Karen Moore Schaefer

Analyzing the teaching style of nursing faculty. Does it promote a student-centered or teacher-centered learning environment?

The purposes of this study were to a) describe the predominant teaching style of a group of nursing faculty members, either as teacher centered or student centered, and b) to compare teaching style to the instructional methods the faculty members used in the courses they taught and to their stated philosophies of teaching/learning. Findings indicate that the participants were more teacher centered than student centered; their written philosophies supported the teacher-centered approach. However, evidence that faculty used student-centered language, often in a teacher-centered context, indicates that participants in the study may recognize the need for a student-centered environment but may have difficulty with implementation. Recommendations for faculty members and administrators are offered.

Assessing the Critical Thinking Skills of Faculty: What Do the Findings Mean for Nursing Education?

The purpose of this study was twofold: to determine the critical thinking skills of nurse faculty and to examine the relationship between epistemological position and critical thinking. Most participants reported having no education on critical thinking. Data were collected using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and the Learning Environment Preferences (LEP). Findings from the CCTST indicated that faculty varied considerably in their ability to think critically; LEP findings suggested that participants had not reached the intellectual level needed for critical thinking. In addition, 12 faculty participated in one-hour telephone interviews in which they described experiences in which students demonstrated critical thinking. Despite a lack of clarity on the definition of critical thinking, faculty described clinical examples where students engaged in analysis, inference, and evaluation. Based on these findings, it is recommended that faculty transfer their ability to engage students in critical thinking in the clinical setting to the classroom setting. Benchmarks can be established based on the ability of faculty to engage in critical thinking.

In Your Skin You are Different: Women Living with Ovarian Cancer During Childbearing Years

The purpose of this study was to understand what it is like to live with ovarian cancer during childbearing years. The primary researcher (PR) conducted three to four in-depth interviews, lasting 60 to 90 minutes each, with five women living with ovarian cancer for 1 to 10 years. Van Manen’s method of reflection and writing guided the inquiry. The process of existential investigation expanded the inquiry. Trustworthiness was assured through member checking, reflective journaling, coinvestigators checking the logic of the PR’s analysis, and the achievement of consensus through dialogue. Analysis of the data revealed the themes of serendipitous diagnosis, managing treatment, horrible hair experience, hysterectomy violating one’s sense of being, unfairness of menopause, body changes, intimate dreaming, being with others, being normal/different, being vigilant, being heard, and trying to make sense of it. The stories revealed provide us with a window into the experience of women with ovarian cancer.

Reflections on Caring Narratives: Enhancing Patterns of Knowing.

The purpose of this study was to provide graduate students with the opportunity to enrich their esthetic knowing and acquire the meaning of caring in their practice by reflecting on their caring narratives. Content analysis examining for context, process, and fulfillment was used to analyze 68 caring encounters written by five classes of graduate nursing students over five semesters of course work. This article focuses on the value of reflection in knowing and the fulfillment identified by the students through the reflective process. Student fulfillment included reflecting on the need to care for self, knowing that emotional attachment can be dangerous, recognizing caring as a moral responsibility, attending to caring teaches one about caring, and reflecting on caring encounters engages one in defining caring. It is concluded that graduate nursing students can enhance multiple ways of knowing and their understanding of caring through the process of reflecting on caring encounters.

Caring Behaviors of Advanced Practice Nursing Students

The purpose of this project was to provide advanced practice nursing (APN) students with the opportunity to enrich their aesthetic knowing and acquire the meaning of caring in their practice by reflecting on their caring narratives. Students were asked to write about a caring encounter they experienced in their practice. The instructor analyzed and organized that data from each narrative. The instructor shared the data with the students for reflection and discussion. This report focuses on the caring practices of the APN students. Nine themes that embraced physical care, communication, comfort, presence, knowing, acceptance, touch, collaboration, and encouragement were identified. The APN students demonstrated aesthetic knowing as well as other ways of knowing in their caring narratives. Through reflection on the caring experiences and discussion in class, students were able to identify the meaning of caring in their practice.

Patients with end-stage COPD did not ask for help because they felt normal and did not realise the situation could be improved.

Why do patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) not actively ask for help? Qualitative study with semistructured interviews. Outpatient clinics in 4 hospitals and 1 specialist centre in the Netherlands. A purposeful sample of 11 patients 61–83 years of age (73% men) who had Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage IV COPD were identified from a sample of 82 patients from a quality of life study. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted, each lasting 1.5–2.5 hours. The first question asked was “Can you describe a normal day?” Other topics included activities of daily living, medical and informal care, social support, stigmatisation, anxiety, and the future. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analysed using an iterative process. Patients with end-stage COPD had both physical and social limitations. Breathlessness and anxiety were the most common physical limitations. Patients were afraid of suffocating because of severe breathlessness. As a result of physical limitations, patients became less mobile. They did not leave their houses in …

CAM therapies were used as treats and as alternative, complementary, and conventional treatments.

F L Bishop Dr F L Bishop, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK; F.L.Bishop@southampton.ac.uk How do patients use, think about, and conceptualise complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies? Ethnographic study. 2 clinics in pharmacy stores in the UK. Purposive sample of 46 people (91% women) who were attending clinics for osteopathy, reflexology, aromatherapy massage, homeopathy, and herbal medicine. 2 participants used 2 services and were interviewed twice. Semistructured interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim or recorded in notes. Data were analysed thematically. Participants used CAM therapies as treats or treatment, although they sometimes talked about the same therapy in different ways. (1) Therapies as treats . Aromatherapy massage and reflexology were considered treats when viewed as enjoyable luxuries rather than for health needs: “I personally wouldn’t use aromatherapy as a health treatment; no, I use it for being pampered.” However, holistic outcomes such as relaxation may be considered important for health. One participant described her experience with reflexology: “I didn’t appreciate the treatment basis of it, not until I …

Starting oral contraceptives immediately or during next menses did not differ for continued contraceptive use or pregnancy at 6 months.

C Westhoff Correspondence to: Dr C Westhoff, 630 West 168 St, New York, NY, USA; clw3@columbia.edu In young women, does directly observed, immediate initiation of oral contraceptives (OCs) increase continuation rates and reduce pregnancy compared with standard delayed initiation (during next menses)? ### Design: randomised controlled trial. ### Allocation: {concealed}.* ### Blinding: unblinded. ### Follow-up period: 3 and 6 months. ### Setting: 3 urban family planning clinics in Atlanta, New York, and Dallas, USA. ### Patients: 1720 women <25 years of age who were sexually active, requesting OCs, and had a current negative pregnancy test. Exclusion criteria were use of OCs within 7 days or Depo-Provera within 6 months, desire for pregnancy within the next 6 months, lactational amenorrhoea, or women <18 years of age who were postpartum or postabortion. ### Intervention: 864 women were allocated to the Quick Start group. During the initial clinic visit, they opened the OC …

Scripting and performing a drama about living with metastatic breast cancer provided insight into women’s experiences

Methods The research team met with the theatre group and 2 women with metastatic breast cancer to create a drama based on a focus group study about living with metastatic breast cancer. People in the drama were interviewed at the beginning, midway through the creative process, and soon after the drama was taken on the road. A key question was: “What is it like for you to be involved in this process?” A phenomenological analysis focusing on the meanings of illness in the context of the drama was used. Drafts of the article were shared with the 4 women whose transcripts were analysed for this study.