No abstract

In recent years, there have been multiple calls to enhance the population health and health promotion aspects of nursing programs. Further impetus has been provided by passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 with its focus on prevention. The need to develop students who can critically think and apply knowledge learned is crucial to the development of nurses who can integrate and apply the concepts of population-focused practice in society and a healthcare system undergoing transformation. This coupled with the ever changing needs of learners requires a different approach to content delivery and presentation. Flipped classroom courses, with an online component, offer the flexibility and technology desired by current undergraduate students. The use of a flipped classroom approach to re-design a population health course in a Midwestern nursing program resulted in stronger course evaluations from students and reflected better student understanding of the relevance of such content in a nursing curriculum.

This review discusses the relationship between animal-assisted interventions (AAI) and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). A systematic search was conducted within CINAHL, Web of Science CAB Abstracts, PubMed, Abstracts in Social Gerontology, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO for primary research articles. A total of 32 studies were included in the final review. Variation was noted in study designs and in study setting. Twenty-seven of 32 studies used dogs as the intervention. Agitation/aggression showed a significant decrease in nine of 15 studies. Eleven of 12 studies demonstrated increased social interaction with AAI. Mood had mixed results in nine studies. Quality of life was increased in three of four studies. Resident activity and nutritional intake were each increased in two studies. Animal assisted activities/interventions showed a strong positive effect on social behaviors, physical activity, and dietary intake in dementia patients and a positive effect on agitation/aggression and quality of life.

Regular physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits, including the prevention of many chronic diseases and conditions or a reduction in their adverse effects. Intervention studies suggest that promoting dog walking among dog owners who do not routinely walk their dogs may be an effective strategy for increasing and maintaining regular physical activity. Strategies that emphasize the value of dog walking for both dogs and people, promote the context-dependent repetition of dog walking, enhance the social-interaction benefits, encourage family dog walking, and ensure availability of public space for dog walking may encourage increased dog walking. Research also supports organizing buddy systems via "loaner" dogs to facilitate informal walking by dog owners and non-dog owners. Given the number of homes that have dogs, strategies that promote dog walking could be effective at increasing physical activity levels among a significant proportion of the population. Maximizing the potential for dog walking to positively influence the health of individual people (and dogs) will only occur through implementing programs with broad population-level reach. Policies that facilitate dog walking at the community and population levels, such as "dogs allowed" places, off-leash zones, and dog-friendly built environments and parks, may contribute to greater physical activity through dog walking.