Perceptions and predictions of cardiovascular disease of Alabama women in a rural county.

Purpose: The aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as a women's health issue among Alabama women in a rural county.

Research Questions: 1. What are the risks and perceptions of CVD of Alabama women in a rural county? 2.

Lessons learned from 12 years of teaching second-degree BSN students.

Second-degree BSN-accelerated nursing programs are no longer considered new or rare, with many schools of nursing having programs that have been in place for over a decade. Auburn University is one such school. The focus and motivation of these students make teaching them challenging and rewarding.

Bringing pediatric nursing to life in a baccalaureate curriculum.

Nurse educators are challenged to prepare nursing students to practice in a changing environment. Pediatrics is a particularly challenging and important area to prepare nursing students for future nursing practice. Several factors emerged that suggested the current approach to teaching pediatrics was not adequate.

Lessons learned from 12 years of teaching second-degree BSN students.

Second-degree BSN-accelerated nursing programs are no longer considered new or rare, with many schools of nursing having programs that have been in place for over a decade. Auburn University is one such school. The focus and motivation of these students make teaching them challenging and rewarding.

Lessons learned: integrating a service learning community-based partnership into the curriculum.

Auburn University School of Nursing (AUSON) has been in a partnership with the Auburn Housing Authority (AHA), a low-income public housing provider, for several years by providing a weekly nursing care clinic. AUSON was convinced expansion of the clinics would be beneficial to all. This article describes the process and lessons learned in expanding the scope and depth of the partnership and how this service learning experience was integrated throughout the nursing curriculum.

Predictors of hospital readmission after discharge in patients with congestive heart failure.

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to (1) describe the characteristics of the population with congestive heart failure (CHF) who were admitted to a large, southeastern, acute-care hospital and (2) determine which patients are at risk for readmissions within 6 months.

Methods: A descriptive correlational design, using variables maintained in a computerized data bank on patients with CHF (N = 557, 39% were black) who were admitted between October 2000 and March 2002, was used to describe the adult population with CHF and identify variables associated with a likelihood of readmission.

Results: In the 6 months after the index admission, 224 (40%) of the patients were readmitted to the hospital for CHF.

State of the science: posthospitalization nursing interventions in congestive heart failure.

Nursing's role as key healthcare providers who give emotional support and teach self-care to patients with congestive heart failure has evolved substantially in recent years. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic evaluation of the impact of posthospital nursing interventions in the management of heart failure. Four models of nursing interventions emerged: home-based nursing interventions, multidisciplinary interventions, heart failure clinics, and telephone- or technology-based nursing interventions.

A systematic evaluation plan that works.

Systematic assessment and evaluation of program outcomes results in program improvement. The authors discuss the evaluation of educational effectiveness standard components of critical thinking, therapeutic nursing intervention and communication and mechanisms that insure faculty participation in evaluation.

Community-based service learning in the engaged university.

The engaged university expands the concept of service learning to include a redesigned approach to teaching, research, and service functions that leads to a productive involvement with communities. This article describes an ongoing community partnership that models the best-practice aspects of the engaged university.