Faculty

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community have historically faced prejudices, often resulting in significant health disparities. Critical care nurses have a duty to provide all patients, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, with the best possible care. This article examines a framework for LGBTQ-sensitive care as well as best practices and additional resources.

Honors programs in nursing can facilitate the professional development of high-achieving students, supporting their lifelong engagement in nursing practice, education, research, and health care policy issues. Strong mentoring relationships are commonly identified as essential to the success of nursing honors programs, but literature on mentoring relationships in an honors context is limited. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into faculty and student expectations for mentorship. Faculty and students shared similar expectations for both the mentor and mentee, highlighting key themes of engagement, facilitation, accountability, and collaboration as necessary for the success of an undergraduate nursing honors program.

Background In order to meet the demands of a dynamic and complex health care landscape, nursing education must develop and implement programming to produce a highly educated nursing workforce. Interprofessional honors education in nursing with targeted mentorship is one such model. Purpose To describe undergraduate nursing student and faculty perceptions and beliefs of mentorship in the context of interprofessional honors education, and compare and contrast the perceptions and beliefs about mentorship in interprofessional honors education between undergraduate nursing students and faculty. Methods The study used a cross-sectional, descriptive design. Data were collected at an urban university in the northeast US, using a researcher-developed electronic survey. The sample included 24 full-time nursing faculty, and 142 undergraduate nursing students. Results Perceptions and beliefs regarding mentorship in the context of interprofessional honors education were similar for faculty and students, with both ranking mentorship among the most important components of a successful honors program. Conclusions Honors education with a dedicated mentorship component may be implemented to improve the undergraduate education experience, facilitate advanced degree attainment, and develop future nursing leaders.

This study aim was to describe the influences that affect weaning from mechanical ventilation among older adults in the intensive care unit (ICU). Adults older than 65 years comprised only 14.5% of the US population in 2014; however, they accounted up to 45% of all ICU admissions. As this population grows, the number of ICU admissions is expected to increase. One of the most common procedures for hospitalized adults 75 years and older is mechanical ventilation. An integrative review methodology was applied to analyze and synthesize primary research reports. A search for the articles was performed using the PubMed and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases; using the keywords and Boolean operators "older adults," "weaning," "mechanical ventilation," and intensive care unit. Although physiologic changes that occur with aging place older adults at higher risk for respiratory complications and mortality, there are many factors, other than chronological age, that can determine a patient's ability to be successfully weaned from mechanical ventilation. Of the 6 studies reviewed, all identified various predictors of weaning outcome, which included maximal inspiratory pressure, rapid shallow breathing index, fluid balance, comorbidity burden, severity of illness, emphysematous changes, and low serum albumin. Age, in and of itself, is not a predictor of weaning from mechanical ventilation. More studies are needed to describe the influences affecting weaning older adults from mechanical ventilation.

AIM The aim of this study was to critically appraise and synthesize findings from studies on the attitudes of nursing students toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. BACKGROUND There is paucity of research to assess the attitudes of nursing students toward LGBT persons. METHOD An electronic search was conducted using PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, EbscoHost, PsycInfo, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature using medical subject headings terminologies. Search terms used included gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, LGBT, nursing students, baccalaureate nursing, undergraduate nursing, homophobia, homosexuality, sexual minority, attitudes, discrimination, and prejudice RESULTS Less than 50 percent of the studies (5 out of 12) suggested positively leaning attitudes of nursing students toward LGBT persons; six studies reported negative attitudes, and one study reported neutral attitudes. CONCLUSION There are some indications that student attitudes may be moving toward positively leaning. Studies published before 2000 reported a preponderance of negative attitudes.