Faculty Bibliography

The public image of nursing is important because it can facilitate or create barriers to achieving an adequate supply of nursing human resources. This study sought to gain a better understanding of nursing's professional image within the Republic of Georgia. The Nursing Human Resources Systems model was used to guide the study's exploratory, qualitative approach. Data collection occurred over a 2-week period in the Republic of Georgia, and thirty-three participants formed the final study sample. Participants included healthcare professionals, key informants from nonprofit and research institutions, and patients. Data analysis occurred using directed content analysis techniques, and three themes emerged: (a) gender dimension; (b) the nursing service recipient experience; and (c) historical legacies. Themes revealed the complexities of nursing's image in the country. Findings from this study serve as baseline data for understanding nursing's image in the Republic of Georgia which could assist with improving pre-entry nursing production issues.

BACKGROUND:Increasingly, patients with limited English proficiency are accessing home health care services in the United States. Few studies have examined how language barriers influence provider role implementation or workload in the home health care setting. OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:To explore home health care professionals' perspectives about how workload changes from managing language barriers influence quality and safety in home health care. DESIGN/METHODS:A qualitative secondary data analysis using a summative content analysis approach was used to analyze existing semi-structured interview data. SETTING/METHODS:A large urban home health care agency located on the East Coast of the United States. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Thirty five home health care providers [31 registered nurses, 3 physical therapists, 1 occupational therapist]. RESULTS:A total of 142 discrete incidents emerged from the analysis. Overall, home health care providers experienced distinct shifts in how they implemented their roles that added to their workload and time spent with Limited English Proficiency patients and family members. Providers were concerned about interpretation accuracy and perceived it as potentially posing risks to patient safety. Changes in work patterns, therefore, sought to maximize patient safety. CONCLUSIONS:Home health care providers decision-making about how they adapt practice when faced with a language barrier is a sequence of actions based on awareness of the patient's language preference and if they spoke another language. Subsequent choices showed proactive behaviors to manage increased workload shaped by their perceived risk of the threats posed by the quality of interpreter services. Future research should develop quantitative models examining differences in workload when caring for limited English proficiency versus English speaking patients as well as the relationship between visit length and patient outcomes to determine optimal quality models.

AIMS/OBJECTIVE:To conduct a needs assessment of public hospitals in Mexico to determine workforce specific capacity building needs in the care of older people. BACKGROUND:The older population in Mexico is growing rapidly. The healthcare system and workforce may not be prepared to handle the needs of older people, especially those with chronic illnesses who are also disadvantaged socioeconomically. Determining workforce and system needs is important to strategically develop capacity. METHODS:A needs assessment using a pragmatic qualitative approach structured this study. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with healthcare professionals at five public hospitals in Mexico. Directed content analysis techniques analysed the data. RESULTS:Ninety-two healthcare professionals participated in the study. Three themes emerged, including geriatric service delivery, social changes and human resources for health. Participants reported a lack of gerontology knowledge and related clinical skills deficits to provide care for hospitalised elders and expressed emotional distress related to the lack of resources in their institutions. All healthcare professionals expressed strong concern at the social toll the ageing population had on families. The support of government organisations emerged as a facilitator for adoption of geriatric care principles. CONCLUSIONS:This qualitative study uncovered important data to inform the implementation of quality improvement and capacity building models for older people care in Mexico. There appears to be strong potential for a culturally appropriate translation of high-income country older people care models within the Mexican healthcare context. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE/CONCLUSIONS:Findings suggests there is a need to increase geriatric capacity building among helathcare professionals in Mexico. This will be an important step in improving care for hospitalised older people.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:There is no reliable and valid version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index-Revised (PES-NWI-R) in Arabic. The purpose of this study was to describe the systematic instrument translation and validation of the PES-NWI-R. METHODS:Using the Content Validity Indexing-based approach, 32 expert nurses from four countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) participated in the validation of this translation. RESULTS:The content validity index score of the overall scale was excellent (0.87 for the relevancy, and 0.95 for the quality of Arabic translation). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Our study supported the content validity of the Arabic version of the instrument which provided the first valid Arabic translation of the instrument.

Internationally educated nurses (IENs) are an important part of the U.S. nursing workforce. Optimizing their transition-to-practice (TTP) experiences in the United States is crucial for ensuring high-quality patient and IENs' outcomes. The purpose of this integrative review is to analyze and synthesize the current evidence surrounding IEN TTP experiences in the United States from 2000 to 2018 to inform improvements in TTP. Eighteen studies were included. TTP was defined through IENs' description of facilitators and barriers of the transition process and presented in seven themes. Two themes were facilitators: support from family and nursing colleagues, and perceptions of self-efficacy. The remaining five themes were barriers: (a) the stigma associated with educational preparation, (b) communication and language, (c) differences in culture, (d) differences in nursing practice, and (e) legal issues. Findings are important for improving TTP programs. Further research focusing on the outcomes of transition programs is needed to inform policymaking surrounding IEN recruitment and retention.

Patients with limited English proficiency skills are accessing health care services more frequently around the world. Language barriers increase patient vulnerability for adverse events, and health care interpreters may mitigate this risk. Nursing education regarding the effective and appropriate use of health care interpreters has been limited. Interpreters are natural partners for nurses as a strategy to bridge language barriers with patients and could be integrated more regularly into nursing education using clinical simulation strategies. This article offers an overview of the different types of interpreters in health care, proposes recommendations for integrating them into simulation education, and provides a case example to illustrate implementation.

BACKGROUND:Awareness of disease status has been identified as a factor in the treatment decision-making process. Women with recurrent ovarian cancer are facing the challenge of making treatment decisions throughout the disease trajectory. It is not understood how women with ovarian cancer perceive their disease and subsequently make treatment decisions. PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of women with recurrent ovarian cancer, how they understood their disease and made their treatment decisions. METHODS:A qualitative design with a descriptive phenomenological method was used to conduct 2 in-depth interviews with 12 women (n = 24 interviews). Each interview was ∼60 minutes and was digitally recorded and professionally transcribed. Data collection focused on patients' understanding of their disease and how patients participated in treatment decisions. A modified version of Colaizzi's method of phenomenological reduction guided data analysis. RESULTS:Three themes emerged to describe the phenomenon of being aware of disease status: (1) perceiving recurrent ovarian cancer as a chronic illness, (2) perceived inability to make treatment decisions, and (3) enduring emotional distress. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:This study revealed how 12 women conceptualized recurrent ovarian cancer as a chronic disease and their perceived inability to make treatment decisions because of lack of information and professional qualifications, resulting in enduring emotional distress. Future research should replicate the study to confirm the persistence of the themes for racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse patient samples and to improve understanding of awareness of disease status and decision-making processes of patients.

A primary service provided by home care is medication management. Issues with medication management at home place older adults at high risk for hospital admission, readmission, and adverse events. This study sought to understand medication management challenges from the home care provider perspective. A qualitative secondary data analysis approach was used to analyze program evaluation interview data from an interprofessional educational intervention study designed to decrease medication complexity in older urban adults receiving home care. Directed and summative content analysis approaches were used to analyze data from 90 clinician and student participants. Medication safety issues along with provider-provider communication problems were central themes with medication complexity. Fragmented care coordination contributed to medication management complexity. Patient-, provider-, and system-level factors influencing medication complexity and management were identified as contributing to both communication and coordination challenges.