Nursing students' experiences and preferences regarding hospital and community placements.

The quality of practice placements is important in the development of competent and confident professional nurses. In placements, students develop and master the attributes of professional caring, situational knowledge, competence and clinical skills through experiencing nursing in the real world. Student's experience of their placements can be mixed with some students having both positive and negative experiences.

Studying abroad: a multiple case study of nursing students' international experiences.

This paper examines the experiences of nursing students undertaking an international placement during their pre-registration education. The study took place in two schools--one in the United Kingdom, and one in Sweden. The move of nursing education into higher education enabled students to participate in international exchange programmes.

Palliative care emergencies. 2: Management.

This is the second of a two-part unit on palliative care emergencies. The first part looked at the signs and symptoms of conditions classed as palliative care emergencies. This part examines treatment regimens and related nursing care to ensure patient safety and comfort.

Evaluation of a mentorship programme for specialist practitioners.

Health care professionals moving from general care to specialist cancer and palliative care face many challenges during their role transition. Mentorship has been identified as an effective support mechanism during role transition and the Macmillan National Institute of Education devised and piloted a mentorship training programme to enable established specialist practitioners to support new practitioners through their transition into specialist practice. The 12-month programme consisted of a two day workshop and continued support for mentors using action learning groups.

Transition experiences of qualified nurses moving into hospice nursing.

Background: Over a short period of time a number of nurses had joined the staff at a hospice. Many of these nurses were palliative care novices, and thus their transition into hospice nursing constituted a move both to a new workplace and a new clinical specialism.

Aim: The aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of qualified nurses making the transition into hospice nursing in order to support future nurses in this transition.

Action research in a palliative care education programme.

Using an action research approach, the author worked with district nurses to enable them to identify their own palliative care education needs and to plan the appropriate education programme, with reflective practice enabling the identification of further education needs. This approach overcame some of the problems of pre-planned, unresponsive palliative care education programmes. Both the learning and the action research approach are developed through continual reflective practice, which reduces the theory-practice gap as theory is generated from practice.