Predictors of Program Completion and NCLEX-RN Success in an Associate Degree Nursing Program.

Unsuccessful nursing students have a great impact on nursing programs. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among preadmission HESI A2 (Health Education Systems, Incorporated Admission Assessment) score, science and math course grades, program completion, and NCLEX-RN success in an associate degree nursing program using a retrospective, correlational research design. A statistically significant relationship was found between preadmission examination scores and successful NCLEX-RN passage on first attempt. Program completion had a positive correlation with preadmission science grades and HESI A2 scores.

Adapting to higher demands: using innovative methods to treat infants presenting with torticollis and plagiocephaly.

PURPOSE: Referrals for torticollis/plagiocephaly have increased dramatically because of "Back to Sleep" campaigns and front-line staff becoming more proficient at recognition and referral to physiotherapy. These infants generally respond well to early intervention so longer waitlists raise concern about clinical outcomes due to delay. METHODS: Therapists developed a group-based, team service delivery model based on best practices in individual treatment programs. The program was implemented and evaluated for assessment and treatment of infants presenting with these conditions, including caregiver satisfaction. RESULTS: Compared with individual treatment, the group format enabled therapists to increase capacity to serve this population by 70%, with equivalent quality and achievement of discharge criteria, as well as a modest service cost saving per child. Caregiver questionnaires indicate satisfaction with the service. CONCLUSIONS: Group service delivery is a cost-effective and efficient way to manage increased referrals for torticollis/plagiocephaly while maintaining comparable treatment outcomes. VIDEO ABSTRACT: For more insights from the authors, see Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at http://links.lww.com/PPT/A64.

Bidirectional associations in multiplication memory: conditions of negative and positive transfer.

A variety of experimental evidence indicates that the memory representation for multiplication facts (e.g., 6 x 9 = 54) incorporates bidirectional links with a forward association from factors to product and a reverse association from product to factors. Surprisingly, the authors did not find evidence in Experiment 1 of facilitative transfer-of-practice from multiplication (6 x 9 = ?) to factoring (54 = ? x ?); in fact, multiplication practice produced item-specific interference with factoring. Similarly, the authors found no evidence in Experiment 2 that repetition of specific factoring problems (54 = ? x ?) facilitated performance of corresponding multiplication problems (6 x 9 = ?). In Experiment 3, participants practiced both multiplication and factoring and presented facilitative transfer in both directions. Thus, bidirectional facilitation occurred if both operations were practiced, but interference occurred when only one operation was practiced. We propose that this seemingly paradoxical behavior occurs because it is adaptive for the bidirectional retrieval structure to retain operational flexibility in the context of practicing both operations, whereas it is adaptive to specialize the memory representation for the practiced operation (i.e., factoring or multiplication) when only one operation is practiced.

Factors Associated with Breastfeeding Initiation in Adolescent Pregnancies: A Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: Adolescent mothers have a lower breastfeeding rate than adult women. The objective is to determine the association between multiple high-risk characteristics of pregnant adolescents with intention and initiation of breastfeeding. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study in Ontario (2006-2012) using the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) database. Breastfeeding outcomes of adolescent women (younger than 20 years) with a singleton live-born infant at term gestation (37 weeks or greater) were analyzed. The χ(2) and independent-sample t tests were used where appropriate. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was also performed. RESULTS: This study included 22,023 adolescent women with complete breastfeeding information. Almost half (48.8%, n = 10,749) exclusively breastfed their infant at time of hospital discharge. Breastfeeding was significantly more likely in the older adolescents (odds ratio 1.10); other factors significantly associated with breastfeeding included intention to breastfeed, prenatal classes attendance, living in a higher-income neighborhood, having a spontaneous vaginal delivery, being a nonsmoker, not using substances during pregnancy, and not having any preexisting health problems or obstetrical complications (P < .0001). A significant interaction between smoking and intention to breastfeed was identified. Intention to breastfeed was found to be protective against the reduction in breastfeeding seen with smoking. CONCLUSION: This large-cohort study confirms that high-risk factors are associated with lower breastfeeding in Canadian adolescent term singleton births. Breastfeeding intention is a very important driver of breastfeeding. These findings highlight the importance of early multidisciplinary adolescent pregnancy care targeting these risks factors and education in order to improve breastfeeding rates in this population.

Mumps outbreak and laboratory diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Several mumps outbreaks have been reported in Europe and in the United States among highly vaccinated populations. Biological diagnosis is classically based on the detection of mumps-specific IgM, but the ability of serological tests to confirm mumps infection seems to be limited among vaccinated patients. OBJECTIVES: We aim to report a mumps outbreak in an engineering school in Grenoble, France, from February to June 2013 and results of the biological testing. STUDY DESIGN: WHO definitions were used to define cases. Mumps--specific IgM and IgG were assessed by a commercially available EIA. Mumps RNA detection by real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests (RT-PCR) and mumps genotyping were performed by the French National Reference Centre for Paramyxoviridae. RESULTS: Sixty two mumps patient-cases were identified using WHO case definitions, 20 being biologically explored, of which 17 were confirmed by biological tests. Vaccination status was documented for 27 patients/62: 4 (14.8%) patients had received one dose of MMR vaccine, and 23 (85.2) two doses of MMR vaccine. Among the biologically explored patients, 83% had a positive RT PCR at the first sampling whereas only 45% had positive or equivocal IgM. All the genotyped strains were genotype G. CONCLUSIONS: Mumps laboratory diagnosis in a highly vaccinated population is challenging. Serological tests among vaccinated patients should be interpreted cautiously and confirmed by RT-PCR tests at the beginning of a mumps outbreak.

Effects of conversation on situation awareness and working memory in simulated driving.

OBJECTIVE: In the present research, we investigated the hypothesis that working memory mediates conversation-induced impairment of situation awareness (SA) while driving. BACKGROUND: Although there is empirical evidence that conversation impairs driving performance, the cognitive mechanisms that mediate this relationship remain underspecified. Researchers have reported that a phonological working memory task decreased drivers' SA for vehicles located behind them whereas a visuospatial working memory task impaired SA for vehicles ahead. Conversation, therefore, might impair SA for vehicles behind the driver by preferentially taxing the phonological loop. METHOD: A 20-questions task was used as a proxy for natural conversation. In Experiment I, driving performance was measured across three within-subjects conversation conditions (i.e., no conversation, driver asks questions, driver answers questions) with the use of a driving simulator. In Experiment 2, participants drove in the same simulator while either conversing (20-questions task) or not Participants estimated the positions of other vehicles after the screens were blanked at the end of each trial. RESULTS: Speed monitoring and responses to visual probes were impaired by the 20-questions conversation task (Experiment 1). As predicted, conversation impaired SA for the location of other vehicles more for vehicles located behind the driver than for those in front (Experiment 2). CONCLUSION: Conversation impairs drivers' SA of vehicles behind them by taxing working memory's phonological loop and impairs SA generally by taxing working memory's central executive. APPLICATION: Provides a theoretical framework that links driver SA to working memory and a mechanism for understanding why conversation impairs driving performance.

Synthesis and biological activity of new 5-O-sugar modified ketolide and 2-fluoro-ketolide antibiotics.

A series of new triazole-containing ketolides and 2-fluoro-ketolides in which the 5-O-desosamine was replaced by unnatural sugars were synthesized and evaluated against relevant macrolide-sensitive and macrolide-resistant respiratory pathogens. Excellent in vitro antibacterial activities were demonstrated for ketolide analogues having the 6'-OBz-3'-dimethylamino-glucose and 6'-OBz-4'-deoxy-3'-dimethylamino-glucose substituents.