Faculty Bibliography

The literature supports that organizations that create working conditions with positive practice environments improve nurses' job satisfaction and reduce turnover in hospital settings (Havens & Johnston, 2004; International Council of Nurses [ICN], 2007). Positive practice environments promote quality nursing care and better patient outcomes. However, in South America, there are no instruments to measure the nursing practice environment in a hospital setting. The purpose of this research was to examine the validity and reliability of a Spanish translation of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI; Lake, 2002) in the Colombian clinical context. An instrument validation study using expert panel review, content validity indexing techniques, and a factor analysis of survey responses from 144 nurses was used. The scale-level content validity evaluation achieved high levels of acceptability, with values above 0.90. Construct validity results suggest that the instrument consists of 5 factors as prescribed by original instrument. The overall internal consistency value was a Cronbach's alpha level of 0.89. This is the first instrument to measure the work environment of nursing practice in South America, now validated in the Colombian context.

Nanopores can be used to detect and analyse biomolecules. However, controlling the translocation speed of molecules through a pore is difficult, which limits the wider application of these sensors. Here, we show that low-power visible light can be used to control surface charge in solid-state nanopores and can influence the translocation dynamics of DNA and proteins. We find that laser light precisely focused at a nanopore can induce reversible negative surface charge densities as high as 1 C m(-2), and that the effect is tunable on submillisecond timescales by adjusting the photon density. By modulating the surface charge, we can control the amount of electroosmotic flow through the nanopore, which affects the speed of translocating biomolecules. In particular, a few milliwatts of green light can reduce the translocation speed of double-stranded DNA by more than an order of magnitude and the translocation speed of small globular proteins such as ubiquitin by more than two orders of magnitude. The laser light can also be used to unclog blocked pores. Finally, we discuss a mechanism to account for the observed optoelectronic phenomenon.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the content validity of the Iberian Spanish version of the questionnaire The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) by using the Content Validity Indexing (CVI). METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional observational study was conducted. The Spanish version of the questionnaire was translated from the American English instrument through forward and back translation processes. Experts evaluated the translated items through content validity indexing. Once the assessments were completed, CVI indicators were calculated: number of agreements, item Content Validity Index and overall content validity and modified kappa coefficient of the instrument. RESULTS: The overall content validity of the instrument was 0.82. The average modified kappa coefficient of the items was 0.80, with a rating of 'excellent'. Only 4 of the items were rated as weak or poor. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates that the content validity of the Spanish version of the PES-NWI is acceptable. Some results indicate that some items have cross-cultural applicability challenges that need to be addressed in future research studies. Use of the instrument in other Spanish language speaking countries should be taken with caution since some words may not reflect the language of the healthcare systems there.