Undergraduate nursing students' knowledge of and attitudes toward aging: comparison of context-based learning and a traditional program.

The purpose of this study was to investigate nursing students' knowledge of and attitudes toward older adults in the first and fourth years of a baccalaureate program, following the introduction of a context-based learning (CBL) curriculum, and to compare the fourth-year CBL student findings to those of fourth-year students in the final year of the traditional, lecture-based baccalaureate program. The Facts on Aging Questionnaire was used to assess knowledge, and the Aging Semantic Differential was used to assess attitudes toward aging related to societal influences. Although there were differences in knowledge and attitudes between fourth-year CBL and fourth-year traditional students, the differences were not significant.

Twentieth-century social and health-care influences on location of death in Canada.

Providing the right care, in the right place, to dying persons is hampered by a lack of understanding of where death and dying normally take place and ignorance about what influences location of death. This paper reports the findings of a multidisciplinary historical investigation of 20th-century influences on location of death in Canada. It builds on a study that found a hospitalization-of-death trend in Canada over much of the 20th century but a reduction in hospital deaths beginning in 1994.

Toward a model for effectiveness. What Alberta occupational health nurses think.

Effectiveness is difficult to define or measure, but is frequently associated with cost. A two phase study conducted with occupational health nurses in Alberta, Canada resulted in a beginning model for effectiveness. In 1997, Phase One of an exploratory descriptive study focused on physical assessment by occupational health nurses (N = 137) and perceptions of effectiveness in practice (n = 104).