Contemp Nurse
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Delirium is a frequent complication of hospital admission, especially among the elderly. It can have serious consequences in terms of morbidity, mortality and decreased quality of life. Nevertheless, an extensive literature review found that it is poorly recognised and poorly managed by medical and nursing staff. ⋯ A questionnaire survey sent to nurses at a teaching hospital found that nurse's knowledge of delirium was generally inadequate, although one ward which had had in-service education attained better results. It is recommended that cognitive assessment in general and delirium in particular be incorporated into nursing education. Improved education could potentially lead to improved health outcomes and considerable cost savings.
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Abstract In today's healthcare system where technical instruments and test results are used to implement care it is easy to lose the human aspect of nursing. Personal interaction can get lost and nurses sometimes miss humorous attempts made by patients. Humour is a very personal concept, what one person thinks is funny does not necessarily make another person smile, or might even be hurtful. ⋯ Humour has the potential to change the hospital experience for patients. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of humour in the therapeutic relationship between patient-nurse. Semi structured interviews were held with four registered nurses and narrative inquiry was used to analyse and present the findings because of its ability to capture human interaction and experience.
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Health workers in general, and midwives and nurses in particular, experience high levels of stress/distress due to the nature of their work and workplaces; and, their socialization into ways of working that minimizes the likelihood of self-care. Increasing interest in the development of resilient workers has meant an enormous growth in interest in the role of holistic practices such as mindfulness meditation. Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is one of the most commonly used by those seeking to practise, theorize or research mindfulness across multiple contexts. ⋯ The quantitative findings included significant improvements on the GHQ-12, SOC and the stress subscale of the DASS. Qualitative findings support the acceptability of the intervention, and highlighted a number of issues related to feasibility of any future RCT. In conclusion, mindfulness practice holds promise for increasing individual and workplace resilience, however, meaningful research evidence from carefully constructed studies will be required to engage and motivate participation and organizational support.
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Comparative Study
Comparisons of substance abuse, high-risk sexual behavior and depressive symptoms among homeless youth with and without a history of foster care placement.
The purpose of this study was to compare prevalence of substance use, high-risk sexual behaviors, and depression symptoms between homeless youth with and without a history of foster care placement. ⋯ It is important that nurses, who serve homeless youth populations, conduct a risk assessment profile, in order to ascertain a history of foster care placement, link former foster youth to social service agencies that provide risk reduction/health promotion education, and advocate for stable housing.
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This paper reports on the outcomes of a small well designed pilot study. ⋯ More extensive reporting on the outcomes of pilot studies would assist researchers and increase the body of knowledge in this area.