Assessing readiness for self-directed learning within a non-traditional nursing cohort.

Increasing deregulation of the Australian tertiary system has led to changes in entry behaviours anticipated in non-traditional student cohorts. Many nursing students are returning to formal studies later in their lives seeking a career change. Accessibility and flexible study paths make external study increasingly attractive.

Scholarship and mentoring: an essential partnership?

This paper discusses as study of mentoring and its relationship to nursing academics' scholarly productivity. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to explore participants' experiences of mentoring and scholarship. Although all participants were well aware of the need to increase levels of scholarship, few had experienced the role modelling, guidance and leadership to assist them in meeting the expectations of the tertiary environment.

Teaching and breast self-examination: an insufficiency of instruction.

Client teaching is recognised as an essential component of nursing and midwifery care, and all clinical areas provide opportunities for informal client teaching. This qualitative study aimed to explore registered nurses' professional practices with regard to teaching breast self-examination (BSE), and to identify factors that influenced their participation or non-participation in teaching about breast health. Participants' views were obtained using individual semi-structured interviews.

Nurse-academics' mentorship: rhetoric or reality?

Mentorship is generally identified in nursing literature as a positive strategy, and one that is said to be beneficial in increasing scholarly productivity. However, previous studies investigating the relationship of mentoring to scholarly productivity have produced equivocal findings. This relationship was examined as part of a study that considered constraints and/or facilitators of scholarly productivity among nurse academics.

A millennial benchmark of nurse-academics' scholarly productivity.

The benchmark against which nurse-academics are primarily judged remains scholarly productivity. This study sought to examine levels of scholarly productivity amongst Australian nurse academics: where they are putting their emphasis, and what progress they are making. This quantitative study used a questionnaire survey technique that identified individual items of scholarship over a two-year period.

Nurse-academics' scholarly productivity: perceived frames and facilitators.

The reward system within Universities remains focused on research, with a benchmark of scholarly productivity, especially in relation to promotion. Despite their relative newness to the tertiary system, nurse academics are judged by the same standards as other disciplines. This study sought to examine factors that constrained and/or facilitated scholarly productivity.

At the millennium: a slice of scholarship.

Scholarly output is the standard by which academics are judged; in particular journal articles. This study aimed to examine the scholarly output of nursing academics over a two-year period, and to establish benchmark data for future longitudinal comparisons. Journal articles were used as the unit of analysis.

Scholarly productivity: are nurse academics catching up?

The aim of this study was to document the amount of recent change in Australian nurse academics' scholarly productivity and to investigate the influence of demographic factors such as gender, academic rank, qualifications, increase in qualifications, state of residence, university and university size. Scholarly productivity was calculated from an audit of journal articles. The findings of this study indicate that, while there has been a slight increase in scholarly productivity in the last five years, nursing still lags behind other disciplines.

From apprentices to academics: are nurses catching up?

In comparison to other disciplines, Australian nursing has only come relatively lately to academia. Traditionally, academic qualifications were not viewed as necessary for nurses. The movement of nursing education to the tertiary sector has seen many changes from the traditional apprenticeship model and the characteristics of nurse-academics reflect these.