Where are nurse-scientists? Academic nursing research at critical crossroads.

Background: Academic nursing research is at a critical impasse after the great retirement and resignation during COVID-19. Sustaining and replenishing senior nurse-scientist faculty that are clinical experts with real-world clinical practice is critical. Leveraging the mission of nursing scholarship within the business of building and sustaining externally funded research enterprises in schools of nursing presents conundrums, especially with persistent nursing faculty vacancies.

Nursing's Wicked Problems: Partnering With Academic Leadership to Develop Solutions.

Nursing is in a challenging place, and we are facing many incredibly complex issues that are steeped in culture and tradition. These "wicked problems" often arise when organizations face constant change or unprecedented challenges. In this article, we discuss current issues that hinder all nurse leaders from elevating nursing as a profession, with a particular focus on the role and contributions of the academic nurse leader in creating and sustaining positive change.

Support Methods for Healthcare Professionals Who Are Second Victims: An Integrative Review.

A second victim is a healthcare provider who has been involved in a critical event. A critical event is a clinical situation in which an unforeseen clinical outcome occurs, or the clinical deterioration of the patient takes place for many different reasons. The patient and his/her family are the first victims.

An examination of nurse-authored patents: Implications for nursing practice.

Background: Recognition for medical inventions and innovations is largely associated with physician-researchers, scientists, and engineers. The term "nurse" is largely absent from patents awarded in the United States. Yet, as front-line healthcare providers, who better to add to the current population of inventors and innovators of new, meaningful scientific and engineering medical discoveries than specialized advanced practice nurses and their registered nurse colleagues? Although medical inventions and innovations are not entirely new activities for nurses, the authors speculate that greater opportunities exist for these healthcare professionals to lead in and be officially recognized for medical care discoveries and advancements by having their names on patents awarded.

Standardized testing in nursing education: Preparing students for NCLEX-RN® and practice.

Standardized testing that predicts nursing student success accurately and identifies weak content areas has played a critical role in nursing education. Critics of such testing lament the harm of this type of testing, often misinterpreting common practices as well as overlooking all value. The goal of nursing school is to graduate competent professionals with adequate knowledge to practice safely, who can pass the NCLEX-RN® and gain employment.

The use of "high-stakes testing" in nursing education: Rhetoric or rigor?

The expectations for clinically ready graduates have increased over the years, paralleling changes in the NCLEX exam with increasingly cognitively difficult items in preparation for professional nursing practice. Yet, it is widely recognized that nursing program exit standardized exams have come under increased scrutiny in several public cases. Several articles have frequently been cited in the opposing argument against use of the HESI Exit Exam or other standardized nursing exit exams.

The Nurse-Engineer: A New Role to Improve Nurse Technology Interface and Patient Care Device Innovations.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe two innovative biomedical engineering and nursing collaborations designed to educate a new cadre of professionals and develop new knowledge and innovations (robots, patient care devices, and computer simulation).

Organizing Construct: Complex health problems demand a highly skilled response that uses teams of professionals from various disciplines. When the biomedical engineering lens is expanded to include the practical perspective of nursing, opportunities emerge for greater technology-nurse interface and subsequent innovation.

Using a nursing student conduct committee to foster professionalism among nursing students.

This article explains how a university nursing program in the United States created and implemented a nursing student code of conduct and a faculty-led nursing student conduct committee to review and adjudicate violations of academic or professional misconduct. The need for and role of the nursing student conduct committee in providing substantive and fair due process is illustrated with two cases. Professional misconduct has been associated with preventable error and patient safety and is of great concern to nurse educators who are entrusted with producing the next generation of nursing professionals.

The embodiment of authentic leadership.

Development of student leadership capacity and efficacy is critical to the nursing profession, and vital to this process is a strong foundation in critical thinking that includes a depth of understanding of self (i.e., authentic leadership development).

Career advancement and professional development in nursing.

Background: Excellence underscores the need for nurses to keep their skills and competencies current through participation in professional development and career advancement. Evidence suggests that internationally educated nurses (IENs) progress relatively slowly through the career ladder and participate less in professional development compared with nurses educated in the United States (UENs). Mentorship and self-efficacy are considered major determinants of career advancement.

A report on a national study of doctoral nursing faculty.

This article reports on a national study of doctoral nursing faculty, including both PhD and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) faculty. Using a national sample of 624 doctoral nursing faculty, we surveyed individuals on a variety of issues, including succession planning, retirement, quality of life as a doctoral faculty member, their views on the new DNP degree, and how they view the future of doctoral nursing education. Study implications for both DNP and PhD faculty are explored and the meaning of the findings of the study for the future are discussed, including new items that will be investigated in a repeat survey in 2012.

Student drug testing in nursing education.

Nursing faculty and administrators have a responsibility to keep abreast of current research, legal regulations, and professional standards that affect students in the classroom and clinical setting. The purpose of this article is to examine whether empirical research supports the current trend of mandatory drug testing, provide a synopsis of current practice, and discuss the legal and ethical implications for nursing faculty.

Human papillomavirus and cervical cancer knowledge, health beliefs, and preventive practices in 2 age cohorts: a comparison study.

Background: Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and a known precursor of cervical cancer. Recent studies suggest a bimodal HPV prevalence for women in 2 age groups: 19 to 26 and 40 to 70. HPV and cervical cancer knowledge has yet to be investigated in the older population of women.

Promoting quality and safety in women's health through the use of transdisciplinary clinical simulation educational modules: methodology and a pilot trial.

This manuscript presents the methodology used to assess the impact of a clinical simulation module used for training providers specializing in women's health. The methodology presented here will be used for a quantitative study in the future.

Transdisciplinary teamwork simulation in obstetrics-gynecology health care education.

This program evaluation was designed to assess whether a transdisciplinary teamwork simulation experience improves collaborative attitudes among women's health students toward the goals of reducing medical errors and improving patient outcomes. This program evaluation used a pretest-posttest comparative design to measure changes in collaborative attitudes among 35 multidisciplinary women's health students before and after a transdisciplinary simulation experience. Collaborative attitudes were measured by the Team Attitudes Questionnaire.

Innovative nursing educational curriculum for the 21st century.

The changing landscape of health care in America requires that clinicians be skilled in responding to varying patient expectations and values; provide ongoing patient management; deliver and coordinate care across teams, settings, and time frames; and support patients' endeavors to change behavior and lifestyle--education that is in short supply in today's academic and clinical settings (Institute of Medicine, 2003). Nursing education needs to innovate at the micro and macro system levels for the 21st century. It cannot be business as usual.

Faculty colleagues in your classroom as doctoral students: is there a conflict of interest?

The 4 authors, a faculty member, department chair, associate dean, and college dean, identify and analyze issues surrounding nursing faculty as doctoral student, particularly when faculty members are enrolled in their employer's doctoral nursing program.

The benefits of a leadership program and executive coaching for new nursing academic administrators: one college's experience.

Despite attention given to the nursing shortage and now the nursing faculty shortage, what is perhaps less visible but equally critical are the pending retirements of most of the current cadre of academic nursing administrators in the next decade. With only 2.1% of current deans, directors, and department chairs in 2006 aged 45 years or younger, there may be a pending crisis in leadership development and succession planning in our nursing schools and colleges.

Teaching innovation.

Innovation in healthcare is essential to solve the "wicked problems" currently facing healthcare. This article focuses on nature of innovation and how it operates, how innovators think and view problems, how the theory and practice of innovation can be taught in novel ways, and how organizational cultures foster or suppress innovation. Examples of teaching strategies and nurse-driven innovation illustrate the theory and practice of innovation.

Bone marrow donation: factors influencing intentions in African Americans.

Purpose/objectives: To identify factors influencing the intentions of African Americans to donate or not to donate bone marrow.

Design: Exploratory, descriptive.

Setting: Participants were recruited from three churches, four public housing developments, and a university teaching hospital-all in the Philadelphia, PA, area.