Expert holistic nurses' advice to nursing students.

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to describe the advice that expert holistic nurses gave to nursing students regarding the theory and practice of holistic nursing and to describe nursing students' experience and perceptions of their interaction with the experts.

Design: This was a qualitative descriptive study.

Methods: Nursing students who attended the 2008 and 2009 conferences of the American Holistic Nurses Association interviewed expert holistic nurses, asking them for advice for beginners.

Labor and delivery nurses' perceptions of caring for childbearing women in nurse-managed birthing units.

Purpose: To identify the perceptions of nurses caring for women giving birth in nurse-managed, highly technological birthing environments.

Methods: A purposive sample of 18 perinatal nurses employed at four different in-hospital birthing centers utilizing nurse-managed labor models participated in audio-taped interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes.

Nursing students' perceptions of a holistic nursing conference: empowerment, self-care, and application to practice.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe nursing students' perceptions of their experiences at the 2007 annual conference of the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA), and identify benefits of professional conference attendance as an educational strategy for undergraduate nursing students.

Method: Sixteen nursing students attended the 2007 AHNA annual conference and made daily journal entries about their perceptions of the conference. Using a descriptive qualitative approach, researchers analyzed their journal entries for recurring themes.

Integrating marriage education into perinatal education.

Couples making the transition to parenthood experience challenges that can threaten the quality and stability of their relationships and the health of family members. Currently, the educational infrastructure to support the delivery of couple-relationship education during the transition to parenthood is limited. Because new-parent couples interact with the health care system at many points during this transition time, an opportunity exists for strengthening couple relationships within the system to improve the well-being of adults and children.

Use of dyadic role-playing to increase student participation.

Dyadic role-playing is a way to combine role-playing and dyad work in class to increase student participation. The instructor can use warm-up exercises to help students reduce their stress, and to recognize the value of role-playing in their journeys toward becoming professional nurses. The advantages, limitations, and practical considerations regarding dyadic role-playing are also highlighted.