Commentary on “The Provision of Spiritual Care by Registered Nurses on a Maternal–Infant Unit”

This study was done using a sample that all expressed religious beliefs, but a nurse does not need to hold strong religious beliefs in order to offer spiritual care. It is important that all nurses, regardless of their own religious beliefs, be educated about how to assess the spiritual needs of patients and provide appropriate spiritual care. This education needs to take place in Schools of Nursing and as continuing education in workplaces. Spiritual assessment should be more complex than asking the patient if he or she has any spiritual needs

The Influence of Culture on Breast-Feeding Decisions by African American and White Women

The purpose of this study was to examine how culture influenced breast-feeding decisions in African American and white women, using the Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality as a framework. One hundred eighty-six participants responded to the following: The word culture means beliefs and traditions passed down by your family and friends. How has culture affected how you plan to feed your baby? Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Four categories of responses were identified: influences of family, known benefits of breast-feeding, influences of friends, and personal choice. The findings suggest that race alone may not be as influential in infant feeding decisions as other factors. Although some women acknowledged the effect of their cultural background and experiences, most women reported that their culture did not affect their infant feeding decision. In this population, breast-feeding decisions were based on the influences of family, friends, self, and the perceived knowledge of breast-feeding benefits. Although breast-feeding statistics are commonly reported by race, cultural influences on infant feeding decisions may transcend race and include the influence of family and friends, learned information from impersonal sources, and information that is shared and observed from other people

Cohort Study: Breastfeeding is Important for Cognitive Development in Term and Preterm Infants

Implications for practice and research: Cognitive development is enhanced with any breastfeeding, but more significantly with at least 4 months of breastfeeding.; Preterm infants may especially benefit from breastfeeding.;Studies using multi-ethnic participants should be conducted to see if the increase in cognitive ability shown in this study holds true among other ethnic groups

Initiating and Sustaining Breastfeeding in African American Women

Objective: To explore issues related to initiating and sustaining breastfeeding in African American women. Design: Qualitative design using focus groups, guided by Leininger's theory of culture care diversity and universality. Setting: Three different regions of a southeastern state in the United States. Participants: Fifteen self-identified African American women who had recently breastfed were recruited by lactation consultants and by word of mouth. Methods: Three focus groups were conducted with initial guiding questions. New ideas that emerged were fully explored in the group and included as a guiding question for the next group. Results: Categories identified from the data were reasons to start and stop breastfeeding, advice about breastfeeding that was useful or not useful, and cultural issues related to breastfeeding that were perceived to be unique among African Americans. Three overall themes were identified that cut across categories: perceived lack of information about benefits and management of breastfeeding, difficulties breastfeeding in public, and lack of a support system for continued breastfeeding. Conclusion: Women need to be taught early in their pregnancies about the benefits of breastfeeding and offered continuing support and teaching once breastfeeding is established. Peer support groups for breastfeeding African American women should be established

The Importance of Culture in Childbearing

In 1972, Mary Lou Moore wrote about the importance of nurses in the United States becoming aware of childbirth traditions of other countries. In 2010, North America has become more culturally diverse, and the dominant culture related to childbirth has become the hospital culture. Nurses must acknowledge this unique culture and work to make women of all cultures comfortable in this setting to ensure a safe and satisfying childbearing experience

Nursing Students' Perceived Knowledge and Attitude Towards Genetics

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge base of nursing students regarding the topic of genetics and how this may change as a student progresses through the nursing program. A 70 item multiple-choice and dichotomous survey was given to freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior nursing students at a university school of nursing in the eastern part of the United States. Two hundred and seventy five pre-licensure nursing students, 255 females and 18 males, comprised the sample. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed and the results concluded that there was a significant difference among the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors in regards to having at least a ‘minimal’ knowledge or better of medical genetic terminology and conditions. Seniors reported a higher number of terms which they had at least a ‘minimal’ knowledge level or better than freshmen or sophomores. Also the juniors reported a higher number of terms which they had at least a ‘minimal’ knowledge level or better than sophomores

Nursing Research: Get started!

The purpose of this article is to guide novice researchers through a process of collaboration using Lancaster's six Cs of collaborative research: contribution, communication, commitment, compatibility, consensus, and credit. Successes of a collaborative research project conducted by nurse academicians and nurse clinicians are highlighted to demonstrate the process

Impact of an Evidence Based Prenatal Care Model on Patient Outcomes

Health care providers face many challenges when providing prenatal care. This article reports on a program called Prenatal Care: the Beginning of a Lifetime (PCBL), to implement standardized prenatal care in central North Carolina. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine if there were differences in patient outcomes between a control group and 3 groups (A, B, and C) of increasing levels of intervention in standardized prenatal care. A total of 150 patients were enrolled and followed through delivery. There were no significant differences between the groups in cigarette smoking status, weight gain, genetic screening, sexually transmitted infection screening, diabetes screening, domestic violence assessment, 17P candidacy assessment, gestational age at delivery, or infant birth weight. However, a significant difference was found in depression screening. An association between intervention group membership and likelihood of being screened for depression was found in each trimester. As the level of intervention increased, the number of participants screened for depression increased significantly

Successful and Unsuccessful Clinical Nursing Students

This study describes the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful clinical performance in prelicensure nursing students. Clinical evaluation is an important role of nurse educators; however, many feel uncomfortable with its subjective nature, and commonly used criteria for successful and unsuccessful clinical performance are not available in the literature. Using a qualitative descriptive design, we analyzed telephone interviews with 24 nurse educators. Educators indicated successful students were positive and eager to learn, built relationships, communicated well, think critically, prepared for the clinical experience and showed progress, accepted feedback, and adapted to the clinical setting. Unsuccessful students were unprepared for the clinical experience, were unable to function in the clinical area, were unsafe, violated legal--ethical principles, and had difficulty with communication skills. Specific characteristics differentiated students who are considered satisfactory in the clinical area and those who are not. These behaviors may identify students at risk of failure in clinical courses

How to be successful in nursing school: what every student should know.

What Does “Successful” Look Like? In a qualitative study examining clinical evaluation, researchers asked experienced nurse educators to identify characteristics of successful student nurses in the clinical setting (Lewallen & DeBrew, in press). Below are a few points they stressed