Making Things Right: Nurses' Experiences with Workplace Bullying—A Grounded Theory

While bullying in the healthcare workplace has been recognized internationally, there is still a culture of silence in many institutions in the United States, perpetuating underreporting and insufficient and unproven interventions. The deliberate, repetitive, and aggressive behaviors of bullying can cause psychological and/or physical harm among professionals, disrupt nursing care, and threaten patient safety and quality outcomes. Much of the literature focuses on categories of bullying behaviors and nurse responses. This qualitative study reports on the experiences of nurses confronting workplace bullying. We collected data from the narratives of 99 nurses who completed an open-ended question embedded in an online survey in 2007. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data and shape a theory of how nurses make things right when confronted with bullying. In a four-step process, nurses place bullying in context, assess the situation, take action, and judge the outcomes of their actions. While many nurses do engage in a number of effective yet untested strategies, two additional concerns remain: inadequate support among nursing colleagues and silence and inaction by nurse administrators. Qualitative inquiry has the potential to guide researchers to a greater understanding of the complexities of bullying in the workplace

The Attending Nurse: An Evolving Model for Integrating Nursing Education and Practice

The discipline of nursing continues to evolve in keeping with the dramatic expansion of scientific knowledge, technology, and a concomitant increase in complexity of patient care in all practice settings. Changing patient demographics require complex planning for co-morbidities associated with chronic diseases and life-saving advances that have altered mortality in ways never before imagined. These changes in practice, coupled with findings from sophisticated nursing research and the continuous development of new nursing knowledge, call for realignments of the relationships among academic faculty in schools of nursing, advanced practice nurse administrators, and staff nurses at the forefront of practice. This article offers a model designed to bridge the gaps among academic settings, administrative offices and the euphemistic “bedsides” where staff nurses practice. Here we describe the nurse attending model in place at the New York University Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) and provide qualitative data that support progress in our work

Assessing weight perception accuracy to promote weight loss among U.S. female adolescents: A secondary analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Overweight and obesity have become a global epidemic. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. adolescents has almost tripled in the last 30 years. Results from recent systematic reviews demonstrate that no single, particular intervention or strategy successfully assists overweight or obese adolescents in losing weight. An understanding of factors that influence healthy weight-loss behaviors among overweight and obese female adolescents promotes effective, multi-component weight-loss interventions. There is limited evidence demonstrating associations between demographic variables, body-mass index, and weight perception among female adolescents trying to lose weight. There is also a lack of previous studies examining the association of the accuracy of female adolescents' weight perception with their efforts to lose weight. This study, therefore, examined the associations of body-mass index, weight perception, and weight-perception accuracy with trying to lose weight and engaging in exercise as a weight-loss method among a representative sample of U.S. female adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A nonexperimental, descriptive, comparative secondary analysis design was conducted using data from Wave II (1996) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Data representative of U.S. female adolescents (N = 2216) were analyzed using STATA statistical software. Descriptive statistics and survey weight logistic regression were performed to determine if demographic and independent (body-mass index, weight perception, and weight perception accuracy) variables were associated with trying to lose weight and engaging in exercise as a weight-loss method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Age, Black or African American race, body-mass index, weight perception, and weight perceptions accuracy were consistently associated with the likeliness of trying to lose weight among U.S. female adolescents. Age, body-mass index, weight perception, and weight-perception accuracy were positively associated (<it>p </it>< 0.05) with trying to lose weight. Black/African American subjects were significantly less likely than their White counterparts to be trying to lose weight. There was no association between demographic or independent variables and engaging in exercise as a weight-loss method.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Findings suggest that factors influencing weight-loss efforts, including age, race, body-mass index, weight perception, and weight-perception accuracy, should be incorporated into existing or new multi-component weight-loss interventions for U.S. adolescent females in order to help reduce the national epidemic of overweight and obesity among U.S. female adolescents.</p

Even a “Princess of a Program” May Face Challenges

Commentators discuss the merits of the article “Developing a Family Centered, Hospital-Based Perinatal Education Program” [Journal of Perinatal Education, 9(4), 28–39]. They also point out the challenges of developing, implementing, and maintaining a comprehensive, family-centered perinatal education program in urban and rural hospitals

Breastfeeding Program at Children's Hospital is Worthy of Emulation

In this column, a group of nurses working in a special-care nursery at a small community hospital comment on a comprehensive, hospital-wide program that supports and promotes breastfeeding for vulnerable infants at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The program is described by Diane Spatz in her article featured elsewhere in this issue of The Journal of Perinatal Education. The nurses who reviewed the article agreed that the program described by Spatz is truly an exemplary service worthy of being emulated

Programs for Adolescent Mothers Are Needed

This column reviews the article “The Door's Perinatal Program for Pregnant and Parenting Teens” [Journal of Perinatal Education, 9(2), 39–46] and acknowledges the need for innovative programs to help reduce the risks associated with adolescent pregnancy and teen births

Birth and Death: Opportunities for Self-Transcendence

One thing that is often absent in childbirth education classes is a discussion of the spiritual aspect of giving birth. Birth offers women a wonderful opportunity to awaken their spirituality. Natural childbirth, in particular, has the potential for self-transcendence, offering an even greater appreciation for the miracle of life. The normal, natural pain in labor can challenge the core of one's being—it is a healthy sensation that provides direction for women moving through the maze of labor. The challenge of giving birth today is to develop confidence and trust in one's inner wisdom and allow nature to do its thing. When this is accomplished, a woman's body is often permeated and nourished by spiritual energy and guidance. She emerges from her labor bed with a renewed sense of her body's strength and power and with an enhanced spirituality