Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND: Symptom assessment and management are vital aspects of patient care through the entire illness trajectory. Patients often experience two or more symptoms concurrently. Building global assessment capacity on symptoms holds significant promise for advancing the science of nursing. The Symptom Experience Index is a reliable and valid patient-centered health outcome measure developed in the United States to assess multiple symptoms and distress. No Korean version is available for Korean healthcare professionals and patients to promote an accurate assessment of multiple symptoms. OBJECTIVE: To translate the Symptom Experience Index into Korean language and assess its psychometric properties in Korean patients and healthy adults. DESIGN: A psychometric study with a cross-sectional design. SETTING: Two hospitals and a large university in Seoul, Korea in 2009. PARTICIPANTS: A purposive sample of 230 adult participants, including medical-surgical and oncology patients, as well as healthy university students. METHODS: The English Symptom Experience Index was translated to Korean language using an integrative translation method to ensure its semantic equivalence and content validity. The Korean version was then pretested and tested using a contrast-group and test-retest method. RESULTS: Semantically, no modifications to items were needed in terms of comparability of language and similarity of interpretability. Feedback on the pretest of the Korean version by 15 Korean adult patients resulted in one item deletion and one item modification. The Korean version demonstrated high internal consistency with the Cronbach's alpha coefficient: total symptom experience of 0.92, occurrence of 0.91 and distress of 0.90. Intra-class correlation coefficients demonstrated strong stability over time: total symptom experience (ICC=0.82; 95% CI=0.73-0.88), occurrence (ICC=0.77; 95% CI=0.66-0.84), and distress (ICC=0.85; 95% CI=0.77-0.89). Construct validity was supported by (1) factor analysis; (2) differences in symptom experience scores between healthy university students and patient groups; and (3) positive correlations between symptom experience scores and functional impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provided evidence to support psychometric properties of the Korean Symptom Experience Index. The use of the instrument can help patients who speak Korean language systematically report symptoms and assist healthcare professionals in assessing multiple symptom experience.

Although experiencing childhood sexual abuse (CSA) puts youth at risk for involvement in relationship violence, research is limited on the potential pathways from CSA to subsequent dating aggression. The current study examined prospective pathways from externalizing behavior problems and stigmatization (abuse-specific shame and self-blame attributions) to anger and dating aggression. One hundred sixty youth (73% female, 69% ethnic/racial minorities) with confirmed CSA histories were interviewed at the time of abuse discovery (T1, when they were 8-15 years of age), and again 1 and 6 years later (T2 and T3). Externalizing behavior and abuse-specific stigmatization were assessed at T1 and T2. Anger and dating aggression were assessed at T3. The structural equation model findings supported the proposed relations from stigmatization following the abuse to subsequent dating aggression through anger. Only externalizing behavior at T1 was related to later dating aggression, and externalizing was not related to subsequent anger. This longitudinal research suggests that clinical interventions for victims of CSA be sensitive to the different pathways by which youth come to experience destructive conflict behavior in their romantic relationships.

African-American and Latino/Hispanic persons living with HIV/AIDS are underrepresented in AIDS clinical trials (ACTs). The aim of this paper was to uncover factors, either unmodifiable or not directly targeted for change, that predicted screening for ACTs during an efficacious peer-driven intervention (N = 540 total; N = 351 in an intervention arm, N = 189 control). This paper focused on participants assigned to an intervention arm, 56 % of whom were screened for ACTs. We found a decreased odds of screening was associated with closer proximity to the screening site, gay/lesbian orientation, lower mental health symptoms, current injection drug use, more recent HIV diagnosis, lack of prior screening experience, and failure to attend all intervention sessions, but there were no gender or racial/ethnic differences. Efforts to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in ACTs can be enhanced by attending to these specific factors, which may interfere with programmatic efforts to increase African-American and Latino/Hispanic representation in ACTs.

Lymphedema, a debilitating and chronic condition, is considered to be one of the most distressing adverse effects of cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to understand the practice patterns in lymphedema care and identify predictors influencing those patterns among oncology nurses, with a focus on advanced practice nurses. Random and purposive sampling was utilized to recruit 238 oncology nurses who completed the Web-based study. Participants included advanced practice nurses (nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists), nurse navigators/case managers, staff nurses, and directors/managers/coordinators. Data focused on perceived knowledge of and perceived competence in risk reduction, treatment, and self-management of lymphedema and practice patterns in lymphedema care. Actual knowledge of lymphedema care was evaluated. Descriptive, comparative, and regression analyses were performed. The study showed that perceived knowledge and perceived competence were highly correlated. Perceived competence was a predictor of practicing lymphedema care. Advanced practice nurses scored in the midrange for perceived knowledge and perceived competence in risk reduction and self-management, but obtained lower scores in perceived knowledge and perceived competence for treatment. The odds of advanced practice nurses delivering lymphedema care were less than those of staff nurses. This study identifies gaps and opportunities for advanced practice nurses to play an important role in providing lymphedema care, an essential aspect of cancer survivorship.

OBJECTIVE: Sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone (Bup/Nx) is approved for addiction treatment and may be useful for pain management, particularly in opioid-treated patients with pain with nonadherence behaviors. The transition of opioid-treated patients with pain to buprenorphine carries the risk of precipitated withdrawal and increased pain. This study convened pain and addiction specialists to develop and pilot a clinical protocol for safe transitioning to Bup/Nx. DESIGN: The protocol was revised three times based on outside expert review and pilot study observations. The pilot was conducted with a prospective cohort of 12 patients with moderate to severe chronic pain, who were receiving long-term opioid therapy with any full m-agonist drug, and had exhibited one or more aberrant drug-related behaviors. Patients were followed up for 3-6 months with the expectation that they would experience few adverse events (AEs) and report lower pain severity. RESULTS: The three patients on the highest baseline opioid dose (equivalent to 303-450 mg of oral morphine) and the three on the lowest doses (