Eileen R. O'Shea

Emotional intelligence and nursing performance among nursing students

Some scholars have proposed that the educational preparation of nurses can be improved by incorporating emotional intelligence lessons into the nursing curricula. However, the relationship between emotional intelligence and nursing performance in nursing students is unknown. The purpose of the study was to examine this relationship among nursing students. A descriptive correlational design with non-probability sampling methods of 87 nursing students in a university setting was conducted. The variables of focus were emotional intelligence and nursing performance. Emotional intelligence was measured with the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Nursing performance was measured using the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (6-D Scale). The sample was predominately Caucasian (91%), female (93%), mean age 24 years. The mean score for emotional intelligence was 0.53, SD ± 0.06 indicating moderate emotional intelligence. The mean score for nursing performance was 3.14, SD ± 0.40 indicating moderate nursing performance. Emotional intelligence was related to nursing performance. Four of the six nursing performance subscale scores were significantly correlated with the total emotional intelligence scores. Implications for nursing education and clinical practice are discussed.

Perinatal palliative care: Integration in a United States nurse midwifery education program

Midwifery students with perinatal palliative care education develop a skillset to provide holistic midwifery care to women and families who are experiencing stillbirth or life-limiting fetal diagnoses. This paper presents a model of perinatal palliative care in a United States midwifery education program. By utilizing evidence based practices and national programs, perinatal palliative care can be threaded through midwifery curricula to achieve international standards of practice and competencies. Most importantly, enhancing perinatal palliative care education will better prepare future midwives for when a birth outcome is not what was expected at the outset of a pregnancy.

Describing clinical faculty experiences with patient safety and quality care in acute care settings: A mixed methods study

BACKGROUND A major safety initiative in acute care settings across the United States has been to transform hospitals into High Reliability Organizations. The initiative requires developing cognitive awareness, best practices, and infrastructure so that all healthcare providers including clinical faculty are accountable to deliver quality and safe care. OBJECTIVE To describe the experience of baccalaureate clinical nursing faculty concerning safety and near miss events, in acute care hospital settings. METHODS A mixed method approach was used to conduct the pilot study. Nurse faculty (n=18) completed study surveys from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to track patient safety concerns: Incidents; Near misses; or Unsafe conditions, during one academic semester, within 9 different acute care hospitals. Additionally, seven nurse faculty participated in end of the semester focus groups to discuss the semester long experience. RESULTS Clinical faculty identified a total of 24 patient occurrences: 15 Incidents, 1 Near miss event, and 8 Unsafe conditions. Focus group participants (n=7) described benefits and challenges experienced by nursing clinical faculty and students in relation to the culture of safety in acute care hospital settings. Six themes resulted from the content analysis. CONCLUSIONS Utilizing nursing clinical faculty and students may add significant value to promoting patient safety and the delivery of quality care, within acute care hospital settings.

Addressing changing sexual health needs through the lifespan

Sexuality is a continued human need that begins in adolescence and extends through older adulthood. In optimum states of health and wellness, sexuality may be addressed privately between a couple. However, the risk for sexually transmitted diseases, ranging from Herpes Simplex to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) forces the discussion away from the sexual dyad into a healthcare context. In addition, the presence of illness often makes the fulfillment of sexual needs difficult and mandates the involvement of nurses and other members of the interprofessional team in order to achieve and maintain sexual health. Despite the great need for nurses and other healthcare providers to conduct sexual assessments and implement plans of care surrounding sexual health, they are reluctant to do so. Historically, sexual health needs are not often viewed with the same priority, as other health needs. Thismay be because of embarrassment inherent in discussing intimate sexualmatters, but translates into a lack of education and a reluctance among nurses to address sexual health needs when patients need their help most. The last decades have seen a vast increase in the number of research articles focused on sexual health needs across the lifespan. From necessary assessment and teaching interventions for adolescents beginning to explore their sexual needs, to the management of sexual relationships among cognitively impaired older adults, the literature is becoming ripe with necessary information to help nurses to manage these needs and those of all populations in between. The result of this increase in the generation of knowledgemayhelp to cross the divide andprovide information that will empower nurses to address the essential elements of sexual health for patients across the lifespan. This will also provide the confidence to put knowledge into practice in both clinical and educational settings. Applied nursing research is pleased to present our contribution to reducing this knowledge gap by providing this special issue on sexuality. This special issue contains eight articles that span the age and population spectrums related to sexual health. We begin the special issue with an article entitled Young womens views on testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV as a risk reduction strategy in mutual and choice-restricted relationships. This research article, by Teitelman, Calhoun, Duncan, Washio and McDougal uses a qualitative approach to highlight interesting practices and choices around the sexuality of young urban women. Insights into how HIV testing is incorporated into relationships of choice-restricted young women are explored. Researchers Lee, Florez, Tariman, Riesche and McCarter provide the results of an integrative literature review concerning factors that influence risky sexual behaviors among Asian American adolescents. Five major factors that influence sexual behaviors among this population