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Perceived Barriers to Contraceptive Use: An Exploratory Study of Women Living in Rural Haiti
Get PDFMaternal health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (WHO, 2016). Maternal health is a very important determinant of Haiti’s familial, educational, economic, and environmental development. One key to maternal health is family planning which can empower women to fulfill their familial and community roles. Family planning through contraception offers women the opportunity to gain time between child births by deciding when to get pregnant in relation to their other life obligations. Having fewer children and longer spacing between births provides women and children a better quality of life and an opportunity to be more productive members of their communities. A maternal health assessment for women of childbearing age in rural Beaulieu, Haiti and surrounding villages was conducted to investigate factors leading to unintended pregnancies among women receiving contraceptives at the Erline et Armelle Clinic using the Social Ecological Model as a framework. Implications for advanced practice public health nursing practice, policy, and research were identified and recommendations provided
Social work ethics in India: A Call for the development of indigenized ethical standards
Get PDFIn recent years, various professional associations in social work and regulatory bodies worldwide have engaged in ambitious efforts to draft and implement comprehensive ethics guidelines, standards, and education. For a variety of complex reasons, the social work profession in India has lagged behind developments in many other nations. The purpose of this article is to assess the current status of social work ethics in India, review relevant developments throughout the world, and present a blueprint to guide the development of much-needed indigenous ethical standards and education in India
Neck Circumference and Mallampati Classification
Get PDFDifficult and failed intubations contribute to morbidly and mortality in anesthesia practice. Mallampati is one of the most widely used airway assessments but research shows it is highly variable in its ability to predict difficult intubation. Neck circumference is an objective assessment not commonly used, but has been shown to assess the degree of difficulty with intubation. Following Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from both Charter Care and Rhode Island College, utilizing a descriptive design, 23 subjects had their neck circumference measured and Mallampati class assessed. The results revealed a relationship between increased neck circumference and Mallampati classification. The average neck circumference of the 23 subjects was 40.35 cm with an average Mallampati class of 2.54. The average neck circumference for Mallampati class 1 was 39.3 cm versus 42.8 cm for Mallampati class 4. Planning for a difficult airway and the assessments to use are highly variable. Practitioners pull from personal experiences as well as their training when it comes to how they provide care. Research has found that neck circumference is an objective assessment that correlates to difficult intubations. Mallampati is one of the standard airway assessments despite research showing that it does not accurately predict intubation difficulty. However, additional research is needed to understand the role neck circumference plays in everyday practice
Compassion Fatigue in Hospice Nursing: A Program Development
Get PDFHospice nursing is an important aspect of health care. Hospice nursing is a specialized field in which patients are cared for at the end of life and an important aspect of healthcare. Because the care hospice nurses provide comes at the end of life, they are continuously exposed to death, dying, pain and suffering. Numerous studies have documented that continuous exposure to trauma, death and dying may result in compassion fatigue (CF). Compassion fatigue can lead to a physical and emotional toll on nurses resulting in low staff satisfaction , high turnover rates, and reduced quality of care. The 1 purpose of the project was to develop and implement an educational program about CF for hospice nursing staff at Care New England Visiting Nurse Association (VNA). First, a comprehensive needs assessment was conducted and then an educational intervention was developed based on those results and the review of the literature. It was hoped that as a result of the program hospice nurses\u27 knowledge and understanding of CF, its signs and symptoms and prevention interventions that might minimize or prevent the effects of CF would be learned. Sixty-seven percent of eligible nurses (n=8) participated in the intervention. The participants were asked to complete a post program survey and evaluating the program positively and strongly agreed that they benefitted from it. All eight participants stated that there knowledge of compassion fatigue and selfcare techniques had improved
Amidst the Varieties of Populism: The Case of the Recurrent Pattern of Nativism and Authoritarian Populism in the Politics of U.S. Immigration Policy
Get PDFThis project started as a comparison of varieties of populism emergent in the past two decades, which grew into discerning how authoritarian populism is rooted in nativism as a recurrent concept throughout immigration policy in the U.S. This is demonstrated historically by reviewing the different types of nativist movements in different epochs of controversial immigration policy. The project’s methodology derives from the usage of political sociology conceptualizing populism as a discursive register or rhetorical style as argued by Ernesto Laclau (2005; 2011) or as a structure of feeling (as argued by Raymond Williams 1977). Therefore, populism is seen as a recurrent pattern transcending historical particularities. According to Laclau’s theory of “the empty signifier,” populism can be driven by left or right politics. I then looked into Seymour M. Lipset’s research where he uses the authoritarian personality syndrome, detailed in the social-psychology survey analysis of Theodor Adorno and Ellen Frenkel-Brunswick (1950), which he conceptualizes as working-class authoritarianism, showing how “the people” act in reactionary rather than in revolutionary ways. By the 1980s, Stuart Hall presents a cultural studies approach, widening Lipset’s hypothesis beyond the proletarian collective subject where he conceptualizes an authoritarian populism that supports yet transcends both neoliberalism and neo-conservatism
Nurses\u27 Knowledge of Hypoglycemia and Treatment in the Adult Hospitalized Patient with Diabetes: A Quality Improvement Project
Get PDFThere are currently more than 29 million people in the United States with diabetes. With increasing numbers of diabetic patients across the nation, it is imperative that health care professionals receive the knowledge and skills required to manage them in the acute care setting. Hypoglycemia is the most common side effect of diabetes treatment (Borzi et al., 2016) and is defined by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) as a condition that occurs when one\u27s blood glucose is lower than normal, usually less than 70 mg/dl. Nurses’ knowledge of hypoglycemia and their adherence to hospital protocols are essential to achieving positive patient outcomes. Research demonstrates that nurses in the acute care setting are not receiving consistent formal training on the care of adult diabetic patients and sometimes fail treat the patient according to evidence based hospital protocols. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase nurses’ knowledge of hypoglycemia and treatment in the adult hospitalized patient with diabetes. The project design was a pre-test, educational program and post-test on two medical-surgical units in a small community hospital in Rhode Island. Seventeen nurses completed the pre-test component (N=17, 22%) and eighteen nurses (N=18, 23%) attended the educational program and completed the post-test. Pre-test scores ranged from 11 to 94 out of a possible 100, with a mean score of 59.8%. Post-test scores ranged from 27 to 100, with a mean score of 76.5%. The average of post-test scores increased by about 16.7%. These findings suggest that providing hypoglycemia education can be successful in increasing nurses’ knowledge of hypoglycemia treatment and management in the adult hospitalized patient with diabetes
Eye on Ethics: New NASW Code of Ethics Standards for the Digital Age
No full textAugust 2017 marks yet another very significant date in social work history. The NASW Delegate Assembly formally approved significant updates to the profession\u27s venerable Code of Ethics. The revisions focus explicitly on ethical challenges pertaining to social workers\u27 and clients\u27 increased use of technology. They reflect a broader shift in social work practice related to technology that has led to very recent and noteworthy changes in regulatory (licensing board) standards, practice standards, and ethical standards
Interprofessional Simulation: Students\u27 Perceptions
Get PDFAn alarming number of errors occur in the healthcare system. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) responded to the error rate by encouraging changes in professional education and recommending interdisciplinary team training. A variety of professions, including aviation and the military, have utilized simulation in their education and training for mastering skills and also to assist with respect and appreciation of other professional roles on the healthcare team. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate nursing students, graduate social work students, and APRN students’ perceptions of one another as healthcare professionals using interdisciplinary simulation. The research study was a quantitative descriptive study using a pre-test, intervention, post-test design with a nonprobability, convenience sample. The participants were asked to complete the IEPS questionnaire, an eighteen-question survey with a 6-point Likert scale that measures the effect of interprofessional education experiences on students. The participants then took part in four interprofessional simulations scenarios with debriefing sessions following each scenario. The same IEPS was completed at the end of the day. 109 participants from the mentioned disciplines participated in the study. Statistically significant higher scores were found on the posttest questionnaires in 17 of the 18 questions. The study supports the use of interprofessional simulation in higher education and also provides a proven benefit related to perceptions of other disciplines