Low Back Pain in Student Nurses: Literature Review and Prospective Cohort Study

There is consensus that registered nurses worldwide have a high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, particularly of the back. Patient handling activities such as lifting present the highest risk of injury, activities that begin in nursing school. A literature review identified 21 studies of back pain in nursing students, indicating a wide range of prevalence rates. A prospective cohort study of nursing students in a United States baccalaureate program followed 119 students who completed the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire upon beginning the 16 month upper division major and then a year later. There was no statistically significant change in low back pain prevalence over time. While nursing students have intermittent and brief exposure to patient handling activities, nursing schools must nevertheless protect them before they enter the high risk profession of nursing by teaching evidence-based safe patient handling techniques, empowering students to refuse unsafe manual lifts, and ensuring that the clinical settings with which they affiliate have adequate mechanical equipment available

The impact of interdisciplinary code simulation on perceptions of collaboration and team performance among internal medicine residents and nursing students

• Allows for inter-disciplinary training• Provides safe environment to practice patient care with immediate feedback-quality improvement• Results in better adherence to protocols• Well received by learners• In one study, almost half of IM residents surveyed felt ill- equipped to lead code teams even after ACLS training Crisis Resource Management (CRM) • Communication and cooperation• Leadership and management• Situational awareness• Decision-makin

Amphibian Colonization of Mitigation Wetlands in Perry County, Illinois

ID: 8963; Final Report issued June 30, 2003INHS Technical Report prepared for Wildlife Preservation Fund, Grant #03-026

Pseudostandardized Patients in Undergraduate Nursing Health Assessment

Assessment and communication skills are essential components of nursing practice. With the current focus on student-centered learning in nursing education, nurse educators are challenged to incorporate interactive and realistic clinical scenarios into their teaching (Lehr & Kaplan, 2013). New teaching strategies are necessary to assist students in the transition from assessment and communication skills learned in the laboratory setting to the application in the clinical setting (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010). Standardized patients (SPs) are paid professional actors specifically trained to simulate real patients and provide students with realistic experiential learning (Barrows, 1993). SPs are trained to simulate a patient with a specific condition or disease process. In addition, SPs undergo training to assess competencies in history taking, communication, and physical examination skills (Barrows & Abrahamson, 1964; Owens & Gilva-McConvey, 2015). These types of competencies are subject to both formative and summative evaluation from the SP and can complement faculty assessments. In a traditional SP program, the SP provides verbal feedback to the learner immediately following the SP encounter. The incorporation of an SP program is a complex multistep process. This process takes time to interview, hire, train, pilot, and then portray an actual patient with a specific condition (Owens & Gilva-McConvey, 2015). Consequently, SP programs are costly and often reserved for advanced practice nursing education programs and medical and residency programs (Anderson, Holmes, LeFlore, Nelson, & Jenkins, 2010)

Simulation Gone Wild: SIM OUT

What happens when you throw out the simulation rules, add competition and a little chaos, and make it a game? You get nursing students who are actively engaged and excited about nursing. Educational games promote learning and enhance collaboration among students. They keep learning active and student centered in a nonthreatening environment.1 As nursing care becomes more complex, the intensity of nursing education also increases. Applying critical-thinking skills, using theoretical foundations, and learning complex psychomotor skills are challenging and often stressful for nursing students. In addition, the intensity of nursing programs can invoke performance anxiety in nursing students.2,3 When the teaching/learning process is perceived as fun, students’ stress and anxiety may be reduced. Furthermore, games have the potential to stimulate interest in learning.4 In an effort to decrease stress that nursing students often experience and provide some fun during learning, the concept of SIM OUT was created

Effectiveness of a Poverty Simulation in Second Life®: Changing Nursing Student Attitudes toward Poor People

Social justice is a fundamental value of the nursing profession, challenging educators to instill this professional value when caring for the poor. This randomized controlled trial examined whether an interactive virtual poverty simulation created in Second Life® would improve nursing students’ empathy with and attributions for people living in poverty, compared to a self-study module. We created a multi-user virtual environment populated with families and individual avatars that represented the demographics contributing to poverty and vulnerability. Participants (N = 51 baccalaureate nursing students) were randomly assigned to either Intervention or Control groups and completed the modified Attitudes toward Poverty Scale pre- and post-intervention. The 2.5-hour simulation was delivered three times over a 1-year period to students in successive community health nursing classes. The investigators conducted post-simulation debriefings following a script. While participants in the virtual poverty simulation developed significantly more favorable attitudes on five questions than the Control group, the total scores did not differ significantly. Whereas students readily learned how to navigate inside Second Life®, faculty facilitators required periodic coaching and guidance to be competent. While poverty simulations, whether virtual or face-to-face, have some ability to transform nursing student attitudes, faculty must incorporate social justice concepts throughout the curriculum to produce lasting change

Sepsis: A Call for Incorporation of Regional Data and Improved Education Programs

The incidence and impact of sepsis is rising in spite of efforts to increase recognition and enhance treatment. While international and national efforts to address this serious disease continue to develop, there are limited data describing the impact of sepsis at a regional level or the availability of interventions to improve patient outcomes. For example, in 2012, one of every five deaths that occurred in Nevada hospitals was attributed to sepsis. Here we aim to review the epidemiologic data on sepsis at national and regional levels and highlight the importance of professional nurses as a pool of front-line practitioners that can be empowered to improve sepsis outcomes. Specifically, simulation based learning programs are a resource, when regionally available, that have the potential to improve practitioner performance and recognition in the treatment of sepsis

Program Development and Evaluation of the Concierge Model of Simulation

Simulation is a widely accepted learning strategy in nursing education that incorporates technology into the curriculum. The technology-rich environment of the simulation lab includes sophisticated high-fidelity manikins that mimic body functions, videotaping of students enacting scenarios, data and information from bedside monitors and computer health records. Based on faculty\u27s experiences in one baccalaureate nursing program, this article compares program models of simulation and the emergence of a modified concierge model. It also includes a description of the initial evaluation of the concierge model, using the Kirkpatrick method to measure level 1 and level 2 outcomes. Findings from the program evaluation process are described, along with the resulting changes in the nursing curriculum and simulation program

High fidelity simulation; the concierge and tech models

This article describes the concierge and tech models of high fidelity simulatio