Cardiovascular assessment skills are deficient among advanced practice nursing students, and effective instructional methods to improve assessment skills are needed. The purpose of this study was to develop, implement, and evaluate outcomes of a cardiovascular assessment curriculum for advanced practice nurses at four institutions. Each institution used a one-group pre-to-post-intervention design. Educational interventions included faculty-led, simulation-based case presentations using the Harvey cardiopulmonary patient simulator (CPS), and independent learning sessions using the CPS and a multimedia, computer-based CD-ROM program. Outcome measures included a 31-item cognitive written exam, a 13-item skills checklist used in each of a three-station objective structured clinical exam, learner self-efficacy and satisfaction survey, instructor satisfaction and self-efficacy survey, and a participant logbook to record practice time using the self-learning materials. Thirty-six students who received the simulation-based training showed statistically significant pre-to-post-test improvement in cognitive knowledge and cardiovascular assessment skills.
Effective patient–provider communication improves mammography utilization. Using information technology (IT) promotes health outcomes. However, there are disparities in access to IT that could contribute to disparities in mammography utilization. This study aims to assess the association between IT-based health care communication and mammography utilization and to evaluate if this effect is modified by race/ethnicity and age. To this end, this study was conducted using the National Health Interview Survey from 2011 to 2018. A total of 94,290 women aged 40 years and older were included. Multiple logistic regression models were used, and odds ratios were reported. The study found that all IT-based healthcare communication strategies were significantly associated with mammography utilization in all years from 2011 to 2018. In 2018, women who looked up health information on the internet, scheduled a medical appointment on the internet, and communicated with providers by email had a significantly higher chance to use mammography (p 0.005 for all strategies across all years). White women and women aged 50 years and older benefited the most from IT-based healthcare communication. In conclusion, facilitating access to IT may help increase mammography utilization, which may contribute to eliminating disparities in breast cancer mortality.
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