Emerging roles for research intensive PhD prepared nurses: Beyond faculty positions.

Research-intensive PhD programs need to prepare nurse scientists to bridge the chasms between research, and practice and policy in an increasingly complex healthcare system. In practice, nurse scientists are critical to building capacity for research, promoting excellence in patient-centered care, and achieving or exceeding national quality benchmarks. Moreover, they provide methodological expertise and insight to address pressing clinical questions.

Merging person-centered care with translational research to improve the lives of older adults: creating community-based nursing research networks.

Translational research is a leading trend in science with the aim of bridging the research-practice gap to significantly speed the implementation of effective interventions in clinical practice. Integrating the values and preferences of older adults and their families into this process is critical to the success of translational research. Engaging communities in meaningful research is an important part of advancing translational science in which older adults are partners in developing solutions to the health needs of individuals within communities.

What it takes: perspectives from developing nurse scientists.

The need for nurse scientists has never been greater, given the complexity of health problems facing our world and the rising cost of providing care to prevent and treat them. The development of nurse researchers is critical to preserve and advance the scientific foundation of the discipline. In this article, two successful doctoral students present their personal views about the cognitive and behavioral transformation they experienced during their program of study, highlighting what they believe to be important resources that enhance doctoral education and sharing how they overcame the challenges encountered.

Culture change models and resident health outcomes in long-term care.

Purpose: To examine the scientific evidence for the effect of comprehensive culture change model implementation on resident health outcomes in long-term care.

Design: In this integrated review, an electronic literature search was conducted for studies that examined the effect of comprehensive culture change models on long-term care residents' physical and psychosocial health.

Methods: Eleven articles were thoroughly reviewed for outcomes related to resident health, and findings were integrated across models.

The humanities interface of nursing and medicine.

In the 1970s, the field of medical humanities developed and included ethics, literature, history, integrative medicine, and other topics, most often described from a physician's perspective. During this same period of revolutionary changes in health care, nursing curricula did not seek to emphasize content in humanities, perhaps because stereotypical views of nursing as the "caring profession" made such coursework seem redundant. In 2001, as a result of the Institute of Medicine's call for all health professionals to be educated in interdisciplinary teams, there was a new focus on the importance of interdisciplinary education.

Factors attracting and keeping nurses in home care.

The nursing shortage relates not only to recruiting nurses into the profession but also retaining nurses in practice. Although several studies have examined nurse retention in general, few have addressed retention as a home care issue. This descriptive study identifies factors that attracted nurses to home care and factors that contributed to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the state of Connecticut.

Looking through the right end of the telescope: creating a focused vision for a school of nursing.

The challenges facing nursing higher education necessitate that academic administrators have a focused vision for their schools of nursing. Nursing, like other areas of higher education, embraced the concept of strategic planning to set priorities, use resources wisely, and take advantage of available opportunities that were consistent with the strategic direction. While there has been a shift toward a less-structured approach to planning, nursing deans need tools to assess the environment, make rational decisions, set priorities, plan for change, and develop strategies to meet the short-term and long-term goals of the unit.

Development of hospice in China.

Hospice began in China with a research center founded in 1988. After a survey measured national attitudes about death, the ground was laid for the first clinical ward to be opened in October, 1990. The Chinese philosophy of hospice is consistent with the rest of the world--to provide holistic care to improve quality of life while keeping the family as the core unit of care.