The Kids Into Health Careers (KIHC) initiative: innovative approaches to help solve the nursing shortage.

In 2001, the Northern Illinois University School of Nursing was awarded a grant from the Division of Nursing of the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to enhance the School's advanced practice nursing program. As a recipient of this grant, the School of Nursing was required to incorporate activities to meet the goals of the "Kids Into Health Careers (KIHC) Initiative" to encourage children into health care careers. This article describes the strategies developed by the School of Nursing to meet the KIHC goals and encourage children, especially those from minorities, into health care careers. The School's approach was multifaceted and included collaboration with a variety of community organizations and groups. While there is a tremendous amount of work to be accomplished in encouraging middle and high school students to consider nursing as a career, creative strategies through which nurses take an active role in helping resolve the problem are suggested.

Criminal background checks: necessary admission criteria?

The issues that nursing school admissions staff may face in evaluating potential students' criminal backgrounds are discussed. There has been a trend to require criminal background checks for health care professionals throughout the United States related to taking the NCLEX-RN and securing employment in health care agencies. The majority of state boards of nursing are now requiring criminal background checks on potential licensees. Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to perform criminal background checks rests with individual schools. While admitting students without performing criminal background checks could, in some cases, lead to undesirable consequences and injure the reputation of the school and the nursing profession, denying admission to otherwise qualified applicants because of certain past criminal infractions could exclude potentially well-qualified students. This article offers guidelines for nursing programs that choose to perform background checks.

Southeast Asian refugee children: self-esteem as a predictor of depression and scholastic achievement in the U.S.

The eruption of conflicts and war in this century has led to new masses of refugees and displaced persons. Globally, host countries will continue to confront issues of how to ensure the successful adaptation of refugees who typically are women and children. The United States received three major waves of Southeast Asian (SEA) refugees during the past twenty-five years. One million SEA refugees arrived in the past decade; the majority were children and adolescents. Today, there is still a lack of understanding surrounding mental health issues and their relationship to children's violence experience. We know that SEA refugee children suffered violence during the war in Southeast Asia, their escape from homelands, in camps of asylum and in the U.S. Although researchers have examined the relationship of violence with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in refugee children, the findings have been unclear and sometimes conflictual in their relationship to scholastic achievement. In the U.S., healthy self-esteem is recognized as an important component of mental health and academic success, while low self-esteem is associated with depression and academic failure. In general, self-esteem and measures of self-esteem have not been studied cross-culturally. The authors report the findings of a measure of self-esteem, depression and academic achievement in a convenience sample of 237 Southeast Asian refugee children aged 6 to 17 years of age in the U.S. Internationally, nurses who assess the mental health of refugee children and design interventions to assist in their adaptation, will want to have an understanding of mental health issues cross-culturally.

They're real and they're here: the new federally regulated privacy rules under HIPAA.

The purpose of the HIPAA Privacy Rules was to create national standards to protect the privacy of personal health information. As of April 14, 2003, all covered health care entities must comply with the newly implemented national standards. The importance of staying updated with the law, while particularly important for the patient's privacy, is just as important for the nurse to avoid civil punitive damages and possible criminal charges.

Relationship of perception of radon as a health risk and willingness to engage in radon testing and mitigation.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To gather data on radon levels and determine correlations among subjects' characteristics, willingness to test for radon, and perceptions of radon as a health risk. DESIGN: Descriptive correlational. SETTING: Rural DeKalb County in northern Illinois. SAMPLE: 473 respondents from a group of 1,620 randomly selected county residences. METHODS: Participants were surveyed via telephone using the Community Radon Program questionnaire. Radon measurements were taken with home radon test kits. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Gender, income, age, educational level, smoking status, race, home ownership, willingness to test for radon, and radon risk perception. FINDINGS: Most participants were familiar with radon but did not view it as an immediate health hazard and would not have screened for radon on their own. 88% of the radon measurements exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's moderate risk potential level, and 53% exceeded the action level (i.e., 4 pCi/L). CONCLUSIONS: Perception of radon as a health risk was correlated positively with planning to conduct further radon testing and to employ radon mitigation methods. More research is needed on people's willingness to obtain radon emission levels and the cancer rates in areas that have high potential for radon. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: According to the environmental literature, the effect of household radon emissions on the development of lung cancer is as great a health risk as secondhand smoke. Virtually no nursing literature on the subject has been published. As the primary source of health information in many rural counties, nurses, especially public health nurses, are at the forefront in public health educational efforts. Nurses are the most likely healthcare professionals to enter patients' homes and can play a significant role in disseminating information about radon as a potential carcinogen.

Legal issues in the early detection and monitoring of cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the legal and ethical issues involved in the detection/monitoring of cancer. DATA SOURCES: Westlaw, Lexis, Medline, and legal and nursing literature. CONCLUSIONS: The introduction of genetic predisposition to cancer has increased the legal and ethical issues associated with the detection of cancer. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: The expanding role of nurses has opened up many exciting new roles in the area of early detection of cancer including genetic counseling. Along with the new opportunities comes increased legal liability and ethical controversies that oncology nurses must be aware of.

Does certification status of oncology nurses make a difference in patient outcomes?

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To test hypotheses that patients cared for by Oncology Certified Nurses (OCNs(r)) have superior outcomes compared to those cared for by noncertified nurses. DESIGN: Descriptive ex post facto. SETTING: A homecare agency in the midwestern United States. SAMPLE: 20 nurses (7 certified and 13 noncertified) and charts for 181 of their patients. METHODS: Retrospective chart review. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Symptom management (i.e., pain and fatigue), adverse events (e.g., infection and decubitus ulcers), and episodic care utilization (e.g., visits to care facilities, admissions to care facilities, unscheduled home visits). FINDINGS: Contrary to hypotheses, the two groups did not differ with respect to assessment of pain at admission, number of pain assessments subsequent to admission, assessment of fatigue at admission, number of unplanned visits to care facilities, admissions to care facilities, and number of unscheduled home visits. As hypothesized, the OCNs(r) documented a higher number of postadmission fatigue assessments (p less than 0.05). Contrary to hypotheses, patients of OCNs(r) had a greater number of infections and fewer documented instances of patient teaching regarding infection. CONCLUSIONS: Little support was found for the hypothesis that nursing care by OCNs(r) results in superior patient outcomes in comparison to care by noncertified nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Further research is needed to examine the dimensions of clinical practice that may demonstrate the benefits of care by OCNs(r).