Student satisfaction and team development outcomes with preassigned learning communities.

The purpose of this study was to determine if keeping baccalaureate nursing students together in the same learning community (LC)/clinical cohort throughout their entire clinical rotations (four semesters) was more or less helpful in fostering student satisfaction and team effectiveness. Using a model developed by the authors (Team Relationships with Clinical Cohorts Modell) and the Team Development Questionnaire by Payne (2001), there were no correlations between team effectiveness scores and the length of time the individuals in the LC were together. The only statistically significant finding when applied to nursing students is that as the fraction of females increased, the team effectiveness scores also increased (the team with the highest collective team score consisted of all white females with a narrow age range).

Teaching and assessing the database searching skills of student nurses.

Critical appraisal and application of the evidence to practice cannot proceed without first finding the evidence. To teach evidence-based practice database searching skills to students, a nurse educator partnered with a librarian to design, conduct, and assess instruction. The authors describe the creation, administration, and findings from the assessments and the implications for instruction.