Nursing (Doctor of Nursing Practice)

A social-learning group was used to train caregivers of school-age augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) users. Training was aimed at the caregiver of emergent AAC users and occurred in the home and community settings using a modeling strategy. Instruction was primarily delivered in three 15-minute training sessions using Facebook. In addition to social media instruction, the caregiver-child teams met with other participants to practice and implement newly learned skills during community activities. Meetings were approximately 1-hour in length and included coaching and feedback. A single subject AB design was used to evaluate the effects of community instruction on caregiver AAC modeling. Frequency of caregiver modeling is the dependent variable measured by direct observation. Module development utilized behavior skills training techniques consisting of (a) instruction (b) modeling (c) practice (d) feedback and coaching in the community setting.

Compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress disorder, results from repeated exposure to the suffering of others, eventually exhausting his or her ability to show compassion. Self-care has been suggested as a potential preventative or treatment strategy in compassion fatigue however there has been limited documentation to validate this relationship. This study utilized a non-experimental, descriptive correlational design in order to determine if EMS professionals in Northwestern Pennsylvania, who practice self-care, experience less compassion fatigue than those who do not. A survey which was comprised of The Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) scale, a validated tool for assessing compassion fatigue by evaluating secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and compassion satisfaction, as well as the Health Promotion Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) II, a tool to evaluate health promotion/self-care, was completed by 164 EMS professionals in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was utilized to determine the relationship between self-care and compassion fatigue. The results demonstrated a negative correlation between self-care and burnout (p<.000), a negative correlation between self-care and secondary traumatic stress (p<.000), and a positive correlation between self-care and compassion satisfaction (p<.000), suggesting lower levels of compassion fatigue in those who practice self-care. These findings suggest that the implementation of self-care may result in decreased compassion fatigue, improving the EMS professional’s quality of life as well as patient outcomes.

This study evaluates the impact of training on providers’ confidence about using the MinuteClinic (MC) hypertension (HTN) guideline to conduct HTN management visits in MC. MC providers who participated or did not participate in the training/webex education sessions provided prior to the commencement of HTN chronic care services were surveyed and their confidence scores measured. T-test analysis did not show any statistically significant difference between the Trained group and the Non-Trained group. Factors enabling the lack of significant difference between the two groups and suggestions for further studies are discussed.