Factors that Predit Levels of Sleepiness of Advanced Practice Nursing Students

Background: Due to arduous demands of graduate education, advanced practice nursing (APN) students who are classified as adult learners are at risk for suffering sleep deprivation. Factors contributing to sleep deprivation include stress, expected academic challenges, and everyday life stressors. Purpose: This study investigated if APN students’ grade-point average (GPA), gender, and employment status predicted levels of daytime sleepiness. Theoretical Framework. The psychological well-being model selected for this study was consistent with the theory that sleep is a resource essential to well-being; adequate sleep is the resource needed to optimally manage stressful life demands. Methods. Bivariate and multiple regression were employed to examine the relationship between GPA, gender, and employment status with daytime sleepiness on a sample of APN students (N = 123) in their second academic year. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale and a demographic questionnaire were used to record data on GPA, gender, and employment status. Results. Results showed ESS and GPA were negatively correlated and statistically significant (r = -.24, p \u3c .05). This indicates that as the tendency for sleepiness increased, GPA decreased, thereby supporting the alternative hypothesis. Although not statistically significant, employed participants reported greater daytime sleepiness, as did women. Conclusions: When GPA, gender, and employment were combined, multiple correlation showed a statistically significant shared variance of 8% with daytime sleepiness, due primarily to the correlation between GPA and daytime sleepiness. The effect size of shared variance was between small and medium with respect to magnitude of importance

An Intervention to Debunk Facts vs. Myths in Intermittent Fasting: A Quality Improvement Project

Intermittent fasting (IF) is gaining popularity as an eating regimen to promote health and optimize wellbeing. IF is the voluntary avoidance of food over a period and is not a diet, but an eating behavior (Teong et al., 2021). Despite the increased emphasis on obesity and diet-related diseases, IF education remains lacking in formal training programs and can influence HCC’s attitudes and behaviors when engaging in IF dialogue with patients in clinical settings. Evidence suggests that IF is beneficial for weight loss and has been shown to have positive effects on the brain, heart, liver, muscles, intestines, blood, and various other systems. IF has also been shown to reduce risk factors associated with the development and progression of type II diabetes, neurological disorders, and cancers. Additionally, IF may boost the effectiveness of certain medical and cancer treatments (Armutcu, 2019; Phillips, 2019). The main objective is to determine if an evidence-based education program on intermittent fasting will change healthcare clinicians’ knowledge, attitudes, confidence level, perception of knowledge, and behavior in communicating with adult patients about IF. The presentation aims to fill the knowledge gaps with pertinent evidence-based information, debunk common IF myths, and provide effective communication strategies to help improve HCCs knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and behavior of IF in clinical practice settings. The study is a quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test quality improvement (QI) project including 20 HCCs working at the practice site. Potential participants were identified by snow-ball samplings of various units/clinics at the site. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results from the project indicate that mean knowledge scores compared from baseline to post-education increased, 6.8 (s.d. 3.77) and 12.65 (s.d. 4.83), respectively. Based on the current evidence and the results from this quality-improvement project, HCC education helps improve knowledge, confidence, perceptions, and behaviors of IF in clinical practice settings to promote safe and effective communication with patients

Interventions for Clinicians in a Mobile Health Clinic for Underserved Populations Improving Screening, Identification, and Intervention of Trafficking in Persons: A Quality Improvement Project

Human trafficking (HT) is an ongoing human rights violation with a global impact. It is one of the major social problems that affect individuals from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Severe health consequences are linked with the traumatic experiences associated with HT. Despite its health effects, research has shown that screening patients for HT remains a challenge across healthcare settings for different reasons. Part of United Nations Global Initiative to combat HT is to improve screening, identification, and treatment of trafficking in persons (TIPs) in healthcare. Yet, despite those suggestions, lack of perception, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding HT indicators and communication strategies continue to hamper this process. Clinicians play a critical role in detecting signs of trafficking in their patients. Therefore, it is imperative for clinicians to understand concepts that can guide them to identification of TIPs and ensure that they are being provided with the appropriate assistance. Following the completion of a literature review, twenty-three studies were selected. The studies emphasized the seriousness of HT and the increasing need to identifying TIPs, particularly in the healthcare setting. The literature indicates that clinicians have a decreased understanding on HT. The findings of the literature review were used to create a quality improvement (QI) project to improve clinician’s ability to identify and treat persons who are victims of HT. An evidence-based educational seminar was designed and delivered in person via PowerPoint Presentation. The Human Trafficking for Clinicians Survey scores were compared, and the results showed that following the educational intervention, overall scores were statistically significant. Moreover, it was supported that with a targeted educational intervention, clinician’s perception, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to HT indicators and communication strategies to identify TIPs can be enhanced significantly

Implementing a Virtual Mobility Education Program to Impact Nursing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors toward Patient Mobility

Introduction: Older adults aged 65 and over are vulnerable to functional decline during hospitalization and negative outcomes associated with immobility such as pressure injuries and falls. Studies reveal that nurses overlook patient mobilization due to competing priorities and a lack of comfort with patient mobilization. Hospital-associated functional decline can be mitigated through mobilization protocols. A 36-bed medical surgical unit in a South Florida hospital did not have a protocol for patient mobility. Methods: Nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding patient mobility were assessed using a pre-implementation survey. A virtual education program about the mobility protocol was provided via an online platform. Three weeks later, a post-implementation survey was administered to those who attended the education. Results: Fourteen nurses completed both the pre- and post-test surveys. The nurse-led mobility protocol educational intervention was associated with (a) an increase in average scores from the pre-test nursing mobility attitudes (M = 3.50) and behavior subscales (M = 3.40) to the post-test scores (M = 3.56 and M =3.75, respectively) and (b) a significant increase in the average knowledge scores from the pre-test survey (M = 4.31) to the post test survey (M = 4.62), t(13) = -2.74, p \u3c 0.05. Discussion: The results suggest that the mobility education was successful in increasing nurse mobilization knowledge. Methods to improve nurses’ attitudes and behaviors toward patient mobility should be further explored