Recognition and support for today's preceptor.

This article describes the development of a program to support and recognize staff nurses as they embrace the role of preceptor. A nursing educator from a Midwestern tertiary children's hospital, housed within an adult tertiary care facility, was challenged to develop a recognition program for both hospitals that would adequately support the preceptor role while being economically feasible for the organization. A recognition program known as "Preceptor Pride" was developed to focus on the priorities of "professional recognition and individual dedication to education.

Assessing the quality of multiple-choice test items.

With the focus of nursing education geared toward teaching students to think critically, faculty need to assure that test items require students to use a high level of cognitive processing. To evaluate their examinations, the authors assessed multiple-choice test items on final nursing examinations. The assessment included determining cognitive learning levels and frequency of items among 3 adult health courses, comparing difficulty values with cognitive learning levels, and examining discrimination values and the relationship to distracter performance.

The influence of culture on clinical nurses transitioning into the faculty role.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how cultural differences and similarities affect the transition of nurses into the faculty role from professional clinical practice. Components of culture (e.g.