Does reading ability predict student success? A scoping review.

Objectives: Nursing students do not only have to understand the content they read, but they must also analyze, synthesize, and think critically as these skills are required for success in clinical practice. This review investigates if testing reading in students can predict outcomes of student success in nursing programs.

Design: A scoping review of the literature on reading assessments in nursing education.

Language as a proxy for race: Language and literacy and the nursing profession.

Defining a nurse as literate is disciplinary and contextual, linked to professional identity formation, and an issue impacting patient safety. Literacy and language proficiency are concepts assessed through examining skills in four pillars: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This article explores how literacy is not only a practice issue but inextricably intertwined with issues of race, equity, diversity, and inclusiveness in our profession-both in regulatory policy and classroom pedagogy.

Should the concepts chosen to guide concept-based curricula be threshold concepts?

In this paper we propose that the concepts guiding concept-based curricula should be threshold knowledge concepts. We briefly discuss some of the hurdles of current concept-based curricular designs and describe how the concepts themselves, paradoxically, might perpetuate the continued emphasis on content in nursing courses. Until now, threshold concept theory has not been part of the mainstream conversation about concept-based curricula.

Exploring integrated threshold concept knowledge as a route to understanding the epistemic nature of the evidence-based practice mindset.

Background: An evidence-based practice (EBP) mindset is the embodiment of the belief that a professional nursing identity requires consideration of research evidence in all practice encounters. Historical tensions between research and practice have contributed to practitioner and student resistance to research knowledge. Examining the troublesome nature of learning research may facilitate the development of teaching strategies to enhance the uptake of research in practice.

Reflective writing pedagogies in action: a qualitative systematic review.

Objectives: Reflective practice is a core value of nursing education and emphasizes the self as a source of learning. Writing and reflection are often viewed as inseparable. The goal of this qualitative meta-study is to explore the mechanisms writing stimulates to promote learning transformation for nursing students in both clinical and classroom contexts.

Evaluating the impact of an arts-based multimedia knowledge translation assignment on undergraduate nursing students.

Background: Despite the expectation that nurses utilize research to provide excellent patient care, students often fail to recognize the value of learning about evidence-informed practice. Experiential, creative pedagogical approaches are needed to engage undergraduate nursing students in evidence-informed practice. In two undergraduate courses, we implemented an innovative assignment in which students created an arts-based multimedia knowledge translation presentation to communicate systematic review findings to patients.

The development of academic identity in graduate nursing students: An interpretive descriptive study.

Background: Mentorship is an important element in the development of academic identity among graduate students in nursing. Although most often occurring within the context of faculty advisor-student relationships, mentorship should extend beyond formal advisor-advisee relationships. Peer mentorship is known to be beneficial for graduate students, yet little is known about how peer mentorship specifically impacts the development of academic identity.

Writing activities and the hidden curriculum in nursing education.

Nursing programs are complex systems that articulate values of relationality and holism, while developing curriculums that privilege metric-driven competency-based pedagogies. This study used an interpretive approach to analyze interviews from 20 nursing students at two Canadian Baccalaureate programs to understand how nursing's educational context, including its hidden curriculums, impacted student writing activities. We viewed this qualitative data through the lens of activity theory.

Strategies for retention of nursing students: A scoping review.

Retention of students in nursing programs is a costly concern that affects the supply and demand of nurses to the healthcare system. Successful retention strategies require consideration of social and academic institutional systems with attention to student integration in a program. This systematic review explores implemented retention strategies in nursing programs worldwide and provides guidance for nursing programs and researchers considering the retention question.

Seeking transformation: how students in nursing view their academic writing context - a qualitative systematic review.

Writing practices in nursing education programs are situated in a tension-filled context resulting from competing medical-technical and relational nursing discourses. The goal of this qualitative meta-study is to understand, from the student perspective, how the context for writing in nursing is constructed and the benefits of writing to nursing knowledge development. A literature search using the CINHAL, Medline, ERIC, and Academic Search complete databases, using systematic methods identified 21 papers and dissertations which gathered qualitative interview or survey data from students in nursing at the pre-registration, continuing education, and graduate levels.

Social and academic integration strategies for retention of nursing students: a scoping review protocol.

The review question is: what are the types of formal and informal social and academic integration strategies that have been explored to influence nursing student persistence and increase retention in nursing programs? A secondary review objective is to address how the described strategies have specifically been implemented with minority nursing students.

A curriculum-wide assessment of writing self-efficacy in a baccalaureate nursing program.

Objectives: This study explores patterns of writing self-efficacy fluctuation across three academic years in a baccalaureate nursing program. The goal was to assess if writing self-efficacy predicted program grades.

Design: Longitudinal exploratory design.

Constructing Writing Practices in Nursing.

Background: Although the quality of student writing is often lamented by faculty, writing instruction is an area of nursing education that has received little attention. Nursing programs rarely teach writing from a disciplinary perspective, and promoting the drilling of basic skills, such as grammar, has failed to engage student writers.

Method: A critical examination of the history of writing research, the nursing academic context, and the epistemology of writing as meaning making will provide the rationale behind a need for a new perspective on nurses' writing.

Digital storytelling as a method in health research: a systematic review protocol.

Background: Digital storytelling is an arts-based research method with potential to elucidate complex narratives in a compelling manner, increase participant engagement, and enhance the meaning of research findings. This method involves the creation of a 3- to 5-min video that integrates multimedia materials including photos, participant voices, drawings, and music. Given the significant potential of digital storytelling to meaningfully capture and share participants' lived experiences, a systematic review of its use in healthcare research is crucial to develop an in-depth understanding of how researchers have used this method, with an aim to refine and further inform future iterations of its use.

Writing self-efficacy in nursing students: The influence of a discipline-specific writing environment.

Aim: To explore if writing self-efficacy improved among first-year nursing students in the context of discipline-specific writing. The relationship between writing self-efficacy, anxiety and student grades are also explored with respect to various learner characteristics such as postsecondary experience, writing history, English as a second language status and online versus classroom instruction.

Design: A one group quasi-experimental study with a time control period.

A Template Analysis of Writing Self-Efficacy Measures.

Background And Purpose: This investigation reviews the item content of writing selfefficacy (WSE) measures developed for undergraduate students. Bandura's self-efficacy theory and a writing theory by Flower and Hayes informed the a priori themes used to develop a template of WSE categories critical to the concept.

Method: Articles describing WSE measures were identified through Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PsycINFO, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar (1984-2015).

Academic voice: On feminism, presence, and objectivity in writing.

Academic voice is an oft-discussed, yet variably defined concept, and confusion exists over its meaning, evaluation, and interpretation. This paper will explore perspectives on academic voice and counterarguments to the positivist origins of objectivity in academic writing. While many epistemological and methodological perspectives exist, the feminist literature on voice is explored here as the contrary position.

Acetylcholine and choline amperometric enzyme sensors characterized in vitro and in vivo.

Acetylcholine (ACh) and choline (Ch) are important neuroactive molecules, yet detection of these substances in vivo presents significant analytical challenges. New multienzyme amperometric biosensors are presented here with measurement of physiologically relevant levels of ACh and Ch in vivo. Poly(m-(1,3)-phenylenediamine) (pmPD) electropolymerized on a platinum iridium wire (Pt) served as a template for immobilization of enzymes.