Academic program enhancement supporting the success of undergraduate nursing students and graduates.

Nursing program administrators, faculty, academic success coaches, and remediation specialists have implemented many interventions in support of baccalaureate nursing students' retention and graduates' NCLEX-RN® first-time pass rates. A private university's undergraduate nursing program's team incorporated additional evidence-based interventions aimed improving students' achievement of benchmarks following a 3-year decline in NCLEX-RN pass rates. Interventions expanded the prelicensure academic program's activities using a continuous quality improvement approach.

Perceptions of Academic Grief in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs: An Instrument Development Study.

Nursing students and graduates experience grief when not achieving curricular benchmarks or passing the NCLEX-RN. This study developed the perceptions of academic grief (PAG) instrument for baccalaureate nursing program completers experiencing academic failure. Content analysis methods generated items and achieved face validity.

Expert-Type Content Validity Applications to Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects.

Developing rigorous doctor of nursing practice (DNP) projects continues to challenge faculty and doctoral students. To address project rigor, expert content validity methods have been applied to clinical projects. Students implement expert content validity processes to literature-based project components.

Components of Professional Practice Models.

Objective: This study describes common components of nursing professional practice models (NPPMs) of Magnet ® -designated nursing service organizations.

Background: Components of professional practice models have not been consistently analyzed, suggesting a need to identify their concepts. Evidence-based guidelines may be unavailable to assist in the creation and revision of models.

Developing an Effective Professional Panel.

Plenary panel planning and implementation, carried out by temporary teams, are described for nursing organizations and professional development across settings. The conference or meeting theme and objectives frame panel member selection and moderator focus. Panelist conversations highlight different career trajectories and connect with attendees.

Best Practices to Decrease Infusion-Associated Medication Errors.

Infusion-associated medication errors have the potential to cause the greatest patient harm. A 21-year review of errors and near-miss reports from a national medication error-reporting program found that infusion-associated medication errors resulted in the identification of numerous best practices that support patient safety. A content analysis revealed that most errors involved improper dosage, mistaken drug choice, knowledge-based mistakes, skill-based slips, and memory lapses.

Relationship Between Perceived Nurse Caring and Patient Satisfaction in Patients in a Psychiatric Acute Care Setting.

Patients admitted to psychiatric acute care settings benefit from interactions and caring relationships with hospital staff. The current study describes the association between patients' perceptions of nurse caring and their satisfaction with care at an inpatient psychiatric-mental health unit. The relationship between patients' perceptions of nurse caring and two measures of satisfaction with care were explored.

Strategies to Reduce Patient Harm From Infusion-Associated Medication Errors: A Scoping Review.

A scoping review of the literature examined strategies to prevent infusion-associated medication errors. Twenty articles were appraised and revealed studies using different research designs and types of literature reviews. Most were rated low quality.

Nursing center-Health Intervention Program in Philadelphia: Program evaluation and outcomes.

Background: The La Salle Neighborhood Nursing Center provided the Health Intervention Program (HIP) for vulnerable children with special needs, and families in Philadelphia challenged by chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, and emotional conditions and low incomes.

Aims: We evaluated the effectiveness of HIP for a 5-year period and the consistency of quarterly and annual reports as a quality improvement initiative.

Methods: Using program evaluation, secondary analysis design, the effect of a city-wide, family support home visiting program was assessed.

Medication Errors Involving the Intravenous Administration Route: Characteristics of Voluntarily Reported Medication Errors.

Characteristics of medication errors involving the intravenous (IV) route of administration were analyzed in reports from 1995 to 2013. This was accomplished through a voluntary medication error reporting program. A retrospective case study design analyzed reports by practitioners or consumers on IV-associated medication errors (N = 975) affecting patients.

Bathing Disability and Bathing Persons with Dementia.

Bathing disability, evidence of functional decline, predicts admission to long-term care facilities following acute care hospitalizations. Nurses are challenged to assess bathing disability in hospitalized older persons and those with dementia to support their maximal functional performance and implement diverse bathing strategies.

Community-based abstinence education project: program outcomes.

Problem: Middle school and adolescent populations demonstrate high rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, with young people in inner cities in the United States especially vulnerable. Teen births remain high, and youth are affected physically, mentally, socially, and economically.

Methods: The Sex After Marriage primary prevention program, a federally funded, community-based abstinence education (CBAE) initiative, was implemented for 3 years in Philadelphia neighborhoods with vulnerable youth 12 to 18 years of age, supporting adults, healthcare professionals, and the general public.

Nursing practice breakdowns: good and bad nursing.

Nurses' responsibility to provide good patient care is explored. Nursing practice breakdowns are examined, differentiating unintentional errors from intentional acts. Good and bad nursing care is portrayed through an emerging classification of intentional practice breakdowns.

Risk assessment profile and strategies for success instrument: determining prelicensure nursing students' risk for academic success.

The ultimate outcomes for succeeding in a collegiate prelicensure nursing program are earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and passing the NCLEX-RN®. The Risk Assessment Profile, Strategies for Success (RAPSS) is a criterion-based instrument that incorporates demographic and academic risk indicators. A convenience sample (N = 255) obtained retrospectively from student files was used to determine whether the RAPSS could be used to predict whether completers of a baccalaureate, prelicensure program will pass or fail the NCLEX-RN.

Locating nursing students' chronicles.

Analysis of students' stories and reflections has contributed to faculty members' knowledge of the student experience. Examining different sources of nursing students' narratives might lead to further understanding of what they think, feel, and perceive during their educational pursuits. Whereas some texts provide ample insights into student life, others are fragmentary or not recorded, evaluated, or systematically investigated.

Analyzing student complaints against nursing programs: taxonomies of complaints and outcomes.

National accrediting organizations require that complaints against nursing programs receive careful review consistent with policies, established systems, and continuous quality improvement approaches. Program administrators must manage complaints equitably and professionally so that the conduct of programs does not violate programs' and accrediting organizations' standards or procedures. This descriptive study analyzed a convenience sample (N = 98) of complaints submitted by undergraduate and graduate nursing students attending an urban, private university and by students' parents.

Development and testing of the patient safety test: current concepts.

To explore patient safety concepts applicable to clinical teaching in the current healthcare environment, the Patient Safety Test was created. Patient Safety Test assists nursing faculty members to assess their knowledge of safety and quality information. The authors discussed test development, implementation, and results.

Teaching baccalaureate nursing students in clinical settings: development and testing of the Clinical Teaching Knowledge Test.

Seasoned clinical teachers are in short supply and high demand. Although many nursing programs have developed orientation programs for new clinical teachers, many issues arise when students are assigned to health care and community agencies. This study developed and tested the Clinical Teaching Knowledge Test (CTKT), a 40-item multiple-choice test.

Nursing student medication errors involving tubing and catheters: a descriptive study.

This retrospective case study examined reports (N=27) of medication errors made by nursing students involving tubing and catheter misconnections. Characteristics of misconnection errors included attributes of events recorded on MEDMARX error reports of the United States Pharmacopeia. Two near miss errors or Category B errors (medication error occurred, did not reach patient) were identified, with 21 Category C medication errors (occurred, with no resulting patient harm), and four Category D errors (need for increased patient monitoring, no patient harm) reported.

Nurses' stories: discovering essential nursing.

Stories help nurses share their nursing culture. They reveal the nature of nursing work, including its challenges, uniqueness, and privileged place. Stories are worth telling and recording, not only to supply material for research but also to help nurses better understand their lives at work.

Clinical transition of baccalaureate nursing students during preceptored, pregraduation practicums.

Transition into the role of registered nurse after graduation from nursing education programs results in new nurses feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for the challenges of the workplace. The purpose of this triangulated, descriptive study was to describe the clinical transition experience of senior baccalaureate nursing students during pregraduation preceptored practicums, which took place three times per week for three weeks. Data were collected from student journal entries, liaison faculty, and clinical preceptors.