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Purpose: To examine the effect of nurse staffing in varying work environments on missed breastfeeding teaching and support in inpatient maternity units in the United States. Background: Breast milk is the optimal food for newborns. Teaching and supporting women in breastfeeding are primarily a nurse's responsibility. Better maternity nurse staffing (fewer patients per nurse) is associated with less missed breastfeeding teaching and support and increased rates of breastfeeding. We examined the extent to which the nursing work environment, staffing, and nurse education were associated with missed breastfeeding care and how the work environment and staffing interacted to impact missed breastfeeding care. Methods: In this cross-sectional study using the 2015 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicator survey, maternity nurses in hospitals in 48 states and the District of Columbia responded about their workplace and breastfeeding care. Clustered logistic regression models with interactions were used to estimate the effects of the nursing work environment and staffing on missed breastfeeding care. Results: There were 19 486 registered nurses in 444 hospitals. Nearly 3 in 10 (28.2%) nurses reported missing breastfeeding care. In adjusted models, an additional patient per nurse was associated with a 39% increased odds of missed breastfeeding care. Furthermore, 1 standard deviation decrease in the work environment was associated with a 65% increased odds of missed breastfeeding care. In an interaction model, staffing only had a significant impact on missed breastfeeding care in poor work environments. Conclusions: We found that the work environment is more fundamental than staffing for ensuring that not only breastfeeding care is not missed but also breastfeeding care is sensitive to nurse staffing. Improvements to the work environment support the provision of breastfeeding care. Implications for Research and Practice: Both nurse staffing and the work environment are important for improving breastfeeding rates, but the work environment is foundational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Thrive program is an evidenced-based care model for Medicaid-insured adults in the hospital-to-home transition. A substantial portion of Thrive participants live with serious mental illness (SMI), yet Thrive's efficacy has not been tested among these patients., Purpose: To compare 30-day postdischarge outcomes between Thrive participants with and without SMI and explore Thrive's appropriateness and acceptability among participants with SMI., Methods: We conducted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study of 252 (62 with SMI) Thrive participants discharged from an academic medical center from February 2021 to August 2023. Interviews of participants with SMI were analyzed using rapid qualitative analysis., Results: Participants with and without SMI experienced similar rates of 30-day readmissions, emergency room visits, and postdischarge follow-up visits, with these differences being nonsignificant. Participants with SMI were highly satisfied with Thrive's care coordination and attention to social needs, yet participants suggested stronger connections to behavioral health care., Conclusions: Participants with and without SMI benefit equitably from Thrive., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest for the current study., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Over 12 million Americans are dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. These individuals experience over twice as many hospitalizations for chronic diseases such as coronary artery disease and diabetes compared with Medicare-only patients. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are well-positioned to address the care needs of dually-enrolled patients, yet NPs often work in unsupportive clinical practice environments. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between the NP primary care practice environment and hospitalization disparities between dually-enrolled and Medicare-only patients with chronic diseases., Methods: Using secondary cross-sectional data from the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Organizational Climate Questionnaire and Medicare claims files, we examined 135,648 patients with coronary artery disease and/or diabetes (20.0% dually-eligible, 80.0% Medicare-only), cared for in 450 practices employing NPs across 4 states (PA, NJ, CA, FL) in 2015. We compared dually-enrolled patients' odds of being hospitalized when cared for in practice environments characterized as poor, mixed, and good based on practice-level Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Organizational Climate Questionnaire scores., Results: After adjusting for patient and practice characteristics, dually-enrolled patients in poor practice environments had the highest odds of being hospitalized compared with their Medicare-only counterparts [odds ratio (OR): 1.48, CI: 1.37, 1.60]. In mixed environments, dually-enrolled patients had 27% higher odds of a hospitalization (OR: 1.27, CI: 1.12, 1.45). However, in the best practice environments, hospitalization differences were nonsignificant (OR: 1.02, CI: 0.85, 1.23)., Conclusions: As policymakers look to improve outcomes for dually-enrolled patients, addressing a modifiable aspect of care delivery in NPs' clinical practice environment is a key opportunity to reduce hospitalization disparities., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)