Nurse Upskilling During Crisis: Collaborating for Continuing Education.

BACKGROUND: As rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reached pandemic levels in early 2020, the need for intensive care unit (ICU) nurses with mechanical ventilator knowledge increased. In response to the pandemic, hospital systems with limited resources reported moving ICU nurse educators to direct patient care roles and reassigning non-ICU nurses to work in the ICU. With fewer resources to educate non-ICU nurses and many newly assigned nurses reporting feeling unprepared for work in the ICU, the need for an accessible and scalable introduction to ICU nursing became clear. METHOD: Our team responded by creating a free, online, self-paced, asynchronous course introducing the ICU nursing setting. RESULTS: More than 4,000 learners worldwide have enrolled in the course, with 94% of survey respondents expecting the course to positively impact their institution. CONCLUSION: Our project shows an approach to effective collaboration among clinical partners, instructional designers, and nursing experts to address critical needs in continuing education in nursing. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2024;55(5):257-260.].

Self-management of chronic disease in Latina Kinship caregivers: an integrative review.

In the United States, Latinos experience a higher prevalence of chronic diseases with concomitant complications when compared to Non-Latino Whites. Older Latina women often manage a chronic illness while also providing kinship care. This article presents an integrative review of Latina kinship caregivers' self-management of chronic disease. An extensive review of the literature was conducted in seven databases. Four resulting studies included qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research and suggested health outcomes for Latina kinship caregivers were often worse when compared to other groups. A major gap in the literature identified an absence of disease-specific self-management behaviors for this population.

"My problems aren't their fault": Mexican American women managing diabetes while caring for grandchildren.

Diabetes affects many aspects of family life for the Mexican American (MA) population. Caregiving grandmothers, the traditional family nurturers, are often simultaneously managing their type 2 diabetes (T2DM). The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the perceptions of MA grandmothers managing T2DM while caring for a grandchild. Eight participants were interviewed. Participants consistently reported feeling a personal responsibility for their T2DM self-management as well as for the health and wellbeing of their families, including their grandchildren. Regardless of associated caregiving stress, grandchildren were described as the main source of positive motivation for T2DM self-management.