Nursing Assessment of Altered Sexuality: A Review of Salient Factors and Objective Measures

TOPIC. Nursing assessment of altered sexuality.
PURPOSE. To review salient factors affecting assessment and objective measures available for use in assessment.
SOURCE. Literature specific to nursing assessment of sexuality and to instruments measuring altered sexuality.
CONCLUSIONS. Many standards of care include the assessment of sexuality, and nurses believe it to be an important aspect of care. However, the assessment of altered sexuality does not often occur in actual practice. The use of an objective measure of sexuality is recommended for both initial and on-going assessments in acute-care and community-based settings.     

Intrapartum Care of a Woman With Aortic Aneurysms

Advances in technology and complex care have enabled women with various health problems to become and remain pregnant. Consequently, health-care practitioners are seeing an increasing number of pregnant women who have aortic aneurysms. This case study describes the culturally sensitive intrapartum care of a Middle Eastern woman with ascending and descending aortic aneurysms.     

A Multivariate Validation of the Defining Characteristics of Fatigue

PURPOSE. To validate the nursing diagnosis fatigue by providing evidence to identify, confirm, and consolidate the defining characteristics.
METHODS. The Revised Piper Fatigue Scale and the Schwartz Measurement of Fatigue scales were used to collect data from four groups of healthy women (N = 182). Data were analyzed by maximum-likelihood factor analysis with varimax rotation, and major and minor defining characteristics were identified and clustered.
FINDINGS. The identified defining characteristics tended to group into the dimensions identified in prior fatigue studies. Although the majority of the NANDA defining characteristics were validated, differences were found.
CONCLUSIONS. atigue is a multidimensional construct. Replication of the study with a variety of samples from different geographic locations and a variety of patient populations will further cross-validate the defining characteristics of fatigue.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Fatigue is a commonly experienced phenomenon in both health and illness. As the knowledge base about fatigue builds, so will the accuracy of nursing assessments and the effectiveness of nursing interventions.     

Cultural Competence in the Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum

Although health care providers and health care systems have increasingly acknowledged the need for culture-specific care in a global society, its implementation has remained daunting. Thus, integrating cultural competence into nursing education is no longer a choice but a requirement that builds on the values of the racially and culturally diverse population of the United States for optimal health care. The need has never been greater for nurses who understand the health implications of the demographic shifts that are shaping an American society whose African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American constituents compose a significantly growing portion of the population and whose health care needs will need to be served in health care settings that range from their homes to health care institutions. This article provides a blueprint on how our undergraduate program integrated cultural competence education throughout the curriculum.