Pretest online discussion groups to augment teaching and learning.

Tests and final examination scores of three semesters of control students in a nursing foundation course were compared with tests and final examination scores of three semesters of participating students. Participating students were offered access to an asynchronous pretest online discussion activity with a faculty e-moderator. While the simplified Bloom's revised taxonomy assisted in creating appropriate preparatory test and final examination questions for pretest online discussion, Salmon's five-stage online method provided direction to the e-moderator on how to encourage students to achieve Bloom's higher-order thinking skills during the pretest online discussions.

The effect of needle gauge on recirculation, venous pressure and bleeding from puncture sites.

We performed a prospective, randomized study of various needle gauges and the effect on recirculation, venous pressure, and puncture site bleeding. All patients (n = 21) in our unit consented and participated. We studied 14, 15, 16, and 17 gauge needles, 2.