Statistics

Looking for statistics? Try the National Center for Health Statistics sponsored by the CDC.

Look for:

• Fast Stats A-Z for quick reference alphbetically
• State and territorial data
• Search for stats on the topic you need
  

YSN Library February 13 - February 17

These are the hours that I will be in the Nursing Library this week.
Questions, comments, concerns, please email me: janene.batten@yale.edu

Monday 2/13
11:00 - 5:00

Tuesday 2/14
Call Medical Library for assistance - 737-4065
Class: 10:00-11:00 PubMed Basics (TCC - Med Library)

Wednesday 2/15
Call Medical Library for assistance - 737-4065
Class: 5:00-6:00 RefWorks Basics (TCC - Med Library)

Thursday 2/16
Call Medical Library for assistance - 737-4065
Class: 4:00-5:00 Advanced Searching Techniques (TCC - Med Library)

Friday 2/17
8:30 - 12:00
Class: 12:30-1:30 Ovid Refresher (TCC - Med Library)
Class: 1:45-2:45 RefWorks Basics (TCC - Med Library)

All Library Classes

Is the Professional Code Still the Cornerstone of Clinical Nursing Practice?

"Although codes of practice for those concerned with the health care of others have always been inherent in the structure of societies, they have been institutionalized within the nursing discipline since the end of the last century. Up until the early 1970s they promulgated subservience to the medical discipline. As a result of the processes of emancipation and professionalization, the philosophy of the nurse has come to contain concepts of autonomy, accountability and patient-advocacy, based on a personal and individualized care system. Research in recent years has shown that nurses are making morally sound and ethically acceptable choices based on their own decision-making abilities, whilst having little or no active knowledge of the existing professional codes. Based on the literature, the author discusses ethical codes in relation to their perception by nurses in the clinical situation. The influence of the code in the areas of moral decision-making, administration and management, and education are likewise discussed and the conclusion is reached that codes remain the cornerstone of nursing practice."

To read the full article:
Esterhuizen, P. (2006) Is the professional code still the cornerstone of clinical nursing practice?*. J Adv Nurs. 2006 Jan;53(1):104-10. PMID: 16422701

Spirituality and family nursing

"The majority of published guidelines on spiritual assessment and interventions are designed predominantly for individuals. They fail to differentiate between individual and family spirituality or offer only brief discussions on family spirituality. Such guidelines are potentially problematic. They may lead nurses to focus only on individual spirituality and neglect to discern family unit spirituality or recognize the presence of conflicts in spiritual perspectives within the family."

"The aim of this paper is to propose a guideline for spiritual assessment and interventions explicitly for families, while considering each family member's unique spirituality.
Background. Spirituality's positive effect is."

To read the full paper:
Ruth A. Tanyi Spirituality and family nursing: spiritual assessment and interventions for families. J Adv Nurs. 2006 Feb;53(3):287-94.

Why is Nursing Research Not Implemented into Practice

"This paper discusses a number of different levels at which the implementation of nursing research findings needs to be addressed and identifies 10 areas of potential difficulty:

• the complexity of the change process
• the genesis of research programmes
• the formulation of research questions
• differences in theoretical approaches
• timescales and planning cycles
• information overload
• credibility
• applicability
• response to change
• the management of change.

"An attempt is made to shift the nature of the discourse from the personal to the organizational and from a diffusionist perspective to that of change management. It is suggested that it is simplistic to regard the apparent lack of take-up of research-based practice findings as a failure on the part of individual nurses to respond rationally to the production of new information. The integration of research and practice has to be addressed at all levels within an organization; from policy statements to procedure manuals and from managers, educators and clinicians to support workers within the framework of the management of change. The potential of action research and quality circles in this context is touched on."

To read the full article:
Macguire JM. Putting nursing research findings into practice: research utilization as an aspect of the management of change*. 2006 Jan;53(1):65-71.

Critically Appraising Qualitative Research Evidence

"As you review the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) literature, you note the increasing number of qualitative research studies being published. Since you do not know as much about this methodology and how to critically evaluate it, you decide to find out what information is available to help you become more knowledgeable about this research method and how to critically appraise qualitative research reports."

This article by ME Duffy (Resources for critically appraising qualitative research evidence for nursing practice clinical question. Clin Nurse Spec. 2005 Nov-Dec;19(6):288-90) gives guidance on how to critically appraise the qualitative literature.

The article also cites a number of tools that can assist in the appraisal, including Critical Appraisal Checklist for an Article on Qualitative Research from the Department of General Practice, University of Glasgow Web site. The link in the refernence list does not work, so try this one instead ... Critical appraisal checklist for an article on qualitative research.

Another tool cited is also incorrectly linked ... so use this link instead. Giacomini M, Cook D. A User's Guide to Qualitative Research in Health Care. Centre for Health Evidence, University of Alberta; 2004.

Despite it's rocky citations, this article is a great start for discovering how to critically appriase qualitative literature.

For those of you that want to investigate the concpet of critically appraising qualitative literature look into this website The Qualitative Report for more details.

Failure To Thrive

"Explaining failure to thrive (FTT) in dichotomous terms--organic versus non-organic --no longer applies in the context of modern pediatric nursing. FTT has turned out to be much more multifaceted. One infant's story illustrates the complexities and long-term ramifications of a pediatric feeding disorder and the challenges faced by health care professionals and families in their care. The story illustrates how physiologic, sensorimotor, and behavioral issues can all impact a child's inability to gain weight as expected. With greater understanding, pediatric nurses can appreciate their role as members of a multidisciplinary pediatric feeding disorder team. "

Locklin, M. (2005). The Redefinition of Failure To Thrive from a Case Study Perspective. Pediatric Nursing, Vol. 31 Issue 6, p474.

YSN Library February 6 - February 10

These are the hours that I will be in the Nursing Library this week.
Questions, comments, concerns, please email me: janene.batten@yale.edu

Monday 2/6
8:30 - 5:00

Tuesday 2/7
Call Medical Library for assistance - 737-4065

Wednesday 2/8
10:30 - 5:00
Class: 7:00-8:00 PowerPoint Basics (TCC - Med Library)

Thursday 2/9
Call Medical Library for assistance - 737-4065
Class: 4:00-5:00 EndNote Basics (TCC - Med Library)

Friday 2/10
8:30 - 5:00

All Library Classes

Female Fetus More Likely to Cause Asthma Symptoms in Moms

A study in the February American Journal of Epidemiology finds that pregnant women who are carrying a female fetus are more likely than those carrying a male fetus to experience more severe asthma symptoms.

Researchers from Yale University evaluated 702 pregnant women with asthma and measured lung function for 10 days at “selected points in their pregnancy.” The researchers found that throughout their pregnancies, women carrying male fetuses had 10% better lung function than women carrying female fetuses. Although the researchers are unsure why the sex of the fetus affects asthma and say more research is necessary, they speculate that testosterone secreted by male fetuses “may relax the mother’s airway tissue”.

Read the full article:

Helen L. Kwon, Kathleen Belanger, Theodore R. Holford, and Michael B. Bracken (2006)
Effect of Fetal Sex on Airway Lability in Pregnant Women with Asthma. American Journal of Epidemiology 163: 217-221.

Guideline Updates

Here are some of the latest updates from the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement

• Assessment and management of chronic pain
• Diagnosis and treatment of chest pain and acute coronary syndrome (ACS).(This updates a previously published guideline summary.)
• Diagnosis of breast disease (This updates a previously published guideline summary.)
• Prevention and management of obesity (mature adolescents and adults). (This updates a previously published guideline summary.)
  

State of the Union Address - 2006

Here are some links to the President's State of the Union address given last night. Amongst other things of interest to the American public are his propsals for healthcare.

• Official Whitehouse release of the Address
• NPR has the Address broken down into excerpts with commentary about each section

See previous State of the Union addresses by G.W. Bush, W.J. Clinton, and G.H.W. Bush.

Each website has the opportunity to either listen and/or watch the Presenident's address.