The purpose of this thesis is to explore the phenomenon of spiritual nurturing as experienced by students in their fourth-year of an undergraduate baccalaureate nursing education program in Canada, using van Manen’s (2002) approach to phenomenology. The goal of this study is to describe the lived experience of spiritual nurturing of fourth-year nursing students in order to reflect on how nursing students learn spiritual care. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with seven fourth-year nursing students and analyzed according to van Manen’s interpretive approach. Three themes of spiritual nurturing emerged: spiritual nurturing as exchanging energy (spirituality as relationship with others), spiritual nurturing as recharging energy (spirituality as relationship with self), and spiritual nurturing as receiving energy (spirituality as relationship with transcending). Spiritual nurturing as it applies to nursing education, nursing practice, administration of nursing programs and nursing research are discussed from the students’ perspectives. / vii, 142 leaves : ill. (col. ill.) ; 29 cm

What strategies are effective for clinical nurse instructors to use in developing critical thinking in student nurses? Many clinical strategies have been discussed in, literature, but only a few have been verified through research as to their usefulness.This study used the qualitative research methodology of multiple case studies. Participants were six clinical nurse instructors. Nursing experience ranged from 17-27 years, teaching experience involved 2-24 years. Four instructors had doctorates, one nurse had a masters degree, and the sixth nurse lacked two courses before completing a masters degree. The six instructors were from five areas of nursing: medical/surgical (beginning and intermediate level), maternity, mental health, community health and management.Each instructor was interviewed three times during the same semester, approximately two weeks apart. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Spradley's (1979) domain and taxonomic analyses were used to analyze the data.Data analysis showed that some strategies were used by all instructors, with adaptations made for the specialty. The strategies used by all instructors were questioning, nursing care plans and clinical conferences. More than one instructor used student journals, teaching projects, research articles, milieu assessments, and case studies/scenarios.This research strongly supported the use of questioning to help the student progress in critical thinking. Contrary to some research, the present research found that questioning by the instructors was not detached but was situated in the client setting which helped the student synthesize facts into a whole. The research identified many questions used by the clinical nurse instructors.Instructors identified their role in assisting students toward critical thinking as helper, facilitator, coach and guide. Instructors also identified the following characteristics as necessary to help students: caring attitude, creativity, perseverance, knowledgeable, listener, encourager and learning attitude. The instructors motivated students as they progressed in critical thinking through verbal and nonverbal rewards. Students gained self-confidence as they experienced success in their journey towards critical thinking. Implications for nursing practice are provided. The importance of this research lies in the rich depth of discovering how these strategies, roles, characteristics, and motivators assist nursing students in developing critical thinking skills in different clinical settings.2 / Department of Educational Leadership

The problem in this investigation is retention of nursing students. The purpose is to identify, describe, and analyze existing relationships between satisfaction with college, academic achievement, and goal commitment for nursing majors in a baccalaureate nursing program that has high retention. Data were collected using two survey instruments and student grade-point averages.

M.Cur. (Psychiatric Nursing) / Caring for intellectually disabled people can be demanding for student nurses who are still novices in the profession. To ensure optimal nursing care is received, student nurses must have both an understanding of and a positive attitude towards intellectually disabled people. Nursing intellectually disabled people is a challenge that can have an impact on a person‟s body, mind and spirit therefore, student nurses need to have the ability to deal with stressful situations and environments. Student nurses need to be prepared to care for patients with long-term challenges, such as intellectual disabilities. These patients require a caring relationship that facilitates an enhanced awareness of life and health experiences. The caring relationship also facilitates health and healing processes as it involves the authentic and genuine needs of patients. This research aimed to explore and describe lived experiences of student nurses caring for intellectually disabled people in a public psychiatric institution, and to formulate guidelines for the facilitation of mental health of these student nurses. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews, focusing on the question “How was it for you to be working at this institution?” Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data and a consensus discussion was held with the independent coder. Ten participants were interviewed and five, who were not comfortable with interviews, wrote naïve sketches. Trustworthiness was assured by adhering to Lincoln and Guba‟s principles, that is, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Four ethical principles were demonstrated throughout the research namely, principles of respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. Three themes emerged from the data. Firstly, student nurses experience a profound unsettling impact on their wholistic being when caring for intellectually disabled people. iv Secondly, they develop a sense of compassion and a new way of looking at life, and lastly they require certain educational, emotional and spiritual needs to be met. Guidelines were formulated to facilitate the mental health of student nurses caring for intellectually disabled people in a public psychiatric institution.

A review was made of research concerning medical students, nursing students, physicians and nurses with special focus on the physician-nurse relationship. Research was carried out to investigate medical and nursing students' concepts of self, ideal self (as physician/nurse), typical work partner and ideal work partner.

The use of simulation as a clinical learning activity is growing in nursing programs across the country. Using simulation, educators can provide students with a realistic patient situation using mannequins or actors as patients in a simulated environment. Students can practice multiple aspects of patient care without the risk of making mistakes with real patients, and faculty can reinforce course objectives and evaluate student learning. Because of the technology, the environment, and the methods by which simulation is implemented, it may cause anxiety in learners, which may interfere with the learning process. Anxious students may miss an opportunity for learning valuable aspects of nursing care that are reinforced in simulation. This paper will describe a study of the student perspective on simulation, particularly related to the anxiety experienced by many learners. Nursing students in a baccalaureate program who participate in simulation in their clinical courses were recruited for the study, which consisted of a survey and a focus group. Participants were asked to rate nineteen aspects of simulation in regards to the feelings they elicit, from confidence to anxiety. The survey, completed by 73 of the 178 eligible participants, also included open-ended questions in which students could elaborate on their responses. A focus group was held after the survey, during which nine volunteer participants were asked further questions about their feelings and reactions in simulation, specifically as related to their effect on learning. During a facilitated discussion, they also offered suggestions for interventions that they believed would decrease their anxiety and improve the learning environment in simulation. After an analysis of the data, a "comfort-stretch-panic" model (Palethorpe & Wilson, 2011) emerged as a useful framework for understanding the student perspective. Students in the "stretch" zone, in which they perceived a manageable amount of stress, were motivated to perform and experienced optimal learning from the simulation session. The student suggestions for interventions which would aid their learning may be useful for transitioning them into the "stretch" zone, and should be considered as potential tools in simulation practice.

This investigation concerned the effect of nurse educator/nursing student learning style match on the latter's problem solving ability. Problem solving ability was defined as the processes of finding facts, problems, ideas, solutions and their acceptance in other than past experience, tradition and habit. The underlying conceptual framework was Kolb's holistic model of experiential learning which combines experience, perception, cognition and behavior. The model has vertical and horizontal axes resulting in four quadrants or kinds of learners: diverger, assimilator, converger and accommodator. Instruments used were Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and Gover's Nursing Performance Simulation Instrument.

The purposes of this study were to describe perceived health problems and perceived stress and examine the relationship between perceived health problems and perceived stress in nursing students in five small religiously affiliated colleges with schools of nursing in Indiana.The Neuman Systems Model (Neuman, 1989) was the theoretical framework for the study. Health problems were examined using the Health Problems Inventory (Jones, L. H., 1988) and stress was measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983).Findings included a moderate level of perceived health problems and a moderate level of perceived stress for the 150 study participants. The relationship between perceived health problems and perceived stress was strongly positive at a significant level (r= .69, p< .001). These findings were consistent with other studies that showed a relationship between stress and health problems in college students. These findings support Neuman's model of the effect of stressors on the system (disrupting the stability).Conclusions were that there is a level of stress that is unmanaged and perceived health problems which may be interfering with the students' education. The study findings have implications for students, nursing faculty, and those who provide health care to college students. Implications are organized into Neuman's three modes of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Implications included assessment of students to determine the presence of stress, stress management education for students, alerting nursing faculty and health care providers to the health problems identified by students, and increasing faculty awareness concerning the stressful nature of nursing school. / School of Nursing

Three hundred and eight nurse educators, who teach in NLN Accredited Bachelor of Science in Nursing Programs in the Midwest, were requested to complete a three-page survey concerning their perceptions and practices concerning student stress. The study demonstrated that nurse educators, in this study, were aware of the level of stress among students who were pursuing undergraduate degrees in nursing. The study found that most nurse educators understood that the sources of stress were a combination of the many roles and responsibilities of students. They were aware that most students needed services/interventions to assist them in coping with stress. Most nurse educators thought that they were responsible, to some degree, for intervening to assist students in decreasing their stress level. However, they expressed frustration at their attempts to help students. They indicated that many of the sources of stress were not within faculty control and that there was low participation when services/interventions were offered. Finally, the study found that most nurse educators thought that stress management for nursing students was included in the nursing curriculum. However, very little time was actually spent on stress management in the nursing program. Nurse educators indicated that they relied on other institutional services/interventions to provide stress management skills. However, many nurse educators indicated that they were willing to make changes to assist students. Nurse educators need to reconsider the amount of time that is spent facilitating students in reducing stress and helping them build coping skills that will continue to help them become competent nurses. Given the predicted nursing shortage that is estimated to last until 2020, the low application rate to nursing school, and the graying of America, it would seem prudent that nurse educators assist students who are in nursing programs become successful. The health of our nation may be at stake. The task for nurse educators is to help students recognize the signs of stress, understand the effects that unmanaged stress can produce, and teach the techniques that students can use in coping with stress. / Department of Educational Leadership

Two major purposes existed for this study. The first purpose was to compare how persisters and nonpersisters in the first year of a two-year nursing program differed in locus of control, selected personality traits, and seven demographic variables. The second major purpose was to develop a predictive model for the persisters and the nonpersisters. The particular personality variables examined were intelligence, superego strength, extraversion, anxiety, tough poise, and independence as measured by the 16PF. The summary findings were that persisters had significantly higher scores on the NDRT and the B and G traits, significantly lower externality, and were generally younger with no previous nursing experience, and more likely not to have prekindergarten age children than the nonpersisters. The major significance of this research comes from its use of data gathered at the beginning of an educational program to make predictions which can be available to teachers, counselors, and administrators who may make use of the information to improve the chance potential nonpersisters have of completing the nursing program, or perhaps to assist students in reexamination of their career choice.