Linda Siktberg

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.

Assessment and Early Diagnosis of Dysphagia

Dysphagia is defined as difficulty in swallowing food (semi-solid or solid), liquid, or both. Neurological, muscular, anatomical, and/or psychological factors may predispose a person to difficulty in swallowing. Difficulty in swallowing or dysphagia can lead to serious complications including aspiration pneumonia, malnutrition, and death if not diagnosed early. Health care providers who are knowledgeable in assessing and diagnosing individuals with or at risk for dysphagia can in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team ameliorate the complications of dysphagia and optimize outcomes through focused interventions. In addition, health care costs would be reduced through decreased need for hospitalization, length of stay when hospitalized, and overall health care expenditures. This article provides a review of the epidemiology of dysphagia, the normal swallowing process, pathophysiology, signs and symptoms, and diagnostics. Implications for practice also are discussed.

Management of children with swallowing disorders

Early diagnosis and treatment of feeding and swallowing problems may improve a childs health status and quality of life and reduce health care costs. Pediatric nurse practitioners have a salient role in the early diagnosis of children at risk for feeding and swallowing problems. Increased knowledge about the normal swallowing process, children at risk for feeding and swallowing disorders, and associated symptoms enhances early diagnosis and treatment. The childs general health history and physical evaluation, along with additional diagnostic tests, provide the basis for the formulation of an individualized feeding program by an interdisciplinary team. Pediatric nurse practitioners, through their knowledge about dysphagia and participation on a interdisciplinary team, can provide support for family members and assist them in adapting to and caring for a child with a swallowing impairment.

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.

Assisting at-risk students in preparing for NCLEX-RN.

The graduate who fails the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) on the first attempt is psychologically, socially, and financially devastated. It is humiliating for the graduate to inform family, friends, and potential employers of the failure. It is also devastating for the graduate to have to wait until the 91st day following the NCLEX-RN failure to retake the computer adapted test (CAT). This length of time between examinations may increase the graduate’s risk for failing the NCLEX-RN a subsequent time, because the graduate is not authorized to function as a graduate nurse in the clinical setting; there is no ongoing reinforcement of nursing knowledge, nursing process, critical thinking, or clinical performance skills. The graduate’s NCLEX-RN performance also impacts the school of nursing’s annual NCLEX-RN pass rate.

A Digital Toolkit to Implement and Manage a Multisite Study

Calls for multisite studies are increasing in nursing education. However, the challenge of implementing consistent protocols and maintaining rigorous standards across sites can be daunting. One purpose of a recent multisite, collaborative, simulation study was to evaluate a digital toolkits effectiveness for managing a multisite study. We describe the digital toolkit composed of Web-based technologies used to manage a study involving five sites including one United Kingdom site. The digital toolkit included a wiki, a project Web site to coordinate the protocols and study materials, software to organize study materials, and a secure location for sharing data. Most of these are familiar tools; however, combined as a toolkit, they became a useful management system. Web-based communication strategies and coordinated technical support served as key adjuncts to foster collaboration. This article also offers practical implications and recommendations for using a digital toolkit in other multisite studies.

Flipping the Classroom: Strategies for Psychiatric-Mental Health Course.

Experiences over 2 years substantiate the value of the pedagogical shift of “flipping the classroom” as an effective strategy in preparing students for didactic and clinical experiences in a psychiatric-mental health nursing course. This article describes strategies used to flip the classroom in the course. Student perceptions of the changed pedagogy and implications for nurse educators are presented.