The ability of home healthcare nurses to effectively educate patients with heart failure (HF) on appropriate self-care is key to lowering the hospital readmission rates and other adverse outcomes. Evidence indicates, however, that nurses often lack current knowledge about HF self-care. Furthermore, patient education often fails to produce health literacy. Thus, this educational intervention for home healthcare nurses included content about key aspects of managing HF (e.g., diet, medications), as well as how to use the teach-back method during patient education. Pre- and posttesting (using the Nurses' Knowledge of HF Education Principles Questionnaire) and role-playing were used to evaluate the intervention delivered to 33 home care nurses. Findings exposed knowledge deficits regarding high-sodium foods, symptoms indicating deterioration, problematic weight gain, fluid management, as well as other topics related to HF. The education was partially effective in addressing these nurses' knowledge gaps. The evidence-based education for home healthcare nurses suggests that not only may nurses lack knowledge essential to teaching HF self-care; they may also lack effective patient education skills such as using the teach-back method.

Compassion fatigue is a phenomenon that might affect nurses of all specialties. Compassion fatigue occurrence could be profound and costly. The immediate impact could be disruption of the unit culture. This study investigated the prevalence and individual-level factors associated with compassion fatigue among nurses. An upsurge in patients' complexity today may leave nurses stressed with increasing practice demands and vulnerable to compassion fatigue. If ignored, compassion fatigue may compromise nurses' health and care outcomes. A sample of 1174 nurses from 2 large Southern California health care organizations completed an online survey measuring compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction. Overall, participants scored moderate to average (23–41) on compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion satisfaction. Experienced and working nights nurses experienced higher compassion satisfaction levels. Higher compassion fatigue means were associated with new graduates = 29.5, BSN nurses = 27.2, ICU nurses = 27.4, and working 12-hour shift nurses = 26.9, suggesting higher compassion fatigue vulnerability. Nurse leaders and managers can apply this baseline evidence to create tailored programs for specific nursing specialties and inexperienced nurses to tackle compassion fatigue and reduce related unit disorder. Seasoned nurses' perspective can be of value in enhancing those efforts.

Specific dental enamel defects (DEDs) in permanent teeth are frequently observed in coeliac patients. We examined the permanent teeth in 6949 secondary school children living in Trieste (78% of 8724 children born between 1978 and 1982). Children with DEDs were tested for serum antigliadin antibodies (AGAs) and antiendomysium antibodies (AEAs), and those positive for serum AGAs and/or AEAs underwent intestinal biopsy. Specific DEDs were observed in 52 children (0.59% of the total population examined). Serum AGAs and/or AEAs were positive in 10 cases. Nine patients underwent intestinal biopsy (one refused) and in four cases a flat mucosa was documented (one with short stature, three completely asymptomatic). The known incidence of CD in the study area was 1:1000 before the study programme and 1:670 (an increase of 44%) after it. Dental enamel inspection may be utilized for detecting undiagnosed coeliac disease in symptom–free schoolchildren. This clinical test is probably less sensitive than serum AGA screening test, but deserves some consideration because it is cheap, easy to perform and well accepted by the population.