The Use of Simulation to Teach Nursing Students and Clinicians Palliative Care and End-of-Life Communication: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: To present the findings of a systematic review on the use of simulation-based learning experiences (SBLEs) to teach communication skills to nursing students and clinicians who provide palliative and end-of-life care to patients and their families.

Background: Palliative care communication skills are fundamental to providing holistic patient care. Since nurses have the greatest amount of direct exposure to patients, building such communication competencies is essential.

The doctor of nursing practice and nursing education: highlights, potential, and promise.

The success of the doctor of nursing practice (DNP) programs have exceeded everyone's expectations and resulted in increased interest in doctoral education in nursing. A shortage of doctorally prepared nurse educators continues to plague the profession and has a severe impact on the ability of schools of nursing to educate future generations of nurses. As a terminal degree in nursing practice, there is little focus on DNP graduates who are prepared as educators.

Evaluation of an instrument to measure nurses' familiarity with emergency preparedness.

Unlabelled: The events of September 11, 2001, and the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina have emphasized the importance of educating all nurses in emergency preparedness and bioterrorism.

Methods: Further evaluation (secondary data analysis) of the Emergency Preparedness Information Questionnaire (EPIQ) was conducted, to assess nurses familiarity with emergency preparedness.

Results: This study confirmed that the EPIQ, as revised, has sound psychometric characteristics (construct validity and internal reliability) as a tool to measure nurses' self-reported level of familiarity with emergency preparedness.