Brent MacWilliams

Men in nursing.

Overview This literature review examines the ability of the nursing profession to recruit and retain men in nursing schools and in the nursing workforce. The authors consider such educational barriers as role stress, discrimination, and stereotyping, and explore questions of male touch and the capacity of men to care. In identifying challenges faced by men entering or working in a profession in which women predominate, the authors hope to promote actions on the part of nurse leaders, educators, and researchers that may address issues of sex bias and promote greater sexual diversity within nursing.

Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review

The link between miscommunication and poor patient outcomes has been well documented. To understand the current state of knowledge regarding interprofessional communication, an integrative review was performed. The review suggested that nurses and physicians are trained differently and they exhibit differences in communication styles. The distinct frustrations that nurses and physicians expressed with each other were discussed. Egos, lack of confidence, lack of organization and structural hierarchies hindered relationships and communications. Research suggested that training programs with the use of standardized tools and simulation are effective in improving interprofessional communication skills. Recommendations include education beyond communication techniques to address the broader related constructs of patient safety, valuing diversity, team science, and cultural humility. Future directions in education are to add courses in patient safety to the curriculum, use handover tools that are interprofessional in nature, practice in simulation hospitals for training, and use virtual simulation to unite the professions.

Admission criteria for undergraduate nursing programs: a systematic review.

A concise, systematic review of commonly used admission criteria for prelicensure nursing programs is presented in this article. Admission criteria include grades in prenursing college courses, standardized preadmission tests, essays, personal interviews, and volunteerism. Literature is reviewed regarding the relationships between admission criteria and success in undergraduate nursing programs. Gaps in the literature and future research needs are described.

Evaluating an Accelerated Nursing Program: A Dashboard for Diversity

Diversity is a topic of increasing attention in higher education and the nursing workforce. Experts have called for a nursing workforce that mirrors the population it serves. Students in nursing programs in the United States do not reflect our countrys diverse population; therefore, much work is needed before that goal can be reached. Diversity cannot be successfully achieved in nursing education without inclusion and attention to quality. The Inclusive Excellence framework can be used by nurse educators to promote inclusion, diversity, and excellence. In this framework, excellence and diversity are linked in an intentional metric-driven process. Accelerated programs offer a possible venue to promote diversity, and one accelerated program is examined using a set of metrics and a dashboard approach commonly used in business settings. Several recommendations were made for future assessment, interventions, and monitoring. Nurse educators are called to examine and adopt a diversity dashboard in all nursing programs.

A Mixed-Methods, International, Multisite Study to Develop and Validate a Measure of Nurse-to-Physician Communication in Simulation

AIM This study examined the reliability and validity of the ISBAR Interprofessional Communication Rubric (IICR). BACKGROUND Improving education regarding communication in health care is a global priority. Communication is difficult to measure and no evaluation rubrics were located that uniquely focused on nurse‐to‐physician communication in simulation. METHOD This study used a mixed‐methods design and included five sites. RESULTS The IICR was determined reliable among nurse educator raters (rs = 0.79). The scale was found valid as assessed by nurse and physician experts (content validity index = 0.92). When describing their experience of using the tool, nurse educator raters described three categories: overall acceptability of the tool, ease of use, and perceptions of the importance of communication skills for patient safety. CONCLUSION Teaching and evaluating communication in simulation with a standardized rubric is a research area in need of further exploration and refinement.