Spartan Nurses Win First Place Awards at UURAF
April 13, 2016
The annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) provides Michigan State University undergraduate students with an opportunity to showcase their scholarship and creative activity. Nursing students and mentors won two first place awards.
Health Behaviors Among Dual-Smoker Couples
Gabrielle Oehring, Traditional BSN student, and her mentor, assistant professor Seung Hee Choi, PhD, RN
Dual-smoker couples where both partners smoke are at higher risk for smoking-related morbidity and mortality due to exposures related to their own and their partner's smoking; yet they show fewer quit attempts, lower quit rates, and high relapse rates compared with single-smoker couples. This evidence demonstrates the need for cessation interventions for dual-smoker couples, albeit their smoking behavior is poorly understood in the literature. This study aims to explore in-depth smoking behavior among dual-smoker couples. This was a cross-sectional online survey study with a convenience sample of 115 smokers in a deal-smoker partnership. Mean age was 33.6 years old. On average, participants smoked 16.7 cigarettes per day for 15 years. Two thirds were interested in quitting within 30 days or six months. However, 58.4 percent reported no quit attempts during the past year. Among those who reported quit attempts, 42.5 percent quit on their own, 19.1 percent used pharmacotherapy, and 17.4 percent used the buddy system. Sixty percent always allowed smoking at home and 52 percent shared half of their smoking time with their partner. Almost half reported they would be extremely likely or likely to quit if their partner supported them in quitting. Our findings indicate high levels of motivation during dual-smoker couples; however, most did not use quit-therapy, leading to low success of quit attempts. This evidence shows the need for smoking cessation interventions for dual-smoker couples.
Using Haddon's Injury Matrix to Identify Prevention Strategies for Bullying in Nursing Homes
Assistant professor and mentor Carolyn Pickering, PhD, RN, and Traditional BSN student Katie Nurenberg
Bullying between certified nurse aides (CNAs) has become a prevalent problem in nursing homes which affects the health and wellbeing of these workers and ultimately affects the residents. The purpose of this case study is to analyze individual incidences of bullying, as explained by the victim, and determine possible prevention strategies. This study is a secondary analysis of data which has been collected from interviews with CNAs that have had personal experiences with bullying as part of a grounded theory study. Guided by the Haddon's Matrix, which is a framework used for injury prevention, incidences of bullying in the data were analyzed to determine primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies. The prevention strategies identified in the findings include changing practices at the organizational as well as interpersonal level. By implementing bullying prevention strategies, researchers can reduce the culture of violence and positively impact resident care.
