Leslie K. Robbins

The impact of active learning on nursing students' clinical success.

Active, cooperative learning is a method to teach the critical thinking skills necessary for the transfer and use of classroom-acquired knowledge in the clinical setting. Yet many nursing educators continue to use teacher-centered educational approaches while identifying an array of barriers for the voiced preference for student-centered education. Using holistic, active cooperative learning strategies (faculty role modeling, student interactive and group learning, and group testing) within a didactic class, the authors found differences in the average clinical grade (87.03) when compared to the average clinical grade for students who had been taught using a lecture approach (84.19).

Using Objective Structured Clinical Examinations to Meet Clinical Competence Evaluation Challenges With Distance Education Students

PURPOSE This study aims to describe the use of modified objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) developed to address the identified educational need for formative advanced practice psychiatric mental health (PMH) student assessments and focused learning experiences within a modified nursing distance education program that serves advanced practice nurse PMH students from rural/underserved areas. CONCLUSION OSCEs represent a practical solution to the challenges of clinical competency evaluation in psychiatric nursing distance education programs. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS OSCEs add a supportive evaluation layer to the precepted experience. This increases the availability of PMH nurse practitioner/clinical nurse specialist distance education programs focused on improving advanced PMH nursing services in rural and underserved areas.

Outcomes of ADN-BSN Partnerships to Increase Baccalaureate Prepared Nurses

The limited supply of BSN nurses hinders efforts to increase patient care quality and address health disparities. In largely rural and economically disadvantaged areas, associate degree prepared nurses provide the majority of nursing services. To address a statewide need, a BSN Program and 3 ADN Programs formed a partnership to take BSN education to rural and medically underserved areas. This article describes the program planning, implementation, and evaluation using an adapted assessment framework with partnership principles as its foundation. Interactive television, internet education components, local clinical experiences, and distant nursing faculty liaisons were used. The nursing course sequence was completed by 101 of 102 students. Halls Professionalism Scale, the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test measured the increases found in professional socialization and critical thinking. Use of the adapted theoretical framework represented a strategic approach to developing a distance delivered nursing education program.

Psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist practice in a public school setting.

The public school setting is increasingly becoming an entry point of contact for an array of healthcare services because it is most likely the best positioned institution to improve a community’s overall healthcare. By linking behavioral healthcare services with primary healthcare services in the school setting, the psychiatric-mental health clinical nurse specialist is well suited to provide comprehensive behavioral health services.

Guidance Counselors’ Ratings of Important Attributes for Registered Nurses and Prospective Nursing Students: A Comparison of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Career Counselors

Perceptions of counselors from Hispanic serving high schools regarding professional nursing as a career have received limited study. A cross-sectional descriptive study of a convenience sample of 55 guidance counselors from Hispanic serving institutions identified the number of requests/referrals to nursing programs and perceptions of prospective nursing student and registered nurse attributes. Hispanic counselors rated caring and professional leadership skills higher than did White non-Hispanic counselors. Recommendations for academic nursing and counselor partnerships are provided. Las percepciones de consejeros en preparatorias de servicio a hispanos en cuanto a la profesión de enfermería como carrera han recibido estudio limitado. Un estudio descriptivo seccional cruzado de una muestra de conveniencia de 55 consejeros vocacionales en instituciones de servicio a hispanos identificaron el número de referencias a programas de enfermería y las percepciones de estudiantes prospecto de enfermería con los atributos de enfermeros registrados. Los consejeros hispanos calificaron más alto que los consejeros blancos no-hispanos en habilidades de liderazgo profesional y compasión. Recomendaciones para equipos o relaciones entre enfermería académica y consejería se proveen.

Commentary on "canine visitation (pet) therapy: pilot data on decreases in child pain perception".

The purpose of the descriptive pilot study conducted by Sobo, Eng, and Kassity-Kritch (2005) was to explore the effectiveness of canine visitation therapy (CVT) in pediatric pain management. Children continue to suffer moderate to severe postoperative pain despite the current focus on effective pain management and pain management being considered a patient right (Bennett-Branson & Craig, 1993; Cohen, 1993; Kokki, 2004). Pharmacologic interventions for acute pain continue to be offered as the current standard therapy although the research shows that effective pain management requires an approach that includes pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has been shown to have many positive benefits for a variety of adult populations and currently is practiced in about 600 hospitals in the United States (Roosevelt, 2001). Included among the ways that medical professionals may use animals therapeutically is animal visitation therapy (AVT) in which the animal initiates contact with the patient to increase responsiveness and provide pleasure. There have not been many research studies published that evaluate the effect of AAT interventions, and most of the studies have involved patients who were adults or elderly. In the few published studies that focused on children, none focused on the specific area of CVT intervention and the effect it may have on pain management. Sobo et al. (2005) utilized quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate an existing CVT intervention in 25 children older than 5 years of age, in the postoperative acute pain service of a children’s hospital. The sample included English-speaking, mostly White and Hispanic patients (there was one Black patient) from age 5 to 18 years. All of the participants were experiencing acute postoperative pain, did not have any chronic conditions, were not developmentally delayed, and were not in isolation; and the patient and parent agreed to be part of the study. Prior to the intervention, quantitative data were collected about physical pain and emotional distress using scales specifically developed for children. These scales measured physical pain on one side and emotional distress on the other. An example of the physical pain scale choices included 10 (“hurting a whole lot, very uncomfortable, severe pain”), whereas an example of the emotional distress side included 10 (“very scared, very nervous, very worried”). Specific administration instructions were included. After the intervention was completed, data were again collected about physical pain and emotional distress using the specific scales. The qualitative 5-minute interview was then conducted in which the interview question “What did you (or your child) like about the dog’s visit?” was asked. The interventions were all delivered by a Delta Society certified female West Highland terrier who had been involved in CVT since she was 3 months old. The patient decided which level of intervention would take place. The levels included passive interaction (the dog sat or slept with the child), low interaction (the dog did occasional pet tricks), and high interaction (the dog and child had active, playful roughhousing or walked). The researchers looked at the preand postintervention differences for physical pain and emotional distress and used paired t tests to examine the significance of these differences. Even though the sample was small, the differences for physical pain and emotional distress were found to be significant. The intervention chosen most often was the low-intensity intervention with the time duration between 11 minutes and 20 minutes. This type of intervention and the time involvement make this a viable option for inclusion in the pain management regime of hospitalized pediatric patients. Themes developed from the qualitative interviews with the children and parents included distraction