Surveys of 169 nursing students before and after a practicum in a nursing home showed that two-thirds enjoyed the practicum, 30% would really like working with the elderly, and the proportions changed little because of the practicum. Direction of change on five descriptors of the elderly was negative and on two descriptors was positive. (SK)

Contains 355 references. Categories include administration/managed care, AIDS, anatomy/physiology, cancer, cardiovascular, communicable diseases, communication, community health, critical care, diet/nutrition, emergency, ethics, family, fundamentals, geriatrics, health promotion, home health, infection, intravenous, diagnosis, legal, long-term…

Research mentoring during team projects can benefit nursing students, junior faculty, and senior researchers. Key factors for research mentoring include setting clear project goals, defining expectations for proteges, establishing and maintaining good team communication, and sharing values about nursing and research. (Contains 24 references.) (SK)

For all the baby boomers who've embraced and adopted healthier lifestyles, including proper diet and exercise, there may be an even more compelling reason. If you get sick or become hospitalized, you may not have the critically needed services of a well-trained nurse. It's been widely reported that there is a nursing shortage in the United States,…

This paper chronicles the service learning activities that surrounded the implementation of eight holistic approaches to chronic disease throughout the community served. Faculty facilitated independent practice related activities that brought knowledge to community agencies. Students, as a part of an online course, developed close relationships…

Purpose: We compared the rates of specialized care for residents with Alzheimer's disease or dementia in special care units (SCUs) and other nursing home (NH) units and examined the associations of SCU residence with process of care and resident outcomes. Design and Methods: Data came from the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey. The indicators of…

This article focuses on the model used at the University of Kansas Medical Center to reach graduate students in the School of Nursing. Like many students returning for graduate degrees, distance students are balancing the demands of professional positions, graduate studies, and family life. Topics addressed include: point-of-need assistance,…

The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is one of the most commonly used instruments to screen for cognitive deficits within the hospital setting. However training in how to administer this widely used tool is scarce with little, if any, formal training for nursing staff. Scores are also often misused with over reliance on results and cut-offs to…

The University of KwaZulu-Natal approved its bilingual language policy in 2006 based on the framework of the National Language Policy for Higher Education of 2002. The guiding principles of this policy suggest that the university develops the use of isiZulu as a language of instruction and communication, in line with recommendations of the…

This article aims to analyse how structural decoupling, which is an especially relevant problem for school-based vocational education and training (VET) systems, reveals itself in the assessment of practical training. Niklas Luhmann's social system theory has been applied to the analysis of assessment practices as a communication act between the…

In this paper, we discuss two types of discourse: the first one--the discourse of cognitive impairment of a long-term care facility (LTCF) reflected in the institution's language policy and in the language use of several caregivers of the LTCF; and the second one, the discourse of "small" stories (Bamberg and Georgakopoulou 2008) told by Alise, a…

Purpose: Residential care/assisted living facilities have become an alternative to nursing homes for many individuals, yet little information exists about staffing in these settings and the effect of staffing. This study analyzed the intensity and skill mix of nursing staff using data from a four-state study, and their relationship to outcomes.…

There is no formal mandate for or tradition of inter-sectoral collaboration between community colleges and universities in Ontario. Following a regulatory change introduced by the College of Nurses of Ontario in 1998, all Registered Nurse educational preparation was restructured to the baccalaureate degree level through province-wide adoption of a…

The purpose of this article is to explore the meaning and significance of mentoring for Latinas/os in nursing. Based on qualitative, in-depth phenomenological interviews, the primary purpose of the study was to understand the experiences of Latina nursing students in order to identify conditions that affect their educational experiences. Seventeen…

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of research on expertise and training in complex domains. First, we present a summary of the origins of the research on expertise and the development of current theory in expert performance. Then we present a synopsis of the literature on expert performance in sport and perceptual-cognitive skills…