Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Nurses' Use of Hospital-Endorsed Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments

This mixed method, exploratory, sequential study investigated a convenience sample of nurses (n=142) educated in hospital-endorsed (Reiki and/or aromatherapy/guided imagery) complementary alternative medicine (CAM) modalities. Many hospitals, in response to consumer requests, have integrated CAM as services offered for patients. However, while many nurses are educated in CAM at the study site, the application of a CAM modality is not always integrated as part of the standard care of the patient, despite hospital policies and competencies to support the practice. The purpose of the study is to explore and describe the intrinsic personal factors (socio-demographics and nurses’ attitudes and beliefs) and nurses’ perception of patient receptivity to CAM, extrinsic situational factors (workload and peer support) and patient factors that influence nurses’ continued use of hospital-endorsed CAM in a mid-Atlantic suburban hospital. Phase one of the study was two qualitative focus groups (n = 10) and the results of the focus group were used to inform the development of a survey, which was then pilot tested (n =3) using cognitive interviewing. Phase two of the study was the administration of the survey (n = 132). There was an 81.8% response rate for the surveys. Qualitative data was analyzed using grounded principles. There were four themes that emerged. Survey data was analyzed using a negative binomial regression model. Results showed that the continuation of CAM practices for patients was dependent upon the intrinsic variable, nurses’ use of CAM for self-care. The extrinsic variables for peer support (have you received a treatment from a peer and/or have you give a treatment to a peer) were significant for nurses’ use of CAM for self-care. The study offers practical steps for implications for nursing practice, education, and research. Keywords: Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) and nurses, nurses’ use and CAM, holistic care, nurses’ attitudes and/or beliefs, barriers and CAM, health belief, nurses’ decision-making, and pain medication/attitudes of nurses.Dr.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201

Parent Engagement at a Cristo Rey High School: Building Home-School Partnerships in a Multicultural Immigrant Community

Catholic social teaching affirms the primary role of parents in their children’s education, as well as the importance of a home-school partnership. The purposes of this article are to review the results of a mixed methods study of parent engagement at Cristo Rey Boston High School, and how the results of this study led to specific efforts to include parents more closely in the life of the school. Results suggest that parents in multicultural communities perceive their engagement to be an important part of their children’s education. Yet, this engagement may take different forms that may go unrecognized by school staff. Based on study findings, school administrators began integrating parent engagement efforts through a coordinated system of student advising. From the perspective of Catholic social teaching, recognizing and responding to these multicultural differences are a means of praxis that affirms human dignity and reduces barriers to education for the marginalized

Uncommon Sense, Uncommon Courage: How the New York City School System, Its Teachers, Leadership and Students Responded to the Terror of September 11

Eight public schools are situated within a quarter mile of Ground Zero with 9,000 students ranging in ages from three to eighteen years – grammar, middle and high schools. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in the midst of chaos and a relentless unfolding of tragedy, professionals of the Board of Education safely evacuated all 9,000 students without injury. They also ensured that all 1.1 million school children, in every part of the city got home safely, reunited with family and loved ones. They did this as transportation around the City was halted, subways, roads, bridges were closed, and airspace over the United States was shutdown except to military flights. This report is the articulation of a truly effective reaction by a complex organization. Some would label it as luck or extraordinary good fortune. In fact, when all the evidence is finally in, this report argues that the Board of Education’s handling of the crisis presented by 9/11, comprised its “shining moment” – where leadership and courage were manifest and where the paramount objective “get our kids home safe” made the difference between life and death

Maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner

Objective Prenatal stress influences fetal developmental trajectories, which may implicate glucocorticoid mechanisms. There is also emerging evidence that effects of prenatal stress on offspring development are sex-dependent. However, little is known about the prospective relationship between maternal prenatal cortisol levels and infant behaviour, and whether it may be different in male and female infants. We sought to address this question using data from a prospective longitudinal cohort, stratified by risk. Method The Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) cohort (n = 1233) included a stratified random sub-sample (n = 216) who provided maternal saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, at home over two days at 32 weeks of pregnancy (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and a measure of infant negative emotionality from the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) at five weeks-of-age. General population estimates of associations among measures were obtained using inverse probability weights. Results Maternal prenatal cortisol sampled on waking predicted infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner (interaction term, p = 0.005); female infants exposed to high levels of prenatal cortisol were more negative (Beta = 0.440, p = 0.042), whereas male infants were less negative (Beta = − 0.407, p = 0.045). There was no effect of the 30-min post-waking measure or evening cortisol. Discussion Our findings add to an emerging body of work that has highlighted sex differences in fetal programming, whereby females become more reactive following prenatal stress, and males less reactive. A more complete understanding of sex-specific developmental trajectories in the context of prenatal stress is essential for the development of targeted prevention strategies

Associations between biological markers of prenatal stress and infant negative emotionality are specific to sex

Purpose Fetal programming is the idea that environmental stimuli can alter the development of the fetus, which may have a long-term effect on the child. We have recently reported that maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner: high prenatal cortisol was associated with increased negative emotionality in females, and decreased negative emotionality in males. This study aims to test for this sex-specific effect in a different cohort, and investigate whether sex differences in fetal programming may be specific to glucocorticoid mechanisms by also examining a maternal salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) by sex interaction. Methods 88 pregnant women (mean gestational age = 27.4 weeks, SD = 7.4) collected saliva samples at home over two working days to be assayed for the hormone cortisol (range = 0.13–88.22 nmol/l) and the enzyme alpha-amylase (range = 4.57–554.8 units/ml). Samples were collected at waking, 30-min post-waking and 12 h post-waking. Two months after birth participants reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Results The interaction between maternal prenatal cortisol and infant sex to predict distress to limits approached significance (p = 0.067). In line with our previous finding there was a positive association between prenatal cortisol and negative emotionality in females, and a negative association in males. The interaction between sAA and sex to predict distress was significant (p = 0.025), and the direction of effect was the same as for the cortisol data; high sAA associated with increased negative emotionality in females and reduced negative emotionality in males. Conclusions In line with our previous findings, this research adds to an emerging body of literature, which suggests that fetal programming mechanisms may be sex-dependent. This is the first study to demonstrate that maternal prenatal sAA may be an important biomarker for infant behavior, and the findings have implications for understanding sex differences in developmental psychopathology

Evolutionary relationships and divergence times among the native rats of Australia

Background The genus Rattus is highly speciose and has a complex taxonomy that is not fully resolved. As shown previously there are two major groups within the genus, an Asian and an Australo-Papuan group. This study focuses on the Australo-Papuan group and particularly on the Australian rats. There are uncertainties regarding the number of species within the group and the relationships among them. We analysed 16 mitochondrial genomes, including seven novel genomes from six species, to help elucidate the evolutionary history of the Australian rats. We also demonstrate, from a larger dataset, the usefulness of short regions of the mitochondrial genome in identifying these rats at the species level. Results Analyses of 16 mitochondrial genomes representing species sampled from Australo-Papuan and Asian clades of Rattus indicate divergence of these two groups ~2.7 million years ago (Mya). Subsequent diversification of at least 4 lineages within the Australo-Papuan clade was rapid and occurred over the period from ~ 0.9-1.7 Mya, a finding that explains the difficulty in resolving some relationships within this clade. Phylogenetic analyses of our 126 taxon, but shorter sequence (1952 nucleotides long), Rattus database generally give well supported species clades. Conclusions Our whole mitochondrial genome analyses are concordant with a taxonomic division that places the native Australian rats into the Rattus fuscipes species group. We suggest the following order of divergence of the Australian species. R. fuscipes is the oldest lineage among the Australian rats and is not part of a New Guinean radiation. R. lutreolus is also within this Australian clade and shallower than R. tunneyi while the R. sordidus group is the shallowest lineage in the clade. The divergences within the R. sordidus and R. leucopus lineages occurring about half a million years ago support the hypotheses of more recent interchanges of rats between Australia and New Guinea. While problematic for inference of deeper divergences, we report that the analysis of shorter mitochondrial sequences is very useful for species identification in rats

Structural brain correlates of childhood inhibited temperament: an ENIGMA-Anxiety Mega-analysis

NWORubicon 019.201SG.022Pathways through Adolescenc