(An item taken from the daily/weekly/monthly ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #4, 2012 of the Journal of Health Organization and Management provides an organizational perspective on the re-emerging role of the school nurse in Quebec, Canada. Managers in ;local health authorities were surveyed. 90 percent of participants perceived the proposed role as a solution to fulfill their school health program needs, especially to plan and integrate health promotion projects. The lack of resources and nursing support emerged as factors hampering the capacity of school nurses to play such a role. A modified version of the organizational readiness for change (ORC) framework was used to develop the survey. The authors suggested greater and more effective use of technologies would help to overcome some of the challenges. Read more..

(Excerpt from the April 2012 Issue of The Prevention Researcher- Presented here as an example of how Journals can use this blog to alert non-subscribers about their articles) In 2010, 22% of high school seniors reported nonmedical prescription drug use at any point in their lifetime and 15% reported NMPDU in the past year,” write our lead authors of this , Jason Ford and William Watkins. Given these statistics, it is not surprising that the abuse of prescription drugs is a growing topic of concern for many professionals who work with youth. For adolescents, prescription drugs are second only to marijuana as the most popular form of illegal drug use. In this issue of The Prevention Researcher, we address this important topic by discussing the prevalence of prescription drug abuse, providing an understanding of how and why adolescents’ motives matter for prevention and intervention, and exploring preventive approaches and frameworks in the school and community environments. We start this issue with an introductory article by Jason Ford and William Watkins. This article provides an overview of the research on adolescent nonmedical prescription drug use, including prevalence, demographic characteristics of users, risk factors for use, and other important themes. Rural communities often have distinct contextual factors that impact residents’ substance abuse. Our next article by April Young and colleauges looks at the differences between rural and urban adolescent prescription drug abuse and highlights implications for prevention and treatment. Adolescents’ motives for engaging in nonmedical prescription drug use is somewhat different than their reasons for using other drugs, such as marijuana. In an article by Sean Esteban McCabe and Carol Boyd, we learn about adolescents’ motives for engaging in prescription drug abuse and how these motives impact prevention and intervention efforts. We conclude with two articles about prevention. The first, by Beth Jones and colleagues, provides a framework for a school-based collaborative approach to prevention called a Prevention Awareness Team. This prevention approach involves families, schools, youth, and members of the community. Then Rebecca Wade-Mdivanian and colleagues showcase the Generation Rx program, which includes a “toolkit” designed to be used with youth. Two community-based programs are highlighted which have implemented components of the toolkit, and preliminary assessments are revealed. To accompany this issue, we also have a podcast with Gina Hijjawi about the roles and steps parents can take to prevent their teens from abusing prescription drugs. Read more..