Summer residential program: a university model for recruiting high school students to nursing.

As the nursing shortage continues, nurse educators must develop creative strategies to recruit high school students. A midsize university in the Mid-west has found a one-week summer residential enrichment program, offered annually since 1990, to be a successful tool for introducing students to the wide variety of nursing roles and career opportunities. Participants tour various clinical settings and have hands-on clinical experiences in the nursing laboratory.

Program evaluation: an ongoing systematic process.

The time immediately following an accreditation visit is ideal to reevaluate and update the plan for ongoing systematic program evaluation. This article demonstrates how use of an evaluation framework, existing nursing program resources, data, and a timeline can be integral to an ongoing program evaluation plan. Guidelines provided by the accrediting body can be the template for the evaluation plan, with tables or templates from a self-study providing an efficient summary of each outcome measure and a plan for action.

Using clinical journaling to capture critical thinking across the curriculum.

Clinical journaling is used as an integrated teaching methodology throughout the practicum component of a baccalaureate nursing curriculum. Two disciplines, Nursing and English, collaborated to develop clinical journaling guidelines to provide a consistent framework for student learning and evaluation in a variety of clinical settings. Students complete a weekly log for each clinical rotation.