No abstract

Advanced nursing practice in the United States of America has evolved over the past decades in two related but distinct directions:- the nurse practitioner (NP) and the clinical nurse specialist (CNS). This two-role evolution was in response to social demands for increased access to affordable, quality primary health care, and at the same time to the specialised nursing care requirements of increasingly complex patients. Thus, nurse practitioners became synonymous with primary and clinical nurse specialists with specialised, acute care. There is evidence that there is an advanced practice role for both the CNS and the NP and that much of the knowledge, skills and competencies are shared depending on the clinical situation. There have been successes and failures in the development of the two roles. The clinical nurse specialists have a more respectable image among the powerful nursing education elite, but nurse practitioners are widely recognised by consumers and other health care professionals and are valued by cost-conscious managers as a viable, cheaper alternative to physicians. The literature suggests it may well be time to take the best attributes of the two roles and merge them under the term 'advanced nurse practitioner'.

Context Palliative care patients and their family caregivers may have a foreshortened perspective of time left to live, or the expectation of the patient’s death in the near future. Patients and caregivers may report distress in physical, psychological, or existential/spiritual realms. Objectives To conduct a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of retired senior volunteers (RSVs) in delivering a reminiscence and creative activity intervention aimed at alleviating palliative care patient and caregiver distress. Methods Of the 45 dyads that completed baseline, 28 completed post-intervention and 24 completed follow-up. The intervention group received three home visits by RSVs; control group families received three supportive telephone calls by research staff. Measures included symptom assessment and associated burden, depression, religiousness/spirituality, and meaning in life. Results Patients in the intervention group reported a significantly greater reduction in frequency of emotional symptoms (P = 0.02) and emotional symptom bother (P = 0.04) than the control group, as well as improved spiritual functioning. Family caregivers in the intervention group were more likely than control caregivers to endorse items on the Meaning in Life Scale (P = 0.02). Only improvement in intervention patients’ emotional symptom bother maintained at follow-up after discontinuing RSV contact (P = 0.024). Conclusion Delivery of the intervention by RSVs had a positive impact on palliative care patients’ emotional symptoms and burden and caregivers’ meaning in life. Meaningful prolonged engagement with palliative care patients and caregivers, possibly through alternative modes of treatment delivery such as continued RSV contact, may be necessary for maintenance of therapeutic effects.

No abstract

This descriptive correlational study examined relationships among anxiety, depression, and spiritual well-being (SWB) in three groups of women (non-pregnant, normal pregnancy, high-risk pregnancy on bedrest). Women in each group completed a demographic survey, a Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and depression and anxiety subscales from the Abbreviated Scale for the Assessment of Psychosocial Status in Pregnancy. All groups (N = 180) demonstrated significant, inverse relationships among SWB, anxiety, and depression. Findings emphasize the importance of obstetrical nurses screening pregnant women to evaluate emotional health, especially in high risk pregnancies. Collaboration with mental health nurses may be useful in developing interventions to improve a woman's SWB, reduce anxiety and depression, and improve pregnancy outcomes.