Angela Barron McBride

Breakthroughs in nursing education: Looking back, looking forward

Abstract This article reviews changes in nursing education in the last quarter century, notes some trends currently shaping health care delivery and academia, and discusses some issues likely to grow in importance in the next quarter century.

Patient and staff perceptions of a psychiatric ward environment.

Perceptions of 37 psychiatric patients and 34 staff were surveyed to compare their views of ward environment, using items from the Ward Atmosphere Scale (WAS). The actor-observer (A-O) model, which focuses on the inclination of individuals to make ego-enhancing explanations for their situation, was used in interpreting patient and staff differences. Perceptions of patients and staff were significantly different (p less than or equal to .05) on six of the nine WAS subscales. In situations where staff take pride in a behavior (involvement, support, spontaneity, practical orientation, personal problem orientation, and program clarity), perceptions on the WAS were higher for staff than patients. In the area of staff control, which may be perceived as negative by staff, staff rated themselves as less potent than did patients. Discussion of the difference in perception has potential therapeutic use in clarifying roles, sharing of responsibility, and enhancing the ability of patients and staff to express or modify perceptions.

From gynecology to GYN‐ecology: Developing a practice‐research agenda for women's health

Womens health as an area of specialization has moved away from a focus on gynecology to a focus on GYN-ecology, meaning a concern for the fit between the woman and her environment. To be concerned about the fit between person and environment demands an understanding of the extent to which individual behavior is constrained or facilitated by contextual factors: Do larger sociopolitical conditions exist in which a woman can perform the activities of daily living in a way that maximizes her sense of well-being? Seven factors are explored to illustrate the many ways in which womens health has been traditionally constrained by contextual factors. Suggestions for a comprehensive practice-research agenda for womens health are then presented.

Teaching the client with schizophrenia about medication

Abstract An important part of providing care for the client with schizophrenia is teaching the client about medication. This paper discusses the multiple factors involved in compliance by the client with schizophrenia. Special learning problems of the client with schizophrenia are explained. Suggestions are offered for what the nurse should and should not teach.

How nursing students explain their success and failure in clinical experiences.

Student motivation is a faculty concern at all strata of the educational process. A major issue in motivation is the students perception of the situation and explanation of the cause of success or failure. The education literature indicates little research on how student nurses actually perceive and explain their success and failure. This paper addresses success and failure issues by reviewing attribution theory and describing a study of attribution made by student nurses following completion of clinical nursing courses in one school. Explanations were obtained for success and failure both of nursing care provided and for mastery of theory. The data obtained reveal some interesting patterns and indicate the need for further research in this area.

Differences that suggest female investment in, and male distance from, children

A factorial between subjects experiment was conducted with sex of respondent, level of success, sex of stimulus parent, and sex of stimulus child as the independent variables. Two hundred seventy-two undergraduates without parenting experience constituted the sample. The attributions made to explain parenting success/failure and the ratings made both of the child and the parent on the same 60 personality item were the dependent variables. Female respondents were not only especially success-oriented, but evidenced a view of parenting emphasizing deliberation and skill, whereas their male counterparts were comparatively more inclined to explain failure in terms of it being the childs fault and to overstate a childs meanness.

Clustering excellence to exert transformative change: The Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI)

This paper describes how the John A. Hartford Foundation sought to maximize the influence of its various geriatric nursing projects by organizing and managing them collectively as the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI). This initiative aimed to develop a shared identity, encouraged cross-pollination of efforts, convened project leaders to address opportunities and problems, launched across-project collaborations, and created tools and resources to support overall efforts. This paper ends with some reflections on the processes implemented to maximize HGNI effectiveness, particularly the importance of forging a common identity in order to encourage expanded solutions. The HGNI can serve as an example of how intersecting interests can fuel new ideas, thus helping others think more strategically about change efforts in the future.

Overview of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars program

BACKGROUND The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars program was created to address the nursing faculty shortage and thereby decrease the nursing shortage. PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to describe the program development, implementation, and ongoing outcome evaluation. METHODS Data on scholarly productivity, impact of research, research funding, and leadership positions were compiled, including an h-index (impact of publications) comparison with a comparison group of other interdisciplinary faculty at the same institutions of the 90 current and alumni scholars. DISCUSSION There is evidence of the achievements of the individual scholars; however, the effect of the synergy of the multiple components of the program is difficult to capture in traditional evaluation strategies. CONCLUSIONS The sense of possibility and responsibility (to the profession, to improving the health of all Americans, and to ones school of nursing and university) was a significant outcome of the program. Lessons learned from the program are important for the leadership development and retention of nursing faculty.

Leading-Following Perspectives:

When I think of my own leadership journey, I credit philosopher Simone De Beauvoir with having shaped my thinking in fundamental ways. Not only did her groundbreaking book The Second Sex (1952) provide the theoretical underpinnings for my book The Growth and Development of Mothers (1973), the first well-regarded analysis of motherhood in light of the women’s movement, but her critique of masculine-feminine universals has proven useful in a continuing way to my development as a leader. She was the first person I read to question the notion that the man is destined to be the head of the family and the woman the heart. Her reflections on how this kind of dualistic thinking gets in the way of fully realizing one’s potential got me to thinking early in my career about nurse leadership (McBride, 1972).