Employer perceptions of knowledge, competency, and professionalism of baccalaureate nursing graduates from a problem-based program.

Employer evaluation of graduates is a critical component of professional program evaluation and contributes a viewpoint rarely reported in the literature. It has been proposed that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) enhances knowledge acquisition, clinical competency and professional behavior. Students assume the role of a registered nurse as they work through real practice scenarios on a daily basis in the classroom.

Challenges for new nurses in evidence-based practice.

Aim: The purpose of this article was to examine issues that new nurses encounter as they enter nursing practice, particularly in an evidence-based practice environment.

Background: These issues are not new. In part, these issues arise from our failure to acknowledge the developmental issues that new nurses experience on entry to practice and the lack of role models in evidence-based practice and holistic care.

Professional socialization: students becoming nurses.

Usually colleges are evaluated by the quality of the knowledge and technical training offered to the students. Little attention is given to the acquisition of the values, behaviors and attitudes necessary to assume their professional role. This exploratory study aims to increase understanding of the professional socialization process that occurs at nursing schools and the results obtained through the socialization of professional values and standards.

Preparing health science students to be effective health care team members: the InterProfessional Initiative at the University of Alberta.

The InterProfessional Initiative at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, provides learning strategies to be effective health care team members for over 800 undergraduate students in 14 health professions. This paper traces the evolution of the initiative over the past decade and describes future directions. Particular attention is given to the administrative and academic structures and processes required to launch, develop and sustain an initiative of this scale in a major research-intensive university.

Evidence-based nursing education: myth or reality?

This article explores the concept of evidence-based nursing education. Because nurse educators incorporate evidence-based practice as a basic tenet of their programs, they assume nursing education itself is evidence based. Nursing education has a body of knowledge on which nurse educators base teaching, educational strategies, and curricular designs, but most of this knowledge is tacit, experiential, and based on practice.

The questioning skills of tutors and students in a context based baccalaureate nursing program.

This paper explores, describes and compares the types and levels of questions asked by 30 randomly selected tutors (nurse educators) and their 314 students in context-based learning tutorial seminars in a Canadian baccalaureate nursing program. Thirty 90-min seminars were audio taped, transcribed and coded using a Questioning Framework designed for this study. The framework includes types and levels of questions, related wording and examples.

A pilot study comparing two methods of intermittent catheterization: limitations and challenges.

Given a complex research design, a pilot study was conducted to compare a closed catheter system for intermittent catheterization to the traditional open system. Based on 33 urine samples for 11 subjects, the closed system yielded fewer positive cultures. Efforts to obtain this preliminary data proved beneficial in identifying unanticipated design limitations that will guide modifications of the main study, which will include multiple centers.

Pathogenesis of urinary tract infections: a review.

Pathogenesis of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is not well-understood. In this paper, we review the current understanding of UTIs, particularly in relationship to individuals using intermittent catheterization. Relationships exist between the human host, infectious agent and the environment.