Maria Hein

Physical activity in police beyond self-report.

Objective: Police officers have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease. Reductions in occupational physical activity may contribute to the risk, yet there have been few efforts to characterize the physical demands of police work beyond self-report. Purpose: To compare measured physical activity between work and off-duty hours and assess the effects of stress on physical activity. Methods: Officers (n = 119) from six departments wore a pattern recognition monitor for 96 hours to measure total energy expenditure (kilocalorie per hour) (1k/cal = 4184 joules), activity intensity, and step count per hour. Results: Participants were more active on their off-duty days than at work; the effects of stress on physical activity seemed moderated by sex. Conclusions: Police work is primarily a sedentary occupation, and officers tend to be more active on their off-duty days than during their work hours.

Building Resilience in an Urban Police Department.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine a resilience training intervention that impacts autonomic responses to stress and improves cardiovascular risk, psychological, and physiological outcomes in police. Methods: Officers [(n = 38) 22 to 54 years] modified emotional and physical responses to stress using self-regulation. Measurements include psychological and physiological measures [eg, heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure, C-reactive protein)] obtained at three time intervals. Results: Age was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with changes on several measures of psychological stress (eg, critical incident stress, emotional vitality, and depression). Associations were found between coherence and improved HbA1c (r = −0.66, P < 0.001) and stress due to organizational pressures (r = −0.44, P = 0.03). Improvements in sympathetic and parasympathetic contributors of HRV were significant (P < 0.03). Conclusion: A stress-resilience intervention improves certain responses to job stress with greater benefits for younger participants.

Person-Centered Communication for Nursing Home Residents With Dementia: Four Communication Analysis Methods:

Person-centered communication recognizes the individual as a person and responds to the individual’s feelings, preferences, and needs. This secondary analysis tested four interdisciplinary strategies to measure changes in person-centered communication used by nursing home staff following an intervention. Thirty-nine nursing assistants were recruited from 11 nursing homes and participated in the three-session Changing Talk communication training. Video recordings were collected at baseline, immediately postintervention, and at 3-month follow-up. Staff communication was analyzed using behavioral, psycholinguistic, and emotional tone coding of elderspeak communication and content analysis of communication topics. Sign rank test was used to compare postintervention changes for each measure of communication. Postintervention improvements in communication occurred for each measure; however, the changes were statistically significant only for behavioral and psycholinguistic measures. Methods and results for each communication measure were compared. Implications for future research and use of measures of person-centered communication as a tool to improve care are discussed.

Medication Management in Schools: 2015 Survey Results

The increasing prevalence of chronic conditions in children, for both common and rare conditions, over the past 30 years, and the increase in the number and range of medications used to manage these conditions, has contributed to the need to address medication management in schools. The purpose of this article is to present the key findings from a national survey on medication administration in schools. A nonexperimental cross-sectional design was used in this descriptive study. An online survey was sent to school nurses across the country. Responses from a total of 6,298 school nurses were used in the analysis. Results of the survey related to prescription and nonprescription medications, medication storage, student’s carrying their medications, delegation of medication administration, documentation, and medication errors are discussed. The article concludes that many different medications are administered during the school day. School nurses must advocate for proper policies and procedures to guard the safety of students.

Nursing Home Staff Intentions for Learned Communication Skills: Knowledge to Practice.

Staff education is critical to improving nursing home dementia care practice. However, a lag in translation to practice is a barrier to improving care. As part of a clinical trial testing effects of a communication intervention on behaviors of residents with dementia, participant-reported likelihood of using learned skills in practice was evaluated in relation to organizational and individual factors in 10 nursing homes. The authors hypothesized that organizational and individual factors would influence staff intention to use new skills in practice. Pre-and post-training comparisons confirmed that staff gained knowledge about communication effectiveness. Staff reported high likelihood for using skills in practice based on modified Duke Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Scale scores. Care organization was correlated with total DOI scores (r = 0.82, p < 0.01). DOI subscales correlations to organizational and individual attitudes are reported. Evaluating quality improvement interventions in relation to translation to practice is essential in todays nursing home environment.

Testing a Resilience Training Program in Police Recruits: A Pilot Study:

Background: Stress from multiple sources is inherent in law enforcement. However, it is possible to modify responses to stress with resilience training that includes teaching techniques to modify emotional and physical responses to stress, interface with mental health professionals, and practice sessions to improve self-regulation of responses to stress including coherence, a measure of heart rate variability. A gap exists in the research, however, regarding evaluation of the duration of effects after the initial resilience training. Method: Subjects included (N = 34) recruits enrolled in summer 2015 at the Milwaukee Police Academy. An experimental design was used to compare recruits who received resilience training to recruits in the control group. Results: No statistically significant differences between the groups were found for self-reported measures of stress and resilience. For the treatment group (n = 17), change in coherence was significant (p < .001) and improvement in the Personal Organizational Quality Assessment Emotional Buoyancy subscale correlated significantly with the number of practice sessions (r = .63, p = .01) and marginally with change in coherence (r = .47, p = .07). Conclusion: Results confirm several significant effects of resilience training with recruits.

Evaluation of Stress Experienced by Emergency Telecommunications Personnel Employed in a Large Metropolitan Police Department

Emergency telecommunications personnel (ETCP) form the hub of police agencies and persistently deal with distressing situations on a daily basis, making them highly susceptible to psychological and physiological ailments. To date, few studies have examined the necessity or feasibility of implementing a resilience training intervention for ETCP. In this study, the authors assessed baseline psychological data from the ETCP of a large police department to determine the differences in baseline measures for ETCP and police officers. Participants included ETCP ages 29 to 64 years (n = 19). Results showed that ETCP self-reported greater levels of psychological stress compared with police officers (p < .05) for the majority of measures; ETCP experience excessive levels of stress and greater prevalence of chronic disease. Consideration should be given to piloting resilience interventions within this group to manage stress; improve health, performance, and decision making; and decrease the prevalence of chronic disease.