Jacqueline Kayler DeBrew

Successful and unsuccessful clinical nursing students.

This study describes the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful clinical performance in prelicensure nursing students. Clinical evaluation is an important role of nurse educators; however, many feel uncomfortable with its subjective nature, and commonly used criteria for successful and unsuccessful clinical performance are not available in the literature. Using a qualitative descriptive design, we analyzed telephone interviews with 24 nurse educators. Educators indicated successful students were positive and eager to learn, built relationships, communicated well, think critically, prepared for the clinical experience and showed progress, accepted feedback, and adapted to the clinical setting. Unsuccessful students were unprepared for the clinical experience, were unable to function in the clinical area, were unsafe, violated legal-ethical principles, and had difficulty with communication skills. Specific characteristics differentiated students who are considered satisfactory in the clinical area and those who are not. These behaviors may identify students at risk of failure in clinical courses.

To pass or to fail? Understanding the factors considered by faculty in the clinical evaluation of nursing students

Making the decision to pass or to fail a nursing student is difficult for nurse educators, yet one that all educators face at some point in time. To make this decision, nurse educators draw from their past experiences and personal reflections on the situation. Using the qualitative method of critical incident technique, the authors asked educators to describe a time when they had to make a decision about whether to pass or fail a student in the clinical setting. The findings describe student and faculty factors important in clinical evaluation decisions, demonstrate the benefits of reflective practice to nurse educators, and support the utility of critical incident technique not only as research methodology, but also as a technique for reflective practice.

Assessing medication knowledge and practices of older adults

An assessment instrument for home health nurses to use in assessing medication knowledge and practices of older adults was developed and tested on a convenience sample of 20 adults 65 and older admitted to a local home health agency. The tool was found usable by nurses, understood by patients, and had adequate test-retest reliability. The results emphasized the need for thorough medication assessments of all home health patients and provided a tool that home care nurses can use.

Helping Older Adults Find Meaning and Purpose Through Storytelling

The purpose of this article is to describe a storytelling project that was designed to help community-dwelling older adults find meaning and purpose in their lives through reminiscing about the past. The storytelling project was successful not only for the older adults who participated but also for the nursing students, who were given an opportunity to learn about interviewing and communicating with older adults. The value of life review and storytelling as a nursing intervention became evident from this project. When time is taken to listen to the valuable stories and life lessons of the older population, nurses create a better understanding of their patients while their patients recall special memories and feel proud of their lives.

Regulation and Accreditation Requirements for Preceptor Use in Undergraduate Education

BACKGROUND Nurse preceptors are widely used in pre-licensure RN education to facilitate the educational process. Often, these preceptors are staff nurses employed by clinical agencies. Currently, there are no standardized guidelines for qualifications, roles and responsibilities, or best practices. METHOD Systematic website review was conducted of all Boards of Nursing and nursing accrediting bodies in the United States and Canada. RESULTS Seven categories of information were identified: preceptor qualifications, faculty and nursing program role, curriculum placement, written policies, ratios, orientation, and preceptor availability. CONCLUSION Research is needed to document issues and current practices to create a model of best practices in preceptor orientation and use, as well as faculty supervision in prelicensure nursing education. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2014;45(x):xxx-xxx.

Looking through a community lens: innovative ways to integrate community health nursing competencies into all settings of care.

Community nursing is not a new. In fact, nursing practice in the home and community is the oldest form of nursing care. Yet, nursing educations move to the university from hospital-based programs coupled with advances in health care technology located in hospitals has contributed to community nursing being overshadowed by the perceived need for nursing students to spend more clinical time in an acute-care setting. In the 1980s, the introduction of Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs) in the acute care setting resulted in community nursing being viewed as a vital part of the healthcare continuum. Nonetheless, in todays schools of nursing, community health nursing is viewed by some faculty members as a practice that takes place solely outside the walls of the hospital and one that requires less nursing skill and knowledge—or at least less than a student needs to be successful on the National Council Licensure (NCLEX) licensure examination. Nursing students will occasionally say community health nursing is a waste of time since “it is not even on the Boards.” This viewpoint fails to recognize the competencies of nursing practice in the community and sets the stage for a us-versus-them attitude between nursing faculty who teach in medical-surgical hospital settings and those who teach in community settings.

A Liberal Education: Making the Essentials Practical

The newly revised Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice states that “a solid base in liberal education provides the cornerstone for the practice and education of nurses.”1(p3) Liberal education is thought to provide professional nurses with some of the necessary skills needed to practice nursing, including critical thinking, effective communication, collaboration with others, appreciation of diversity, and the integration of knowledge from the sciences and humanities to solve problems. However, liberal education is viewed by many faculty as separate from the nursing curriculum: the courses taken prior to the nursing courses. Seeking strategies that would require students in our required gerontology nursing course to incorporate princi-ples of liberal education, we developed the Life Review Project.

An Unlikely Advocate The Role of the School Nurse With Children Who Have Dyslexia

School nurses are often the first line of advocacy for children when problems arise. One common learning disability, dyslexia, requires advocacy from the school nurse. However, due to lack of knowledge, misunderstandings, and misconceptions about the disorder, the school nurse may feel inadequate in an advocacy role. This article describes dyslexia, including warning signs, so that school nurses can be better prepared to assess for signs, provide intervention, and advocate for struggling children and families.