Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Future of Nursing Education.

Nursing is the largest health profession, with nearly 4 million providers practicing across acute, primary, and public health care settings. In response to the pandemic, nursing schools halted on-site course delivery and redesigned programs to attenuate risks to students and faculty. Key challenges faced by schools included financial cutbacks, rapid increases in online learning technology, maintaining student academic progression, disruption to clinical learning opportunities, and meeting accreditation standards, while addressing the stress and loss experienced by faculty, staff, and students. Despite challenges, nursing organizations provided guidance for decision making, new learning resources, and faculty development opportunities. Schools of nursing leveraged their resources to redesign nursing curricula, strengthen partnerships for student clinical experiences, and address needs of the community. Nursing education will look different from its prepandemic profile in the future. Lessons learned during the pandemic point to gaps in nursing education, particularly related to disaster and public health preparedness, health equity, and technology. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing's new Essentials-standards for professional nursing education-were finalized during the pandemic and reflect these lessons. The need for nurse scientists to conduct emergency response research was made evident. The importance of strong academic-practice partnerships was highlighted for rapid communication, flexibility, and responses to dynamic environments. For the future, nursing education and practice must collaborate to ensure that students and practicing nurses are prepared to address emergencies and pandemics, as well as the needs of vulnerable populations.

Young People's Voices Regarding the Use of Social Networking Sites to Plan for a Night Out Where Alcohol Is Involved.

The risk of alcohol related harm is experienced disproportionality by young people aged 15-24 years. Harmful use of alcohol has serious effects on individual physical and mental wellbeing and is considered by the World Health Organization to be one of the main risk factors for poor health globally. It is crucial to understand the factors that influence drinking behavior in young people in order to inform prevention strategies to prevent problematic drinking. This is particularly paramount during the transition into young adulthood (around 18-25 years), when risky health behaviors are likely to become embedded. This pilot study adopted a qualitative descriptive methodology that facilitates exploration of what young people say about their own experiences and behavior, as it relates to SNS use and alcohol consumption. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Newcastle, NSW Australia. An inductive, semantic approach to thematic analysis was selected to analyze the data as this method supported the exploratory nature of the pilot study and ensured that the themes identified were strongly linked to the data. Four main organizing themes that arose from the collected data were: organizing friends; safety amongst friends, planning not to plan; and different event - different plans. All of the participants stated they preferred to use Facebook Messenger™ to connect and share in a group conversation with peers. Convenience, cost and accessibility emerged as the main reasons for using SNSs to plan nights out. Planning for a night out using SNSs allows young people to impulsively plan and change plans - making planning fluid and asynchronous. To date, despite the global use of SNSs, the influence of SNSs in young adults' planning for events during which alcohol is served is relatively unknown. This pilot study gives us a some understanding of how young people use SNSs to plan and prepare for a night out where alcohol is served. Further research needs to be conducted to determine whether SNSs can be used effectively to promote health behavior change or be used as forums for advice seeking and support when attending events where alcohol is served, with the ultimate goal of lowering risky behaviors and thereby improving health outcomes for young people.

mHealth Interventions to Reduce Alcohol Use in Young People: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

Harmful use of alcohol has serious effects on public health and is considered a significant risk factor for poor health. mHealth technology promotes health behavior change and enhances health through increased social opportunities for encouragement and support. It remains unknown whether these types of applications directly influence the health status of young people in reducing harmful levels of alcohol consumption. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine current evidence on the effectiveness of mHealth technology use in positively influencing alcohol-related behaviors of young people without known alcohol addiction. Relevant articles published from 2005 to January 2017 were identified through electronic searches of eight databases. Studies with interventions delivered by mHealth (social networking sites, SMS and mobile phone applications) to young people aged 12-26 years were included. Outcome measures were alcohol use, reduction in alcohol consumption or behavior change. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions varied in design, participant characteristics, settings, length and outcome measures. Ten studies reported some effectiveness related to interventions with nine reporting a reduction in alcohol consumption. Use of mHealth, particularly text messaging (documented as SMS), was found to be an acceptable, affordable and effective way to deliver messages about reducing alcohol consumption to young people. Further research using adequately powered sample sizes in varied settings, with adequate periods of intervention and follow-up, underpinned by theoretical perspectives incorporating behavior change in young people's use of alcohol, is needed.

Nurse Leaders' Response to Civil Unrest in the Urban Core.

Inequalities in society, culture, and finance have resulted in civil unrest, rioting, and intentional violence throughout our history. Nowhere is this currently more apparent than in the cities of Ferguson and Baltimore. It is not the civil unrest itself, but the resulting rioting and intentional violence that can create a disaster situation. This increases the care burden of health care providers during times when the governmental structure may be overwhelmed or functioning in a less than optimal manner. Beginning with the death of Michael Brown, civil unrest over the last 2 years has necessitated a closer examination of the role nurse leaders play in preparing their staff and facilities for potential results of this civil unrest. The similarities between the results of rioting and violence and natural disaster are obvious, but the differences are significant. Without adequate preparation, providers may not offer the appropriate response. Attention to the 10 "musts" for preparedness for civil unrest will facilitate a planning process and provide for a better response and recovery when communities face these issues.