Steven B. Dowd

Using case studies to teach clinical problem-solving.

The case study method is a useful student-centered learning strategy that allows students to solve real-world problems in the safe environment of the classroom. The authors discuss the strengths and limitations of this method and strategies for developing and using case studies in the classroom.

Educating the Culturally Diverse Healthcare Student

Diversity among healthcare students is increasing as the population of the United States changes in composition. Preparation of the culturally diverse healthcare student presents a challenge for recruitment, education, and retention. The problems of education can be ameliorated by a thorough assessment of the culturally diverse student using the Giger and Davidhizar model. The student should be assessed for differences by considering six interrelated factors: communication, space, time, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations. Understanding the differences that exist in these areas is a first step toward appreciating the diversity among people of varied cultures.

Death, Dying and Grief in a Transcultural Context: Application of the Giger and Davidhizar Assessment Model

One of the most challenging aspects of death education and grief counseling is providing care and education that is relevant to the cultural, racial, and ethnic needs of the client. Often appropriate responses are difficult due to the lack of a relevant model; otherwise practitioners tend to operate from facts collected in isolation. This article reports on an assessment model originally developed in nursing by Giger and Davidhizar and discusses its potential use in providing culturally relevant death education and grief counseling.

Stress Resulting from Change and Restructuring: A Cognitive Approach

Restructuring of the health care system has brought about stress in health care workers who are attempting to adapt to change. Although most stress-reduction approaches utilize affective solutions, this article argues that instituting a new way of thinking is needed for health care workers to survive and thrive under restructuring. There are a number of fallacies of thinking that individuals use in the face of change, including dichotomous thinking and weak-sense critical thinking. Adaptation and survival in todays health care environment requires complex ways of thinking that go beyond an innate resistance to change, shown in this article as dialectical thinking

The hospital manager and game theory: chess master, poker player, or cooperative game player?

Hospital management can be seen as a game, and doctors, nurses, and health maintenance organizations are its players. The astute hospital manager realizes the interdependence of individual career strategies and the hospitals success, just as players in a game are interdependent on each other. Managers familiar with game theory may successfully transfer that knowledge to the hospital realm. They may recognize patterns and calculate outcomes like chess players, bluff other hospitals into folding services as poker players do, and cooperate with their own team to maximize productivity. Knowledge of game theory may also make the hospital managers job more personally enjoyable, as viewing life as a series of game-like challenges enriches experience.

Writing scholarly papers as a team.

Use of a team approach is a technique that can facilitate writing for professional publication. There is an art to writing with a team, which includes carefully selecting a writing partner who will complement personal skills and expertise and being able to work in a collaborative way through the writing process. There are benefits in the team approach that are of particular significance in mentoring novice writing in the publication process. However, there are also obstacles that should be anticipated and planned for.

Recognizing abuse in culturally diverse clients.

Abuse is a major problem in American society. The problem of abuse among ethnically diverse persons is an area about which most health care professionals know little. This article describes the Giger-Davidhizar Model of Transcultural Assessment as a tool of assessment of the client who is abused. Use of a framework for assessment can enable more culturally competent care to be delivered.

Sexual harassment. Where to draw the line.

Research reveals a widespread and frequently mismanaged problem--sexual harassment. Federal and state rulings, workplace guidelines and the Equal Opportunity Commissions definition of sexual harassment can help determine where to draw the line.

An equitable nursing assignment structure.

An inconsistent nursing assignment structure increases unsafe nursing care situations and patient and staff litigation. Using a holistic perspective when scheduling places value on subjectivity, accountability and continuity of care. The conflicts involved with the nursing assignment structure and its implications for nursing managers are identified.

The mystery of altruism and transcultural nursing.

Why do some individuals choose the professions they do? Is it for altruistic reasons? This article examines this question from the standpoints of sociobiology, evolutionary biology, game theory, and memetics. Implications for transcultural nursing are included. The Giger-Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model is presented as a nursing model and might explain altruism even beyond other models. An overview of the Giger-Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model is included.