Describes the content of a health policy course designed to meet the needs of nurses and identifies strategies to make the course meaningful for students. (Author)

A Navajo legend describes a web woven by Spider Woman that saved the people during a great flood. This article uses the imagery of the web to help education and service think more clearly about nursing's future. The Healing Web project seeks to educate nurses in a futuristic differentiated model. (Author/JOW)

A survey of 500 high school counselors received 313 responses indicating that they (1) viewed nurses more favorably than media portrayals; (2) perceived nurses as knowledgeable, caring professionals; (3) recognized the value of professional education; and (4) believed parents influenced career choices and needed to realize the value of nursing as…

Critical theory and feminist theory offer to nurses points from which to approach change as nursing struggles for autonomy, accountability, and control over the profession. Nurses need to examine the forces that influence the profession as well as the individual and group identities of nurses. (Author)

Mereness describes her half-century career as an educator and pioneer in psychiatric and public health nursing. (SK)

Using reflective thinking to develop a professional philosophy helps nursing students view themselves as future professionals. In introductory courses, discussions and case studies relating theory to practice provide opportunities for reflective thinking. (SK)

A three-year study compared 121 at-risk nursing students participating in Partnership in Learning for Utmost Success (PLUS) and 89 nonparticipating students. PLUS participants were more successful in terms of retention, grade point average, and graduation rate. (SK)

The critical-thinking skills and dispositions of 38 nursing students were measured at entry and graduation using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test and Dispositions Inventory. Nursing curriculum significantly improved critical-thinking abilities, especially evaluation and inductive reasoning. Dispositions also improved. (SK)

In nursing, transfer of knowledge and skills from classroom to clinical practice, among clinical areas, and from community to clinical practice is important. Teaching for transfer requires a context, subject knowledge, and metacognitive strategies. (SK)

The Adaptation Nursing Model suggests that nursing students' level of adaptation to stress is influenced by their hardiness and use of social resources. Faculty can use the information to facilitate students' coping. (SK)

Nursing students (n=29) were tested at entry and exit in a program using inquiry-based learning, an adaptation of problem-based learning. Students continued to use memorization despite its surface learning quality. A combination of memorization, conceptualization, and reflection may be best for understanding as well as retention. (SK)

Deconstruction of three British nursing research projects found that, due to a "Utopian" perspective, they reintroduce theory-practice gaps they sought to close. Future nursing research should avoid idealistic prescriptions and promote more skeptical and realistic approaches. (SK)

A two-course sequence for teaching qualitative research to doctoral nursing students benefitted from the following elements: co-teaching, small group projects, and the building of research skills in the first semester. (SK)

An informal survey with 51 respondents from Midwest nursing schools found great consistency in teaching about nursing theory at the baccalaureate and doctoral levels. Only 34% of baccalaureate programs required nursing theory. Faculty with nursing doctorates tended to emphasize theory-practice linkages in undergraduate teaching. (Contains 27…

Describes a master's-level nursing research course taught entirely online, including instructional design considerations (faculty commitments, technical issues, library resources, intellectual property), process (student expectations, participation), and evaluation design. (SK)