The Rural Elderly Enhancement Project, in which a nursing school development a model of community participation and involvement, was evaluated through interviews with 73 community members. Many projects designed to foster community competence in elder care and youth/school-based health have been sustained. (SK)

Planning to offer master's degrees online requires examining mission and philosophy, locating human and fiscal resources, and addressing political challenges, faculty and student expectations, and changes needed in organizational culture, such as the reward structure. (SK)

Discusses contractual issues surrounding nursing faculty's clinical practice, such as competent participants, offer, consideration, and acceptance. Addresses evaluation of faculty practice contracts and alternatives for problem resolution. (Contains 24 references.) (SK)

Teaching portfolios display, communicate, and document the scholarship of teaching. The process of creating and maintaining them includes analyzing institutional mission, articulating teaching philosophy, determining goals and objectives, designing evaluation mechanisms, conducting self-evaluation, and reflecting on outcomes. (Contains 16…

A workshop on the McGill Model of Nursing, which depicts nurses' role in developing and maintaining family health, was attended by 147 nurses. Increases in self-efficacy, behavior, and performance related to implementing the model were evident 6 months after the workshop. (SK)

One baccalaureate nursing program and five community college programs collaboratively developed a shared philosophy, curriculum design, and model for nursing education and practice. The model takes a holistic view of the client/patient's mind, body, and spirit engaged in life-changing transitions and depicts the role of nursing care. (SK)

Notes the growing use of journals in nursing education and health professions continuing education. Describes a three-step method involving critical analysis of clinical practice, peer group discussion, and self-evaluation. Presents practical guidelines for journal writing and ways to use journals to develop competence. (SK)

An orientation program for clinical nursing education in Australia includes self-paced modules for preceptors and students with a related video explaining roles and responsibilities. Evaluation by 41 students and 19 preceptors indicated it was cost effective and resulted in greater work-role satisfaction and retention in the first nursing job. (SK)

Two beginning nurse educators used reflective practice to shape ideas about clinical teaching. Techniques such as journal writing, audiotaped debriefing, and a "critical friend" helped support and inform their reflection and improve teaching and learning. (SK)

Responses from 39 of 108 nursing/midwifery schools and colleges determined that most calculate staff:student ratios (SSRs) by dividing total staff by total students. Seventeen different SSR formulae and 10 for full-time equivalency were identified. The need for definition and standardization was suggested. (SK)

A research course introduced nursing students to reading and critiquing research, learning by doing research, research utilization, and qualitative and quantitative methods. A six-month evaluation showed lasting effects on practice. (SK)

Issues of practice, licensure, and education for associate and bachelor's degree nursing indicate a lack of consensus. The perspective of an ethic of care highlights moral dilemmas that must be resolved because the current state of nursing education and practice is ethically dubious. (SK)

The collaboration between the Frontier Nursing Service and the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing provides a way for those with associate degrees in midwifery to obtain a baccalaureate degree in nursing and become eligible for advanced training in midwifery. Distance learning facilitates instruction for the geographically dispersed midwives.…

National Vocational Qualifications assessment methods have the potential to fragment and damage learning. Holistic approaches to competence such as those used in Australia are more congruent with the needs of professional nurses, midwives, and health visitors in Britain. (SK)

Based on critical social theory, nursing students made drawings to express their learning from clinical placements. The drawings demonstrated different kinds of knowing and fostered reflection. (SK)