An expert panel identified 20 business concepts important for a family nurse practitioner curriculum. A focus group of practitioners verified the concepts and clarified relevant information to be taught. The business concepts center on management and operations of a clinical practice. (SK)

Measures of professional socialization were completed by 479 on-campus and 469 distance education nursing students and 246 nonnursing students. Distance students had the highest scores, nonnursing students the lowest. Health care and preceptorship experiences were critical factors in the socialization process. (Contains 52 references.) (SK)

Junior baccalaureate nursing students learned oral medication administration either via lecture/videotape (n=24) or multimedia CD-ROM (n=25). There were no differences in computer skills or education level, but the multimedia group had higher satisfaction and greater cognitive gains. (Contains 24 references.) (SK)

In study 1, 12 nursing students attended slide lectures on cell biology; 13 used interactive computer-assisted learning (CAL). Study 2 surveyed 38 students who used CAL to study immunology. Students preferred CAL and felt confident in their grasp of the material, even without the presence of lecturers to answer questions. (Contains 16 references.)…

Interviews with 26 nursing students in a Ph.D. program compared their perceptions of lifelong learning with the literature. Students identified practical applications of lifelong learning as well as deterrents and reservations about participation, including lack of time and the perception of it as compulsory. (Contains 41 references.) (SK)

Six novice nursing faculty described their expectations of the teaching role and how they perceived expectations that other faculty and students had of them. Their stories revealed inadequacies in the way new faculty are prepared and mentored. (Contains 21 references.) (SK)

Purpose: Effective pain management remains a serious problem in the nursing home setting. Barriers to achieving optimal pain practices include staff knowledge deficits, biases, and attitudes that influence assessment and management of the residents' pain. Design and Methods: Twelve nursing homes participated in this intervention study: six…

Purpose. The objective of this work was to determine if nursing homes that score differently on prevalence of depression, according to the Minimum Data Set (MDS) quality indicator, also provide different processes of care related to depression. Design and Methods. A cross-sectional study with 396 long-term residents in 14 skilled nursing…

Purpose: Our objective in this analysis was to determine how the duration of caregiving interacts with key care demands (i.e., severity of problem behaviors) to influence the institutionalization of individuals suffering from dementia. Methods: We utilized multiregional data from 4,761 caregivers of individuals with dementia over a 3-year period.…

Purpose: This study examines the moderating effect of staff stability on the relationship between management practices used to empower nurse aides and resident outcomes in a multistate sample of nursing homes. An adaptation of Kanter's theory of structural power in organizations guided the framework for the model used in this study. Design and…

Purpose: This study investigated whether the use of restraining devices and related measures of care quality are different in nursing homes that score in the upper and lower quartiles on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) "prevalence of restraint" quality indicator, which assesses daily use of restraining devices when residents are out of bed. Design and…

Purpose: We explore how nursing home characteristics affect the number of lawsuits filed against the facilities in Florida during the period from 1997 to 2001. Design and Methods: We examined data from 478 nursing homes in 30 Florida counties from 1997 to 2001. We obtained the data from Westlaw's Adverse Filings: Lawsuits database, the Online…

The paper discusses the challenges individualisation and detraditionalisation represent for professional learning and commitment. We point to the fact that integration via human bonds, face-to-face interaction and stable communities has become increasingly less effective in modern society, and to the need for professionals to establish modes of…

Nursing home programs committed to providing quality care need to investigate innovative ways to meet today's budget challenges. The purpose of this article is to describe a creative collaboration between a nonprofit nursing home facility and a suburban university. Through service-learning, undergraduate students planned and implemented…

Context: Advance directives promote patient autonomy and encourage greater awareness of final care options while reducing physician and family uncertainty regarding patient preferences. Purpose: To investigate differences in decision making authority and the use of advance directives among nursing home residents admitted from urban and rural…