Supporting student nurses to develop healthy conversation skills.

As advocates for health, nurses are ideally situated to deliver effective health promotion in their daily interactions with people. This work evaluates the integration of healthy conversation training, making every contact count (MECC), into a health promotion module in an undergraduate nursing degree at a higher education institute (HEI). In all, 108 students completed the online questionnaire I year after receiving healthy conversation training. 67% of students reported the regular or occasional use of healthy conversation skills and identified a wide range of scenarios where they had used the skills. 65% of students used health action planning framework in their own personal self-care. Student nurses acknowledged barriers and enablers to their use of healthy conversation skills. Having knowledgeable mentors who role modelled healthy conversations skills in their consultations was the most frequently raised factor, in addition to lack of knowledge of local resources, time and confidence. All placement settings should ensure that registered nurses, especially those undertaking mentorship responsibilities have access to healthy conversation training.

Health and social impacts of open defecation on women: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The significance of sanitation to safeguard human health is irrefutable and has important public health dimensions. Access to sanitation has been essential for human dignity, health and well-being. Despite 15 years of conjunctive efforts under the global action plans like Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2.3 billion people have no access to improved sanitation facilities (flush latrine or pit latrine) and nearly 892 million of the total world's population is still practicing open defecation. METHODS: The study provides a systematic review of the published literature related to implications of open defecation that goes beyond the scope of addressing health outcomes by also investigating social outcomes associated with open defecation. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was used to frame the review, empirical studies focusing upon open defecation in women aged 13-50 in low and middle income countries were included in the review. Research papers included in the review were assessed for quality using appropriate critical appraisal tools. In total 9 articles were included in the review; 5 of these related to health effects and 4 related to social effects of open defecation. RESULTS: The review identified 4 overarching themes; Health Impacts of open defecation, Increased risk of sexual exploitation, Threat to women's privacy and dignity and Psychosocial stressors linked to open defecation, which clearly present a serious situation of poor sanitation in rural communities of Lower-Middle Income Countries (LMICs). The findings of the review identified that open defecation promotes poor health in women with long-term negative effects on their psychosocial well-being, however it is a poorly researched topic. CONCLUSION: The health and social needs of women and girls remain largely unmet and often side-lined in circumstances where toilets in homes are not available. Further research is critically required to comprehend the generalizability of effects of open defecation on girls and women. PROSPERO REGISTRATION: CRD42019119946 . Registered 9 January 2019 .

Case Studies of Interprofessional Education Initiatives From Five Countries.

BACKGROUND: Although teamwork and interprofessional collaboration are critical to patient safety, nursing, medical, and allied health graduates often feel ill-prepared to confidently communicate and collaborate with other team members. While interprofessional education (IPE) has been advocated as a way of addressing this issue, there are multiple barriers to its systematic and sustained integration in undergraduate healthcare programs. Despite these challenges, examples of effective IPE initiatives have emerged. INNOVATION: This article profiles seven case studies of innovative interprofessional education activities that have been successfully implemented across five countries, for a variety of learners, using different delivery modalities, and with evaluation results attesting to their success. CONCLUSIONS: The case studies demonstrate innovative ideas that have the potential to overcome some of the barriers to IPE through the use of creative and targeted approaches. This article provides a wealth of ideas for the successful design and implementation of IPE initiatives and will be of benefit to educators wishing to expand their repertoire of teaching approaches. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: A body of research attests to the relationship between interprofessional communication, teamwork, and patient outcomes. IPE is imperative for facilitating the development of nursing graduates' communication and teamwork skills; however, innovative approaches are needed to overcome the perceived and actual impediments to its implementation.