Graduate nurses experience stress transitioning from student to practicing professional nurse, moving from a familiar educational environment into the workforce, where expectations are to rapidly function as a competent nurse. This study identified the stresses and challenges experienced by cohorts of graduate nurses working in 6 acute care hospitals, during specific timed data periods, to better understand factors that may influence graduate nurse retention. Results report graduate nurses do not feel skilled, comfortable, and confident for as long as 1 year after being hired, highlighting the need for healthcare organizations to provide extended orientation and support programs to facilitate successful entry into practice.

Moving research findings into practice is important for the nursing profession. Barriers to the use of research findings in practice must be modified. A dialogue between administration and staff about how to remove the barriers is critical.

Nursing students must be prepared to enter the practice environment ready to competently care for patients. The purpose of this study was to examine factors hypothesized to influence senior nursing students' perceptions of readiness for practice and to determine their level of comfort performing skills independently. This study also validates an investigator-developed instrument, the Casey-Fink Readiness for Practice Survey. Factor loading indicated four components tested by subscales in the survey: clinical problem solving, learning techniques, professional identity, and trials and tribulations. The greatest challenges reported by students were managing multiple patient care assignments, communicating with physicians, and caring for dying patients. Clinical competency, role development, and career planning support were areas in which students desired more assistance during their senior practicum course. Most survey respondents voiced confidence in their ability to problem solve and felt ready to assume the professional nursing role.

Abstract-Older adults in nursing homes experience pain that is often underassessed and undertreated. Visual analog painintensity scales, recommended for widespread use in adults, do not work well in the older adult population. A variety of other tools are in use, including the Verbal Descriptor Scale, the Faces Pain Scale (FPS), and the Numeric Rating Scale. These tools are more acceptable to older adults, but no agreement exists about how to compare the resulting pain-intensity scores across residents. This study examined the equivalency of painintensity scores for 135 nursing home residents who reported their pain on the three different instruments. The results were validated with a second sample of 135 nursing home residents. The pain levels across the three tools were highly correlated, but residents were found to underrate higher pain intensity on the FPS. A modification of scoring for the FPS led to greater agreement across the three tools. The findings have implications for use of these tools for quality improvement and public reporting of pain.

Research to guide rural palliative care practice is sparse. Approaches to telehealth, community- academic partnerships, and training rural health care professionals show promise, but more research is needed to determine best practices for providing palliative care to patients living in rural settings.

Context Latinos experience significant health disparities at the end of life compared with non-Latinos. Objectives To determine the feasibility of a patient navigator intervention to improve palliative care outcomes for Latino adults with serious illness. Methods This was a pilot randomized controlled trial that included 64 Latino adults with life-limiting illness randomized to an intervention or control group. All participants received a packet of linguistically matched materials on palliative care. In addition, intervention participants received up to five home visits from the bilingual, bicultural patient navigator. Visits focused on addressing barriers to palliative care through education, activation, and culturally tailored messaging. Outcomes included feasibility and advance care planning rates, documentation of pain management discussions in the medical record, and hospice utilization. Results Of the 32 patients randomized to the intervention arm, 81% had at least one home visit (range 1–5) with the patient navigator. Overall, advance care planning was higher in the intervention group – 47% (n = 15) vs. 25% (n = 8) (P=0.06), and 79% of intervention participants had a discussion about pain management documented in their medical record vs. 54% of control patients (P = 0.05). Hospice enrollment between the two groups (n=18 decedents) was similar (n=7 intervention vs. n=6 control; length of stay in the intervention group was 36.4± 51.6 days vs. 19.7±33.6 days for control patients (P = 0.39). Conclusion A culturally tailored patient navigator intervention was feasible and suggests improved palliative care outcomes for Latinos facing advanced medical illness, justifying a fully powered randomized controlled trial.

Pain is a complex problem in the nursing home setting. Multiple factors must be considered in both the design and implementation of interventions to improve pain practices and reduce pain prevalence in nursing homes.

Knowledge deficits related to pain management persist in nursing homes. An interactive multifaceted educational program was only partially successful in improving knowledge across settings and job categories. Attitudes and beliefs appear more difficult to change, whereas environmental and contextual factors appeared to be reducing perceived barriers to effective pain management across all participating nursing homes.