Influences of Widowhood Cultural Practices, Values, and Beliefs on the Health and Well-being of Nigerian Women: An Integrative Review.

INTRODUCTION: Widowhood cultural practices are detrimental to the health and well-being of widows in Nigeria. They are associated with a higher rate of morbidity and mortality than for single and married individuals. PURPOSE: To explore and synthesize the literature on widowhood cultural practices and their effects on the health and well-being of Nigerian women in Nigeria and in the US to inform future research. METHODS: A comprehensive search of CINAHL, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase databases was performed using the Whittmore and Knafl Integrative Review Model. Critical appraisal was used to select the final 20 studies that met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Seven themes were identified: Inhumane treatment of widows, poor socio-economic status, support for detrimental widowhood cultural practices driven by culture, physiological well-being, psychosocial issues, support, and empowerment. DISCUSSION: Further research is needed to explore the practice and its impact in the Nigerian American population in the US.

Leininger's Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality: An Overview With a Historical Retrospective and a View Toward the Future.

An historical overview of Leininger's Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality also known as the Culture Care Theory (CCT) and evolution of the Sunrise Enabler are presented along with descriptions of the theory purpose, goal, tenets, basic assumptions, major core constructs, and orientational definitions. Recent articles, books, and book chapters provide relevant exemplars to enhance scholarly understanding and application of theory constructs. Proposed future directions encompass using the CCT to guide research of discovery and translational research projects for evidenced-based nursing practice; develop nursing courses and curricula to prepare culturally competent nurses; guide future culturally competent administrative and leadership policies and procedures; inform public policy related to cultural diversity and underserved populations; promote grant writing initiatives to enhance cultural diversity in hiring nursing staff, supervisors, and faculty; and promote admission of nursing students from underserved and/or diverse backgrounds.

An Intervention to Improve Cultural Competence in Graduate Nursing Education.

Noting the small number of studies on the influence of an entire curriculum on graduate nursing students' cultural competence, the researchers examined the effect of a curricular intervention using a pretest-posttest design. The study, conducted from 2012 to 2014, focused solely on the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at a midwestern university. Results from a pre- and postintervention faculty curriculum survey indicated that the percentage of courses including a cultural competence objective increased from 65 percent to 81 percent. Results from the pre- and postintervention administration of the Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool showed a statistically significant improvement in students' overall score and three subscale scores.

Healthcare provider compliance with the 2013 ACC/AHA Adult Cholesterol Guideline recommendation for high-intensity dose statins for patients with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the foremost cause of death for U.S. adults. The 2013 ACC/AHA Adult Cholesterol Guidelines recommend high-intensity dose statins for individuals with coronary artery disease (CAD). OBJECTIVE: To determine healthcare provider compliance with the Cholesterol Guideline recommendation specific to high-intensity dose statins for patients with CAD. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted to determine compliance rate. A questionnaire was developed to evaluate healthcare provider beliefs, attitudes, and self-confidence toward this recommendation. RESULTS: Of the 473 patients with CAD, 67% were prescribed a high-intensity dose statin. Patients with non-ST segment myocardial infarction and ST segment myocardial infarction were more likely to be prescribed a high-intensity dose statin versus a moderate or low-intensity dose. Healthcare providers strongly agreed with this guideline recommendation. CONCLUSION: There exists a dichotomy between intention to prescribe and actual prescribing behaviors of high-intensity dose statin for patients with CAD.

Exploring faculty health and wellbeing: creating a caring scholarly community.

BACKGROUND: Nursing educators worldwide are challenged to integrate the care of culturally diverse people into coursework to prepare a nursing workforce to deliver culturally congruent care (CCC). Care that recipients consider safe, satisfying, and beneficial is the essence of CCC. To effectively teach and role model such care for students, it is important for faculty to experience it at work. While substantive literature exists on promoting health, wellbeing, and a healthy work environment for nurses in practice, there is a limited focus on these topics for nursing faculty. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to discover care practices that helped faculty teach students to provide CCC. This article reports' findings related to the theme that care is essential for the health and wellbeing of general nursing faculty who prepare students to provide CCC. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHOD: This qualitative ethnonursing research study, guided by the culture care theory, used open-ended interviews to discover care practices that enhanced faculty's ability to teach students to provide CCC. The study was conducted in two public university baccalaureate nursing programs in urban and rural settings in the Southeastern United States. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 27 tenured, tenured-track, and clinical nursing faculty. Interview data were analyzed using Leininger's four phases of ethnonursing data analysis. Qualitative criteria were used to ensure rigor and included participant confirmation of patterns and themes. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION: Faculty health and wellbeing were described as embracing each other's cultural similarities and differences, caring for self, caring for others, offering respect, and engaging in mentoring/co-mentoring. Evidence-based recommendations to promote faculty health and wellbeing are presented. Creating a caring scholarly community that supports nursing faculty health and wellbeing provided essential support for faculty who prepared students, often through role modeling, to provide CCC.

Caring: some reflections on the impact of the culture care theory by McFarland & Andrews and a conversation with Leininger.

This column is the first of two with a special focus on the construct of caring. In this dialogue, two Leininger scholars together address the questions related to the global impact on practice and the contribution of the model to scientific development in nursing. Then, in a special conversation, nurse theorist Madeleine Leininger offers her view of the impact of her work as well as some of her early experiences.

Visual literacy in the online environment.

Visual literacy combines words and graphics to enhance learning. Students are immersed in digital literacy and multimodal learning; therefore, it is important for educators to embrace visual literacy and strike out beyond printed text, PowerPoint slides, and discussion boards. This article describes the use of visual literacy as a tool to enhance student learning. An example demonstrating the application of visual literacy to teach transcultural nursing in an online environment is provided. The Web site containing a copy of the visual literacy teaching tool is also available to readers.