Exploring positive youth development and civic engagement in an environment action program : a Saint Louis Zoo case study

To become thriving and contributing members of society, a vital skill for youth to learn is civic engagement behaviors. Civic engagement can manifest itself as volunteering, community engagement, or behaviors such as voting and campaigning. Recent trends show youth in the past two decades have been less civically engaged than their counterparts up to 70 years ago. Research suggests that Positive Youth Development practices in environmental action youth programs yield environmentally conscious and active adults. Furthermore, other research suggests that environmental action is one avenue in which successful civic engagement education and practice takes place. This case study turned to one youth program at the Saint Louis Zoo and examined positive youth development practices, positive youth development outcomes, and civic engagement outcomes in the context of an environmental action program. The program evaluation case study took a mixed-methods approach and involved 47 high schoolers and young adults for a survey determining the presence or absence of positive youth development outcomes. Of the alum survey respondents, 8 were interviewed, additionally, 5 youth professionals also participated in semi-structured interviews. The results of the study suggest that positive youth development practices are present in the program and that most youth experience both positive youth development and civic engagement outcomes. There was a significant difference in self-reported positive youth development and civic engagement outcomes by hours volunteered in the youth program.Includes bibliographical reference

Promoting self-management through adherence among heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals: a study protocol.

UNLABELLED: Background Heart failure is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in adults, leading to prolonged morbidity, repeated hospitalizations, and placing tremendous economic burden on the healthcare system. Heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals, or primarily critical access hospitals, have higher 30-day readmission and mortality rates compared to patients discharged from urban hospitals. Self-management improves heart failure patients\u27 health outcomes and reduces re-hospitalizations, but adherence to self-management guidelines is low. We propose a home based post-acute care service managed by advanced practice nurses to enhance patient activation and lead to the improvement of self-management adherence in heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals. Objective This article describes the study design and research methods used to implement and evaluate the intervention. Method Our intervention is a 12-week patient activation (Patient AcTivated Care at Home [PATCH]) to improve self-management adherence. Patients were randomized into two parallel groups (12-week PATCH intervention + usual care vs. usual care only) to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. Outcomes were measured at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Discussion This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a rural theory based, advance practice nurse led, activation enhancing intervention on the self-management adherence in heart failure patients residing in rural areas. Our expectation is to facilitate adherence to self-management behaviors in heart failure patients following discharge from rural hospitals and decrease complications and hospital readmissions, leading to the reduction of economic burden. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: ClinicalTrials.gov; https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/ NCT01964053

Review Strategies to Recruit and Retain Rural Patient Participating Self-management Behavioral Trials

Self-management plays a vital role in improving health outcomes and reducing costs in patient with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated risk factors. Based on existing studies, rural residents with CVD and/or risk factors show low engagement in self-management behaviors. Due to low participation in behavioral intervention trials, the most promising mechanism to promote self-management among rural populations is unknown. In turn, the purpose of this article is to review the evidence that supports strategies to recruit and retain rural patients to participate in behavioral intervention trials aimed to promote self-management of CVD and its risk factors. This review is expected to assist researchers in identifying effective solutions to overcome barriers in the recruitment and retention processes when conducting intervention research studies on the self-management of CVD in rural communities

Follow up: Promoting self-management through adherence among heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals: a study protocol.

UNLABELLED: Background Heart failure is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in adults, leading to prolonged morbidity, repeated hospitalizations, and placing tremendous economic burden on the healthcare system. Heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals, or primarily critical access hospitals, have higher 30-day readmission and mortality rates compared to patients discharged from urban hospitals. Self-management improves heart failure patients\u27 health outcomes and reduces re-hospitalizations, but adherence to self-management guidelines is low. We propose a home based post-acute care service managed by advanced practice nurses to enhance patient activation and lead to the improvement of self-management adherence in heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals. Objective This article describes the study design and research methods used to implement and evaluate the intervention. Method Our intervention is a 12-week patient activation (Patient AcTivated Care at Home [PATCH]) to improve self-management adherence. Patients were randomized into two parallel groups (12-week PATCH intervention + usual care vs. usual care only) to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. Outcomes were measured at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Discussion This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a rural theory based, advance practice nurse led, activation enhancing intervention on the self-management adherence in heart failure patients residing in rural areas. Our expectation is to facilitate adherence to self-management behaviors in heart failure patients following discharge from rural hospitals and decrease complications and hospital readmissions, leading to the reduction of economic burden. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: ClinicalTrials.gov; https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/ NCT01964053

Implementing Immersive Virtual Reality into a Nursing Curriculum

Due to workforce demands, new undergraduate nurses are hired directly into fast-paced units and are expected to manage complex patients with rapidly changing conditions and respond to time-sensitive situations. It is important for nurse educators to prepare undergraduate nurses for transition into clinical practice upon graduation. Simulation has been a valuable tool to provide experiential learning and promote clinical decision-making. The next iteration of improving clinical simulation as an experiential learning modality for nursing students is Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR): a realistic, immersive simulation in a 3-dimensional environment that is experienced by body movements and hand controllers. IVR can incorporate the layers of the clinical judgment model including recognizing cues, analyzing cues, prioritizing hypotheses, generating solutions, taking action, and evaluating. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of IVR in a baccalaureate nursing program curriculum. A prospective, non-randomized study design was conducted at a midwestern academic medical center College of Nursing. A convenience sample of second-semester BSN nursing students (N=83) participating in an IVR clinical experience was included in this study. Statistically strong correlations were found between learning and engagement r (81) = .746, p \u3c .001, and engagement and immersion r (81) =.517, p \u3c .001. Moderate levels of correlation were found between learning and immersion r (81) = .466, p \u3c .001, and learning and challenge r (81) = .389, p \u3c .001. Incorporating IVR into a BSN curriculum is feasible and provides an engaging, flexible, learning environment. IVR provides a positive learning experience and overall students want to continue to use it in the future. Future research establishing best practices for IVR needs to be completed

Special libraries: ten essential technologies

This report describes ten technologies of use in special libraries

A Conceptual Framework for Barriers to the Recruitment and Retention of Rural CVD Participants in Behavior Intervention Trials

Rural residents diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or with CVD-related risks are underrepresented in behavioral intervention trials based on an extensive review of published studies. The low participation rate of rural residents weakens both the internal and external validity of published studies. Moreover, compared to urban residents, limited research exists to describe the unique barriers that limit the participation of rural residents in behavioral intervention trials.Objective: The purpose of this review is to identify a conceptual framework (CF) underpinning common barriers faced by rural CVD patients to enroll in behavioral intervention trials.Methods: We conducted a literature review using several electronic databases to obtain a representative sample of research articles, synthesized the evidence, and developed a CF to explain the barriers that may affect the research participation rate of rural residents with CVD or related risks.Results: We found our evidence-based CF well explained the barriers for rural CVD patients to take part in behavioral intervention trials. Besides contextual factors (i.e. patient, community and research levels), other common factors impacting rural patients’ intent to enroll are lack of awareness and understanding about behavioral trials, limited support from their healthcare providers and social circles, unfavorable attitudes, and the lack of opportunity to participating research.Conclusion and Implication of result: the findings demonstrate the evidence-based model consisting of interlinked multi-level factors may help our understanding of the barriers encountered by rural CVD patients participating interventions to promote behavioral change. The implication for researchers is that identifying and developing strategies to overcome the barriers precedes conducting studies in rural communities

Relationships between activation level, knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-management behavior in heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals.

Non-adherence to self-management guidelines accounted for 50% of hospital readmissions in heart failure patients. Evidence showed that patient activation affects self-management behaviors in populations living with chronic conditions. The purpose of this study was to describe patient activation level and its relationship with knowledge, self-efficacy and self-management behaviors in heart failure patients discharged from rural hospitals. Our study populations were recruited from two hospitals in rural areas of Nebraska. We found that two-thirds of the participants reported low activation levels (e.g., taking no action to manage their heart failure condition). In addition, low patient activation levels were associated with inadequate heart failure knowledge (p=.005), low self-efficacy (

The position of reporting guidelines in qualitative nursing research

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