The persistence of negative attitudes towards cancer pain and its treatment suggests there is scope for identifying more effective pain education strategies. This randomized controlled trial involving 189 ambulatory cancer patients evaluated an educational intervention that aimed to optimize patients' ability to manage pain. One week post-intervention, patients receiving the pain management intervention (PMI) had a significantly greater increase in self-reported pain knowledge, perceived control over pain, and number of pain treatments recommended. Intervention group patients also demonstrated a greater reduction in willingness to tolerate pain, concerns about addiction and side effects, being a "good" patient, and tolerance to pain relieving medication. The results suggest that targeted educational interventions that utilize individualized instructional techniques may alter cancer patient attitudes, which can potentially act as barriers to effective pain management.

Despite improved recognition recently, restrictions in upper-body movement continue to cause impairment and distress for many women long after breast cancer treatment. The purpose of this research is to investigate this issue through the perceptions of breast cancer survivors in the context of their everyday lives. Twenty-four women recruited from a private breast clinic in south-eastern Queensland, Australia, participated in a qualitative study. Discussion groups comprised women treated for breast cancer within the previous 18 months. Discussions centred on experiences of physical difficulties, follow-up support, arm lymphoedema and exercise therapy during the women's recoveries. Returning to normal activities for women after breast surgery was felt to take longer than either the women's or their physicians' expectations. Many women reported difficulties in upper-body tasks, which worsened simple everyday responsibilities. The physical impact leads to psychological strain, as the women are constantly reminded of their illness and the possibility they may never return to their full capacity. These upper-body difficulties may include discomfort while driving and sleeping, posture disturbances, reduced employability in physical work, and decreased ability to do housework and gardening. Having lymphoedema or the threat of developing it was very distressing for most women. The potential preventive role of physiotherapy-led exercises to prevent further decline and improve function was strongly emphasised during these discussions. Clinicians need to recognise that it is very common for women with breast cancer to experience upper-body morbidity long after their treatment, and consequently every effort to enhance recovery and avoid further deterioration in function is required.

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The Yapunyah Project is an initiative of the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology. It was instigated to further improve the development of cultural competence in health graduates with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. The project was informed by the cultural competence in healthcare delivery models of Campinha-Bacote (1998a) and Cross, Bazron, Dennis and Isaacs (1989) and by the cultural safety reforms to nursing curricula in New Zealand. The Yapunyah Project involved extensive consultation and collaboration with Indigenous staff and health experts in the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. A core curriculum, and associated graduate transcultural competencies, were informed by these discussions and earlier reforms in health curricula by the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Although the overall project involved four separate schools within the faculty, this paper details the experience of embedding Indigenous perspectives within the undergraduate nursing curriculum. The experience has been a challenging and positive one, and the reforms have been supported by a sustainable framework. This paper outlines how one university faculty is endeavouring to educationally prepare nursing students to practice with evidence-based transcultural nursing knowledge based on culture care values, beliefs, and traditional lifeways of Indigenous people of Australia. As such, the project aims to contribute to the improvement and promotion of the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians in culturally and ethnohistorically meaningful ways.

The amount and complexity of information nurses are expected to manage continues to increase exponentially. Support has grown for integrated curriculum approaches that include appropriate content on the use of a variety of information formats and instruction using resource-based and process methods. Such teaching-learning approaches demand a major shift in educational paradigms and encompass resource-based learning, undergraduate research, service learning, inquiry learning, and problem-based learning. The implementation of an integrated curriculum promises advanced information skills, access, and use of available evidence to support clinical decision making and a foundation for lifetime learning. In this article, we argue that for information literacy to be enhanced, collaboration between teaching faculty and librarians must be fostered in meaningful ways. We report on the rationale of an integrated curriculum, changes to nursing education, and obstacles to the development and application of advanced information skills that exist within higher education and clinical settings.

Results indicated a paucity of studies at the highest levels of evaluation, indicating an area where future research is needed to assist with the development and improvement of simulation education. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(7):393-398.].

The aim of this paper is to describe the prevalence and perceptions of pain and pain management amongst hospital in-patients. A cross-sectional descriptive survey of 205 patients was conducted. Presence and severity of pain was assessed using verbal descriptor and visual analogue scales, and perceptions of pain were assessed using multi-item scales. Although the severity of pain reported was consistent across age groups and clinical areas, women in the study sample were significantly more likely to report high levels of pain than men. Differences in how men and women communicate their pain were observed, with women indicating that they were less willing to ask for help with their pain. Results suggest that pain continues to be an important problem for a large number of men and women in hospital, and that the experience of pain impacts negatively upon their well-being. Gender differences in the experience of and response to pain remain important considerations for clinical nurses who have major responsibilities for the management of pain in hospitalized patients.

A statewide cross-sectional survey was conducted in Australia to identify the determinants of registered nurses' intention to administer opioids to patients with pain. Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived control, the key determinants of the Theory of Planned Behavior, were found to independently predict nurses' intention to administer opioids to these patients. Perceived control was the strongest predictor. Nurses reported positive overall attitudes towards opioids and their use in pain management. However, many negative attitudes were identified; for example, administering the least amount of opioid and encouraging patients to have non-opioids rather than opioids for pain relief. The findings related to specific attitudes and normative pressures provide insight into registered nurses' management of pain for hospitalized patients and the direction for educational interventions to improve registered nurses' administration of opioids for pain management.