Living out our values: the legacy of Christian academic nursing leadership.

Retired academic nursing leaders possess a rich legacy of knowledge. Using a grounded theory approach, knowledge possessed by 14 retired Christian Chairperson/Deans was explored. Two themes representing commitment to living out Christian values; and fortitude, understanding, and spiritual guidance emerged from written responses to open-ended survey questions.

The emotional needs of care recipients and the psychological well-being of informal caregivers: implications for home care clinicians.

In this exploratory study, 77 informal caregivers of older persons in Ohio completed telephone interviews that included questions regarding their perceived difficulty providing emotional and physical care, perceived quality of care, demographic items including caregivers' health status, and a measure of their psychological well-being. Findings suggest that psychological well-being of informal caregivers is diminished when they experience greater difficulty meeting the care recipients' emotional care needs, are in poorer health, or are older. Suggestions for clinical implications and future research based on these findings are discussed.

The role of social support in the family and community integration of right-hemisphere stroke survivors.

The goal of this project was to understand better the communicative processes by which social support can assist right-hemisphere stroke survivors in the process of community integration. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 12 right-hemisphere stroke survivors and their family caregivers. The transcribed interviews revealed 7 challenges (physical, cognitive-perceptual, emotional, relationship, employment, financial, and challenges to activities of daily living) and three types of resources (formal external, informal external, and internal).

Incorporating research into associate degree nursing curricula.

All nurses are urged to be involved in research as participants and/or consumers. Such involvement may range from using research findings to participating in one or more of the research process steps to serving as principle investigator of a funded study. Clinicians at the bedside, including associate degree (AD) nurses, are well positioned to contribute to the body of nursing knowledge and enhance nursing care by identifying nursing care problems worthy of research, collecting data for nursing studies, and applying research findings in the care they provide.