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Biomedical subjects

Sharon Valente

Publications and source records attributed to Sharon Valente.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Barriers to suicide risk management in clinical practice: a national survey of oncology nurses.

Standards of practice identify the nurse's pivotal role in risk detection, assessment, intervention, and management of suicidal patients, but scant research explores the barriers that hinder this role. This study describes the analysis of barriers to suicide risk management from a survey of a random sample of members of a national organization, the Oncology Nursing Society (n = 1200), who participated in a descriptive study exploring nurses' knowledge and attitudes about suicide. The 454 (37%) respondents included respondents from the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Instruments included a demographic inventory, the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), a suicide attitude measure (SUIATT), and a vignette of a suicidal patient. Nurses knew an average of 4.8 out of 9 suicide risk factors and 49.4% miscalculated the risk of suicide. In contrast with their moderate to high ratings of suicide risk, they indicated minimal interventions. Barriers to management of suicidal patients included deficits in skill, knowledge, referrals, patient teaching, advocacy, or consultation as well as participants' and religious/other values, uncomfortable feelings, personal experiences, and the weight of professional responsibility. Strategies for intervention include: suicide prevention education, consultation, values clarification, ethical analysis, and conflict resolution and psychosocial support to reduce barriers. Nurses are not alone in their request for more education about suicide prevention; this study confirms earlier research of psychologists and psychiatrists who report they need more education in suicide risk management.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Side steps to publication.

After you have prepared an inservice presentation, a term paper, or a project, you often have the building blocks for a publishable paper. You have organized the content and done the research--now you need to translate your paper or oral presentation into the journal format. This experienced author offers tips for successfully building your article on this foundation.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed2002

Overcoming barriers to suicide risk management.

1. Nurses need to seek consultation if they have difficulties responding therapeutically to suicidal patients because of their religious and other anti-suicide values, uncomfortable feelings, inadequate knowledge, personal experience with suicide, and the weight of professional responsibilities. 2. Staff need to evaluate, document, and communicate patients' suicide risk to the health care team and monitor their suicidal messages and behavior. 3. Communicating inadequate medication or withdrawal symptoms promptly to a physician and following hospital policies about suicide monitoring and prevention, including providing continuous observation and a safe environment, are essential to risk management.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An evidence-based project to improve depression and alcohol use screening.

Using research to improve practice is a high priority. Research shows that routine screening helps identify adults who are at risk for various disorders. Depression and alcohol use screening tools can improve evaluation and treatment. Nurses aimed to improve the screening rates for depression and alcohol use from the existing 50%-80% to 100% with a 1-hour educational program on depression screening and alcohol use disorders screening for 2 clinic areas: primary care and home-based care. Post program evaluation revealed that depression screening and alcohol use disorders screening rates increased to 100%.

Alcohol-Related Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Critical analysis of research papers.

Use of new nursing knowledge has improved nursing practice and patient care outcomes. However, the busy bedside duties nurses face constitute barriers to reading and evaluating research. The nurse may want to use new knowledge about pain assessment, wound care, preoperative fasting, and depression screening to improve practice but may lack the skills and know how to evaluate the research critically. Barriers to analysis of the research include confusing technical terminology, statistics, and unclear research reports. The nurse needs to understand and examine the steps, cohesiveness, merits, and weaknesses of the research to assess his or her level of confidence in the findings. This article describes the criteria for analysis of the sections of a research report and illustrates ways that sound research has improved patient care.

Clinical Nursing Research↗