May Nursing News and Research Briefs

Team Interventions Can Play Important Role in Alleviating Nursing Burden, Stress and Burnout—A nursing practice development project described in "Burdensome Situations in Everyday Nursing," in the current issue of Nursing Administration Quarterly, illustrates how burden—the psychosocial and physical consequences of providing direct care—can induce stress and, potentially, burnout among nursing teams. The study, undertaken in small county hospitals in Switzerland by Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) post-doctoral fellow Maya Shaha, PhD, RN and others, focuses attention on how nursing often occurs as a group action and how burden, especially when caring for ill family members and those experiencing mental health problems, degenerative diseases, and chronic illness, can affect not only the individual nurse, but also the entire nursing team.. Shaha, who published the manuscript under the guidance of JHUSON Senior Associate Dean Anne E. Belcher, PhD, RN, explored with colleagues situations causing burden, discerned areas for improvement, designed interventions, and evaluated their effectiveness. Their findings indicate that team level interventions which provide new knowledge and apply problem-based nursing methods, hold promise of addressing and alleviating aspects of burden, stress, and burnout. SON Associate Professor Helps Craft First Community-Based Participatory Research Journal—Miyong Kim, PhD, RN has joined other experts in the field of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in the launch of a new peer-reviewed journal, Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education and Action (PCHP). The journal will focus on a broad spectrum of scholarly activity in the growing field of CBPR, a collaborative approach to research that typically involves community members, organizations, and researchers working in partnership in all aspects of the research process. In "A Vision for Progress in Community Health Partnerships," a special article appearing in the first issue, Kim and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins University schools of Medicine and Public Health, Morgan State University, University of Chicago, the Baltimore (MD) Medical System, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, and Community Building in Partnership, Inc. describe eight significant areas of scholarly activity that can promote health partnership research, education, and action: Original Research, Work-in-Progress and Lessons Learned, Policy and Practice Perspectives, Theory and Methods, Education and Training; Practical Tools, Systematic Reviews, and Community Perspectives. These topics will constitute the journal's main areas of focus.

In Other News

JHUSON Associate Dean for Research Jerilyn K. Allen, ScD, RN is a member of the Göteborg University, Sweden research team that has published "A Content Analysis of Patient Centeredness in Hypertension Care After Consultation Training For Nurses" in the current issue of The Internet Journal of Advanced Nursing Practice. According to the study, conversations encouraging at-risk patients to reduce cardiovascular risk factors by making lifestyle changes are more likely to succeed if made in a "patient-centered" way—one that encourages patient participation as equal partners in decision making processes. The team found that a group of nurses who had received patient-centered consultation training conducted consultations with hypertensive patients that were more focused, with a greater scope of interaction, and included more conversational interaction such as taking turns in discussion. They concluded that the individually adapted way of giving information the nurses learned during the training increased nurse/patient negotiations about the reasons and timing for necessary behavioral change in risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, weight reduction, sedentary lifestyle, and stress.

The "Worldwide health care crisis is reparable," according to JHUSON Associate Professor Cynda H. Rushton, PhD, RN and colleagues working with the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH). Rushton, an international co-director of the Initiative, joined fellow co-directors Barbara M. Dossey, PhD, RN and Deva-Marie Beck, PhD, RN in an editorial published May 5, 2007 in The Dallas Morning News calling for audiences worldwide to "re-ignite Ms. Nightingale's vision" and to renew commitment to her work. During Nurses Week 2007 (May 6-12) the NIGH is launching the Nightingale Declaration Campaign (http://www.nightihngaledeclaration.net) to collect—by November 2008—two million signatures requesting the United Nations General Assembly adopt resolutions naming 2010 as the International Year of the Nurse, and 2011-2020 as the UN Decade for a Healthy World. Throughout the year, Rushton and the NIGH will promote global realization of Nightingale's dream of a healthy world for all. Their efforts are designed to raise public awareness about the "crucial connections between empowered nurses and the health of people everywhere."

The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing is a global leader in nursing research, education and scholarship. The nurses who are part of the School's tradition of excellence exemplify the best practices in patient care and become innovative national and international leaders in the evolution of the nursing profession and the health care system. Its nursing graduate programs are ranked among the best in the nation by U.S.News & World Report, with the community health and nursing service administration graduate programs continuing to hold positions in the top tier of rankings. The research programs at the School have achieved eighth position among the top nursing schools for securing federal research grants. For more information, visit http://www.son.jhmi.edu/