A Nurse Practitioner’s Guide to Airline Medicine

Several factors make commercial aircraft travel hazardous to passengers who may be sick or vulnerable to the strenuous environmental conditions of a modern jet airliner. These risk factors can expose a practitioner’s license if the practitioner volunteers to help a passenger who is having a medical emergency aboard an airliner. Understanding the history of medical emergencies during flight, the pathophysiology encountered by passengers, and, subsequently, the legal basis of medical emergencies aboard a commercial airline can be a very valuable process for any health care practitioner. A Good Samaritan law can be a useful piece of legislation for any practitioner.     

Managing Myelodysplastic Syndrome and the Nurse Practitioner’s Role

Patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) require expert, consistent monitoring and management of their blood counts, disease status, and treatment regimens. Understanding how MDS presents and progresses as well as understanding treatment options and how to implement them on an individualized patient basis is essential for patients to receive optimal care. Nurse practitioners play a central role in the care of MDS patients. They have an opportunity to develop trusting relationships with their patients and are crucial parts of the health care team in helping to coordinate care, facilitate treatment, improve quality of life, and avoid life-threatening complications of the disease.     

A Workshop To Develop Nurse Practitioner Competencies in Women’s Reproductive Health

Reproductive health is a central component of nurse practitioner education. Training opportunities in reproductive health have been limited by multiple factors. This article reviews the background on women’s reproductive health assessment and the outcomes of an intensive workshop to give students opportunity to demonstrate competence in sexual health history taking, pelvic examination skills, and clinical analysis of common reproductive health concerns. Students overwhelmingly reported that the workshop increased their competence and confidence in reproductive health skills. This reproducible workshop fits well into the emergence of competency-based nurse practitioner education.     

Hereditary Cancer Genetic Risk Assessment,Testing, and Counseling: A Nurse Practitioner–Led Program in a Community Setting

The demand for hereditary cancer genetic risk assessment, testing, and counseling is growing. Nurse practitioners (NPs) can fill the gap to provide comprehensive genetic care, particularly in rural communities. The focus of this article is the role of NPs in providing hereditary cancer genetic risk assessment, testing, and counseling services to meet the needs of rural communities. The authors used the logic model to implement an NP-led hereditary cancer risk assessment, testing, and counseling program in a West Texas oncology clinic.     

Novice Nurse Practitioner Faculty and the Online Educator’s Role

Nursing programs continue to transition or establish online education programs in response to the need for nursing faculty to teach in postlicensure to higher educational degree programs. Recruitment efforts target experienced nurse practitioners (NPs) in clinical practice who may be considering an academic role. Before the acceptance of the novice NP faculty role, the components of the role, faculty development resources, extent of orientation, and role expectations must be discussed. Limited preparation to online education environments jeopardizes the recruitment and retention of qualified NP faculty. This article reviews strategies for successfully acclimating novice faculty to online teaching.     

Nurse Practitioner–Directed Cardio-Diabetes Pilot Program

Historically, antihyperglycemics for patients with Type 2 diabetes have not been managed by cardiology clinicians. This paradigm has shifted after the release of cardiovascular (CV) outcome trials using 2 new classes of antihyperglycemics agents, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors or glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists, which demonstrated a decrease in all-cause mortality, CV death, and stroke. The purpose of this pilot program was to translate this trial data into practice by developing a protocol for cardiology-based nurse practitioners (NPs) to initiate these agents. Cardiology NPs demonstrated the feasibility of initiating these agents within a cardiology practice using a shared decision-making, patient-centric framework.     

The Nurse Practitioner’s Role in the Management of Gender Dysphoria Among Youth

Gender dysphoria can occur at any age, although young children often explore gender identity through dress-up and play at age 3. Youth experiencing gender incongruence need access to health care providers who are aware of medical interventions for gender reassignment and the importance of follow-up care. Nurse practitioners (NPs) need to be well versed on issues surrounding gender identity while providing culturally competent care. NPs must have a thorough understanding of treatment options for gender dysphoria, including pubertal blockade and cross-sex hormone therapy. NPs must consider possible implications of treatment delay in order to establish the most appropriate treatment plans.     

Nurse Practitioners’ and Nurse Practitioner Students’ LGBT Health Perceptions

Nurse practitioner (NP) and NP student perceptions of adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health needs were qualitatively explored. One overreaching theme, “We need to do better. We have a lot to do,” and four key themes were identified: (1) same basic health needs as straight people; (2) a little more risk, a little more help, a little extra care; (3) breaking down that trusting, honest provider relationship; and (4) society sucks and social media and politics play a major role. Results support the need for future research exploring NP and NP student understanding of LGBT health needs.     

Teledermatology: A Tool for Nurse Practitioner Practice?

Teledermatology is the practice of dermatology from a distance and can be used in several ways. This emerging technology has the potential to impact the current health care delivery system and provide dermatology care to a greater number of patients in underserved areas. Current research shows that the diagnostic concordance rates and accuracy rates are high, but there are also limitations with teledermatology use. Nurse practitioners have the potential to become active participants in the practice of teledermatology and ensure the provision of dermatology services to underserved populations.     

Course on Gender and Women’s Health for Nurse Practitioner Students

A women’s health nurse practitioner (WHNP) provides comprehensive care to women from menarche through senescence. Nurse practitioner curriculum prepares competent WHNPs by integrating both practice and clinical knowledge in the context of women’s values. We developed a course that focused directly on how the social, cultural, and political context of women’s lives, both past and present, has influenced women’s health to provide students the opportunity to fully immerse into these issues. This article reports on the development of and student responses to a course focusing on gender and women’s health issues as part of the curriculum for a WHNP program.     

Nurse Practitioner–Led Vitamin D Screening and Supplementation Program in Rural Primary Care

Vitamin D deficiency is the most prevalent micronutrient deficiency in the world and is associated with myriad preventable chronic illnesses. To address this problem in a rural primary care practice, an electronic medical record (EMR) prompt for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was added to an existing lab order set to screen vulnerable elderly patients over age 65 years for vitamin D deficiency during a Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (MAWV). The EMR prompt increased the percentage of patients screened by 90%, the number of patients screened by 1,400%, and those supplemented by 783%. These results suggest that vitamin D screening during Medicare Annual Wellness Visits provides a platform to screen and supplement vitamin D to mitigate chronic diseases associated with deficiency.     

A Registered Veterinary Nurse’s (RVN’s) secret struggle …: A short communication on mental health in the profession

A social media discussion prompted an RVN to try to raise awareness on the mental health issues and struggles some Veterinary Nurses face, and how the support of management teams and fellow team members can make a difference.     

Evaluation of a Mentor’s Training Program for Nurse Practitioners

Novice nurse practitioners continue to face challenges with transition into practice. Formal mentorship has been posed as a possible solution; however, literature suggests that mentors need adequate training to facilitate a meaningful experience. This project assessed the value and feasibility of a newly developed mentor’s training program. Six nurse practitioner evaluators were asked to review and evaluate the proposed training program before implementation. The evaluators found most of the program’s content and resources valuable, with only minor modifications suggested. Program components, curricula, findings, and recommendations for the future are discussed.     

GetFIT for CRC: Nurse Practitioner–Led Program to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. This program evaluation was conducted to assess the outcomes of a nurse practitioner–led quality improvement program to increase CRC screening in primary care using the logic model framework. The GetFIT for CRC program consisted of applying a multifaceted intervention to reduce barriers to CRC screening via fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), thereby increasing FIT compliance. FIT completion rates rose to 65.4% 6 months postimplementation, showing special cause variation based on Institute for Healthcare Improvement rules. The increase in completion rates continues to be sustained at 58.5% 12 months after implementation.