Quality and safety in healthcare is a national concern. It has been proposed that nurses and other clinicians need to develop a new set of competencies in order to make significant improvements in the quality and safety of patient care. These new competencies include: patient-centered care; teamwork and collaboration; evidence-based practice;…

Independent professional schools were a significant part of higher education in the United States until the rise of universities at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the overwhelming majority of professional schools are indeed affiliated with universities; however there are a growing number of professional schools in variety…

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS) is a standardized survey instrument used by many hospitals for the purpose of measuring patient's perspectives regarding care received during their hospitalization. The survey provides national benchmark information enabling consumers to make comparisons of…

The 2010 Census summary data and demographic projections for the country accentuate the astronomical growth of the Latino/a population. Mirroring these demographic trends, there is a critical shortage of Latino/as in the healthcare industry which negatively impacts the ability of the field to provide quality and culturally congruent healthcare to…

Evidence-based treatments (EBTs) are "interventions" that have been proven effective through rigorous research methodologies. Evidence-based practice (EBP), however, refers to a "decision-making process" that integrates the best available research, clinician expertise, and client characteristics. This study examined community mental health service…

School nurses play a key role in managing students with food allergies. It is becoming more common to encounter students with severe allergies to multiple foods, putting them at risk for anaphylaxis. It is essential that the school nurse have a clear understanding of food allergies and how to effectively manage students in the school setting.…

Facing severe mental health disparities rooted in a complex history of cultural oppression, members of many urban American Indian (AI) communities are reaching out for indigenous traditional healing to augment their use of standard Western mental health services. Because detailed descriptions of approaches for making traditional healing available…

Millions of youth who attend schools in the United States suffer from clinically significant anxiety. Left untreated, these students often experience significant disruptions in their academic, social, and family functioning. Fortunately, promising treatments exist for childhood anxiety that are amenable for delivery in school settings. However,…

Purpose of the Study: I examine whether 5 aspects of a significant other's death quality (pain, decision-making capacity, location, problems with end-of life care, and preparation) affect whether one does advance care planning (ACP). I also identify specific aspects of others' deaths that respondents say triggered their own planning. Design and…

The evolving eHealth agenda presents a range of potential opportunities for the management and prevention of chronic disease. This paper identifies issues and barriers to the uptake of eHealth and describes a strategy ("Healthy Outcomes for Australians"[C]-HOFA) for creating a central knowledge filter and cyber space method for tracking…

The popular book, Who Moved My Cheese? (Johnson, 1998) is a metaphor for change. This parable-like story has particular resonance with older adults who face many potential life-altering changes. The four characters in the book are looking for their cheese in a maze. Cheese represents whatever makes people happy. How each character adjusts to the…

We examine the effect of gaining prescription drug insurance, as a result of Medicare Part D, on use of prescription drugs and other medical services for a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries. Given the heightened importance of prescription drugs for those with chronic illness, we provide separate estimates for elderly in…

The characteristics of health care utilization during the last year of life by Taiwanese who died by suicide were analyzed. The degree of health services utilization was evaluated by extracting the data of National Health Insurance (NHI) outpatient cohort records in 2006. A total of 4,406 fatal suicide cases were matched with the 17,587,901…

I use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (n = 4,971) to evaluate the extent to which socioeconomic status affects three health-related (living will, durable power of attorney for health care, and discussions) and one financial (will) component of end-of-life planning. Net worth is positively associated with all four types of planning,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of evidence-based recruitment and retention strategies for a longitudinal, family-based HIV prevention intervention study targeting adolescents in psychiatric care by (1) determining consent rate (recruitment), rate of participation at the first intervention session (retention), and…