Inflammatory Bowel Disease Nurses' Perspectives: Prioritizing Adolescent Transition Readiness Factors.

PURPOSE: Despite the wealth of knowledge and expertise that Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) nurses bring to the transition process, health literature lacks nurses' perspectives on transition readiness. The purpose of study was to ask IBD nurses to prioritize care transition readiness factors for adolescents living with IBD. DESIGN AND METHODS: The cross-sectional exploratory survey was researcher-developed and distributed online to IBD nurses across Canada. The survey was divided into nine transition topic categories. RESULTS: Fifty-six female registered nurses from six Canadian provinces participated in the study. Overall, nurses rated all items within each transition topic category to be very important in facilitating adolescent transition to adult healthcare. The highest individual mean scores and the highest prioritized categories were within the Knowing IBD and Healthcare Provider Relationships categories, emphasizing the importance for adolescents to understand their disease and feel comfortable communicating their needs and questions to healthcare providers. CONCLUSIONS: The transition process needs to be individualized and comprehensive addressing a multitude of biopsychosocial factors in order to support IBD patients and families to achieve healthy adult self-care behaviours that can foster positive health outcomes. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Healthcare providers, adolescents, and parents must work collaboratively to achieve identified transition goals so that the transition process is a mutually satisfying experience. A comprehensive readiness assessment tool is suggested to assist in the transition process. Transition readiness assessment must start early, be ongoing, be age-appropriate, and be individualized to the patient needs.

Does the psychosocial quality of unpaid family work contribute to educational disparities in mental health among employed partnered mothers?

PURPOSE: The contribution of unpaid family work quality to understanding social inequalities in women's mental health has been understudied and further limited by a scarcity of psychometrically sound instruments available to measure family work. Therefore, using a multi-item scale of family work quality with evidence of validity and reliability, the overall aim of the present study was to determine whether psychosocial qualities of unpaid family work contribute to educational inequities in women's mental health. METHODS: Study participants in this cross-sectional study were 512 employed partnered mothers living in a Canadian province and recruited from an online research panel. The dependent variable was psychological distress. In addition to a 28-item measure assessing five dimensions of unpaid family work quality, independent variables included material deprivation, job decision latitude, job demands and several measures of the work-family interface. Multiple linear regression was the primary analysis. RESULTS: Compared to women with high school or less, university educated women reported lower psychological distress [b = - 2.23 (SE = 0.50) p = 0.001]. The introduction of material deprivation into the model resulted in the largest reduction to the education disparity (51%), followed by equity in responsibility for unpaid family work (25%), family-to-work facilitation (22%), and decision latitude in paid work (21%). When entered simultaneously into the final model, the association between education and psychological distress was reduced by 70% and became statistically non-significant [b = - 0.68 (SE = 0.47) p = 0.10]. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to the more established mechanisms of material conditions and decision latitude to explain mental health disparities, inequity in responsibility for unpaid family work may also play a role.

Healthcare Transition in Pediatrics and Young Adults With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Scoping Review.

The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease has steadily increased in children within the last decade. As young adults transition into the adult healthcare system, lack of support can lead to disease exacerbations and disease-related complications. The purpose of this scoping review was to examine the current healthcare transition literature in pediatrics and young adults with inflammatory bowel disease, with a particular focus on assessment or screening tools to evaluate healthcare transition readiness. Five most relevant databases were searched. Of these, 22 articles met the inclusion criteria and key findings from these are summarized. The majority of articles focused on adolescents or young adults with inflammatory bowel disease and were primarily published in the United States. Since 2008, there has been a growing trend in publications of inflammatory bowel disease healthcare transition literature. Articles were often described as healthcare transition readiness assessment tools, patient outcomes following transition, or transition experiences and barriers. An understanding of the current literature on the readiness assessment and support strategies is required to promote an improved quality of life for pediatric and young adult patients living with inflammatory bowel disease.

A proof-of-concept study on the impact of a chronic pain and physical activity training workshop for exercise professionals.

OBJECTIVES: Physical activity is essential for long-term chronic pain management, yet individuals struggle to participate. Exercise professionals, including fitness instructors, and personal trainers, are preferred delivery agents for education and instruction on chronic pain, physical activity, and strategies to use adherence-promoting behavioral skills. However, exercise professionals receive no relevant training during certification or continuing education opportunities to effectively support their participants living with chronic pain. Based on the ORBIT model for early pre-efficacy phases of development and testing of new behavioral treatments, the present Phase IIa proof-of-concept study was conducted. The purpose was to examine the impacts of a newly developed chronic pain and physical activity training workshop on psychosocial outcomes among exercise professionals. Outcomes included knowledge and attitudes regarding chronic pain, attitudes and beliefs about the relationship between pain and impairment, and self-efficacy to educate and instruct participants with chronic pain. METHODS: Forty-eight exercise professionals (Mage=44.4±11.0 years) participated in a three-hour, in-person workshop that was offered at one of four different locations. Participants completed pre- and post-workshop outcome assessment surveys. RESULTS: Mixed MANOVA results comparing time (pre- versus post-workshop) by workshop location (sites 1 to 4) illustrated a significant within-subjects time effect (p<0.001). All outcomes significantly improved from pre- to post-workshop (p's<0.001), demonstrating large effect sizes (partial eta-squared values ranging from 0.45 to 0.59). CONCLUSIONS: Findings offer early phase preliminary support for the effectiveness of the chronic pain and physical activity training workshop for exercise professionals. Based on ORBIT model recommendations, findings warrant future phased testing via a pilot randomized clinical trial as well as testing for impacts that trained professionals have on activity adherence among their clients living with chronic pain. Eventual workshop adoption by exercise professional certification organizations would ensure widespread and sustainable access to qualified exercise professionals to help individuals engage in physical activity. By increasing the capacity of available exercise professionals to deliver effective support, active individuals could better manage their chronic pain and live well.

Accumulation of Content Validation Evidence for the Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Critical thinking skills (CTS) are essential for nurses; assessing students' acquisition of these skills is a mandate of nursing curricula. This study aimed to develop a self-assessment instrument of critical thinking skills (Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale [CTSAS]) for students' self-monitoring. METHODS: An initial pool of 196 items across 6 core cognitive skills and 16 subskills were generated using the American Philosophical Association definition of CTS. Experts' content review of the items and their ratings provided evidence of content relevance using the item-level content validity index (I-CVI) and Aiken's content validity coefficient (VIk). RESULTS: 115 items were retained (range of I-CVI values = .70 to .94 and range of VIk values = .69-.95; significant at p< .05). CONCLUSION: The CTSAS is the first CTS instrument designed specifically for self-assessment purposes.

Receptive and expressive English language assessments used for young children: a scoping review protocol.

BACKGROUND: The majority of a child's language development occurs in the first 5 years of life when brain development is most rapid. There are significant long-term benefits to supporting all children's language and literacy development such as maximizing their developmental potential (i.e., cognitive, linguistic, social-emotional), when children are experiencing a critical period of development (i.e., early childhood to 9 years of age). A variety of people play a significant role in supporting children's language development, including parents, guardians, family members, educators, and/or speech-language pathologists. Speech-language pathologists and educators are the professionals who predominantly support children's language development in order for them to become effective communicators and lay the foundation for later developing literacy skills (i.e., reading and writing skills). Therefore, these professionals need formal and informal assessments that provide them information on a child's understanding and/or use of the increasingly complex aspects of language in order to identify and support the receptive and expressive language learning needs of diverse children during their early learning experiences (i.e., aged 1.5 to 9 years). However, evidence on what methods and tools are being used is lacking. METHODS: The authors will carry out a scoping review of the literature to identify studies and map the receptive and expressive English language assessment methods and tools that have been published and used since 1980. Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) six-stage approach to conducting a scoping review was drawn upon to design the protocol for this investigation: (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) study selection; (4) charting the data; (5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results; and (6) consultation. DISCUSSION: This information will help these professionals identify and select appropriate assessment methods or tools that can be used to support development and/or identify areas of delay or difficulty and plan, implement, and monitor the progress of interventions supporting the development of receptive and expressive language skills in individuals with diverse language needs (e.g., typically developing children, children with language delays and disorders, children learning English as a second or additional language, Indigenous children who may be speaking dialects of English). Researchers plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the assessment methods or tools identified in the scoping review as an extension of this study.

[image omitted] Review of five instruments for the assessment of Asperger's Disorder in adults.

Due to the recent inclusion of Asperger's Disorder (AD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (APA, 1994) and the International Classification of Diseases (WHO, 1993), concerns regarding diagnosis of AD, particularly in adults, are emerging. Many existing instruments used to assess Pervasive Developmental Disorder are more appropriate for identifying Autistic Disorder (AU) in children, and their usefulness for assessing AD in adults is questionable. We describe and critically review five instruments created specifically for identifying AD in adults. Overall, the normative information provided is limited and evidence of the reliability and validity for each instrument is relatively poor. Further research and development is required before we would recommend one instrument over another for the assessment of AD in adults.