The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of level and sources of stress in nursing students in the various years of the baccalaureate nursing program by identifying the general level of physiological and psychological health, identifying the levels of stress experienced by students in second-, third-, and fourth-year nursing and by identifying the areas that are perceived as being particularly stressful. The method was a descriptive correlational design. The sample consisted of 94 baccalaureate nursing students. Data were collected using two questionnaires - the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Stress Inventory. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions, t-tests, content analysis, measures of correlation, and analysis of variance. Results showed that the students experienced high stress levels and that they are at risk of having a physical or psychiatric illness. Analysis was done splitting the groups by student status, i.e., RN or generic. Results showed that while both groups are stressed, the generic students report significantly higher levels of stress. Sources of stress also were identified and reported in this article.

Cultural competence is increasingly recognized as an essential component of effective mental health care delivery to address diversity and equity issues. Drawing from the literature and our experience in providing cultural competence consultation and training, the paper will discuss our perspective on the foundational concepts of cultural competence and how it applies to a health care organization, including its programs and services. Based on a recent consultation project, we present a methodology for assessing cultural competence in health care organizations, involving mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. Key findings and recommendations from the resulting cultural competence plan are discussed, including core principles, change strategies, and an Organizational Cultural Competence Framework, which may be applicable to other health care institutions seeking such changes. This framework, consisting of eight domains, can be used for organizational assessment and cultural competence planning, ultimately aiming at enhancing mental health care service to the diverse patients, families, and communities.

OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the role of nurse managers in supporting point-of-care nurses' health information technology (IT) use and identify strategies employed by nurse managers to improve adoption, while also gathering point-of-care nurses' perceptions of these strategies. BACKGROUND Nurse managers are essential in facilitating point-of-care nurses' use of health IT; however, the underlying phenomenon for this facilitation remains unreported. METHODS A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 10 nurse managers and 14 point-of-care nurses recruited from a mental health hospital environment in Ontario, Canada. Inductive and deductive content analyses were used to analyze the semistructured interviews. RESULTS Nurse managers adopt the role of advocate, educator, and connector, using the following strategies: communicating system updates, demonstrating use of health IT, linking staff to resources, facilitating education, and providing IT oversight. CONCLUSIONS Nurse managers use a variety of strategies to support nurses' use of health IT. Future research should focus on the effectiveness of these strategies.

Objectives  The objective of this review was to evaluate evidence on the structures and processes that support development of effective culturally competent practices and a healthy work environment. Culturally competent practices are a congruent set of workforce behaviours, management practices and institutional policies within a practice setting resulting in an organisational environment that is inclusive of cultural and other forms of diversity. Inclusion criteria  This review included quantitative and qualitative evidence, with a particular emphasis on identifying systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials. For quantitative evidence, other controlled, and descriptive designs were also included. For qualitative evidence, all methodologies were considered. Participants were staff, patients, and systems or policies that were involved or affected by concepts of cultural competence in the nursing workforce in a healthcare environment. Types of interventions included any strategy that had a cultural competence component, which influenced the work environment, and/or patient and nursing staff in the environment. The types of outcomes of interest to this review included nursing staff outcomes, patient outcomes, organisational outcomes and systems level outcomes. Search strategy  The search sought both published and unpublished literature written in the English language. A comprehensive three-step search strategy was used, first to identify appropriate key words, second to combine all optimal key words into a comprehensive search strategy for each database and finally to review the reference lists of all included reviews and research reports. The databases searched were CINAHL, Medline, Current Contents, the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Embase, Sociological Abstracts, Econ lit, ABI/Inform, ERIC and PubMed. The search for unpublished literature used Dissertation Abstracts International. Methodological quality  Methodological quality was independently established by two reviewers, using standardised techniques from the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information (SUMARI) package. Discussion with a third reviewer was initiated where a low level of agreement was identified for a particular paper. Following inclusion, data extraction was conducted using standardised data extraction tools from the JBI SUMARI suite for quantitative and qualitative research. Data synthesis was performed using the JBI Qualitative Assessment and Review Instrument and JBI Narrative, Opinion and Text Assessment and Review Instrument software to aggregate findings by identifying commonalities across texts. Quantitative data were presented in narrative summary, as statistical pooling was not appropriate with the included studies. Results  Of the 659 identified papers, 45 were selected for full paper retrieval, and 19 were considered to meet the inclusion criteria for this review. The results identified a number of processes that w...

In conclusion, users were overall satisfied with the e-Volution-TREAT system, although expressed challenges related to workload that interfered with time to utilize the system. It would be premature to conclude the change in client outcomes was related to the e-Volution-TREAT system without a randomized controlled trial with outcomes compared to a control group. Future research needs to incorporate strategies for modifying the context and engage clinicians who are in a position of influence to model change.

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Background:Oxidative stress has gained attention recently in behavioral medicine and has been reported to be associated with various psychological disturbances and their prognoses.Objectives:Study aims to evaluate the oxidative stress (malonylaldehyde (MDA) levels) and its relation with psychological factors (dimensions of personality, levels of anxiety, stress, and depression) among medical/paramedical students of 1st and 3rd year).Materials and Methods:A total of 150 students; 75 from 1st year (2010–2011) and75 from 3rd year (2009–2010); of medical and paramedical background were assessed on level of MDA (oxidative stress) and personality variables, that is, level of anxiety, stress, and depression. These psychological variables were correlated with the level of their oxidative stress.Results:Findings revealed that both groups are influenced by oxidative stress and their psychological variables are also compatible in order to confirm their vulnerabilities to stress.Conclusions:Stress in 3rd year students was significantly higher and it was noted that it adversely affects the psychological parameters. Hence, special attention on mental health aspect in these students may be given.

The need for cultural competence in nursing has been well articulated for over four decades. While the early calls for cultural competence viewed it as a moral and ethical imperative, increasing evidence of health disparities clearly highlights the importance of cultural competence in addressing disparities in healthcare quality and outcomes. Thus cultural competence today is widely regarded as a clinical and professional imperative. However, when it comes to cultural competence, there is often more talk than action. Difficulties in defining, describing and making cultural competence visible in day-today practice have resulted in the current situation where despite recognition of need, the goal of integrating culture into clinical care remains elusive.