Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of primary healthcare providers with assessing and supporting older informal caregivers.

A time burden, financial strain, and prioritizing care recipient needs over their own are key barriers preventing informal caregivers from engaging in health-promoting self-care. Primary healthcare providers are well positioned to assess and support informal caregivers. A cross sectional descriptive, correlational study was used to examine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers regarding assessment and support of older informal caregivers. The Healthcare Professional Facilitated Health Promotion (HPFHP) Model guides this study by depicting the collaborative patient-healthcare professional relationship. The Caregiver Self-Care Survey for Healthcare Providers measured the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of 80 healthcare providers on assessing and supporting older informal caregivers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 28.0 software. Results indicated that despite positive attitudes, knowledge deficit and system level barriers prevented integration of caregiver assessment in practice. A caregiver identification process, user-friendly assessment tool, and system level changes are overdue.

A Transformative Learning Experience for Senior Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND: Research suggests that clinical practicums in hospital-based settings are important, even if condensed, to provide students with the opportunity for real-world learning experiences. Rational dialogue makes learning meaningful and empowers students to learn by reflecting on experiences. PROBLEM: The COVID-19 pandemic minimized availability of traditional one-to-one mentorship practicums. APPROACH: This article describes the use of critical reflection on experiences in an undergraduate senior mentorship course to assess student learning through the thematic analysis of writing assignments. Guided by Mezirow's transformative learning theory, students completed a traditional group clinical practice, written reflective journals and virtual seminars focused on role development, and reflection on concurrent learning in clinical and simulation experiences. OUTCOMES: Transformative learning was evident in their writing. Student journals demonstrated themes of responding to change, discovering resilience, developing confidence, finding gratitude, embracing advocacy, and transforming and becoming. CONCLUSIONS: Through critical reflection, students recognized the opportunities mentorship afforded them, despite challenges.

Nursing Student Perceptions of Academic and Clinical Integrity.

AIM: This study aimed to explore how nursing students define and describe academic and clinical integrity and to identify social and psychological influences on student decisions to act with integrity. BACKGROUD: Nursing students are exhibiting a decline in academic and clinical integrity. Academic dishonesty often correlates to clinical dishonesty, subsequently impacting patient care quality and safety. Student perceptions and understanding of integrity are unknown. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive approach guided this study. A purposive sample of 19 traditional baccalaureate nursing students was recruited to participate in one-hour face-to-face interviews. RESULTS: All participants defined academic and clinical integrity as honest, ethical, and accountable behavior. Additional subthemes of characteristics, facilitators and barriers, and outcomes of acting with integrity emerged. CONCLUSION: Students recognize the positive characteristics of integrity and their effects on personal growth and optimal patient outcomes. These findings can inform faculty in developing and supporting a culture of integrity.

Anticipated stigma and healthcare utilization in COPD and neurological disorders.

This descriptive correlational study explored the experience of anticipated stigma and its association with health-seeking behavior in individuals with COPD or a neurological disorder. Participants with COPD (n = 38) or neurological disorders (n = 39) were recruited from specialty practices. The Chronic Illness Anticipated Stigma Scale (CIASS) and Healthcare Access Measure (HAM) were used to measure stigma and healthcare utilization in this population. Socio-demographic and illness-related data were entered into a hierarchical regression analysis to identify variables that contribute to anticipated stigma from three sources. The mean scores of anticipated stigma by family and friends, coworkers, and healthcare workers were low to moderate at 7.96, 11.68 and 7.94 respectively. Mean score on the HAM was 12.94, indicating moderate delay, in healthcare utilization. The HAM was correlated with anticipated stigma by family and friends and healthcare provider subscales (r = .293, p = .010; r = .449 p = .000), indicating a relationship between higher levels of anticipated stigma in these areas and lower levels of healthcare utilization. Anticipated stigma by coworkers was correlated with neurological disorders (r = .257, p = .048). In a final model, 20%, 35.4% and 16.8% of the variance of anticipated stigma from 3 sources can be explained in the final model. Findings from this study describe low to moderate levels of anticipated stigma from three sources is experienced in individuals with COPD and neurological disorders and lends new understanding about the association of stigma to healthcare utilization behavior in this population. Strategies are needed to mitigate the effects of stigma on healthcare utilization.

Integrity in nursing students: A concept analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this review was to clarify the concept of nursing student integrity. Unlike published reviews that highlight the absence of integrity, the author sought to identify the positive defining characteristics of integrity. DESIGN: Concept analysis. DATA SOURCES: A literature review was conducted using the Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health, Social Science Index, Psyc Info and Medline. Inclusion criteria included peer reviewed articles, written in English, with no limitation on publication date. The search also revealed that a concept analysis of integrity had not been performed. REVIEW METHODS: Walker and Avant's (2005) eight step modification of Wilson's (1963) classic concept analysis procedure was used as the organizing framework to explore how the concept of integrity is defined in the current literature. RESULTS: Nursing student integrity was analyzed using Walker and Avant's method of concept analysis: concept definition, defining attribute, model, borderline, related and contrary cases, antecedents, consequences and empirical referents (Walker and Avant 2005). Defining attributes to nursing student integrity were honesty, ethical behavior and professionalism. Antecedents to integrity included an academic culture of respect, characterized by student-faculty relationships derived from mutual respect, trust and a shared learning goal. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified honesty, ethical behavior and professionalism as the defining attributes of integrity. The importance of faculty as role models of integrity was paramount in building a culture of honesty. Future research should explore faculty perceptions of their professional role as models of integrity, and faculty perceptions of behaviors that promote a culture of respect.