Nursing Ideas » Education

Nursing Students’ Opinions

Robert Fraser — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:15:12 +0000

This is a guest post by the founder (former student) of Nursing Student Opinions

I was recently asked by the founder of Nursing Ideas to write a post to describe how my motivations and purpose for starting a website for Nursing Students’ Opinions. The idea for this site started from a few events that occurred in my first year as a nursing student and the Journal of Undergraduate Life Sciences (JULS), which I was a part of in my undergrad.

Situations I encountered as a first year nursing student in classes and in clinicals led me to question my preconceptions of nursing education, nursing as a “caring” profession, and the status of nursing students in the whole scheme of the healthcare system.

The first event was during a pharmacology class, when the student union made an announcement about a letter they received written from a few first year nursing students about how, as students, we were sometimes very disrespectful to our nursing instructors during lectures. After the letter was presented, there was a lot of discussion about agreements/disagreements one issues brought up in the letter, such as being over demanding with grading systems, asking questions in a rude manner and the lack of professionalism. The second event involved misunderstandings between students about how to share clinical knowledge and knowledge of their instructors. Knowledge is power, as nursing students we often unintentionally hog knowledge with our enthusiasm for learning. This can sometimes create tensions in the learning environment which may or may not be noticed by clinical instructors. There were also circumstances that continually recurred, such as students feeling ignored and unwanted in their clinical placements. I experienced a mild version of this, but there were a few students who told me they had instructors or nursing staff looking down and disrespecting them or leaving them on the hospital units alone/unsupervised. In addition, there was the issue of where nursing students’ voice stands in their educational institution and clinical placements. I remember vividly during morning rounds in one placement where a staff nurse threw a paper ball at my clinical instructor in the midst of a discussion on horizontal violence between nurses. I don’t know whether he did it out of good humour or if he was trying to stimulate more discussion, but he threw the paper pretty hard. Some of the other nurses were talking about seniority and generated questions about how it was so difficult to resolve conflicts with nurses who have been on the unit less than they have. I remember how I was tempted to stand up and say to the nursing staff that “as students we are constantly absorbing all the actions, comments, and attitudes that nursing staff and instructors express during our clinical placement. These actions, comments and attitudes affect our learning, our future practice, our perceptions and our passion for the profession. How can nurses who are known to the public as the most caring professionals end up being hypocritical when it came to our own colleagues and students? Where did all the respect and compassion go?” I still regret not saying anything during that meeting, but I was so conflicted at that moment. Was I willing to risk my academic career and risk the chance of being hated/neglected by the nursing staff? I still had a few more weeks that I had to be on the unit,and honestly I did not have the courage to speak up. The only thing I was able to do was to tell my instructor after morning rounds that we really respected her and the way she kept her cool in the meeting room. Recently I heard a story from a nursing student with first-hand experience in patient advocacy. He went out of his way to ensure that his patient, who had a critical heart condition, received nitroglycerin during an episode of chest pain when the nursing staff refused to give the medication for seemingly personal reasons. Although he was given a honourarium for the advocacy, he told me that he acknowledged that he could have been in a lot of trouble with the staff nurses and other instructors. Why? It is because as nursing students, we lack the “RN” title, putting us at the end of the food chain. We are afraid to speak out at times when there are issues that affects our learning and patient care because we feel that we don’t have a “Right” to speak and give suggestions. The single most important lesson I got out of these situations is about how understanding perspectives can allow student-student and student-instructor/nurse conflict resolution and drive change in the nursing profession.

At first, my reaction to these issues had been to just accept it as ”a part of the nursing education experience”; but I was conflicted because tolerance does not bring about change. Then one day, as I reminisced about JULS, an undergraduate student research journal I was a part of during my first degree, the idea for a nursing student newspaper came to me. The main purpose of JULS was to allow undergraduate students to present scientific articles of research they were a part of, to get their ideas out to the community of life science students. That’s what I felt was missing, a newspaper where nursing students can present their opinions on certain topics that affect our learning, and our present and future practice; a place where we can feel that we are not alone in our experiences and perspectives so that we are not afraid to advocate for ourselves and our patients.

The challenge was how to get the funds and generate interest for this project. I had to find the most cost-effective and efficient way to get the idea out to other students, which is why I decided o make a web blog site. Web blogs are easy to access and distribute, with minimal costs and can easily become viral, ie) spread to student bodies in different geographic locations in a very short time. In addition, having the website opened another opportunity to share learning and resources with students. I included introductions to different clinical placements that I’ve completed with information that I found important before going into the placements. I was able to link videos, documents and other web resources which I found helpful, and students could leave comments on what they found to be helpful for their studies and practice. 7 months after the idea of generating a website, with addition of suggestions from TAs and clinical instructors, the final product was completed.

Nursing Students’ Opinions is a website geared towards nursing students in general and not solely for nursing students in North America. I do understand that different social structures will create different experiences from different parts of the world, but it is the experiences that generates interest and reflection. My hopes for this website is to allow nursing students to voice their perspectives with an attitude of reflection and not that of blame, to generate innovative ideas that fosters positive change before we become blinded into the culture of our profession and to remind nurses of situations they might have experienced when they were students which they could give tips/suggestions to overcome.

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Improving patient care, nursing job satisfaction, and career development programs

Rob Fraser RN — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:42:22 +0000

May 31, 2010 Toronto's St Michael's Hospital showcased the Research Advancing Practice's (RAP) [2009 PDF] latest cohort. The program involves a group of frontline nurses that enroll in a program that gives them to time to learn and conduct research. Behind the program is Dr. Lianne Jeffs (see Lianne Jeff's Nursing Ideas interview here) and takes in nurses like Martha Schroder (her interview here). The program is fantastic on so many levels, it promotes a culture of learning, allows nurses to improve the workplace, job satisfaction is enhanced and most importantly the research focuses on improving patient care!

When I heard the date for these presentations was announced I marked off my calendar I knew I wanted to go, but when I got there there was something different. This year the nursing RAP (what a great name!) had a new abbreviation, the RAPpers (as they are called) took part in RAP-CD (career development). During the opening remarks it was explained that Janice Waddell had been working on integrating the Donner-Wheeler career visioning into the program. Although at first glance it might not appear a large addition. Career development is not a new topic, but to nursing the incorporation of CD into a program that is already doing incredible things this addition is very significant. Nurses that participate expresses a number of positive outcomes, and one of those is an interest in further education. When nurses are given the opportunity to learn, conduct research, and improve patient care it really improves they way they view their role in the hospital, including the CD ensures that nurses not only consider further education but also their future career.

Watching the nurses talk about their experiences, research, and what they hope to do in the future was inspiring. Rarely on walking into a hospital is it possible to walk into a room of energized nurses talking about how excited they are, how the organization is supporting them, and creating future dreams about what they would like to do. Below are some pictures from the day, I highly encourage you to take a look, consider if your organization might be able to do something similar, and finally to remember that nurses are the frontline of healthcare delivery, which gives us the best perspective to come up with great research questions.

The RAP-CD initiative is a fantastic idea. I truly encourage every nurse and nursing organization to consider if this is a possibility. Creating dynamic programs like RAP-CD create amazing opportunities to support employees and improve patient care!

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Podcasting Basics by Terri Schmit

@onlinenursing — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:00:48 +0000

This post is written by Terri Schmit and posted on her blog. She is an experienced nurse practitioner, educator, and is currently finishing her PhD. This is one of her many great posts.

Well, it is time to share some good internet information with all of my nursing friends out there. I had more than one thought this week so I am writing about a few issues

Health Assessment Resources on the WWW

Key to the foundational knowledge of any nurse is the ability to perform an exemplary health assessment, whether beginner or returning to school for a graduate nursing degree. The internet has provided a new medium through which to reach students at any geographic location at virtually any time of day. This makes access, comprehension, and visual/audio opportunities unending for our students. The following websites offer great supplemental learning of the physical examination through interaction, video, and audio.

The Health History: Of note, before I progress into this further, I want it to be known that I feel the most important part of any health assessment is not the physical exam, but the health history. A good, complete, and culturally competent health history will not only direct the examiner toward potential problems, but inform about areas of preventative needs and patient education, such as the need for adult immunizations, smoking cessation, or even grief counseling. Many of these things cannot be discerned by the physical exam alone. The physical exam is an unfortunate emphasis of many health assessment classes and basic RN programs. Unfortunately, the internet echos the same gap in emphasis with numerous physical examination resources and very few health history examples, forms, reasoning, etc….

The Physical Exam: I am not going to belabor the things we all know about a health history. Providing a warm room, privacy, equipment, good lighting, WASHING the HANDS in front of the patient, and actually meeting and talking with the patient, clothes on, before they don an ultra comfortable and stylish examination gown is basic groundwork for a good exam. There is truly an art to the physical exam and starting at the head and working your way down (head-to-toe) is best, helping to keep things organized. The following internet video/audio/interactive websites are excellent adjunct additions to any health assessment course, or simply as a refresher.

OPETA website from the University of Florida – http://opeta.medinfo.ufl.edu/

LEARN HOW TO EXAMINE website from Dr. Diane Davitt, PhD, RN – http://www.webster.edu/~davittdc/index.html

LEARNERS TV Video Examination Series – http://www.learnerstv.com/lectures.php?course=ltv032&cat=Medical&page=1

THE INTERACTIVE GUIDE TO THE EXAMINATION at OSU – http://medicine.osu.edu/exam/Pages/index.aspx

How to Make a Podcast for Your Course, to Send to Someone, or For Anything Else

Audio podcasts are a great way to ‘verbally’ connect with students and people, without the need for synchronicity in schedules. They also offer a great way for lectures, thoughts, etc. to be downloaded to iPods and played over and over. I am continually surprised at how many of my colleagues find this notion ‘scary’ and therefore resort to the same methods of communication without trying new ones. It is one of the easiest things in the world to do, so here is a step by step to help you along….

For you PC users (yes that means WINDOWS)

1. Go to the little search box in your start menu and type in Sound Recorder.

2. You will then need a microphone of some sort, many laptops now come with this ‘built in’ so when you hit the red record button you are good to go, however…. many desktop computers do not. A great plug-in headset like this one from Logitech can be purchased cheaply. (I have a new noise canceling one that loads in my USB and it totally ROCKS)…. anyway….

3. Simply make sure your microphone and headset are working and hit record.(I recommend having a script ready and reading through it a few times or your lecture notes handy).

4. You have now made a recording. Save the file to where you like and give it a unique name. NOW…. there is more to do… you can’t just post this file, because it is not an MP3 file its a .wav.

5. Download a great free MP3 file converter like this free converter touted by CNet.

For you Mac Users

1. To make easy MP3 recordings Mac is going to ask you to buy Quick Time Pro. If you already have this, then simply open it and record away and save as an MP3 file.

2. For those of you who don’t have Quick Time Pro, I recommend free recording software like Audacity for Mac.

3. Once you install it to your applications folder, simply open it, and click in on the red button to record. Remember to make sure your headphones and microphone work (see above PC directions), practice your recording, and then record and save. (There is a great You Tube tutorial here.)

4. In this Audacity software you need to be sure to EXPORT your file as an MP3 file to get your podcast, from the file menu. Do not save it as an audacity file. (You will need the LAME plug in to convert this to an MP3 file. Do not worry, this is painless. Just download it at the time of your Audacity download. They run simultaneously.)

It is easy, quick and can be loaded to most LMS, even e-mails and webpages. How cool is that?!!

Other Thoughts…. One of my internet friends, Rob Fraser, asked me, in response to a blog post, a very important question that academic faculty and students need to ponder about the internet. He asked if copyright would be an issue when students post papers and assignments to the WWW. I have to say that the answer to this is both yes and no.

Yes, because if students post a paper to their blog without citations or references then there are some major copyright violations, however they should be learning proper formatting in school. ‘Yes’ also because if students turn the same paper in for more than one course (a NO-NO for you students) then plagiarism programs like TurnItIn should pick up on those and alert the instructor. Students should not post their papers until after turning them into the course instructor and should also alert the instructor that the assignment has been posted to the student’s blog as well. (note* This is good brownie points for you students and really gets some great miles out of the things you are turning in. I am a firm believer that the world needs to see what students are working on. I avoid this problem all the way around as I will discuss below.)

No…. I say ‘No’ because the student’s work belongs to them and if they are writing and publishing their own blog, then they can post their work their without copyright infringement or plagiarism. I always caution students to make issues they write about devoid of direct patient information and at first when they begin to post I have them use assignments that are not specific to patient encounters, until they get the hang of de-identifying writing. Further, I simply avoid the entire TurnItIn issue with their work by having them only turn things in through blog postings in one of my classes. Creating and maintaining blogs teaches a bit about social media, encourages good writing output from the outset, and offers a continuing forum for students to practice written communication.

I also say ‘No’ because I think that we nursing faculty have a big hang up with the importance of the assignments we create. We cause our students much strife by creating varying writing assignments in courses with different topic sets, thus not allowing our students, even at a basic education level, to develop a body of knowledge that they can command. For example, BSN completion students often work in specific clinical areas where they have some expertise. Generic BSN students and even MSN students, although gaining basic nursing science foundational knowledge, often have subject areas they are interested in or want to know more about. We, nursing faculty, need to facilitate this curiosity from their first writing assignments so that they can continually build this body of knowledge and interest throughout their program of study. Say a student is interested in lung cancer, then in their cultural class let them write about cultural issues in some aspect of nursing patients with lung cancer, in community health let them write about lung cancer prevention, in leadership let them implement a change project concerning lung cancer, and in theories and research let them write a literature review or concept analysis on some aspect of lung cancer.

If we begin to use technology to enhance nursing learning and begin to think ‘outside the box’ in ways that our students can synthesize and express knowledge, the whole of health care will be much better served. Go NURSING!

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Researching the Internationally Educated Nursing Work Force in Saudi Arabia

Robert Fraser — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:43:36 +0000

Joan E Mitchell MSN, EdD

jemitchell [at] cbahi.org

Nurse Consultant and Surveyor

Central Board of Accrediation for Healthcare Institutions - Jeddah [googleMap], Saudi Arabi

Sitting down with Joan Mitchell at the Sigma Theta Tau Conference in Indianapolis and discussing her work in patient safety and quality of care was very enlightening. After watching her presentation at the conference about her research on job satisfaction on foreign trained nurses in Saudi Arabia. It was a pleasure to learn about how and why she choose this topic to research.

Research

Mitchell, JE (2009) Job satisfaction and burnout among foreign-trained nurses in Saudi Arabia: A mixed-method study. Ed.D. dissertation, University of Phoenix, United States -- Arizona. Retrieved January 20, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text.(Publication No. AAT 3357443).

Resources

Contact Helen Ziegler if you are interested in working in Saudi Arabia

Questions

Joan Mitchell: Will this research be helpful to you, for personal or research reasons?
Robert Fraser: Have you seen any advertisements recruiting nurses to international destinations? Have you thought about the factors that impact job satisfaction in those exotic destinations?

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Helping Patients Recognize Bi-Polar Symptoms

Robert Fraser — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:25:38 +0000

Peter Goossens RN PhD - email: p.j.j.goossens [at] saxion.nl

Nurse Expert - Dimence - Map

Professor in Mental Health - Saxion

Senior Researcher - Radboud University Nijmegen

Peter Goossens, a Dutch mental health nurse and researcher, and I sit down to discuss his research that helps bi-polar patients recognize on coming periods of mania and depression. We met at the Sigma Theta Tau 40th Biennial and discussed his fascinating research with mental health patients and their families. He has not only conducted excellent research he is allow a great ambassador for the profession of nursing, working to ensure the are able to fully able to support their patients and the nurses perspective is represented in national consortiums.

Research

PubMed Search for Peter's Research
Recognizing prodromes of manic or depressive recurrence in outpatients with bipolar disorder: A cross-sectional study (UPDATED SINCE ORIGINAL POST)

Peer reviewed articles

Van der Voort T.Y., Goossens P.J.J., van der Bijl J.J. (2009) Alone together: a grounded theory study of experienced burden, coping, and support needs of spouses of persons with bipolar disorder. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing 18, 434-443
Goossens, P.J.J., Hartong, E., Knoppert-van der Klein, E.A.M. & Van Achterberg T. (2008) Self-reported psychopathological symptoms and quality of life in outpatients with a bipolar disorder. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 44/4 275-284
Goossens, P.J.J., Knoppert-van der Klein, E.A.M. & Van Achterberg T. Coping styles of outpatients with a bipolar disorder. (2008) Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 22/5 245-253
Goossens, P.J.J., Van Wijngaarden B., Knoppert-van der Klein, E.A.M. & Van Achterberg T. (2008) Family caregiving in bipolar disorder: caregiver consequences, caregiver coping styles, and caregiver distress. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 54/4 303-316
Jonker E., Goossens P.J.J., Steenhuis I.H.M. & Oud N.E., (2008) Patient aggression in clinical psychiatry: perceptions of mental health nurses. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 15, 492-499
Goossens, P.J.J., Beentjes, T.A.A., de Leeuw, J.A.M., Knoppert-van der Klein, E.A.M. & Van Achterberg T. (2008) Nursing bipolar disorder outpatients: what nurses actually do. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 22/1, 3-11
Van der Voort T.Y., Goossens P.J.J., van der Bijl J.J. (2007) Burden, coping and needs for support of caregivers for patients with a bipolar disorder: A systematic review. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 14, 679-687
Goossens, P.J.J., J.A.M., Knoppert-van der Klein, E.A.M, Kroon. H, & Van Achterberg T. (2007) Self- reported care needs of outpatients with a bipolar disorder in The Netherlands: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 14, 549-557
Goossens, P. J. J., Van Achterberg T. & Knoppert van der Klein E.A.M. (2007) Nursing processes used in the treatment of patient with a bipolar disorder. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. 16, 168-177

International presentations, both oral and posters

Goossens P.J.J. Self management in Bipolar Disorder; recognizing prodromes of manic or depressive relapse STTI 20th biennial convention. Indianapolis; nov. 2009
Goossens P.J.J., Van Achterberg T, Knoppert – Van der Klein E.A.M. Nursing processes used in the treatment of patients with bipolar disorder. ISPN conference. Greenville; April 2009.
Van der Voort T.Y., Goossens P.J.J., Van der Bijl J.J. Together-and-still-alone: Qualitative research on burden, coping and needed support of spouses of patients with a bipolar disorder. ISBD conference. New Delhi; jan. 2008

Questions

Peter Goossens: Who is performing an assessment and teaching of a client's ability to recognize early warning signs of their bi-polar disorder? Are you able to do this as a nurse?
Robert Fraser: For nurses outside of mental health, do you have tools to self manage mental health disorders and support patient's self-care?

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Nursing an Entire Nation

Robert Fraser — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:07:59 +0000

Marla E Salmon ScD, RN, FAAN

Dean & Professor - University of Washington School of Nursing

A conversation with Marla Salmon ScD RN FAAN, current Dean and Professor at the University of Washington and former Chief Nurse of the United States of America. We discuss her experience working with Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and her career moving from patient to nation care. This interview was a fun and candid conversation that was made possible thanks to the kind introduction by Carla Hall and Jane Palmer from Sigma Theta Tau International, both of whom were the first live audience for a taping of Nursing Ideas.

Marla became a nurse "to make a difference in peoples lives."

During this interview our discussion ranges from how she sent a letter to the World Health Organization to how learning etiquette and being grounded by the people around her helped her along the way. In this brief interview I got just a glimpse of the amazing leader and kind person she is. Hopefully, you will learn from her and be inspired by the simple yet very meaningful insights from her experience as a international leader in nursing.

Links

Question

Marla Salmon: The next generation of nurses need to do a much better job of caring the nursing profession forward. How are you going to use web 2.0 and social networking as a way of advancing the profession and reaching people that were not possible before?

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Sharing Nursing Best Practice Around the World

Robert Fraser — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:19:47 +0000

Irmajean Bajnok RN PhD

Director of International Affairs and Best Practice Guidelines - Registered Nurses Association of Ontario

Sitting down with Irmajean Bajnok we discuss her experience and how she came to be Director of the IA-BPG. We talk about how the BPG came to be but also about how she hopes that they are able to support nurses in the workplace and create a health work environment for them to practice in.

Recently the RNAO won the an award from Sigma Theta Tau International, for Practice Academe Innovation Collaboration, below I posted a short video I took in Indianapolis of them accepting their award. Enjoy!

Links

Question

Irmajean Bajnok: Do you have any ideas for BPG that you would find useful? How many of you have downloaded the PDA version of the guidelines?
Robert Fraser: What format of information is best for you to use knowledge in practice (i.e print, video, audio, PDA, etc)?

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Learning from the History of Nursing

Robert Fraser — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:11:47 +0000

Sioban Nelson PhD

Dean and Professor - Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

After starting the MN at the University of Toronto, I have had a few readings from Sioban about understanding the history of Nursing. These articles really helped my understanding of nursing. Being young in the profession this historical analysis helps to ground and better understand nursing. During this episode we talked about Dr Nelson's background and how she integrated her understanding of historical analysis into her academic work.

Links

Nursing (wikipedia) Timeline of Nursing
Sioban's latest book: Complexities of Care

Research

Nelson, S. & Gordon, S. (2004). The rhetoric of rupture: Nursing as a practice with a history? September/October Nursing Outlook, 52, 255-261.
Nelson, S. (1997). Reading nursing history. Nursing Inquiry, 4: 229-236.
Nelson, S. & McGillion, M. (2004) Expertise or performance? Questioning the rhetoric of contemporary narrative use in nursing, Journal of Advanced Nursing. 47(6).

Question

Robert Fraser: How have you learned about nursing history? Do you understand how it might give you insight into the profession?

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Moving from Clinician and Scientist to Leader and Director

Robert Fraser — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:30:51 +0000

Dr Mary Jane Esplen - Part 2

Director - de Souza Institute

This is the second half of the interview with Mary Jane. In this portion of our conversation we move from psychosocial oncology to how she has evolved from nurse to her current role as Director of the de Souza Institute. Mary Jane shares her development as a researcher and scientist and how her skills of learning, research and grant writing have helped her take on the steep learning curve she is on.

Links

Questions:

Mary Jane Esplen: Do you have any suggestions for what de Souza should offer?

Rob Fraser: How are you learning and informing your nursing practice (journals, online videos, google, powerpoint, etc)?

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Research and Practice of Dr Mary Jane Esplen

Robert Fraser — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:13:47 +0000

Dr Mary Jane Esplen RN

Clinician Scientist and Professor - University of Toronto

Area of expertise: Psychosocial Oncology

Dr Mary Jane Esplen has an extensive career in clinical oncology practice that has evolved over the years to include research as major part of her role. Her ability to drive research strongly tied to clinical practice and how she managed to stay in both academia and practice is part of what we talk about. More recently she has been appointed Director of the de Souza Institute for nursing oncology knowledge transfer for the province, and is planning to take this international. We discuss how her career evolved, why she loves psychosocial oncology and how others might learn from her experience.

Research

Some of Mary Jane's research Search Results
Quality of Life Tools for adult patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy
Literature Search: Body Image + Cancer
Profile: Jimmie Holland MD - Pscyho Oncology
Effects of psychological interventions on survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer

Other

Definition of Nursing Intervention Model
Research profile of Mary Jane
Dr David Spiegel - Psychosocial Researcher
de Souza Intitute
Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
Oncology Nursing Society

Questions:

Mary Jane Esplen: What is the impact of new technologies on practice? Who should be involved in helping families involve these technologies? How can they change clinical practice? What can my role be in this?

Rob Fraser: Are you seeing cancer starting to come into your area of practice? Are you aware of the research that is happening in oncology and how it might improve your practice?

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Nightingale Initiative

Robert Fraser — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:00:28 +0000

Deva-Marie Beck RN, PhD

Nightingale Innovative For Global Health - Interanational Co-Director

After meeting Deva-Marie beck at the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario's Point of Care Symposium, and had to hear more about her work with the World Health Organization and team promoting the Nightingale Declaration.

Questions

Deva-Marie Beck: This is a passion of mine, is this a passion of yours, if not what is a passion you would like to see us (the global community) work on?
Rob Fraser: Have you heard of the Millennium Development Goals? Which one do you want do you relate to the most, and want to start working on?

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Research Advancing Practice (Part I)

Robert Fraser — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:10:43 +0000

Lianne Jeffs RN, PhD(c)

Director Nursing & Clinical Research

Research Scientist - Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute

In her current role at she contributes globally to evolving patient safety science as her program area of research is patient safety. Her work focuses on the generating knowledge on the design and delivery of safer health-care systems. In this interview we talk about the Research Advancing Practice initiative that was start at St Michael's Hospital to get clinical nurses to start generating research relevant to their areas of practice

Links

Research and Reflection for RAP artists (2009) The Standard. College of Nurses of Ontario.
The art and science of caring
RNAO Leadership Award in Nursing Research - Lianne Jeffs Research Advancing Practice

Research

Jeffs, L., Smith, O., Wilson, G., Kohn, M., Campbell, H., Maione, M.,
Tregunno, D. & Ferris, E. (in press). Building Knowledge for Safer Care:
Nursing Research Advancing Practice. Journal of Nursing Care Quality.
24(3).
Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B., Schultz, A. (2005) Transforming Health Care from the Inside Out: Advancing Evidence-Based Practice in the 21st Century, Journal of Professional Nursing, 21(6), 335-344.

Questions

Lianne: Have you been involved in a similiar process or program? What are the difficulties, challenges and enablers where you are practicing and how do you bring research to your daily work?
Rob: Do you see yourself as a researcher, and feel a need to contribute to nursing knowledge? If you hospital offered a program like this would you take part?

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Caring for the Future of Nursing

Robert Fraser — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:58:50 +0000

Dr. Judy Boychuck Duchscher RN, PhD

Executive Director - Nursing the Future

Interview with Dr. Judy Boychuck Duchscher RN, PhD about her research on the transition of new graduate nurses into the profession and what has evolved from her research.

Links

Research

Cowin, L. , Duchscher, J.E.B. (2007). Transitional programs. In E. Chang & J. Daly (Eds.). Transition in Nursing: Preparing for professional practice, 2nd ed. NSW, Australia: Elsevier Australia.
Cowin, L. , Duchscher, J.E.B. (2006). The new graduates' professional inheritance. Nursing Outlook, 54(3), 152-158.
Cowin, L. , Duchscher, J.E.B. (2006). The experience of marginalization in new nursing graduates. Nursing Outlook, 52(6), 289-296.
Cowin, L. , Duchscher, J.E.B. (2004). Multigenerational Nurses in the Workplace. Journal of Nursing Administration, 34 (11), 1-9.
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2008). Glimmer of hope, ripples of change: The lived experience of the new nursing graduate. Self-publication in press, July, 2008
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2008). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly-graduated Registered Nurses. The Journal of Advanced Nursing, Accepted for publication, In Press, July, 2008
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2008). A process of becoming: The stages of new graduate professional role transition. Journal of Continuing Nursing Education, 39 (10), 441-450.
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2004). Transition to professional nursing practice: Emerging issues and initiatives In M.H. Oermann & K.T. Heinrich, Annual Review of Nursing Education (Vol 2). New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2003). Critical Thinking: Perceptions of Newly Graduated Female Baccalaureate Nurses. Journal of Nursing Education, 42(1), 14-27.
Duchscher, J.E.B. (2001). Out in the Real World. Journal of Nursing Administration, 31(9), 426-439.
Duchscher, J.E.B., Myrick, F. (2008). The prevailing winds of oppression: Understanding the new graduate experience in acute-care. Nursing Forum, 43 (4), 191-206.

Question

Judy: What strategies have you used to maintain that spirit that you left your educational program with? The feeling that you can change your world. Who supported you? How did they support you? What can organizations do to help you?
Rob: Nursing Students are you thinking about the transition period, and how are you preparing for it? Nurses who have gone through the transition, when did you transition and what was the experience like?

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Supporting Nurses’ Research and Education

Robert Fraser — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:34:30 +0000

Hélène Sabourin, RN, BScN, MHA

Links

The Canadian Nurses Foundation - La Fondation des infirmières et infirmiers du Canada

Question

Do you know of any technology that easily allows you to find what research has been done in a particular area, or grants are given out?
Have you ever applied for awards or grants? What resources do you feel you need in order to feel comfortable submitting for a research grant?

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