The hows and Ys of genome integrity.

Much of the Y chromosome consists of large palindromic arrays harboring genes that are critical for spermatogenesis. In this issue, Lange et al. (2009) show that although gene conversion within these arrays maintains their integrity, it also permits rare unequal sister chromatid-exchange events within palindromes that create unstable dicentric chromosomes, resulting in infertility, sex reversal, and Turner syndrome.

Academic-Practice Partnership to Prevent and Manage Pressure Injuries: An Evidence-Based Quality Improvement Initiative.

PURPOSE: This evidence-based quality improvement (EBQI) initiative examined the effect of an academic-practice (A-P) partnership on improvement in quality measures in an acute care setting, specifically hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI) prevention and management. DESIGN: A pre-/postdescriptive design was conducted using the practice-informed active learning program to guide the project. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The EBQI initiative was conducted at a Southern Gulf-Coast university college of nursing and clinical nursing practice leaders at its affiliated 406-bed academic health center/level I trauma center, regional burn center, and comprehensive stroke center. Both institutions are located in the Southeastern United States (Mobile, Alabama). METHODS: The A-P council used a participatory action research approach and developed a practice-informed active learning program incorporating Melnyk's evidence-based practice (EBP) steps, the Donabedian Model and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Stakeholder Engagement in Question Development and Prioritization (SEED). METHOD: Hospital-acquired pressure injuries were selected as the quality outcome to address. To identify HAPI prevention/management evidenced-based practices, the A-P council conducted an integrative literature review and developed a concept map and the Pressure Injury Prevention Gap Analysis Instrument. The gap analysis identified significant gaps between EBP and current pressure injury prevention practices, with priority ranking of gaps for action by key stakeholders. OUTCOME: Following the practice-informed active learning program objectives, the A-P council identified 79 HAPI best EBPs organized by Donabedian domains of structure, process, and outcome and prioritized 3 gaps for action. Actions to address the HAPI gaps included: restructuring the hospital HAPI program, incorporating appropriate leadership to guide the HAPI program, modifying the HAPI reporting process, hiring specialized experts (WOC nurses) with emphasis on pressure injury prevention, establishing a standardized HAPI prevalence survey, improving electronic documentation, increasing transparency of HAPI reporting, improving HAPI accountability at the unit level, and exploring technology to enhance skin assessment. While HAPIs increased by 6.3% from 2019 (n = 104) to 2021 (n = 111), HAPI severity (Stages 3 and 4) decreased by 9.9% from 2019 (n = 14, or 13.46%) to 2021 (n = 4, or 3.6%). IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Our experience with this quality improvement initiative indicates that an A-P partnership can provide a model to address complex clinical problems, quality indicators, and quality improvement while advancing a culture of inquiry and scholarship and building nursing capacity.

Fostering resilience in young people with intellectual disabilities using a 'settings' approach.

The need to foster resilience amongst young people with intellectual disabilities is increasingly recognised within policy. Critically, understanding of the actual means by which this aspiration might be most sensitively and effectively met is considered weak. This paper reports on an exploratory case-study of a social enterprise community café - The Usual Place - that through the promotion of employability, seeks to promote resilience amongst its young 'trainees' with intellectual disabilities. Two research questions were set: "how is 'resilience' conceptualized within the organisation" and "what features within the organisation are significant in fostering resilience"? We identify a range of significant features associated with being able to successfully foster resilience - the need for a foundational 'whole organisation'(settings) approach based on high levels of participation and choice; the negotiation of a constructive dynamic tension between 'support' and 'exposure'; and the embedding of these actions in embodied actions and day-to-day organisational activities.

Dissociation and misdiagnosis of schizophrenia in populations experiencing chronic discrimination and social defeat.

As recently as the late 20th century, Schizophrenia, a category of mental illness with widely varying phenotypic symptoms, was believed by psychobiologists to be a genetically based disorder in which the environment played a limited etiological role. Yet a growing body of evidence indicates a strong correlation between schizophrenia and environmental factors. This theoretical paper explores the relationship between highly elevated rates of schizophrenia in some low-income minority communities worldwide and trauma-related dissociative symptoms that often mimic schizophrenia. Elevated rates of schizophrenia in racially and ethnically isolated, inner-city Black populations are well documented. This paper contains evidence proposing that this amplification in the rate of schizophrenia is mediated by childhood trauma, disorganized attachment, and social defeat. Further, evidence demonstrating how these three variables combine in early childhood to incubate dissociative disorders will also be conveyed. The misdiagnosis of dissociative disorders as schizophrenia is theorized to partially mediate the increased rate of schizophrenia in communities that experience high levels of racial/ethnic discrimination. It is argued that this misdiagnosis is often attributable to cultural misunderstanding and/or a lack of knowledge about dissociative disorders.

Glucotypes reveal new patterns of glucose dysregulation.

Diabetes is an increasing problem worldwide; almost 30 million people, nearly 10% of the population, in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes. Another 84 million are prediabetic, and without intervention, up to 70% of these individuals may progress to type 2 diabetes. Current methods for quantifying blood glucose dysregulation in diabetes and prediabetes are limited by reliance on single-time-point measurements or on average measures of overall glycemia and neglect glucose dynamics. We have used continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to evaluate the frequency with which individuals demonstrate elevations in postprandial glucose, the types of patterns, and how patterns vary between individuals given an identical nutrient challenge. Measurement of insulin resistance and secretion highlights the fact that the physiology underlying dysglycemia is highly variable between individuals. We developed an analytical framework that can group individuals according to specific patterns of glycemic responses called "glucotypes" that reveal heterogeneity, or subphenotypes, within traditional diagnostic categories of glucose regulation. Importantly, we found that even individuals considered normoglycemic by standard measures exhibit high glucose variability using CGM, with glucose levels reaching prediabetic and diabetic ranges 15% and 2% of the time, respectively. We thus show that glucose dysregulation, as characterized by CGM, is more prevalent and heterogeneous than previously thought and can affect individuals considered normoglycemic by standard measures, and specific patterns of glycemic responses reflect variable underlying physiology. The interindividual variability in glycemic responses to standardized meals also highlights the personal nature of glucose regulation. Through extensive phenotyping, we developed a model for identifying potential mechanisms of personal glucose dysregulation and built a webtool for visualizing a user-uploaded CGM profile and classifying individualized glucose patterns into glucotypes.

Characteristics of Negative and Positive Mental Health Among Nursing Students in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Researchers have documented significant psychological problems among nursing students, but findings have been inconclusive as to whether nursing students are "at-risk" for mental health problems compared with their non-nursing peers. AIMS: This study examined whether nursing students have unique mental health characteristics compared with students from other professions. METHOD: Undergraduates (N = 18,312; nursing n = 1,399) were selected from the 2016-2017 National Healthy Minds Study. Participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (depression), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (anxiety), and the Flourishing Scale (positive psychology). RESULTS: Nursing students were equally likely to screen positive for depression and anxiety compared with their non-nursing peers. However, when controlling for gender, age, and year in school, multigroup structural equation modeling analyses revealed that female (but not male) nursing students reported significantly higher levels of specific anxiety symptoms and certain psychological strengths than female students from other professions. Nursing students are equally likely to screen positive for depression or anxiety as their non-nursing peers; however, anxiety disorders may reflect symptom profiles unique to nursing students. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest a need for tailored screening and interventions to reduce mental health problems and harness psychological strengths unique to nursing students.

Nursing students' resilience, depression, well-being, and academic distress: Testing a moderated mediation model.

AIM: Academic distress is a leading cause of attrition among nursing students. The present study tested a positive psychology-oriented model detailing the potential links between nursing students': (a) psychological resilience; (b) depressive symptoms; (c) intrapersonal well-being; (d) interpersonal well-being; and (e) academic distress. Additionally, we tested whether the academic benefits of resilience were conditional upon nursing students' perceptions of their campus climate as supportive of mental health and well-being. DESIGN: A correlational, cross-sectional design was employed. METHOD: Nursing students (N = 933) were selected from the national 2017-2018 Healthy Minds Study (HMS). Students completed measures of resilience, depressive symptoms, intrapersonal well-being (flourishing), interpersonal well-being (belonging), and academic distress. RESULTS: Conditional process modelling tested depression, belonging, and flourishing as mediators of the associations between resilience and academic distress variables. Furthermore, perceptions of campus climate were included as potential moderators of these mediation effects. Results indicated that the protective academic benefits of resilience were primarily explained by decreases in depression but that this effect was strongest for nursing students with negative perceptions of their campus climate. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the psychological and academic benefits of greater resilience and the moderated mediation results suggest that such benefits were conditional on the broader campus climate. IMPACT: Nurse educators and policymakers should consider addressing contextual factors, such as campus climate, in addition to resilience training in their efforts to reduce the negative academic impacts of mental health problems and stress in nursing school.

Characteristics of and Factors Influencing College Nursing Students' Willingness to Utilize mHealth for Health Promotion.

More than half of practicing nurses have suboptimal physical or mental health. Impaired health is associated with a 76% higher likelihood that nurses will make medical errors. Improving the health habits of nursing students is essential to shaping and sustaining health prior to joining the workforce. Technology such as mobile health applications holds great promise in facilitating behavioral change and encouraging healthy habits in nursing students. Identifying the predictors of willingness to use mobile health is essential to creating mobile health applications that will engage nursing students and promote sustainable usage. Evaluation of psychological, attitudinal, and health-related correlates of mobile health can highlight predictors of willingness to use mobile health, which can influence nursing students' utilization and long-term engagement with mobile health applications. Analysis of these correlates shows that psychological attributes, such as hope, play a role in the willingness to use and may facilitate engagement in the utilization of a mobile health application. Development of a mobile health application that increases hope and helps establish healthy habits may enable nursing students to remain healthy throughout their lives, creating a new generation of happier, healthier nurses and, ultimately, improving safety for patients under their care.

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers' mental health.

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, commonly presents as a severe acute respiratory disease referred to as coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). The rapid spread of the disease created challenges for healthcare systems and forced healthcare workers to grapple with clinical and nonclinical stressors, including shortages of personal protective equipment, mortality and morbidity associated with COVID-19, fear of bringing the virus home to family members, and the reality of losing colleagues to the disease. Evidence from previous outbreaks, along with early evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests that these events have significant short- and long-term effects on the mental health of healthcare workers. All healthcare stakeholders should create short- and long-term plans to support the mental health of workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Family Meal Challenge: A Faith-Based Intervention to Empower Families.

African Americans have increased rates of overweight and obesity and are least likely to participate in family meals compared with other racial groups. A Family Meal Challenge (FMC) was developed with the objective of empowering individuals to eat healthy meals together as a family. The FMC was presented through four classes in three churches, two faith-based ministries, and two community service programs in health disparity zip codes. Surveys (N = 257) indicated a positive response. Engaging participants and teaching the benefits of eating healthy family meals in a faith-based environment are feasible and may increase the frequency of family meals. Information is provided to create and implement an FMC in any faith setting.

Obesity Stigma and Bias.

Overweight and obesity are escalating in epidemic proportions in the United States. Individuals with overweight and obesity are often reluctant to seek medical help, not only for weight reduction but also for any health issue because of perceived provider discrimination. Providers who are biased against individuals with obesity can hinder our nation's effort to effectively fight the obesity epidemic. By addressing weight bias in the provider setting, individuals affected by obesity may be more likely to engage in a meaningful and productive discussion of weight. Providers need to be the go-to source for obesity-focused information on new and emerging treatments.

Building a research-focused academic practice partnership: A stepwise approach.

The 20th century began a period of reform in nursing education and practice, with more nurses receiving advanced degrees and serving in key leadership roles throughout healthcare organizations. During this period, the transformation of the healthcare delivery system encouraged innovation and collaboration between academic nursing programs and other healthcare entities to develop partnerships based on a shared vision and goals. As a result, nurses are negotiating academic-practice partnership agreements and leading interprofessional teams to meet the needs of collaborating organizations. This article describes a stepwise approach to building a research-focused academic practice partnership, from a needs assessment to an evaluation of the partnership.

Accounting for taste: preferences mediate the relationship between documentation time and ambulatory physician burnout.

OBJECTIVES: Physician burnout in the US has reached crisis levels, with one source identified as extensive after-hours documentation work in the electronic health record (EHR). Evidence has illustrated that physician preferences for after-hours work vary, such that after-hours work may not be universally burdensome. Our objectives were to analyze variation in preferences for after-hours documentation and assess if preferences mediate the relationship between after-hours documentation time and burnout. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We combined EHR active use data capturing physicians' hourly documentation work with survey data capturing documentation preferences and burnout. Our sample included 318 ambulatory physicians at MedStar Health. We conducted a mediation analysis to estimate if and how preferences mediated the relationship between after-hours documentation time and burnout. Our primary outcome was physician-reported burnout. We measured preferences for after-hours documentation work via a novel survey instrument (Burden Scenarios Assessment). We measured after-hours documentation time in the EHR as the total active time respondents spent documenting between 7 pm and 3 am. RESULTS: Physician preferences varied, with completing clinical documentation after clinic hours while at home the scenario rated most burdensome (52.8% of physicians), followed by dealing with prior authorization (49.5% of physicians). In mediation analyses, preferences partially mediated the relationship between after-hours documentation time and burnout. DISCUSSION: Physician preferences regarding EHR-based work play an important role in the relationship between after-hours documentation time and burnout. CONCLUSION: Studies of EHR work and burnout should incorporate preferences, and operational leaders should assess preferences to better target interventions aimed at EHR-based contributors to burnout.

Natural history of carotid artery occlusion.

Carotid artery occlusion (CAO) is a risk factor for stroke ipsilateral to the occlusion and puts patients in a high-risk category when contralateral endarterectomy is performed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of patients with internal CAO and to determine risk factors predictive of subsequent neurological event, contralateral carotid intervention, or death. Patients with internal CAO shown by duplex ultrasonography were retrospectively identified and followed between January 2002 and June 2010 (follow-up: 1-101 months, mean: 52 months) at a tertiary care hospital. All had multiple duplex examinations available for review. Chi-square analysis was used to determine risk factors for neurologic event, contralateral intervention, or all-cause morality. Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis was conducted using univariate risk factors with P values <0.1. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method (P < 0.05 significant). Eighty patients with internal CAO were identified and available for analysis. On initial encounter, 30 (38%) were symptomatic, with 26 (87%) having symptoms referable to the side of the occluded internal carotid artery. During follow-up, seven (9%) had a neurologic event, of which six (86%) were referable to the occluded side; 14 (18%) patients underwent a contralateral operation. Nineteen (24%) patients died during the period of study. Although numerous variables of multivessel disease were significant with χ(2) analysis, there was no significant risk factor associated with neurologic event on multivariate analysis. However, the development of a hemodynamically significant stenosis (>50%) or occlusion of the external carotid artery (ECA) ipsilateral to the occlusion on follow-up (P < 0.027) was associated with increased risk of death. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed 7-year survival for patients with ECA disease at follow-up was significantly worse (16.2% ± 10.3% [n = 21] vs. 79% ± 8.7% [n = 59]; P < 0.00001). Frequently, patients present with neurological symptoms referable to the side of the internal CAO. Eighty-six percent of neurologic events that occur in follow-up are attributable to the side of the occluded carotid, indicating that the occluded side continues to contribute to neurologic morbidity over time. Multivariate analysis revealed no single factor to be predictive of subsequent neurologic events. With significant risk of death in patients found to have ipsilateral ECA stenosis during follow-up, it seems reasonable to continue surveillance of the occluded carotid.

Scribes with PGY-1 Residents on Inpatient Medicine Teams: Effect on Time Spent in Meaningful Work.

Background: The high documentation demands and limited time in direct patient care in the first year of internal medicine residency represent concerns for burnout and low job satisfaction in this important year of training. Objective: To assess the effect of scribes on the time PGY-1 residents spent on various work tasks. Methods: Participants were 24 PGY-1 internal medicine residents on two inpatient medicine teams at one site for 6 months (September 2019-February 2020). Residents were assigned a scribe during the first or second 2 weeks of a 4-week rotation and had no scribe for the other 2 weeks. Time study observers documented resident work activities. Residents ranked the meaningfulness of work activities via survey at the end of each 2-week period. Results: Of 24 residents, 18 (75%) completed the survey at both time points. Residents ranked patient care as the most meaningful and EHR work as the least meaningful work activity. EHR work claimed the largest percentage of time, with or without a scribe (mean, 33.2% and 39%, respectively). With a scribe, residents spent significantly less time (-5.8%, P < 0.0001) in EHR work and significantly more time (1.3%, P = 0.0267) in direct patient care and coordinating patient care (3.0%, P < 0.0001). Conclusions: The presence of a scribe with PGY-1 internal medicine residents on inpatient teams resulted in a significantly greater percentage of total work time spent in work they considered most meaningful and a significantly lower percentage of total work time in work they considered least meaningful.

Intrapancreatic accessory spleen: CT appearance and differential diagnosis.

Although autopsy studies report that the second most common site of the accessory spleen is in the tail of the pancreas, intrapancreatic accessory spleens (IPASs) are rarely recognized radiologically. With recent improvements in imaging techniques, IPASs are more commonly detected on imaging studies. IPAS can be mistaken for other type of mass-forming lesions in the tail of the pancreas, particularly an asymptomatic small neuroendocrine neoplasm. Rarely, an epidermoid cyst originating from IPAS may simulate other cystic pancreatic lesion. Accurate preoperative diagnosis would obviate unnecessary surgery. IPAS should be considered when a hypervascular mass is seen in the tail of the pancreas on CT. Typical location, similar attenuation of the lesion to the spleen on noncontrast, and postcontrast CT at different phases are helpful to make diagnosis of IPAS. In particular, characteristic heterogeneous contrast enhancement of IPAS on the arterial phase may be helpful for correct diagnosis. However, when it remains difficult to exclude the other diagnosis, (99m)Tc labeled heat-damaged red blood cell scintigraphy or superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced MRI can be used to confirm the diagnosis of IPAS.

Reducing Shame, Promoting Dignity: A Model for the Primary Prevention of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) refers to the complex psychological and psychosocial sequelae caused by prolonged interpersonal abuse. Contemporary approaches to CPTSD are dominated by individualized psychological interventions that are long term and costly. However, accumulating evidence indicates that CPTSD is a high prevalence mental illness implicated in significant social problems, with a pattern of lateral and intergenerational transmission that impacts on already disadvantaged communities. Consequently, there have been calls for a public health model for the prevention of CPSTD; however, there has been a lack of clarity as to what this should entail. This article argues that empirical and conceptual shifts framing CPTSD as a shame disorder offers new preventative opportunities. The article presents a series of interconnected literature reviews including a review of available prevalence data on CPTSD, the public health implications of CPTSD, the role of shame and humiliation in CPTSD, and current scholarship on dignity in public policy and professional practice. Drawing on these reviews, this article develops a social ecological model of primary prevention to CPTSD with a focus on the reduction of shame and the promotion of dignity at the relational, community, institutional, and macrolevel. A broad overview of this model is provided with examples of preventative programs and interventions. While the epidemiology of CPTSD is still emerging, this article argues that this model provides the conceptual foundations necessary for the coordination of preventative interventions necessary to reduce to the risk and prevalence of CPSTD.

Eliminated routine postorthotopic liver transplant antibiotics in uncomplicated patients leads to equivalent safety outcomes.

Objective: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate safety and efficacy end points of a postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis protocol in liver transplant (LT) patients, which was revised to limit antibiotic use. Methods: In the routine antibiotics group (RA), patients routinely received prophylactic antibiotics for around 3 days postoperatively for a variety of rationales, versus the limited antibiotics group (LA), in which patients received antibiotics for the treatment of secondary peritonitis. Patients were included if they were 18 or older and underwent liver transplant between January 2016 and September 2019. In total, 216 patients remained after exclusion: 118 patients in the RA group and 98 patients in the LA group. Results: We detected a significant difference in the primary end point of postoperative antibiotic days of therapy. The median days of therapy was 2 for the RA group and 0 for the LA group (P < 0.005). Significantly fewer patients received only intraoperative antibiotics in the RA group versus the LA group: 42 (35.6%) versus 76 (73.5%) respectively (P < .005). There was no significant difference in secondary or safety outcomes, including surgical site infections. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that limiting the duration of prophylactic antibiotics postoperatively and treating most patients with only intraoperative antibiotics is safe.

Effects of the Perceived Risk of Contracting COVID-19 on Nursing Students' Well-Being.

BACKGROUND: Although mental health symptoms increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, little is known about the associations between nursing students' perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 and their academic and psychological well-being. This study examined associations between perceived COVID-19 risk, likelihood of completing nursing education, and mental health factors of nursing students. METHOD: A total of 979 nursing students completed self-report measures of perceived COVID-19 risk, anticipated academic completion, anxiety and depressive symptoms, stress, coping self-efficacy, hope, and social support. RESULTS: Students with higher perceived COVID-19 risk reported increased anxiety and depression as well as decreased likelihood of graduating, coping self-efficacy, and levels of social support. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate the need for increased mental health support for nursing students for successful completion of their programs. Educators should increase support and proactively strengthen positive psychology factors to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and other crises on nursing students' well-being. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(11):641-645.].

Undergraduate versus graduate nursing students: Differences in nutrition, physical activity, and self-reported body mass index.

ObjectiveThis study compared self-reported nutrition, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) in undergraduate versus graduate nursing students.ParticipantsRespondents included 233 undergraduate and 230 graduate nursing students in a Southeastern public university.MethodsThe study was an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional comparison administered via online questionnaire including self-reported demographics, nutritional intake, physical activity, and BMI.ResultsUndergraduates reported exercising more than graduate students. Graduate students reported consuming significantly more vegetables than undergraduates; however, more graduate students self-reported BMIs in overweight and obese categories than undergraduates.ConclusionsFindings provide a foundational understanding that interventions or educational programs to improve self-care behaviors of nursing students should be tailored depending on the educational level of the students. Educators must establish self-care skills within nursing students at all levels to help them preserve their health in the fast-paced, strenuous, and stressful work of all echelons of nursing upon completion of the educational program.