, psycho-physical-emotional state comprehension, decision-making skills and self-esteem, noting a statistically significant increase post-HC program. A statistically significant improvement was also found in the students' perception of their own stress management skills after the course. CONCLUSION: This study strengthens the hypothesis that HC programs contribute to improving performance of nursing students. Those conclusions need to be corroborated by future studies on the topic to further support the hypothesis that programs of HC within the learning nursing contexts can lead to a tangible benefit for students of the health professions.

Nomophobia in healthcare: an observational study between nurses and students.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The abuse of technical devices can be considered a form of addiction that is defined in current literature as Nomophobia. The phenomenon appears to be quite widespread among nurses and nursing students, and nomophobic behaviours of professionals can lead to a reduction in the quality of the care provided. The aim of this study is to investigate the situation in a University and in a hospital in northern Italy and evaluate the levels of nomophobia among nurses and students. METHODS: An observational study was conducted with a questionnaire using a sample of nursing students and nurses.  Both of the studies had the common goal of investigating the levels of nomophobia and   evaluate the comparison between the two groups. RESULTS: In general, neither nurses nor students seem to demonstrate nomophobia's critical levels. The comparison of the daily use of the smartphone between nurses and students shows that the frequent use of students is balanced by the nurses' daily trend line that progressively decreases. Both nurses and students affirm to use their smartphones at work with a certain frequency although, especially among the students, it is usually for appropriate and justified reasons. CONCLUSIONS: It is necessary to consider the development of an educational project that regulates the use of smartphones, explaining the meaning of nomophobia, right from the first year of the University experience so as to correctly address the students'  (and future professionals') behaviours  to make them aware of the misuse of mobile phones, especially in the clinical setting that can easily cause distractions and consequently irreversible  errors.

A third mission at the Nursing Study course University of Parma. Intervention report.

BACKGROUND: The term Third Mission refers to the activities with which universities interact directly with the communities and the territory of reference, combining the objectives of the third mission with the two traditional missions: teaching and research.  These were the premises that guided the Nursing Studies Course of the University of Parma, with the goal of implementing a structured path of "Intercultural Nursing" on a demo-ethno-anthropological basis. METHODS: The path taken was divided into several phases: arrangement of moments of interaction with students; teaching activity aimed at students based on the relationship between ethno-anthropological knowledge, aspects of migration medicine and social legislation; direct meetings with representatives of some communities present in the Parma area. RESULTS: The interaction with students was achieved through meetings called "Cultural Coffee". The first meetings, in the measure of 4-5, took place in the period October-December 2013, subsequently, the same number of meetings was repeated in the following years. In 2019, two important results were achieved: the creation of an ADE (teaching chosen by the student) dedicated to multiculturality. Another activity of the "Intercultural Nursing" course involve the students with some communities in the Parma area. CONCLUSION: The results of this experience and the underlying idea that these aspects, if addressed in the basic training, can be for the professionals most expendable in the workplace, provide reasons to continue the path started. The international comparison on the intercultural skills of nurses, indicates collaboration and partnership with communities, as fundamental elements for a complete and effective assistance.

De Garengeot's Hernia: a Diagnostic Challenge.

Surgical literature defines the case of acute appendicitis in a sac of femoral hernia as de Garengeot's hernia. The diagnosis remains a very hard challenge for surgeon because the symptoms are aspecific and the most effective tools for preoperative evaluation (as abdominal computed tomography and abdominal ultrasound scan) can often be indeterminate or misinterpreted. We report the case of an 85-year-old white male admitted to our unit complaining of a 1-day history of vague abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and painful swelling in the right groin. Preoperatively, an incarcerated right femoral hernia was supposed and patient underwent surgery via oblique inguinal incision. The intraoperative finding was a de Garengeot's hernia and an appendectomy with hernia repair was performed. Patient had a regular course and was discharged on the second postoperative day.

Blood gas values in clamped and unclamped umbilical cord at birth.

AIM: To determine the reliability of the cord blood gas analysis on the unclamped cord compared to the standard technique of sampling on double clamped cord. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study conducted on 46 singleton neonates vaginally delivered at term. Matched pairs of umbilical artery and vein blood samples were collected from unclamped cord within 90s after birth and from the same cord after clamping, with the clamping occurring immediately after the first blood collection. A blood gas analysis was performed on each collected sample. OUTCOME MEASURES: Arterial and venous blood samples were analyzed for pH, PO2, pCO2, SaO2, hemoglobin concentration (ctHb) and base excess (BE). The values were compared between the two groups (clamped vs unclamped) using a Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in pH, PO2, pCO2, SaO2 and ctHb values on arterial blood between unclamped and clamped cord. The only significant difference was related to BE (p<0.001). For the venous blood, the values of pH, PO2, pCO2 were comparable between unclamped and clamped cord, while the values of SaO2, ctHb and BE were significantly different (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: No significant difference was found in almost all the arterial blood gas parameters and in the main venous blood gas parameters between unclamped and clamped cord. Sampling of cord blood for gas analysis may be performed on the unclamped cord right after birth without reducing the accuracy of the analysis.

Maternal metabolic control and perinatal outcome in women with gestational diabetes treated with regular or lispro insulin: comparison with non-diabetic pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE: To compare maternal glucose levels and neonatal outcome, achieved in women with gestational diabetes (GDM) receiving either regular insulin or insulin lispro, with those of a control group of non-diabetic pregnant women. STUDY DESIGN: We enrolled 49 pregnant women with GDM, randomly allocated to the treatment with either insulin lispro (n=25) or regular insulin (n=24), and 50 pregnant women with normal GCT, matched for age, parity, pre-pregnancy weight and BMI, who formed the control group. All the women were caucasian, non-obese, with a singleton pregnancy and delivered term live born infants. Women of both groups were requested to perform a blood glucose profile (consisting of nine determinations: fasting/pre-prandial, 1 and 2h post-prandial) every week from the time of diagnosis to 38 weeks (study subgroups) or every 2 weeks from 28 to 38 weeks' gestation (control group). RESULTS: Overall pre-prandial blood glucose values in diabetic women were significantly higher than those of controls; at the 1h post-prandial time point, blood glucose values of GDM women receiving insulin lispro were similar to those of controls, whereas in the regular group they were significantly higher. Overall, both the lispro and regular insulin obtained optimal metabolic control at the 2h post-prandial time point, although near-normal blood glucose levels 2h after lunch could be observed only in the lispro group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in neonatal outcome and anthropometric characteristics; however, the rate of infants with a cranial-thoracic circumference (CC/CT) ratio between the 10th and the 25th percentile was significantly higher in the group treated with regular insulin in comparison to the lispro and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: Fasting/pre-prandial and 1h post-prandial maternal blood glucose levels in non-diabetic pregnant women fell well below the currently accepted criteria of glycemic normality in diabetic pregnancies. In women with GDM, the use of insulin lispro enabled the attainment of near-normal glucose levels at the 1h post-prandial time point and was associated with normal anthropometric characteristics; the use of regular insulin was not able to blunt the 1h peak post-prandial response to a near-normal extent and resulted in infants with a tendency toward the disproportionate growth. Insulin lispro can be regarded as a valuable option for the treatment of gestational diabetes.

Sonographic evaluation of fetal growth and body composition in women with different degrees of normal glucose metabolism.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the maternal demographic and metabolic factors contributing to the growth of fetal lean and fat body mass in women whose degree of glucose intolerance is less than that defining gestational diabetes in comparison with women with normal glucose metabolism. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Longitudinal sonographic examinations of 66 singleton fetuses without anomalies of nonobese mothers with abnormal oral glucose challenge test (GCT) results and without gestational diabetes (group 1) were compared with those of 123 singleton fetuses without anomalies of nonobese mothers with normal GCT values (group 2). Lean body mass measurements included head circumference, femur length, mid-upper arm, and mid-thigh central areas. Fat body mass measurements included the anterior abdominal wall thickness, the subscapular thickness, and the mid-upper arm and mid-thigh subcutaneous areas. All the women performed a 24-h glucose profile on the day preceding the ultrasound scan. Multivariate logistic regression analysis established best-fit equations for fetal sonographic measurements of fat and lean body mass. Independent variables included groups 1 and 2, maternal age, parity, prepregnancy BMI, gestational age, weight gain during pregnancy, fetal sex, and the following averaged 24-h profile maternal capillary blood glucose values: preprandial, 1-h postprandial, and 2-h postprandial. RESULTS: No difference was found between the two groups with respect to fetal lean body mass parameters; the factors that contributed significantly and most frequently were gestational age and fetal sex (male). With respect to fetal fat body mass, all the measurements were significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2. In all instances, the significantly contributing factors were gestational age and maternal 1-h postprandial glucose values, whereas another frequent contributor was prepregnancy BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests the possibility of using sonographically determined fetal fat and lean mass measurements as indicators of body composition. The assessment of these parameters, achievable in a noninvasive and reproducible fashion in pregnancies complicated by glucose intolerance, might enable the real-time detection of fetal overgrowth and disproportion, thus opening the possibility of exploring interventions to limit fetal fat accretion, birth weight, and potential resulting morbidity.