Recently Published St. Joseph Hospital Nurses

Here are a few of the most recent articles published by SJO nurses, congratulations!

Instrument validation: hospital nurse perceptions of their Behavioral Health Care Competency.
Rutledge DN, Wickman M, Drake D, Winokur E, Loucks J.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
2012 May 2.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.06025.x. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract:
Aim: To report the development and psychometric testing of the Behavioral Health Care Competency survey, designed to measure hospital nurse perceptions of behavioral healthcare competency. Background.  Hospital nurses working in general or other non-psychiatric units may lack behavioral healthcare competency to manage disruptive behaviours associated with mental illnesses.
Design.  Instrument development.
Method.  A nurse study team including clinical experts and nurse researchers from three community hospitals in southern California (USA) reviewed content validity of each item and the 31-item instrument and created a behavioral health care competency conceptual model based on the nursing process. Separate institutional review board permissions were obtained from each hospital. The study team collaborated in the timing of survey administration (November 2010), analysis of the results and survey validation.
Results.  A total of 844 nurses completed the survey, representing approximately 23-41% of eligible nurses from each hospital. Using principal component analysis with varimax rotation, 23 items led to a factor structure with four components. Four subscales with adequate alpha coefficients were formed: Resource Adequacy, Patient Assessment, Practice/Intervention Competency, and Psychotropic Recommendation.
Conclusion.  The 23-item hospital nurse Behavioral Health Care Competency survey is an adequate and valid newly developed instrument. Further testing with diverse samples is needed to strengthen generalizability and address unique and specialized nursing care needs.

Reconceptualizing patient safety attendants.
Wiggins, Alexandra; Welp, Cheryl; Rutledge, Dana N.;
Nursing Management, 2012 May; 43(5): 25-7

A model program for perinatal palliative services.
Engelder S, Davies K, Zeilinger T, Rutledge D.
Advances in Neonatal Care. 2012 Feb;12(1):28-36.

Abstract:
Despite the fact that parents of infants with lethal anomalies may not want "full-blown" medical care for their infants after birth, most such infants die in neonatal intensive care units. Although neonatal nurses are trained to administer life-saving treatments, they may suffer from moral distress when faced with caring for babies with incompatible-with-life conditions. This article describes a Perinatal Comfort Care program in which (a) care is provided at the time of diagnoses/antenatally and includes home visits by members of an interdisciplinary hospice team; (b) care is collaborative, community-based, and family-centered, and takes place in labor and delivery and on the mother baby unit; and (c) follow-up to the family continues for 1 year after the death. Neonatal nurses can become involved either by initiating efforts to form a perinatal comfort care program or by joining an existing team.