Category Archives: Emory Authors

Emory Authors: Describing the Prevalence and Correlates of Spiritual Concerns Using the PC-6 Spiritual Assessment with Palliative Care Patients Near the End of Life.

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“For many patients receiving palliative care, religious and spiritual (R/S) beliefs and practices provide a framework for understanding suffering, cultivating meaning, and sustaining hope in the face of declining health and mortality. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that higher levels of R/S beliefs and practices are associated with improved quality of life, greater emotional well-being, and longer survival.
Yet not all R/S coping is adaptive. Alongside positive forms of coping, such as faith, forgiveness, and connection, many patients experience R/S struggle, sometimes referred to as spiritual distress or spiritual pain. These experiences may include loss of meaning, anger toward God, abandonment, guilt, or conflict with faith communities.”

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Emory Authors: Closing the Gap: A Clinical Instructor and Preceptor Academy to Address Educator Shortages and Improve Teaching Confidence

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“An aging U.S. population and the increasing complexity of care have intensified the demand for nurses, and a critical shortage of clinical instructors and preceptors (CIPs) threatens the nursing workforce pathway. Experienced nurses are frequently assigned preceptor roles without formal preparation in clinical teaching, feedback, or learner evaluation, which contributes to dissatisfaction and burnout among CIPs and learners alike. Clinical teaching should be attractive, engaging, and meaningful to CIPs rather than a
source of personal liability or stress. Nurses often report that they are not asked, compensated, trained, or resourced to precept—even though it is known that CIPs re-
quire specialized, evidence-based training and practical resources to help prepare the next generation of nurses.”

“To address this need, the CAPES Academy: Academy for Clinical Instructor and Preceptor Excellence in the Southeast was developed as a 4-year training grant funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), with the explicit goal of expanding nursing workforce capacity through the preparation of clinical faculty and preceptors.”

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Emory Authors: Unit-level organizational resources and occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens: A multi-hospital study

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“Each year, roughly 300,000 hospital workers are exposed to bloodborne pathogens. These workers are at substantial risk due to frequent contact with patients, biological materials, and contaminated environments. Such exposures can result in significant physical, psychological, and economic consequences for affected workers and hospitals. Prior studies suggest that factors such as job role, work location, shift timing, and deviations from infection prevention guidelines may increase the likelihood of exposure to bloodborne pathogens among healthcare workers.”

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Emory Authors: Orientation of New Graduate Nurses to Acute and Critical Care: Reimagining the Preceptor Role.

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“The preparation new graduate nurses (NGNs) receive in prelicensure education is requisite skill and knowledge for entry into the profession but falls short of the expected competence for independent nursing practice. This competency gap is a well-described challenge for nurse educators and nurse leaders. For NGNs, the academic practice gap represents a
steep learning curve in a complex setting. Entry into practice in highly specialized acute care units is a fast-paced, high-stakes environment complicated by staffing shortages, heavy workloads, and hostile workplace cultures.”

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Emory Authors: Can consumer wearables support outpatient health monitoring for patients with post-acute infection syndromes? A systematic umbrella review of accuracy, validity, and clinical utility data

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“Consumer health wearables—commercially available health tracking devices such as
smartwatches and other wearable sensors coupled to smartphones—have become
broadly adopted in the United States. A 2024 study found that 44.5% of Americans
reported using a wearable on a regular basis. These devices are designed to
passively and continuously collect physiological data, offering users a convenient,
data-driven, and readily available means of engaging with indicators of their health.
Biometrics tracked by consumer wearables with demonstrated links to health status
include heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen saturation, electrodermal activity, blood pressure, and indices of sleep quantity and quality, among others.”

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Emory Authors: Capturing Learner Perspectives: Development and Validation of the Skills-Based Training Evaluation Tool

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“Gathering feedback from learners about their experiences with educational activities is vital for continuous quality improvement of learning activities and to gauge the effectiveness of teaching methods. Learners should be viewed as partners in their educational experience and be encouraged to share feedback on teaching and learning strategies, thus creating
a collaborative learning environment with faculty. Learners have valuable insights into the effectiveness and relevance of curricula and teaching methods, and their feedback can lead to more engaging and effective learning experiences, ultimately leading to better student outcomes and preparation for their future professional roles. Asking learners for
feedback about learning activities denotes respect, encourages active engagement in learning, and leads to process improvement. When learners feel heard and valued,
a sense of ownership of their education is created, and a more collaborative learning environment is fostered.”

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Emory Authors: Better than nothing, far from perfect: hospital and healthcare system leaders’ perspectives on health information exchanges

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“Implementation and effective use of health information exchanges (HIEs)—systems that electronically share clinical and administrative data between settings of care—has the
potential to transform health care and improve patient out-comes. Financial investments in HIE infrastructure and the achievement of a critical mass of hospitals and health systems
participating in information sharing have mitigated key structural barriers to HIE use, while technological innovations, including the incorporation of HIE into electronic health records (EHRs), have improved integration of HIEs into many clinicians’ workflows. However, real-world use of HIE is lagging: it is estimated that HIEs are accessed in less than 20% of
clinical encounters and in only 50% of referrals—despite being a part of required reporting for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Promoting Interoperability incentive
program. Health information exchange use varies widely across settings of care: as few as 3.7% of outpatient visits and 17.6% of inpatient admissions recorded HIE use in one study.”

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