Use of fictional or "virtual" families in problem-based learning scenarios was assessed by 17 first-year and 14 third-year nursing students. Virtual families enabled longitudinal study of health care and family dynamics, a holistic approach, and integration of learning across the curriculum. (Contains 20 references.) (SK)

A mental health promotion perspective provides a system-based understanding of relationships between culture and health. Educating nurses for multicultural practice should adopt an interdisciplinary approach that fosters critical awareness of diverse influences on mental health and their intersections. (Contains 38 references.) (SK)

Transformative philosophy was used to redesign a course for special education and nursing majors. To encourage collaboration, dialogue and interaction were included. Course evaluation by 21 students showed positive responses to the presence of medically fragile children in classrooms and awareness of the need for communication and collaboration…

Part 1 explains a methodology for studying problem-based learning (PBL) in nursing education that combined hermeneutic phenomenology with e-mail sampling and video interviews. Part 2 describes themes identified by 10 tutors related to when and how to intervene in PBL. Part 1 contains 30 references; part 2 contains 41 references. (SK)

Describes innovative methods of learning that sometimes bring a new set of problems to deal with. Describes how faculty compromise to facilitate the best education methods possible. (JOW)

Economic concerns dominate hospital planning and policy decisions as hospitals seek to become more productive, competitive, and profitable. Quality care and public service may conflict with the profit-motivated business model. Nurse administrators will have to be politically astute to promote the integration of a professional model of service.…

Analyzed relationship between cognitive impairment and use and cost of health care, examining data from 1981-1982 Long-Term Care National Channeling Demonstration Project. Results indicated a substantial cost difference between money spent on home, institutional or nursing home care for cognitively intact and cognitively impaired persons.…

A study with 40 registered nurses found that individuals labeled as preferring high structure achieved better in low-structure settings and vice versa, a result contrary to outcomes reported in the literature and assumed for years. Findings suggest that student involvement may be a significant component of a successful educational experience. (MSE)

Compared psychological well-being of elderly nursing home residents who participated in reminiscence and current topics group discussions with control group of residents. Rated participants' happiness/depression, activity, mood, and functional levels before and after intervention. Intervention had significant effect only on happiness/depression…

Ethical issues surrounding Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in the workplace include autonomy; right to privacy and confidentiality; beneficence--requiring caregivers to act in the best interests of clients; nonmaleficence--requiring caregivers not to harm or injure persons; and justice, including questions of employment discrimination and…

Found that experience-based educational intervention in which medical students interview volunteer nursing home residents significantly changed medical students' responses to two geriatric patient vignettes. Concluded that use of elderly volunteers in practice interviews helped to sensitize students to problems of aging and taught them empathic…

A discussion of trends relating to crime on college campuses and state legislation on the mandatory reporting of crime rates looks at the arguments for and against forced disclosure and suggests that institutions examine the issues closely before crime becomes a major policy issue. (MSE)

An orientation for returning nursing students at the University of Hartford has three steps: decide what you want to say, who will be involved, and how information will be presented. The third step follows three principles: set the stage, make it experiential, and make it fun. (SK)

A three-hour, two-stage workshop for staff nurses on providing education and psychological support to 148 patients who had abdominal surgery. After the workshop the patients used fewer sedatives or antiemetics, fewer hypnotics, and were discharged from the hospital on the average half a day sooner. (Author/BJV)

Principles of organizational change are examined as they apply to academic units in general, and the way in which one well-established academic department in nursing changed its administrative structure is described. The process used faculty participation in decision-making. (Author/MSE)