Judith Karshmer

Depression: a comparison study between blind and sighted adolescents.

An exploratory study was conducted to identify whether the incidence of depression was greater among blind adolescents than among a sighted comparison group. A convenience sample of 22 adolescents, legally blind since birth, and 29 sighted adolescents participated in the study. The adolescents in both samples were between the ages of 12 and 18. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to measure depression. The findings indicated that the incidence of depression among the blind adolescents was significantly higher than the incidence of depression among the sighted adolescents (t = 2.937, df = 50, p <. 005). Mean BDI score was 7.103 for the sighted group and 13.652 for the blind group. There were no significant relationships between demographic variables and depression. This study serves as a pilot for more extensive research that can expand the empirical base for understanding depression and its relationship to visual impairment among adolescents.

Academic Practice Partnerships: A National Dialogue

Academic-practice partnerships are an important mechanism to strengthen nursing practice and help nurses become well positioned to lead change and advance health. Through implementing such partnerships, both academic institutions and practice settings will formally address the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing Committee. Effective partnerships will create systems for nurses to achieve educational and career advancement, prepare nurses of the future to practice and lead, provide mechanisms for lifelong learning, and provide a structure for nurse residency programs. This paper details the work of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing-American Organization of Nurse Executives Task Force on Academic-Practice Partnerships that has identified hallmarks of successful partnership and produced tools and shared exemplars to assist nursing leaders in developing and sustaining partnerships for the future.

Role of the Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Emergency Department

Effective management of psychiatric emergencies has emerged as an important area in the field of mental illness. Psychiatric clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), with their advanced training in psychodynamics, pathophysiology, physical assessment, pharmacology, crisis intervention, and psychotherapy, are the ideal practitioners to respond to the treatment needs of the individual and family experiencing a psychiatric emergency. This article outlines the practice domain of the psychiatric CNS in such a setting. The psychiatric CNS brings a level of expertise to the emergency department that allows for comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment, effective crisis intervention, medication management, inclusion of family dynamics, and consideration of environmental influences in treatment and follow-up.

Competence gaps among unemployed new nursing graduates entering a community-based transition-to-practice program.

Multiple reports document competence gaps among employed new RN graduates. Less is known about the competence and confidence of new RN graduates who have not yet found employment in nursing. As part of an academic/practice partnership model, 4 collaboratives provided transition-to-practice programs for newly graduated and licensed, but unemployed, RNs. The authors describe the new nurses’ characteristics on program entry and discuss implications for nursing education and practice.

Psychiatric Emergency Service. Using Available Resources

When psychiatric patients come to hospital emergency departments for care, unique problems occur. Staff members are not prepared for this type of patient, and resources are strained. The authors discuss a collaborative nurse consultation service used to address this issue in a rural setting.

Preparing New Nurse Graduates for Practice in Multiple Settings: A Community-Based Academic–Practice Partnership Model

Responding to local and national concerns about the nursing workforce, the California Institute for Nursing and Health Care worked with private and public funders and community health care partners to establish community-based transition-to-practice programs for new RN graduates unable to secure nursing positions in the San Francisco Bay Area. The goals were to retain new RN graduates in nursing and further develop their skills and competencies to increase their employability. Leaders from academic and inpatient, ambulatory, and community-based practice settings, as well as additional community partners, collaboratively provided four 12- to 16-week pilot transition programs in 2010-2011. A total of 345 unemployed new nurse graduates enrolled. Eighty-four percent of 188 respondents to a post-program survey were employed in inpatient and community settings 3 months after completion. Participants and clinical preceptors also reported increases in confidence and competence.

Academic-practice partnerships fuel future success.

Healthcare faces an unprecedented perfect storm, a convergence of massive and disruptive forces requiring transformational change if healthcare institutions are to survive in the open competitive market. Successful entities will embrace healthcare reform despite fiscal challenges, while reducing costs, improving efficiencies, and being more accountable for patients_ clinical and financial outcomes. Those who succeed will inspire patient-centered transformative partnerships, innovation, and results. Those who fail will likely close their doors. A Call to Action Nurse leaders have long recognized the importance of partnerships, but the value proposition has become decidedly more pronounced in recent years. In 2008, US nursing schools turned away more than 40 000 qualified applicants from baccalaureate nursing programs because of insufficient numbers of faculty and limited clinical sites and classrooms. In 2011, more than 75 000 were turned away as budgets tightened and clinical preceptor availability significantly diminished. The demand for nurses and nursing care shows no signs of slowing as the nursing workforce and general population age. Baby boomers need increasingly more care, even as today_s nursing workforce nears retirement. In 2010, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) established a joint task force to initiate a national dialogue creating a sense of urgency around the importance of academic-practice partnerships to advance the future of nursing and improve healthcare in the United States. The initial work cannot be overemphasized for its relevance to the challenges of healthcare reform. Academic-practice partnerships promote knowledge sharing, enhance lifelong learning, and maximize the potential of each nurse to practice to the highest level of his/her ability in relation to scope of practice. An interactive tool kit created by the task force is designed to facilitate the development, growth, and evaluation of academic-practice partnerships as a fundamental condition to advance nursing practice and

The Clinical Nurse Leader: Helping Psychiatric Mental Health Nurses Transform Their Practice

The national movement to transform the health care delivery systems must include a focus on mental health treatment. To address similar deficits across other practice domains, the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) role has been created. The CNL is a masters degree that prepares a nurse to use a systems perspective to improve outcomes for a cohort of patient, deliver care based on best practices, and coordinate care in a multidisciplinary team. Applying the CNL role to mental health care could help psychiatric mental health nursing be at the forefront in the transformation of mental health care delivery.

Psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist practice in a public school setting.

The public school setting is increasingly becoming an entry point of contact for an array of healthcare services because it is most likely the best positioned institution to improve a community’s overall healthcare. By linking behavioral healthcare services with primary healthcare services in the school setting, the psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist is well suited to provide comprehensive behavioral health services.

Expert nursing diagnoses. The link between nursing care plans and patient classification systems.

The two main tools used by the nurse in organizing and managing patient care are nursing care plans and the patient classification system. The author presents an overview of a novel approach that links these two tools through the use of expert nursing diagnoses and then applies the development and use of expert nursing diagnoses to the psychiatric setting. The author also describes the methodology used to develop the related patient classification, clarifies the validation procedure, gives examples of the final product, and considers the application and potential value of the total approach.