Faculty Bibliography

Nurse practitioner (NP) faculty have not fully used data collected in NP clinical education for data mining. With current advances in database technology including data storage and computing power, NP faculty have an opportunity to data mine enormous amounts of clinical data documented by NP students in electronic clinical management systems. The purpose of this project was to examine the use of big data and data mining from NP clinical education and to establish a foundation for competency-based education. Using a data mining knowledge discovery process, faculty are able to gain increased understanding of clinical practicum experiences to inform competency-based NP education and the use of entrusted professional activities for the future.

BACKGROUND:End-of-life care is provided in a variety of healthcare settings, not just palliative care hospitals. This is one reason why it is very important to assess all barriers to end-of-life care and to provide safe and quality services to patients. This study was aimed at describing nurses' attitudes in providing end-of-life care and exploring barriers and facilitating behaviors of nurses in multi-profile hospitals in Eastern Europe. METHODS:A descriptive, correlational design was applied in this study, using a cross-sectional survey of 1320 registered nurses within 7 hospitals in Lithuania. RESULTS:Registered nurses working in the three different profiles emphasized safe and effective care and the importance of meeting the patient's spiritual needs at the end of life. The main barriers assigned by nurses caring for patients at the end of life were angry family members, inadequate understanding of nursing care by the patient's relatives; lack of time to talk to patients, lack of nursing knowledge to deal with the bereaved patient's family, lack of evaluation of nurses' opinions, and the evasion by physicians to talk about the diagnosis and their over-optimistic view of the situation. The main facilitating behaviors to improve nursing care were end-of-life training, volunteering, and family involvement. CONCLUSIONS:Spiritual needs were identified by nurses as the primary needs of patients at the end of life. Family-related barriers remain one of the main barriers to end-of-life care. Also, the behavior of physicians and their relationship with nurses remains one of the most sensitive issues in end-of-life care.