Standardized testing in nursing education: Preparing students for NCLEX-RN® and practice.

Standardized testing that predicts nursing student success accurately and identifies weak content areas has played a critical role in nursing education. Critics of such testing lament the harm of this type of testing, often misinterpreting common practices as well as overlooking all value. The goal of nursing school is to graduate competent professionals with adequate knowledge to practice safely, who can pass the NCLEX-RN® and gain employment.

A Review of Current Literature on Vital Sign Assessment of Physical Activity in Primary Care.

Purpose: To conduct an integrated review of the performance and implementation of two physical activity (PA) assessment tools, the exercise vital sign (EVS) and the physical activity vital sign (PAVS), in U.S. primary care practice.

Changes in Postmortem Identity and Grief.

This article reviews the concept of postmortem identity, noting its relationships to other concepts such as relational trauma. Identity is a very fluid concept that can change even after an individual's death as new information becomes available or even as social values change. Such modifications of postmortem identity can affect the course of bereavement-complication reactions to loss.

The Need for an Effective Process to Resolve Conflicts Over Medical Futility: A Case Study and Analysis.

The issue of medical futility requires a well-defined process in which both sides of the dispute can be heard and a resolution reached in a fair and ethical manner. Procedural approaches to medical futility cases provide all parties involved with a process-driven framework for resolving these disputes. Medical paternalism or the belief in the absolute rightness of the medical model will not serve to resolve these disputes.

Clarification and Mitigation of Ethical Problems Surrounding Withdrawal of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is temporary life-support technology that provides time to rest the cardiac and respiratory system of critically ill people with acute, reversible medical conditions. Health care providers face emotional and challenging situations, where death may result, when withdrawing ECMO. A deepening of understanding of the ethical issues involved can aid clinicians in handling such difficult situations, leading to a possible mitigation of the moral problems.

Building Relationship-Based Care Among Nurses: A Holistic, Exploratory Project.

In this exploratory project, efforts were made to strengthen a relationship-centered, caring milieu to improve communication among nursing staff and to help nurses identify and constructively resolve conflicts. Eighteen interactive workshops addressed communication patterns and helped participants identify causes of conflict, facilitate dialogue, improve collaboration, and resolve workplace conflict. The experiential workshops were analyzed with pre- and post-surveys.

HIV and smoking: associated risks and prevention strategies.

High rates of smoking among persons living with HIV (PLWH) may reduce the effectiveness of HIV treatment and contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. Factors associated with smoking in PLWH include mental health comorbidity, alcohol and drug use, health-related quality of life, smoking among social networks and supports, and lack of access to care. PLWH smokers are at a higher risk of numerous HIV-associated infections and non-HIV related morbidity, including a decreased response to antiretroviral treatment, impaired immune functioning, reduced cognitive functioning, decreased lung functioning, and cardiovascular disease.

Hannelore Wass: Death Education--An Enduring Legacy.

Hannelore Wass's enduring contribution to the field of thanatology focused on death education In addition to developing a journal initially focused on that topic, Wass also created one of the first text books in the field. This article explores the factors that caused death education to emerge in the late 1960s as well as issues that death education still faces as it continues to evolve.

The awareness of mortality: continuing Kastenbaum's developmental legacy.

Kastenbaum's work had a strong developmental perspective. In fact, one of his first pieces explored the ways that adolescents experienced death. This article continues Kastenbaum's developmental perspective by considering the ways that a personal sense of mortality generally develops in adulthood as mid-life adults face the deaths of parents and peers as well as the inevitable signs of senescence.

Does value congruence between nurses and supervisors effect job satisfaction and turnover?

Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of congruency of leadership support and value of patient outcomes between nurses and nurse managers and nurses' job satisfaction and turnover intent.

Background: Turnover most often has a negative effect on an organization. Leadership support and patient outcomes have been identified as important factors, but congruency has not been studied in great detail.

Meditations on the unitary rhythm of dying-grieving.

When someone faces loss of a loved one, that person simultaneously grieves and dies a little, just as the one dying also grieves. The author's personal conceptualization of dying and grieving as a unitary rhythm is explored based primarily on her interpretation of Rogers' science of unitary human beings, along with selected examples from related nursing literature and from the emerging focus on continuing bonds in other disciplines. Examples from contemporary songwriters that depict such a unitary conceptualization are given along with personal examples.

The organization of thanatology.

This article explores, using Wilensky's Model of Professionalization, the emergence of professional organizations within the thanatology. The authors review the history of four organizations--The Foundation of Thanatology, Ars Moriendi, The Forum for Death Education and Counseling (now the Association for Death Education and Counseling: A Thanatology Organization [ADEC]), and The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement (IWG). The authors speculate on some of the reasons that the first two failed while IWG and ADEC remain viable-while noting challenges that these remaining thanatological organizations will experience as they seek to continue to stay relevant.

Religion and spirituality: assessment and intervention.

In this article, the author explores the ways that an individual's spirituality influences responses to life-threatening illness and dying. He begins by differentiating between religion and spirituality, and then delineates the spiritual issues that arise in a life-threatening illness including the spiritual needs that arise in the final phases of illness. Recommendations for spiritual assessments and interventions are offered.

Consciousness, intentionality, and community: Unitary perspectives and research.

Consciousness and intentionality often have been related and studied together. These concepts also are readily viewed and understood for practice, research, and education in a unitary paradigm. How these ideas relate to community is less known.

Ericksonian hypnosis in chronic care support groups: a Rogerian exploration of power and self-defined health-promoting goals.

This Rogerian study examined how traditional and Ericksonian hypnotherapeutic support groups facilitated self-defined health-promoting goals and power as knowing participation in change for 49 participants with chronic physical illness. The participants were randomly assigned to either a traditional support group or an Ericksonian hypnotherapeutic support group. Measurements of power and self-defined health-promoting goals were obtained seven times over a 10-week period.

Grief: the constant companion of illness.

This article describes the grieving process. It begins by delineating the nature of grief, noting the ways that grief may be experienced in both sudden loss and in more protracted illness and then explores the nature and process of grief, reviewing current models and research on the experience of mourning. Finally, the discussion examines the research on caregiver grief, noting that grief in health care professionals is often disenfranchised, yet the holistic treatment of individuals with disease begins with an acknowledgment that loss is a constant companion to illness, for patients, families, and health care professionals alike.

Exploring parental grief: combining quantitative and qualitative measures.

Purpose: This study explores parental grief on the death of a child of any age.

Study Design: The sampling frame for the study consisted of 74 respondents reporting that they experienced the death of a living child. With the exception of standard demographic measures, the quantitative and qualitative items in the instrument were designed specifically for this project.

Growth and access increase for nursing students: a retention and progression project.

The Growth and Access Increase for Nursing Students (GAINS) Project was the first federally-funded initiative for the baccalaureate program. A project goal was to provide a program of support and resources for students successful completion of the program. The strategies included peer-tutoring, mentoring, advisement, prenursing experience seminars, and faculty development.