Jan M. Nick

Best Practices in Academic Mentoring: A Model for Excellence

Mentoring is important for the recruitment and retention of qualified nurse faculty, their ongoing career development, and leadership development. However, what are current best practices of mentoring? The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a model for excellence in establishing a formal mentoring program for academic nurse educators. Six themes for establishing a formal mentoring program are presented, highlighting best practices in mentoring as culled from experience and the literature. Themes reflect aims to achieve appropriately matched dyads, establish clear mentorship purpose and goals, solidify the dyad relationship, advocate for and guide the protégé, integrate the protégé into the academic culture, and mobilize institutional resources for mentoring support. Attending to the six themes will help mentors achieve important protégé outcomes, such as orientation to the educator role, integration into the academic community, development of teaching, scholarship, and service skills, as well as leadership development. The model is intended to be generalizable for faculty teaching in a variety of academic nursing institution types and sizes. Mentoring that integrates the six themes assists faculty members to better navigate the academic environment and more easily transition to new roles and responsibilities.

Connecting in distance mentoring: communication practices that work.

BACKGROUND As nursing and healthcare become more global, supported by technology, the opportunities for distance mentoring increase. Mentorship is critical to nurse educator recruitment and retention. STUDY OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to identify communication practices of nurse educators involved in mentoring at a distance. DESIGN/SETTINGS A qualitative design, utilizing in-person or telephone interviews was used. Participants were twenty-three protégés or mentors who were part of a yearlong distance mentoring program. ANALYSIS METHOD An iterative process of hermeneutic analysis identified three themes; this paper focuses on the theme of connectedness. RESULTS Participant narratives illuminate practices of connecting at a distance: meeting face-to-face, sharing personal information, experiencing reciprocity, journaling, being vulnerable, establishing ones presence, and appreciating different perspectives. CONCLUSION Distance does not appear to limit the connecting potential leading to a meaningful mentoring relationship; rather, it offers possibilities that local mentoring relationships may not. Nurse educators in under-resourced countries, those in small programs without a cadre of senior faculty, and students in distance programs are among those who stand to benefit from distance mentoring relationships.

Deep Tendon Reflexes: The What, Why, Where, and How of Tapping

Deep tendon reflexes demonstrate the homeostasis between the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord. When these reflexes are disrupted, hyperreflexia (disease induced) or hyporeflexia/areflexia (drug induced) occurs. Although nurses perform deep tendon reflex assessments regularly, it is difficult to incorporate theoretical principles in these assessments because of scant medical literature, a lack of nursing research, and time constraints in nursing programs. These conditions usually result in one-on-one training, causing reduced consistency. A comprehensive examination assists the clinician to apply theoretical principles, develop expert technique, and serve as a catalyst for clinical research.

Deep Tendon Reflexes, Magnesium, and Calcium: Assessments and Implications

The perinatal nurse, in collaboration with physicians, can use deep tendon reflexes as a powerful tool in determining the need to start, adjust, or stop magnesium infusion. Toxicity can be detected using physical manifestations as a guide. Clinical signs may be a better indicator than serum levels of tissue levels of magnesium. Whether magnesium is given to prevent seizures or for tocolysis, patients in both situations are at risk for developing toxicity and must be assessed regularly to ensure patient safety.

Organic Buildup and Residual Blood on Infant Stethoscopes in Maternal-Infant Areas

Objective: To identify the presence of residual blood and organic matter on “clean” stethoscopes in maternal-infant units. Design: In this retrospective, nonexperimental study, stethoscopes were tested using qualitative measurements. Setting: Using a nonprobability sampling technique, 11 acute care hospitals in a three-state area of the southwestern United States were studied. Participants: All stethoscopes found on the maternal-infant units were included, for a total sample size of 97. Instruments: A hand-held 10-power lens was used to visually rank the amount of organic buildup, and the phenolphthalein test was used to detect residual blood on the stethoscope. Results: Of 97 clean infant stethoscopes, 80% of labor and delivery and 72% of nursery stethoscopes had organic buildup on the diaphragm. Both areas had similar rates of organic buildup, x2 (1, N = 97) = 1.00, p = ns. Nursery areas did have significantly lower rates of residual blood than stethoscopes from labor and delivery, x2 (1, N = 97) = 9.89, p = .002. Seventy-six percent of labor and delivery stethoscopes were positive for blood, as compared to 46% of nursery stethoscopes. Conclusions: Traditional methods for cleaning stethoscopes used in labor and delivery and nursery areas are ineffective in removing blood and other body fluids from the stethoscope.

CLINICAL STUDIESOrganic Buildup Residual Blood on Infant Stethoscopes in Maternal-Infant Areas

Objective: To identify the presence of residual blood and organic matter on “clean” stethoscopes in maternal-infant units. Design: In this retrospective, nonexperimental study, stethoscopes were tested using qualitative measurements. Setting: Using a nonprobability sampling technique, 11 acute care hospitals in a three-state area of the southwestern United States were studied. Participants: All stethoscopes found on the maternal-infant units were included, for a total sample size of 97. Instruments: A hand-held 10-power lens was used to visually rank the amount of organic buildup, and the phenolphthalein test was used to detect residual blood on the stethoscope. Results: Of 97 clean infant stethoscopes, 80% of labor and delivery and 72% of nursery stethoscopes had organic buildup on the diaphragm. Both areas had similar rates of organic buildup, x2 (1, N = 97) = 1.00, p = ns. Nursery areas did have significantly lower rates of residual blood than stethoscopes from labor and delivery, x2 (1, N = 97) = 9.89, p = .002. Seventy-six percent of labor and delivery stethoscopes were positive for blood, as compared to 46% of nursery stethoscopes. Conclusions: Traditional methods for cleaning stethoscopes used in labor and delivery and nursery areas are ineffective in removing blood and other body fluids from the stethoscope.