A review of the literature on care of clients in pain who are culturally diverse.

Aim: This article reviews the literature on the care of clients from diverse cultures who are in pain and provides strategies for care.

Background: Pain is a critical concept for caring for clients and particularly for clients from another culture. Culture shapes the values, beliefs, norms, and practices of individuals, including the ways persons react to pain.

Guidelines for citing multiple authors.

Authors who write with others often encounter author-citation problems. Who should be and who should not be listed as an author? When is acknowledgment rather than authorship appropriate? Should the most well-known person always be listed first? How should faculty who help students publish be listed? This experienced author, coauthor, reviewer, and editor, provides answers to these questions.

Storytelling as a teaching technique.

For centuries storytelling has been used a powerful communication vehicle. It is also useful in nursing education to enhance self-esteem, develop critical thinking, model behaviors, and to teach cultural sensitivity and communication skills. The authors discuss the use of storytelling in the nursing literature and in a nursing course.

Strategies to decrease medication errors.

Medication errors present a significant hazard to patient safety and have been increasingly in the news as studies correlate the nursing shortage and patient death. This article discusses strategies to decrease medication errors and increase patient safety during medication administration.

Talking to high school students about a career in nursing: a "how we did it" story.

The nursing shortage is deepening in the United States. This requires strategies that will reach yet untapped sources of potential students and increase interest in students that are not yet committed to a career path. Targeting middle school and early high school students with presentations on nursing can influence them to select a career with exciting opportunities that they may not have considered.

Tips for manuscript reviewers.

This article provides recommendations for new and experienced reviewers based on the authors' experiences as editors, authors, and peer reviewers. By adherence to the techniques below, reviewers can make positive contributions to the professional community in addition to improving their personal publication, reviewing, and writing skills.

Using role play to develop cultural competence.

Role play is a useful teaching strategy for nursing education. This strategy can simulate patient behaviors, as well as demonstrate nursing interventions that students must learn to be clinically competent. Role play is a dramatic technique that encourages participation to improvise behaviors that may be encountered in nurse-patient situations.

When your memory malfunctions: implications for the manager.

Individuals have long been fascinated with memory and its imperfections. Recent research in memory provides information that can enable the manager to better understand memory and know what to do when a healthy brain malfunctions. This article describes Schacter's seven brain malfunctions-transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence-and relates them to managerial strategies.

The theory of critical thinking of nursing.

Critical thinking is a thought process used by nurses for clinical decision-making. This descriptive correlational study focused on the relationships among critical thinking, decision-making, and clinical nursing expertise during a clinical simulation. A midrange theory, developed from Benner (1) and Paul (2), states that as novice nurses become experts and develop clinical expertise through experience and the acquisition of knowledge, critical thinking is developed and used for clinical decision-making.

"The best thing about the hospitalization was that the nurses kept me well informed" Issues and strategies of client education.

The patient had been in an automobile accident and was recuperating from a brain concussion. He was scheduled for 24 h of evaluative procedures to rule out injuries which might require surgery. He had been on a back board for a possible spine injury, had a variety of X-rays, blood work, and an EKG, and had been given oxygen, medication by injection, and intravenous fluid and medication through a pump.

"Trading bickering for teamwork".

Bickering is an unpleasant phenomena found wherever groups of people congregate. Bickering on a health care team such as that found in the nurse department can create a negative environment and poor morale. The nurse manager should take responsibility for action which can deter this type of behavior and should visibly lead the staff to more productive interactions.

Termination--an important concept for nursing in long-term care.

The impending loss a staff has at the termination of a one-to-one relationship with a resident in long-term care may provoke deep feelings of grief and sadness in both the staff members involved and the resident in the case of a resident who leaves for other agency or unit. In some cases termination may result in use of defense mechanism including anger and openly hostile comment which may be displaced toward other staff or resident. Nurses need to prepare staff, particularly, novice staff, to handle these feelings in residents as well as understanding their own personal reactions at the loss of a resident.

"Culture matters for the patient in pain".

It is important for each nurse to be alert for not only individuals who are experiencing pain but also the impact that cultural phenomena may have on the way pain is experienced, expressed, and the assistance that is desired. The Giger-Davidhizar Transcultural assessment model provides a model for assisting in the assessment of pain. It is only by consideration for cultural phenomena that culturally appropriate care can be delivered.

Duplicate publication Part 1. Consideration of the issues.

Although duplicate publication is a significant problem for the nursing community, it can be prevented by teamwork between the author and editor.

Understanding the members of your health care "gang:" seekers and cruisers.

Managers are challenged by diverse characteristics of persons belonging to certain groups. This paper outlines characteristics of "cruisers" and "seekers" and managerial strategies for responding to these characteristics for leadership effectiveness.

Strategies for effective confrontation.

Radiology managers who confront staff members in an appropriate manner leave no doubt about their expectations. They demand excellent and consistent performance and do not settle for less. A radiology manager who uses confrontation shows that he or she cares enough about the staff to challenge poor performance.

Creating a professional image in the laboratory.

Professional image is important for all members of the health-care team, including laboratory technicians. The image of individual members not only makes a statement about the competency of the team and the self-regard of its members, but also speaks of the way the individual represents the profession. Dexterity and skill, appearance and dress, and skills in communication all contribute to the impression a patient will have of the services received and the public image of the health-care agency.

Assessing culturally diverse pediatric clients.

For many pediatric nurses, providing culturally sensitive care among children of diverse backgrounds is frustrating and time-consuming because elements of cultural care theory were not assimilated into their educational programs. Using a transcultural model developed by Giger and Davidhizar (1995), pediatric nurses can now integrate a holistic and efficient assessment into the child's treatment plan. Essential health beliefs and practices are synthesized into the model's six components to assist the pediatric nurse in providing culturally appropriate care.

The persuasive administrator.

The art of being persuasive involves use of selected persuasive techniques appropriate to the individual and situation. Persuasive techniques are powerful tools of communication and productivity. Effective use of persuasive techniques can provide motivation to others and can mobilize them toward action that you, as an administrator, desire.

Responding to the cultural and spiritual needs of clients.

Spirituality has been central to nursing practice since the time of Florence Nightingale although for many years spiritual care has fallen into disuse. With the increasing movement toward holistic nursing care within a multicultural community, the need to integrate cultural sensitivity with spirituality has become essential. By incorporating spirituality and cultural dimensions into the plan of care, nurses can more holistically provide efficient and quality care within both the hospital and community environment.