The Art of Discharge Planning: Teaching Nursing Students to Address Disparities Through Simulation.

Background: Discharge planning is crucial to ensuring that patients' care and recovery needs are addressed. A new nurse graduate must be prepared to enter a clinical practice environment in which hospitals face penalties for patient readmissions. Methods: Student nurses were assigned simulated patients with a variety of health disparities and health-care diagnoses to address. A qualitative research design evaluated student perceptions of discharge planning and cultural competency. Results: Students found the simulation to be vital to their clinical experience. Students were able to develop discharge teaching that was culturally congruent for each simulated patient. Conclusions: Incorporating discharge teaching simulation into the nursing curriculum can positively impact students' ability to transition to clinical practice and build confidence in a skill that is rarely incorporated into nursing curricula.

Seeing Past the Sentence: Caring for Pregnant Women Who Are Incarcerated.

ABSTRACT: The number of women who are incarcerated in the United States has grown significantly since 1980. Caring for pregnant women who are in the correctional system requires special knowledge and the skills of advocacy and compassion. The purpose of this article is to discuss strategies to provide compassionate, sensitive, and trauma-informed care that demonstrates the love of Christ to incarcerated pregnant women.

Improving Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in NICU Patients.

BACKGROUND: Premature infants experience stressors such as external stimulation with sounds, light, touch, and open positioning in NICU that negatively affect outcomes. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of a developmental positioning intervention on length of stay, weight gain, and tone/flexion compared with neonates without structured positioning. METHODS: Study design was quasi-experimental with nonequivalent groups. A retrospective chart review of 50 neonates with the inclusion criteria of 34 weeks of gestation or less and no anomalies provided a preintervention sample. After the education in-service on positioning, a convenience sample of 27 infants was enrolled. Infant Position Assessment Tool was used as a visual guide for positioning and scoring by the researcher for intervention fidelity. Hammersmith scoring was completed by the occupational therapist prior to discharge. FINDINGS: The postintervention group was younger and sicker than the control group (P < .05). The postintervention sample (M = 7.05 where 7 = 29 to <30 weeks of gestation) was younger than the preintervention sample (M = 7.22). The postintervention sample was smaller (M = 1302.15 g) than the preintervention sample (M = 1385.94 g). Results showed that the postintervention group had clinically significant weight gain and mean Hammersmith score (3.28) was higher showing positioning positively affected tone and flexion scores. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: With greater structure and consistent attention to developmental positioning, outcomes are positively affected. IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: Further research with larger sample sizes will identify stronger associations and relationships between positioning and outcome measures.