Kokua Kalihi Valley, a federally qualified health center in Hawaii, collaborated with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to test the efficacy of community health workers (CHWs) to deliver the Healthy Heart, Healthy Family curriculum to low-income Filipinos with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. At 12 months, significant improvements were seen in health behaviors, knowledge, and self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases. We also observed decreases in total cholesterol from 186.25 mg/dl to 170.88 mg/dl (p5.001), low-density lipoprotein from 114.43 mg/dl to 103.04 mg/dl (p5.013), and fasting blood glucose from 117.95 mg/dl to 109.07 mg/dl (p5.034). Although these changes were statistically significant, they are small and not clinically meaningful in reducing CVD risk. The high-density lipoprotein was 3.3 mg/dl lower (worse) at 12 months (p5.003), mean values for blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference increased. Community health workers can be trained to deliver evidence-based curricula that improve health behaviors and increase self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases.
Knowledge is an important factor in informing NP practice decisions. Clinicians need accurate, evidence-based knowledge to provide health education and counseling to reproductive age women if unintended pregnancies are to be reduced.
Knowledge of nursing history is a stated competency in professional nursing education. The authors describe one college of nursing's oral history project designed to build a historical archive and document the career paths of our retired faculty. Practical details about the project and insights of participating students and faculty are shared. The stories of these expert nurses are living testimony to the exciting progress of our profession and nursing education over the last 60 years.
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