"Time enough! Or not enough time!" An oral history investigation of some British and Australian community nurses' responses to demands for "efficiency" in health care, 1960-2000.

Oral history methodology was used to investigate the perspectives of retired British district nurses and Australian domiciliary nurses who had practiced between 1960 and 2000. Interviews yielded insights into the dramatic changes in community nursing practice during the last four decades of the 20th century. Massive changes in health care and government-led drives for greater efficiency meant moving from practice governed by "experiential time" (in which perception of time depends on the quality of experience) to practice governed by "measured time" (in which experience itself is molded by the measurement of time).

Promoting health literacy through the health education assessment project.

Background: The Council of Chief State School Officers' State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards Health Education Assessment Project (SCASS-HEAP) allows states to pool financial and human resources to develop effective ready-to-use health education assessment resources through a collaborative process. The purpose of this article is to describe the extensive ongoing development of the SCASS-HEAP and its benefits for important stakeholders in health and education.

Methods: A review of the products from the first decade of the SCASS-HEAP was undertaken.

Hawaii's "7 by 7" for school health education: a PowerPoint presentation on integrating the national health education standards with priority content areas for today's school health education in grades kindergarten through 12.

School-based health education can help young people develop the knowledge, skills, motivation, and support they need to choose health-enhancing behaviors and resist engaging in behaviors that put them at risk for health and social problems and school failure. The health of school-age youth is significantly associated with their school achievement. However, in the midst of today's increased emphasis on school accountability in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics, subject areas such as health education tend to receive less prominence in the school curriculum.

Building school health programs through public health initiatives: the first three years of the Healthy Hawaii Initiative partnership for school health.

Background: The Healthy Hawaii Initiative, funded through the Hawaii tobacco settlement, allocates funds from the Hawaii Department of Health to the Hawaii Department of Education for school programs that promote health and reduce the burden of chronic disease. This article outlines progress, challenges, and insights from the first 3 years of the Hawaii Partnership for Standards-based School Health Education (the Partnership).

Context: The Hawaii Department of Education added health education as a content area to the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards in 1999.

The role of district nursing: perspectives of cancer patients and their carers before and after hospital discharge.

The role of the district nurse (DN) is difficult to define. Knowledge about the perspectives of patients with cancer, and their informal carers, on the roles of DNs and community services is lacking. The aim of this study is to identify the roles of DNs and community services as perceived by patients with cancer and their carers before and after hospital discharge.

Continuing care after cancer treatment.

Background: Despite nearly three decades of debate and policy guidance there is evidence that, in the United Kingdom, patient hospital discharge remains problematic. District nurses, who deliver skilled home nursing care, receive referrals from hospitals for continuing nursing care needs. However, district nurses' expectations of appropriate patient referral from hospitals are not always achieved.

District nurses' experiences and perceptions of cancer patient referrals.

Traditionally palliative care of cancer patients has been seen as an important and defining aspect of district nursing. Care of the dying patient has been used to describe the ability and scope of the district nursing service to holistically provide for patient need. However health and social service changes in the last decade have refocused the district nurse's role away from holistic delivery to more specialized care.

A study of district nurses' experiences of continuous ambulatory chemotherapy.

As a result of technical developments and policies that promote shorter hospital stays, patients are increasingly receiving high technology treatment in the community. The administration of ambulatory intravenous chemotherapy at home is an example of such treatment. Despite being generalist nurses, district nurses (DNs) are involved in what could be viewed as 'specialist' care - advising and supporting patients while they are receiving treatment.

Patient and carer needs following a cancer-related hospital admission: the importance of referral to the district nursing service.

Background: Despite 30 years of research attention, discharge planning and district nurse (DN) referral remain problematic and few cancer-related publications exist. With shorter hospitalizations, discharged cancer patients and their carers may experience unmet needs for assessment, information and support. Although DN referral might enable patient/carer needs to be met, the DN role lacks clarity.

Peer review of classroom teaching: an interim report.

This paper provides interim findings from the implementation of peer review of classroom teaching in a large UK University School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. A total of 258 classroom teaching sessions, involving 129 teaching staff (n=129) were included over a period of 7 months. Teachers had two teaching sessions reviewed by a colleague.

Feminist research or humanistic research? Experiences of studying prostatectomy.

This paper highlights issues related to men's health research arising from a small-scale study, carried out by a male researcher, to identify the experience of men following transuretheral resection of prostate (TURP) for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). The intention of this paper is to stimulate methodological debate rather than to be a research report. For the study, an informal interview approach was used within a phenomenological framework, and interview experiences raised issues which have been previously discussed under the rubric of feminist research.

Got Health? The Hawaii Partnership for Standards-Based School Health Education.

The American Cancer Society (ACS), Hawaii Pacific, Inc., initiated the Hawaii Partnership for Standards-Based School Health Education in July 1999. The goal of the partnership is to implement standards-based school health education to promote child and adolescent health in Hawaii.

Prevalence of health risk behaviors among Asian American/Pacific Islander high school students.

Purpose: [corrected] To compare the prevalence of selected risk behaviors among Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) students and white, black, and Hispanic high school students in the United States.

Methods: The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention produced nationally representative samples of students in grades 9 through 12 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. To generate a sufficient sample of AAPI students, data from these four surveys were combined into one dataset yielding a total sample size of 55, 734 students.

Men's lived experiences following transurethral prostatectomy for benign prostatic hypertrophy.

The aim of this study was to illuminate the lived experience of prostatectomy recovery by means of semi-structured interviews. Despite the commonality of prostatic enlargement and the corrective transurethral procedure, surprisingly little is known of the impact upon the men's social and psychological well-being. The interviews have produced very rich data, which illustrate the extent to which the men are initially very reluctant to identify 'problems' either with their hospital experience or their subsequent recovery period.

Voices from the field--a qualitative analysis of classroom, school, district, and state health education policies and programs.

This study provides a qualitative analysis of responses from classroom-, school-, district-, and state-level educators and administrators to open-ended questions about school health education. These questions were posed as part of the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1994, and elicited a range of responses about the status of school health education programs and factors that facilitated and hindered the delivery of such programs. To improve school health education in the United States, respondents cited the need to increase the value and priority of health education in the school curriculum and advocated for 1) professional preparation in health education for persons teaching health-related courses, 2) health education course curricula to address important and timely issues, 3) student testing in health education, 4) improved resources and support for health education, and 5) increased communication and collaboration within their schools and communities related to health education.

'Stories' or 'snapshots'? A study directed at comparing qualitative and quantitative approaches to curriculum evaluation.

The focus of this paper is a study designed to explore the validity of quantitative approaches of student evaluation in a pre-registration degree programme. As managers of the students' education we were concerned that the quantitative method, which used lecturer criteria, may not fully represent students' views. The approach taken is that of a process-type strategy for curriculum evaluation as described by Parlett and Hamilton (1972).