Baccalaureate Schools Of Nursing Research Articles

NCLEX RN Exam: A university school of nursing case study of preparation strategies

The NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination—Registered Nurse) is the exam taken at the end of a U.S. nursing student’s education to enable him or her to become a licensed registered nurse. The purpose of this article is twofold (1) to discuss NCLEX-RN preparation strategies provided by several U.S schools of nursing; and (2) to describe a case study focusing on a university school of nursing’s preparation strategies implemented to improve NCLEX RN pass rate. Specific actions and results from case study may be useful to other nurse educators teaching in baccalaureate school of nursing.

Nursing Student Coaches for Emergency Department Super Utilizers.

The Super Utilizer Project is a collaboration between an integrated health care organization and a baccalaureate school of nursing. The goal is to help the super utilizers access appropriate health care resources through the use of a student coach model. The student coaches provide clients with disease prevention and health promotion education and assistance specific to the clients' unique health care needs. The tenets of the theoretical frameworks of servant leadership, caring theory, and transtheoretical model of behavior change are applied throughout this project. First-year outcomes for the project were encouraging, with the total number of visits for 23 super utilizers to the emergency department decreasing from 710 annually to a projected 510 annually, and second-semester visits for 20 clients decreased from 634 to a projected 462. The students experience complex client care and collaboration with an interdisciplinary team reducing nonemergent emergency department super utilizer visits. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(1):27-30.].

Academic & Non-Academic Variables Impacting BSN Students Who are Unsuccessful on Initial NCLEX-RN

Nursing program quality is measured by first time National Council Licensure Examination- Registered Nurse (NCLEX-RN) pass rates. Therefore, many schools of nursing have implemented aggressive prediction and remediation measures to improve first time NCLEX-RN pass rate success. The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine predictors of success or failure on the NCLEX-RN for graduates of a Southeastern, Baccalaureate nursing program. Data was examined from academic records of students who completed Baccalaureate School of Nursing (BSN) program of study from Spring 2007 to Fall 2011. Results of the study reveal the importance of early identification of at risk students. Early identification allows for the implementation of strategies to aid in promoting student success on NCLEX-RN. These strategies include tutoring, state board review courses, study skills classes, time management classes and practice questions.

A School of Nursing-Wellness Center Partnership

As there is a global drive for schools of nursing (SONs) to increase enrollments and as there is a strain in the number of placement sites available to nursing students, SONs need to think innovatively about creating new collaborative partnerships that can serve as placement sites. A collaborative US intrainstitutional partnership was developed between an urban college wellness center (WC) and a SON that met the following needs: (1) it provided a community/public health nursing clinical practice site for undergraduate, senior-year baccalaureate SON students and (2) it enhanced and expanded WC services for the college community. During 7-week clinical sessions, nursing students provided holistic nursing care through screenings, health promotion activities, and educational meetings. Having the WC as a clinical site allowed the students to assess, integrate, and synthesize didactic knowledge and critical thinking skills into the clinical setting while providing critically needed holistic nursing services to their college community. Further, the collaboration created an ongoing partnership that bridged the service and academic needs of both entities.

Benefits of Using Undergraduate Teaching Assistants Throughout a Baccalaureate Nursing Curriculum

The Residency Model of Nursing Education was put into practice at our institution to provide more active teaching-learning strategies, make use of innovative clinical approaches, and accommodate more students. A unique aspect of this creative curricular change is the use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) to provide mentor and mentee opportunities for nursing students and assist faculty with course logistics. This article describes the development, challenges, and benefits of implementing a UTA program in a baccalaureate school of nursing.

Editorial

The scholarly articles presented in this section reflect the current state of global transcultural nursing leadership, as well as the progress made in fostering cultural competence through transcultural nursing education.Transcultural nursing can be traced back to the early years, over a half century ago, when Dr Madeleine Leininger first began exploring the relationship between nursing and anthropology (Leininger 1970).Through her pioneering theoretical work, we first started using the term 'transcultural', to mean 'across all world nations'. We have since developed into our own discipline of transcultural nursing, boasting of our unique knowledge base within the discipline of nursing. Leadership has emerged through the years, with the establishment of the Transcultural Nursing Society in the United States in 1975, and the 1994 establishment of the Transcultural Nursing Society in Australia through the Royal College of Nursing,Australia. Both organisations, through collaboration and individual efforts, have provided leadership for the expanding discipline, to include the hosting of annual international conferences, the development of policy and position statements, and the encouragement and showcasing of important research focusing on unique culture care perspectives.Bryant and colleagues (2008) provide an excellent evolutionary perspective of the role the Royal College of Nursing,Australia (RCNA) has played in supporting the growth and development of transcultural nursing in Australia. The official recognition of transcultural nursing as a distinct society in 1994 firmly established the importance of discovering care from a cultural perspective in a multicultural society such as Australia.The article by Andrews (2008) highlights the global nature of transcultural nursing and identifies many Australian nurse leaders who have been visionaries in establishing culturally relevant nursing practice. As a result of the scholarly work by Australian transcultural nurse leaders, there is now a significant body of knowledge in nursing that is useful in practice, education and research around the globe.As much as we would like to think all of this progress translates into effective education programs for practicing nurses and faculty, read the contemporary articles before you say otherwise. We are still only beginning to understand how we can provide the critical learning environment for students to grasp the key components of transcultural nursing, and to then evaluate the effectiveness of our programs. Lynette Raymond, of the University of Notre Dame, Sydney Australia (2008), shares with us a detailed BN curriculum approach, including several required courses in TCN, and the introduction of a variety of conceptual models.This very specific curriculum focus, designed from extensive literature review of research relevant to Australia, includes plans for evaluation one year after graduation.We look forward to the results.On the other hand, we are faced with two research studies that declare we are not finding positive results in many of our attempts to evaluate cultural competency in undergraduate programs in the United States. Mixer (2008) describes a gap in faculty knowledge, and therefore limited ability to provide the context of culture care for student learning. Kardong- Edgren and Camphina-Bacote (2008) present a study indicating that regardless of approach, by graduation many students are not scoring beyond cultural awareness in scales measuring cultural competence. These findings are reminiscent of the situation with measuring critical thinking as an outcome measure of baccalaureate schools of nursing. …

Clinical Site Selection by Students Through Use of an Internet Database

Use of the Internet in nursing education has greatly expanded during the past decade and will continue to be a force in the future. The authors describe the development and maintenance of an Internet Web site created to assist in the placement of individual students on particular clinical sites for their Capstone Practicum course in a baccalaureate school of nursing. Issues related to development, maintenance, and use of the program are included. Recommendations include possible application in other schools of nursing as well as other disciplines.

Substance abuse integration in nursing education: An innovative collaborative model

This paper reports the outcomes of a 3‐year faculty development project, the Nursing School Education Collaborative (NSEC), implemented in four baccalaureate schools of nursing. The focus of the NSEC was to strengthen educational programs through faculty development and curriculum integration in the area of substance abuse and addictions education. A comprehensive needs assessment process is outlined, and faculty development and curriculum integration activities are detailed. Faculty development has resulted in significant improvements in each school's substance abuse curriculum. Outcomes at each participating school have included continuing education activities, acquisition of additional teaching resources, the development of an integration model, and increased curriculum and clinical contact hours. With the increasing recognition of substance abuse as a number one public health problem and nursing as a major health workforce, this project serves as a model for replication.

Using key informant methods in organizational survey research: assessing for informant bias.

Specification of variables that reflect organizational processes can add an important dimension to the investigation of outcomes. However, many contextual variables are conceptualized at a macro unit of analysis and may not be amenable to direct measurement. In these situations, proxy measurement is obtained by treating organizational members as key informants who report about properties of the work group or organization. Potential sources of bias when using key informant methods in organizational survey research are discussed. Statistical procedures for assessment of rater-trait interaction as a type of informant bias are illustrated using data from a study in which multiple key informants were sampled to obtain proxy measurement of the organizational climate for caring among baccalaureate schools of nursing.

Constraints that nursing program administrators encounter in promoting faculty change and development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the constraints that nursing program administrators encounter in promoting faculty change and development. The underlying theoretical framework was based on the concepts of change and innovation presented by Lunde and Hartung, Downs and Mohr, and Kanter. Administrators of baccalaureate schools of nursing (n = 271) who were members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing participated in this study. All participants answered a questionnaire on types of development activities provided, beliefs regarding faculty development, and constraints in providing faculty development. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, and regression analysis were used to analyze data. Development activities reported ranged from sabbaticals to providing centers for faculty development. Lack of research skills in master's degree--prepared faculty was determined to be the greatest perceived limitation. Available resources, perceived faculty responsibility for own development, and perceived faculty interest were found to be predictive of provision of development activities. Results of this study suggest that availability of resources affects faculty development as does the perception by administration that faculty need to show interest and assume personal responsibility for professional development.

Clinical structure and evaluation in baccalaureate schools of nursing.

A descriptive survey method was used to study clinical structure and evaluation in NLN-accredited baccalaureate degree schools of nursing. A 68% response rate of 198 mailed questionnaires elicited responses from deans, directors, associate deans or curriculum committee chairpersons regarding the schools' clinical structure and evaluation methods. Structure of the clinical courses was almost equally divided; 69 programs had an integrated focus and 60 had a specialty focus. The majority of schools (59%) used the pass-fail method for grading clinical performance and 41% used numerical or letter grades (A-F). Most of the programs used faculty-developed evaluation tools that varied between clinical courses. Study results showed a significant difference at the .001 level in faculty satisfaction. Faculty who graded pass-fail were more satisfied than those who used numerical or letter grades.

The Relationship of Locus of Control to Decision Making in Nursing Students

This descriptive study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between locus of control and decision-making in nursing students. Locus of control was measured using Rotter's "Internal-External Locus of Control Scale." Decision-making was measured through use of a tool entitled "Medication Administration Questionnaire" designed by the investigator. Both tools were administered to senior nursing students in a diploma and baccalaureate school of nursing. A statistically significant relationship was found between an internal locus of control and independent decision-making. The results suggest that locus of control may be an important factor in the degree of independence exercised in decision-making by nursing students. These results also suggest that individuals with an expectancy for external control may be significantly compromised in their ability to be professional and accountable in their nursing practice. Implications for nursing education and replication of the study are discussed.

Faculty and administrator perceptions of decision making.

This research study was conducted in associate and baccalaureate schools of nursing. This research focused on the extent of faculty participation in decision making; a description and analysis of the characteristics of nurse faculty, nurse administrators, and the organizations of associate and baccalaureate schools of nursing; the interrelationships between opportunities for participation in decision making and the level and type of decision making; the relationships between various personal and situational variables that affect decision making, the relationship between the type of involvement in decision making to the variables of job satisfaction, professional commitment, and job tension; and the relationships among the variables of job satisfaction, professional commitment and job tension. Ninety-three faculty and 10 administrators participated in the research study. Research data were collected by three instruments: the School Information Profile, the Administrative Questionnaire, and the Faculty Questionnaire. The data were subjected to frequency distribution statistics, the RELIABILITY program of SPSS, Pearson correlation coefficients, Canonical correlations, and Multiple Regression analysis. The primary study results were: Faculty reported that their participation in decision making is primarily in the area of making recommendations, not final determinations. Faculty stated that decision making is usually a group process. Administrator perceptions were that faculty possess more decision-making power than faculty believed. Faculty reaffirmed that job satisfaction and professional commitment are positively correlated, and that job tension was found to be negatively correlated to job satisfaction and professional commitment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Curriculum evaluation: an application of Stufflebeam's model in a Baccalaureate School of Nursing.

Curriculum evaluation: an application of Stufflebeam's model in a Baccalaureate School of Nursing.