Healthcare teams can implement care initiatives to promote a positive dying experience. However, there is a lack of knowledge related to how best to care for dying patients. Nurses do not receive extensive training in nursing school to care for patients at the end of life, yet most, at some point in their careers, experience the provision of this type of care. It is important to ensure that nurses caring for dying patients have been educated about end-of-life care. The purpose of the quality improvement project was to address the lack of end-of-life care education among critical care nurses in an acute care hospital by implementing and testing the effectiveness of an end-of-life care educational program. Kolcaba's theory of comfort was chosen as the theoretical framework for the project. Registered nurses (n = 34) employed on a critical care unit participated in the one-group pretest/posttest design project. The nurses completed the Healthstream online end-of-life care education, and knowledge improvement was determined through comparison of pretest and posttest scores. Descriptive tests were completed to determine the mean score. The descriptive data analysis and tests showed that participants' level of end-of-life care knowledge improved after they completed the formalized educational program. Participants' scores increased from pretest (68% to 100% correct answers) to posttest (93% to 100% correct answers). The primary populations benefiting from the project are nurses, dying patients, and family members of dying patients. The social change implication of the findings is that if nurses receive education on end-of-life nursing, increased knowledge of appropriate care for dying patients is expected.

The researcher designed this quantitative dissertation research to explore the perceptions of beginning nursing students toward professionalism in nursing, specific to professional values within the context of curriculum delivery for a leadership and management course in one baccalaureate nursing program. In addition, the researcher reviewed the literature for defining characteristics of professionalism in nursing. Adult students admitted to nursing programs today create multi-generational cohorts with prior learning from experiences and academic degrees in other disciplines. Often, content on professionalism in nursing is integrated in a nursing curriculum. However, students in a leadership and management course were unable to state the meaning of professionalism in nursing shortly before graduation. This study focused on professional values based on the nursing code of ethics as one attribute of the complex concept of professionalism. This exploratory study analyzed responses of students prior to beginning nursing courses to the Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R) survey. Findings indicated that beginning student perceptions of professionalism in nursing specific to professional values were generally in alignment with nursing standards. Significant findings suggested a lack of alignment to professional standards under the themes of trust, activism, caring and professionalism through autonomous practice, self-regulation, and participation professional activities positively associated to five variables. Recommendations are made for enhancing curriculum design of leadership and management in nursing content to address these areas.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Simulation is an educational strategy used in prelicensure nursing education that has been demonstrated to effectively replace selected clinical experiences. Simulation experiences may include the use of differing roles including the active participant, who makes decisions during the simulation and the passive observer, who watches the simulation unfold. There is a lack of rigorous research testing whether students in the passive observer role during simulations demonstrate and retain knowledge similarly to those in active participant roles. In addition, differences in knowledge applied to a contextually similar case between those who actively participate and passively observe have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between nursing student’s roles in simulation and cognitive knowledge demonstration, retention, and application about two contextually similar cases of respiratory distress. An experimental, pretest-multiple posttest, repeated measures study was conducted with a convenience sample of 119 baccalaureate prelicensure nursing students from a large multi-campus Southwestern university. Two knowledge instruments were administered throughout different stages of the simulation and four weeks later. Associations between role in simulation and scores on the knowledge instruments were examined using t-tests and mixed repeated measures-analysis of variance. Of the 59 active participants and 60 observers, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated or retained after simulation, after debriefing, or four weeks later. Additionally, there were no significant differences in knowledge demonstrated when applied to a contextually similar case after debriefing or four weeks later between active participant and observer. Future research is needed to examine these relationships in larger and more diverse samples and different contextual clinical situations in simulation. These results will contribute to the further testing and implementation of using observation as a strategy for teaching and learning with simulation for nursing and health professions education.

This study evaluates the application of an eye tracking device in nursing education. An experiment is designed to test the effectiveness of the eye tracking device used as a tool for providing instructional feedback in error identification and recovery by nursing students undertaking tasks in a simulated clinical setting. This experiment is performed on three groups of nursing students. In the first phase, all groups are tested in a simulated clinical scenario and their eye movements are recorded using an eye tracking device. In the second phase, the evaluation only group (control group) gets instructors’ feedback regarding their performance without referring back to the eye tracker record. The eye tracker only group (experimental group A) is provided with a video of their eye movements which was recorded during their first simulated exercise, but receives no feedback from the instructors. The combined group (experimental group B) is provided with both instructors’ evaluations and their eye movement video. Finally, in the last phase, all the groups are tested once again in the simulated clinical settings. Their performance is observed and compared to determine their relative improvements. Based on these improvements, it will be possible to determine whether an eye tracking device by itself or in combination with evaluation serves as a helpful instructional source during nursing education.

Approachability of nursing clinical instructors is largely unknown and misunderstood, yet critical for millennial students which currently comprise 82% of nursing students (National League for Nursing, 2014). Nursing education consists of both a didactic and a clinical component. Clinical education is dynamic and allows the student an experiential learning opportunity. Therefore, clinical nursing educators are vitally important. Approachability has been identified in many studies as a leading characteristic of an effective instructor. Although the importance of approachability of the instructor is established, currently no scale exists to measure this concept. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the newly developed Approachability of Nursing Clinical Instructor (ANCI) scale. Based on the results of this study, the newly developed ANCI scale meets all four aspects of validity (face, content, construct and criterion-related) and reliability is established. The confirmatory analysis indicated a one-factor scale with 56.102 of the variance explained. There are multiple future recommendations for the ANCI scale which include further psychometric testing the new scale, potential theory testing, education and screening of new clinical instructors and expanding the ANCI within nursing and to other disciplines.

Engaging students in class when first-hand experience is not available is challenging. Three teaching strategies, flipped classroom, a guest speaker, and technology, engaged students during a global health class. Students were given a graded preclass assignment, which was used to guide the class session when an expert physician from Zambia joined us using technology. On the day of class, students were engaged and asked questions of the physician related to global health and culture. Combining the three strategies was an innovative and effective way to engage students, with many sharing with faculty that this was their favorite class day.

Nursing educators have struggled for many years with the problem of student attrition in the minority population. Because there are so few minority students who choose nursing as a profession, educators strive to retain these students to graduation. Unfortunately, attrition rates of minority students continue to rise despite years of research into the problem. The majority of this research approaches the issue from the viewpoint of the failing student. What might happen if nursing research took a positive approach to the issue? The purpose of this study was to describe the influencing factors that led minority nursing students to be successful in a predominantly Caucasian prelicensure nursing program. The researcher sought to describe the influencing factors that led to success for minority students who attended a predominantly Caucasian nursing program. Seven minority students from a medium-sized community college were interviewed for the study. The findings of this study reflect a need for minority students to have strong family support while in school. They must also possess a strong work ethic and determination to succeed despite obstacles that may be detrimental to less motivated students. It is hoped that by describing the stories of successful minority nursing students through a qualitative descriptive lens, nursing education researchers and nursing faculty can use the information to develop positive strategies and interventions that will contribute to the success of future minority nursing students.

This study addressed the use of simulation as an adjunct to experiential learning in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived needs of faculty required for successful incorporation of simulation in nursing curricula in associate degree nursing programs in the southern region of the United States. This study further explored experienced nursing faculty perceptions regarding how simulation can enhance or supplement specific components required in nursing curricula. The population was a convenience sample of faculty members teaching in public funded NLNAC accredited associate degree nursing programs in the southern region of the United States. Data were collected using the Barriers to Simulation Utilization scale, a demographic questionnaire, and a researcher developed question exploring the current use and perceived acceptable use of simulation in associate degree education. This study found that associate degree nursing faculty in the southern region of the United States perceive that adopter/innovation and organization/communication factors are facilitators of simulation. Organizational support, adequate training, faculty workload consideration, and the use of a technology or simulation coordinator were identified as factors that may facilitate the use of simulation in associate degree programs. Components of nursing curriculum were identified that could be taught using simulation. The results of this study are consistent with others and add to the body of knowledge related to faculty needs for successful incorporation of simulation in nursing curricula.

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