Critical care concepts in baccalaureate nursing education

The high response rate of 65.1 percent to this survey suggests nurse educators across the country are interested and involved with the incorporation of critical care concepts in baccalaureate nursing education. Nurse educators are conscientiously working to provide an educational basis for graduate nurses to adequately address the complex healthcare needs of our society. Cooperative efforts between nurse educators and practicing critical care nurses can make a difference in the future delivery of healthcare.     

Integrating the curriculum to advance baccalaureate nursing education

In 2004, the School of Nursing at the University at Buffalo began a program in which individuals with a degree in another field could complete an intensive 12-month program leading to a baccalaureate degree in nursing. Curriculum design using courses from the basic baccalaureate and RN-to-BS program, as well as graduate courses, not only provided the opportunity to integrate accelerated bachelor of science (ABS) students with the other student populations but eliminated the need for the development of courses specific to the ABS program. A unique feature of the program is the incorporation of graduate courses, allowing students to earn 9 to 12 graduate credits. The potential for future nursing leaders has also increased, given the characteristics of these mature, highly motivated, career-minded students who have chosen nursing as a second career.     

Integrating psychiatric nursing into a baccalaureate nursing curriculum

Integrated nursing curricula are believed to carry the risk of diluting psychiatric nursing content and limiting nursing students' opportunities to gain skills in providing care for patients with psychiatric disorders, especially patients with severe mental illnesses. Also, there is fear that integrating psychiatric nursing into more broad nursing content will reduce students' interest in graduate psychiatric nursing study and thus endanger the specialty of psychiatric nursing. This report of a restructured baccalaureate nursing program that adopted the premise of holism—mental and physical health as united—presents a different view. Psychiatric nursing content was incorporated into classroom instruction over four semesters and, with the nursing theory of modeling and role-modeling as a guide, clinical experiences were planned for all students in primary, rehabilitative, or acute care settings. Psychiatric nursing did not disappear, as had been feared. It emerged less stigmatized, more accepted by the nonpsychiatric faculty, and enthusiastically received by the students. (J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc [2002]. 8, 152-8.)     

Strategies for embedding population health concepts into nursing education

Advances in community and public health are needed to address contemporary health needs, particularly poor health outcomes related to the social determinants of health and inequity. Nurses are ideally placed to promote meaningful advances in community and public health, collectively referred to as population health. Nurse educators can promote a deeper understanding of core population health concepts by threading these concepts throughout the academic nursing curricula in addition to standalone population or public health courses. Strategies for incorporating population health concepts in a variety of courses can be conceptualized through the themes emphasizing context, honoring community voices, cultivating community connection, and fostering leadership in social responsibility. Nurse educators with expertise in population health can serve as a resource for faculty as these strategies are implemented. Teaching population health provides exciting opportunities for innovative approaches to facilitate students to link their practice to wider social contexts. Further steps to strengthen the public and community health workforce will still be needed to meet population health needs.     

Integrating multidimensional stress management into a baccalaureate nursing curriculum

The mandate for self-care for holistic nurses can be satisfied with a multidimensional stress management program. This article describes a quasiexperimental pilot study that assessed the need for such a program for senior students in a baccalaureate degree nursing program. Strategies are suggested to integrate these techniques into nursing education.     

Integrating complementary therapies into health care education: a cautious approach

The movement of complementary therapy training and education into higher education in the United Kingdom (UK) and the interest in alternative therapeutic approaches within the health professions presents an ideal opportunity for multidisciplinary teaching and shared learning. The diversity and similarities of complementary therapies and areas of convergence with conventional healthcare practice can be explored. The recent publication of the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology report on complementary and alternative medicine (HL Paper 123) provides a broader context for discussion and makes specific recommendations about regulation, education and research in the UK. This paper considers the appropriateness of integrating complementary therapies into education for conventional healthcare practitioners, what we should integrate, and when might be the most appropriate time in the education of healthcare practitioners to introduce different therapeutic modalities and their respective philosophical languages. Rather than present a range of solutions, the paper raises some fundamental issues that are central to the integration of complementary therapeutic approaches. If these issues are neglected as we hurry to incorporate different 'techniques' into our conventional practice, we may simply be left with additional tools that we are ill equipped to use.     

Critical care nursing education at the baccalaureate level.

Traditionally, only experienced nurses were selected to work in critical care. New graduates, however, are being hired for practice in critical care units despite controversy over the suitability of this setting for beginning practitioners. In this article, the authors describe the development of an undergraduate course in critical care nursing, outcomes of the course, teaching strategies used in both classroom and clinical settings, and effects of the course on the new graduate's practice.     

Occupational health nursing as a component of baccalaureate nursing education

Much can be gained by the nursing profession and by society by having well-prepared, professional occupational health nurses. Furthermore, conceptual knowledge about occupational health will better prepare the non-specialized nurse for her or his nursing practice. Lastly, knowledge about the hazards and risks that may accompany one's occupation will increase the nurse's awareness of the hazards that she/he may face in her/his own occupational setting. For these reasons the incorporation of occupational health content in the baccalaureate nursing programs would be a singular achievement for the nursing profession. It is clear that work-related injuries and illnesses pose a major challenge to today's health care providers. Most occupational health problems are preventable. It is fitting and indeed imperative that members of the nursing profession be leaders in a concerted effort to reduce the many risks in the workplace. The U.S. Public Health Service (1983) states that it is their goal that "by 1990 at least 70% of primary health care providers should routinely elicit occupational health exposures as part of the patient (health) history and should know how to interpret the information in an understandable manner." It is only through the introduction of important occupational health concepts in baccalaureate schools of education that this goal will be accomplished. Knowledge about occupational health nursing is fragmented. Furthermore, an occupational health curriculum, when it does exist, is varied in its content and its emphasis. this stems in part from a dearth of knowledge and experience by educators in the field of occupational health.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Integrating interprofessional education into 10 health and social care programmes

The current policy agenda purports the need for education establishments and practice agencies to join together to promote interprofessional working. It was within this policy context that in September 2000 the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of the West of England (Bristol) introduced an interprofessional strand within 10 professional programmes. This article outlines a number of challenges associated with the incorporation of interprofessional education into the pre-qualifying curriculum and details the approaches used to meet these challenges. Logistical barriers associated with organising more than 700 students into interprofessional groups in a format that does not result in an over representation of any group, developing and selecting appropriate scenarios, resourcing the interprofessional modules, integrating interprofessional education throughout the whole student experience and facilitating the delivery of the interprofessional modules are all considered, together with adjustments made in the light of evaluations to date.     

Integrating interprofessional education into 10 health and social care programmes

The current policy agenda purports the need for education establishments and practice agencies to join together to promote interprofessional working. It was within this policy context that in September 2000 the Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of the West of England (Bristol) introduced an interprofessional strand within 10 professional programmes. This article outlines a number of challenges associated with the incorporation of interprofessional education into the pre-qualifying curriculum and details the approaches used to meet these challenges. Logistical barriers associated with organising more than 700 students into interprofessional groups in a format that does not result in an over representation of any group, developing and selecting appropriate scenarios, resourcing the interprofessional modules, integrating interprofessional education throughout the whole student experience and facilitating the delivery of the interprofessional modules are all considered, together with adjustments made in the light of evaluations to date.     

Integrating quality and safety education into clinical nursing education through a dedicated education unit

The Institute of Medicine and American Association of Colleges of Nursing are calling for curriculum redesign that prepares nursing students with the requisite knowledge and skills to provide safe, high quality care. The purpose of this project was to improve nursing students' knowledge of quality and safety by integrating Quality and Safety Education for Nurses into clinical nursing education through development of a dedicated education unit. This model, which pairs nursing students with front-line nursing staff for clinical experiences, was implemented on a medical floor in an acute care hospital. Prior to implementation, nurses and students were educated about the dedicated education unit and quality and safety competencies. During each clinical rotation, students collaborated with their nurses on projects related to these competencies.Students' knowledge was assessed using questions related to quality and safety. Students who participated in the dedicated education unit had higher scores than those with traditional clinical rotations. Focus groups were held mid-semester to assess nurses' perceptions of the experience. Five themes emerged from the qualitative data including thirsting for knowledge, building teamwork and collaboration, establishing trust and decreasing anxiety, mirroring organization and time management skills, and evolving confidence in the nursing role.     

Integrating a cancer-specific geriatric assessment into survivorship care

Older adults constitute the greatest percentage of cancer survivors in the country, with 61% being aged 65 years and older. Assessing older adult cancer survivors beyond chronological age to include changes in functional status is an essential process to help nurses anticipate cancer treatment impact and aid in planning individualized survivorship care. The objective of this article is to identify a method to assess older adult cancer survivors to be used in tailoring survivorship care. A review of geriatric literature was conducted through MEDLINE(?) and PubMed from 1997-2011 and focused on the pathophysiology of aging, cancer impact, and comorbidities in this population. Results were combined with previous research to provide an evidence-based approach to assessing older cancer survivors. The resulting assessment provides valuable information on the functional status of older adult patients with cancer. This assessment can be used by nurses to develop treatment plans and tailor management strategies to improve quality of life.     

Developing simulation games to advance public health nursing competence in baccalaureate education

We describe the development of an innovative baccalaureate nursing education strategy for public health nursing. Virtual simulation pedagogy is known to be effective for acute care nursing practice while less known for public health nursing. Three Canadian nursing schools, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN), and the Canadian Alliance of Nurse Educators using Simulation (CAN-Sim) partnered to develop three public health nursing virtual simulation games. Learners work through unfolding population health scenarios, simulating public health nursing practice focused on entry level public health nursing competencies. Each game fosters clinical reasoning and collaborative, community decision-making to respond to population health issues during community assessment, evidence-informed health promotion planning, and evaluation processes. A companion guide was developed to support best practices in implementing virtual simulation and promote optimum student learning using the public health nursing games.