Seamless Progression Research Articles

A Seamless Progression: Preparing Accelerated Second Degree Nursing Students for Entry Into Baccalaureate and Masters Nursing Education

The New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) scholarship program provides grant support for minority, male, and disadvantaged students to pursue an accelerated second degree in nursing. A review of nursing school reports and student surveys concluded that students could benefit from more information at the start of their program. The Pre-Entry Immersion Program (PIP) was designed to support stu- dents with a seamless progression from their prior educational experiences into the nursing profession. Although nursing schools customized the PIP program, there was core consistency in the sessions provided. Students reported sessions on policies, procedures and preparation for nursing school were most helpful. The PIP program has the potential to contribute to the academic success of accelerated degree students, increasing the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees while enhancing career progression of these students to the doctorate degree, and addressing recommendations 4 and 5 in

Building the Clinical Bridge to Support Nursing Effectiveness Science

Several forces in the US, including the need to control rising health care costs, are converging to require quality and safety outcomes as a factor in reimbursement for health care services. Many of the established outcomes, including nosocomial decubitus ulcers, falls with injury, medication errors, and self-care management are quality indicators sensitive to nursing care. Requirements for transparency in reporting outcomes as well as the rapid expansion of electronic health records (EHRs) are producing opportunities to study clinical care processes and outcomes as heretofore not possible. The ability of nurse researchers to define the database structures of EHRs, access these data and set forth analyses for health systems to improve care is a compelling reason to build solid relationships between academic and health care institutions. But perhaps more compelling is the opportunity to fully advance the professionalization of nursing through the unification of missions, ultimately for the betterment of patient care and the improved education of new generations of nurses. Other professions, especially physicians, have long experienced the benefits of uniting their tripartite missions of patient care, education, and research. They have utilized the “power” of the Academic Medical Center to fuel discovery, innovation and the rapid translation to clinical care. Medical students and postgraduate trainees benefit from this environment; their mentors are faculty with significant research programs, attending physicians responsible for patient care, leaders within the health system administrative structures driving policy, and teachers of the next generation. The opportunity of a unification model of varying types, to advance professionalization and influence of nursing in care decisions, policy, and the discovery and translation of knowledge to care practices is essential for us to leverage this “new age” where much is expected of nurses and nursing in the evolution of health care within countries and in the US, health care reform. The future of nursing requires that we employ a unified approach in research, education, and practice. Consequently, there is an imperative (1) for nurses to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training; (2) to improve educational systems that offer seamless progression to higher levels of education; (3) for nurses to be full partners with physicians and other healthcare professionals to transform healthcare delivery; and (4) to meet work force demands for nurses globally [1].

Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate-Prepared Nurses in North Carolina: The RIBN Project

A more highly educated nursing workforce is needed to address the increasingly complex health care needs of our citizens and to expand the pool for future faculty and advanced practice nurses. North Carolina must create new partnerships between community colleges and universities to support seamless progression toward a baccalaureate degree. The RIBN model provides one option to meet this goal.

A Case Study on the Use of Coteaching in Science Instruction for Science-Gifted Elementary Students

As a case study on the use of coteaching in science instruction for science-gifted elementary students, this paper analyzed the characteristics of coteaching science instruction for science-gifted elementary students by plan, performance, and reflection-evaluation stages of the classes. To do this, we observed two teachers' coteaching science instruction for science-gifted elementary students during twelve classes and analyzed the taped videos, their journals, and the transcripts for in-depth interviews with them. The results indicated that the characteristics of the coteaching science instruction, in the planning stage of the classes, showed improvement in the quality of the sciencegifted education programs, the reduction of the psychological burdens of developing the programs, and some efficiency loss due to the joint preparation of the classes. The characteristics in the performance stage of the classes include the seamless progression of the classes through the division of roles, the increase of the students' opportunity to explore, the supplement of the teachers' inadequate descriptions and the overlooked contents, the increase of the interaction between teachers and students and/or the interaction among students, the reduction of the risk of accidents in experiments, and the reduction of the responsibility for teaching. Finally, the characteristics in the reflectionevaluation stage of the classes could be attributed to the diversity of the evaluation viewpoints, the increase of the learning opportunities to develop the teaching professionalism, and the increase of the fear for assessing my own classes.

Chinese capitalism at the crossroads?

China's 30 years of reform are often presented as a seamless progression towards greater liberalization and opening up. This review article of Yasheng Huang's Capitalism with Chinese characteristics shows how the author makes a compelling argument about how radically China's economic reforms changed from before and after the Tiananmen Square incident in June 1989. The 1980s saw the pro-rural, largely equitable, and generally liberal economic policies, with a private sector able to find sources of capital from family or relationship networks, and the creation of a very flexible and largely unplanned town and village enterprise system across China. From the 1990s, however, China has been dominated by pro-urban, less equitable and much more heavily state-led economic policies. Shanghai exemplifies this, with a highly circumscribed non-state sector, stagnation of per capita GDP growth in favour of company growth, and the Pudong development area largely based on land grab, and disrespect for the private property rights of the former tenant farmers based there. China grapples with the legacy of this policy change in 1989 to this day, with an increasingly disenfranchised and impoverished rural population, and cities that are both unsustainable, but irrevocable.

Masters of their domain

Many undergraduate engineering students choose a natural, seamless progression to a master's degree while others turn from the post-bachelor's collegiate path to enter the workforce, join the military, or raise a family. It can be difficult to transition back into a master's program when the years have passed and personal or professional responsibilities have multiplied. However, as the Chinese say, "A sly rabbit will have three openings to its den," and for these "nontraditional" students, online master's programs are proving more popular entrances in which to hop back into academia.

Reasoning maps for decision aid: an integrated approach for problem-structuring and multi-criteria evaluation

This paper proposes a tool for multi-criteria decision aid to be referred to as a Reasoning Map. It is motivated by a desire to provide an integrated approach to problem structuring and evaluation, and in particular, to make the transition between these two processes a natural and seamless progression. The approach has two phases. In the first one, the building of a Reasoning Map supports problem structuring, capturing a decision maker's reasoning as a network of means and ends concepts. In the second phase, this map is enhanced, employing a user-defined qualitative scale to measure both performances of decision options and strengths of influence for each means–end link. This latter phase supports the decision maker in evaluating the positive and negative impacts of an action through synthesis of the qualitative information. A case study, which investigates the use of the method in practice, is also presented.

PDAY risk score predicts advanced coronary artery atherosclerosis in middle-aged persons as well as youth

A risk score formula to estimate the probability of advanced atherosclerosis using coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors was developed for persons 15–34 years of age by the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) study. We applied the PDAY risk score to autopsied individuals from the Community Pathology Study (CPS), a different population that included middle-aged as well as young subjects. The PDAY risk score was associated with extent of raised lesions in the coronary arteries of CPS cases 15–34 years of age. The PDAY risk score computed from only the modifiable risk factors was associated with extent of raised lesions in the coronary arteries of subjects 35–54 years of age. The association of the PDAY risk score with lesions in 15–34 year old CPS subjects validates the PDAY risk score. The associations in both younger (15–34 years) and older (35–54 years) subjects suggest a seamless progression of the effects of the modifiable risk factors on atherosclerosis from 15 to 54 years of age. These results support the proposal that early control of risk factors is likely to prevent or delay the onset of CHD.

Perspectives on Surgery in the New South Africa

Radical changes have occurred in the health care system since the democratization of South Africa in 1994, with the emphasis on improving previously neglected community-based primary health care. Because of the resultant financial constraints, funding of tertiary academic centers has been drastically cut which has compromised their proud record of service, teaching, and research excellence. Tertiary surgery has been particularly affected and now lags in the acquisition of new technologies which form an integral part of teaching and modern day practice. The acute shortage of full-time surgeons in regional public hospitals has prompted the government to fill vacancies with surgeons from foreign countries. In stark contrast, an abundance of surgeons in the relatively small private sector enjoy the benefits of the very best of First World medicine. The ultimate goal is a seamless progression of effective health care at all levels. It behooves the main role players to ensure that the high standard of training of South African doctors, which has international recognition, is maintained during this transition period.

The Introduction of a Unified System of Post-Compulsory Education in Scotland

This paper summarises the findings of a study of the first four years of Higher Still. The reform aimed to provide ‘opportunity for all’ by introducing a ‘unified curriculum and assessment system’ of post-16 education. Higher Still’s flexible climbing-frame model did indeed extend opportunities, especially for middle- and lower-attaining 16 year olds who stayed on at school and for students with special needs. It encouraged collaboration between schools and colleges and it enhanced the comprehensive principle rather than undermined it. It placed vocational and general education on a formally equal footing, although its short-term impact on subject choices was modest. However, while the climbing-frame model extended access it was less successful in increasing attainment, and the goal of a seamless progression framework proved difficult to realise. Moreover, the system introduced by Higher Still was not fully unified: implementation in the college sector was incomplete and schools and colleges implemented somewhat models of curriculum and assessment. Some of the ‘unifying’ goals of Higher Still transferred to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.

The M.D.—Medical doctorate or mandatory doctorate?

The introduction in the UK of the Calman Registrar training scheme envisaged seamless progression from Senior House Officer (SHO) grade through to Consultancy. Within this framework research was acknowledged to be a valuable (but optional) part of the training programme, as laid out by the ‘Orange Guide’ to Specialist Registrar (SpR) Training [A Guide to Specialist Registrar Training 1998; HM Press]. Time is provided for this activity within the SpR training scheme, but it is becoming increasingly evident that the majority of formal research (towards post graduate degrees) is being carried out by so-called ‘gap’ SHO's in order to gain entry into Higher Surgical Training (HST) programmes [Ann R Coll Surg Engng 81 (1999) 182], [Br J Plast Surg 55 (2002) 463–468]. With this in mind, a survey of all Plastic Surgery SHO's in the UK was undertaken to assess the extent of clinical research undertaken by individuals, and the perceived need for formal research for career progression.

Industrial Rehabilitation: An Overview

Industrial rehabilitation is one of the fastest-growing segments of medical practice. Over the past two decades, providers of services to injured employees have instituted many new programs, including work conditioning and work hardening. These programs have increased the medical and cost effectiveness of industrial rehabilitation and have become popular with workers' compensation carriers because of the resultant high return-to-work rates. Industrial rehabilitation is now a spectrum of care programs. When well organized, a seamless progression of services is provided to prevent workers from "falling through the cracks." This article provides an overview and brief summary of the common components of a modern industrial rehabilitation program.

A Pattern of Japanese Society: Ie Society or Acknowledgment of Interdependence?

In his magisterial reanalysis of all of Japanese history, Murakami has presented us with an argument so complex that it will be some time before all its implications will emerge clearly. I shall leave the task of applying his insights to those more familiar than I with the historical materials he so skillfully weaves into a seamless developmental progression from proto-uji through modern uses of the ie principle. Rather I shall focus on that portion of his article dealing with the modern state (pp. 339-63) and more particularly with his intriguing argument that the ie or mura-type practice was revived for the hard times of the 1930s and the World War II years (pp. 357-58). The argument, I take it, is that following a hiatus of some decades after the Meiji Restoration, the ie (household) or mura (village) has reemerged as a fundamental organizing principle of postwar Japanese society. As a point of departure, let us consider the following passage from a book intended for a general audience that takes a similar position vis-a-vis contemporary Japan, using a somewhat different vocabulary. Urging the reader to see that in Japan industrialization has proceeded in ways quite different from the path it took in the West, Collick writes: