"Leaving the comfort of the familiar": fostering workplace cultural awareness through short-term global experiences.

Problem: Facilitating the development of student nurses' cultural competence and translating these experiences into the clinical setting.

Methods: Qualitative methods.

Findings: A short-term global immersion experience informs student nurses' cultural awareness, education, and future clinical practice.

Reasons to customize a tracheostomy patient education booklet.

Given the breadth of commercial materials currently available for patient education, healthcare providers are often led to believe that it is no longer necessary to generate institution-specific patient education materials. This paper describes the comprehensive methods and criteria used by a group of inpatient nurse educators to critically review their existing booklet for tracheostomy patient education against those available commercially. The group concluded that a revised institution-specific publication remains the best complement to their program for tracheostomy patient teaching.

Utilization and perceived benefits of postoperative otology in-service training for inpatient nurses.

This study examined the perceived effectiveness of in-service training (IST) to improve the nursing care of post-operative otology patients as a function of nursing experience. IST was administered to four distinct units in a large university hospital, examining nurses with a range of experiences in otology care. An eight-item IST evaluation instrument was developed, administered, and validated for this study.