PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES In Vermont in 2001, less than half of school-age children on Medicaid received dental services. Vermont is a designated resettlement area for refugees, many of whom have never had dental care. A school-based oral health program was designed to meet the needs of this high-risk pediatric population. PROGRAM A plan was developed to offer dental services to this group of childr...

abstract background: in most countries, one of the main reasons for developing more advanced roles for nurses is to improve access to care in the context of limited number of doctors. it is considered that the introduction of major policy initiatives, such as nurse prescribing, requires high-level discussion and policy development to ensure successful implementation. this study aimed to identif...

BACKGROUND Breastfeeding can ameliorate some of the complex health issues faced by low-income families. Women who breastfeed and their infants have lower health care costs compared with those who formula feed. Increasing the duration of breastfeeding is recognized as a national priority, particularly for low-income women. This community-based randomized clinical trial involving low-income mothe...

BACKGROUND While improvements in nursing practice environments are considered essential to address the nursing shortage, relatively little is known about the nursing practice environments in most hospitals. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study are to describe variations in nursing practice environments across hospitals and to examine their associations to hospital bed size, community size,...

Community Health Center, Inc. (CHCI), a multi-site, federally qualified, health center (FQHC) in Connecticut, implemented a one-year-residency program for new nurse practitioners (NPs) in 2007. This residency program is specifically designed for family nurse practitioners intending to practice as primary care providers in federally qualified health centers. These centers comprise the nation's l...

BACKGROUND Child-rearing remains a concern within our communities, especially because families of today lack primary parents due to multifaceted challenges such as working mothers, diseases and violence. Health-promoting school initiatives are necessary because they allow a multifaceted approach to child-rearing. They further provide a conducive environment for continued schoolchild-rearing mov...

BACKGROUND Rare diseases present challenges for patients, healthcare providers, and researchers. Rare disease communities exist for collaboration, dissemination of information, and to promote support for all community members. Patients with a rare disease desire to be supported through a rare disease community. Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare adult B-cell lymphocytic cancer that currently h...

AIM To test the psychometric properties and clinical usability of a new Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment Instrument including inter-rater and test-retest reliability, convergent validity and data completeness. BACKGROUND Methodological and practical limitations associated with traditional Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment Instruments, prompted a programme to work to develop a new instrument, as pa...

AIMS To review the working practices of UK diabetes specialist nurses (DSNs), specific clinical roles, and to examine changes since 2000. METHODS Postal questionnaires were sent to lead DSNs from all identifiable UK diabetes centres (n = 361). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected on the specific clinical roles, employment, and continual professional development of hospital and com...

BACKGROUND Compulsory community service (CCS) for nurses commenced in South African January 2008 after it was legislated in the new Nursing Act (Act No. 33 of 2005). Nurses completing their registered nurse programme are registered as community nurse practitioners (CNPs) during the CCS period and make up the largest number of health professionals serving CCS. Whilst health institutions have wel...