Brenda Luther

Congenital Muscular Torticollis

Congenital muscular torticollis is a painless condition usually presenting during infancy with a tight sternocleidomastoid muscle causing the childs head to be tilted to the tightened side. Limited neck motion and a palpable tumor within the muscle are often present. A regimen of stretching exercises is the most common form of treatment with positive outcomes for over 90% of the identified cases. Rarely children require surgical intervention to release the tightened muscle. Botox injections to relax the tight muscle is a new form of treatment being used by some practitioners. Torticollis also presents as a symptom for a variety of muscular, bony, and neurologic conditions, which are briefly reviewed in this article.

The Function of Parents and Their Children With Cerebral Palsy

To determine associations between the function of parents and that of their children with cerebral palsy (CP) and the influence of the levels of the childs impairment, parenting stress, parent self‐efficacy, and family functioning.

Looking at childhood obesity through the lens of Baumrind's parenting typologies.

Obesity is becoming the leading negative health outcome for the current generation of children to a greater degree than for any previous generation. Pediatric orthopaedic nurses encounter many patients and families with concerns about obesity and need the ability to promote parenting capacity in order to detect, prevent, or treat childhood obesity. Parenting is a complex process with numerous two-way interactions between the parent and child. Pediatric orthopaedic nurses affect parenting capacity daily as they care for families in all care settings. Many family researchers use Baumrinds parenting typologies (styles) and their correlations to child health outcomes in research. Understanding Baumrinds theories can help pediatric orthopaedic nurses understand the mechanisms parents use to affect the health outcomes related to the obesity of their children. Baumrinds is one parenting theory that can help demonstrate how parental behaviors and practices affect a childs self-concept and self-care development and ultimately a childs health promotion beliefs and practices related to obesity prevention and care that continue into adulthood. Nurses can use reviews of literature and application to practice of parenting styles to expand their repertoire of parent guidance and anticipatory teaching directed to the prevention and care of childhood obesity.

Changing paradigm for the treatment of clubfeet.

Clubfoot is one of the most common pediatric orthopaedic conditions. Until recently, surgical management was the treatment of choice. Nonoperative treatment techniques, including the Ponseti casting and French physical therapy methods, have peeked interest of orthopaedists eager to find a less aggressive treatment method that can assure a lasting, good result. Both methods have proven successful in reducing the number of patients requiring extensive surgical release and, as a result, have become an integral part of pediatric orthopaedic practice. A clear understanding of both treatment methods is important for the orthopaedic nurse to allow quality nursing care and help assure a successful outcome for young patients.

Individual versus interprofessional team performance in formulating care transition plans: A randomised study of trainees from five professional groups

ABSTRACT Health professions trainees’ performance in teams is rarely evaluated, but increasingly important as the healthcare delivery systems in which they will practice move towards team-based care. Effective management of care transitions is an important aspect of interprofessional teamwork. This mixed-methods study used a crossover design to randomise health professions trainees to work as individuals and as teams to formulate written care transition plans. Experienced external raters assessed the quality of the written care transition plans as well as both the quality of team process and overall team performance. Written care transition plan quality did not vary between individuals and teams (21.8 vs. 24.4, respectively, p = 0.42). The quality of team process did not correlate with the quality of the team-generated written care transition plans (r = −0.172, p = 0.659). However, there was a significant correlation between the quality of team process and overall team performance (r = 0.692, p = 0.039). Teams with highly engaged recorders, performing an internal team debrief, had higher-quality care transition plans. These results suggest that high-quality interprofessional care transition plans may require advance instruction as well as teamwork in finalising the plan.

What does the Affordable Care Act mean for nursing

Nurses are ethically bound to engage in efforts of improving health and healthcare delivery and, even more important, nurses recently have been called out as key leaders in the reform of healthcare delivery, including many components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, its history, and what healthcare will look like during and after implementation are addressed in this article. A discussion of the role and value of nurses in healthcare reform accompanies knowledge-building and action-oriented resources available to nurses and clients.

A Statewide Survey Report of Roles and Responsibilities in Current Utah Care Management Processes

Purpose of the Study: Measure current roles and responsibilities of care managers in the state of Utah. Primary Practice Setting: All settings of health care including inpatient, outpatient, community, payer, post-acute, and transitional care settings. Methods and Sample: A quantitative descriptive survey design was used to assess and describe current care management roles and responsibilities of 191 care managers within the state of Utah. Quantitative variables of roles and responsibilities were collected an electronic database (REDCap). Results: Major results conclude that care managers spend most of their time on direct patient interactions including discharge planning, population care, and utilization review. These care managers are highly experienced in their field, with most being in their professional practice for more than 10 years. Most of the care managers are bachelors prepared nurses. Implications for Care Management and Care Coordination Practice: To create or expand care management processes to meet the goals of health care reform, systems first need to know what care managers/coordinators are doing and where their current focus on care presides. Educators, leaders, and, indeed, the care managers themselves are a part of preparing this dynamic workforce. The major responsibility of care management continues to be direct patient interactions, meaning that care managers are performing vital interpersonal patient interaction needed to achieve highly personalized patient care with assurances of quality and safety. No matter the name—care management, case management, or care coordination—these activities are an essential part of health care, with highly specialized skills that promote patient engagement and activation.

Nursing Care Management: Influence on Bundled Payments

Fragmented and uncoordinated care is the third highest driver of U.S. healthcare costs. Although less than 10% of patients experience uncoordinated care, these patients represent 36% of total healthcare costs; care management interaction makes a significant impact on the utilization of healthcare dollars. A literature search was conducted to construct a model of care coordination for elective surgical procedures by collecting best practices for acute, transitions, and post-acute care periods. A case study was used to demonstrate the model developed. Care management defines care coordination as a model of care to address improving patient and caregiver engagement, communication across settings of care, and ultimately improved patient outcomes of care. Nurse-led care coordination in the presurgical, inpatient, and post-acute care settings requires systems change and administrative support to effectively meet the goals of the Affordable Care Act of reducing redundancy and costs while improving the patient experience. Nursing is the lynchpin of care management processes in all settings of care; thus, this model of care coordination for elective surgical admissions can provide nursing care management leaders a comprehensive view of coordinating care for these patient across settings of care during the predetermined time period of care. As bundled payment structures increasingly affect hospital systems, nursing leaders need to be ready to create or improve their care management processes; care coordination is one such process requiring immediate attention.

Parent perceptions of health promotion for school-age children with spina bifida

PURPOSE To gain insight into how parents develop their beliefs of health promotion for their children with spina bifida (SB) and how they develop and promote health promotion practices for their children. DESIGN Qualitative, exploratory design with semi-structured interviews of parents of children between 6 and 12 years of age diagnosed with SB was used for this study. RESULTS Perceptions of health promotion were maintaining healthy bowel function and managing SB care. Good bowel function and SB management is health promotion and adequate bowel function is viewed as a marker of health. Maintaining healthy bowel function was identified by parents as the key marker of health for their children with SB. Further, the term health promotion brought up plans, concerns, and goals more related to their childs physiologic functioning and health care needs rather than promoting health and avoiding preventable disease. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS Nurses and healthcare providers are in unique and powerful positions for strategizing with parents on how to integrate health promotion into the lives of children with SB. Team-based, whole-person, holistic assessment and teaching inclusive of promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors in addition to providing excellent care related to their physiologic systems affected by SB can improve how we promote health for these children.