<p>Death is perhaps the most paramount loss an individual can experience. Many faculty, administrators, and students do not anticipate the sudden death of a student or classmate; however it is estimated that approximately 30 to 40 percent of college students experience the death of a family member or friend within two years on campus. Despite these astounding statistics, the topics of student death, grief, and bereavement are rarely discussed in faculty development workshops or addressed in nursing education journals. Much research has been devoted to end of life care among practicing nurses. Conversely, there is scant nursing research pertaining to the personal experiences and grief reactions following the loss of a friend or nursing classmate. </p><p> The aim of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the grief experiences, coping strategies, and reactions of traditional college age baccalaureate nursing students following the unanticipated, sudden death of a classmate. Purposive sampling yielded nine participants from four universities who experienced the death of their classmate within the previous nine months. The source of qualitative data included a demographic questionnaire and in-depth interviews with each participant. Interviews were digitally recorded, and verbatim transcriptions were analyzed utilizing the seven-step Colaizzi&rsquo;s (1978) method. Nine major themes emerged: 1) emotional pain of grief, 2) struggling with the reality of death, 3) void in life &ldquo;empty desk&rdquo;, 4) university and departmental responsiveness, 5) connecting with the deceased, 6) bond of comfort and unity, 7) coping and support structures, 8) linger/dwell versus moving on, and 9) grief as a nurse. </p><p> Findings of this study support contemporary models of grief and bereavement and previous research related to peer grief. However, unique aspects of grief emerged for the nursing student. The participants reflected on their emotional struggle with grief amidst the walls of academia, acknowledging they are in a helping profession and &ldquo;we cannot even help one of our own.&rdquo; This study yielded a rich understanding of the grief experience of nursing students, while providing insights for policy development and supportive interventions for nursing faculty and college administrators. </p><p> <i>Keywords</i>: nursing education, grief and loss, bereavement, nursing student, peer grief, sudden death </p>

<p> Sexual activity among unmarried adolescents is a major public health problem in Nigeria, because unmarried pregnant girls are more likely to have multiple sex partners and are less likely to use contraceptives, putting them at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD), unplanned pregnancy, abortion, social isolation, and poverty. Teen pregnancy and STD rates are on the rise in Nigeria, yet few data exist on the experience of the adolescents themselves. This phenomenological study was designed to explore the in-depth experiences of 10 pregnant, unmarried adolescent girls aged 16-19, including the factors contributing to their sexual activity. An ecological model served as the conceptual framework to permit individual experiences to be understood in their social and ecological context. Semistructured interviews and Hycner's method of analysis were used to collect and analyze the data. Results showed that the decision to initiate sexual activity among these girls was influenced by many factors, including: the need for financial support and a socially condoned system of "sugar daddies" who support girls in return for sex; peer pressure to have a sex partner; a romantic knowledge of sexual behavior based primarily on the mass media; and inadequate sex education. As a result of their pregnancy, the girls experienced negative reactions from their families and community, and serious psychological and financial concerns about their prospects for future marriage and their child's identity. A comprehensive community-based reproductive health program is called for, with reliable sex education, cooperation from the mass media, and support from family and community members. The social change implication of this study is to potentially lead to a decrease in unplanned pregnancy, STDs, social isolation, and poverty among adolescent girls in Nigeria.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant for an HIV/AIDS education programs for older Asian and Pacific Islander (API) adults. An extensive literature review was performed to investigate the need for HIV/AIDS prevention services and to expose barriers to the utilization of such services. </p><p> The proposed program will be held at AltaMed in El Monte, California, where there is a large diverse and underserved API population. The objectives include (1) increased knowledge of services, (2) increased knowledge of HIV/AIDS and the need for safe sex, and (3) empowerment to communicate about sexual matters with health care providers. By providing multilingual education programs, it is hope that the spread of HIV/AIDS will diminish among older API adults. The submission of this grant was not a requirement for the thesis project. </p>

<p> <b>Context</b>: Entry-level athletic trainers enter the workforce with the skills taught to them by athletic training programs (ATPs) using the Competencies developed by our accrediting body. </p><p> <b>Objective</b>: These competencies are developed using data collected from athletic trainers in the field with no input from the consumers of athletic training services. </p><p> <b>Design</b>: This study used a 3-round Delphi questionnaire. </p><p> <b>Setting</b>: Secondary schools located South Louisiana. </p><p> <b>Participants</b>: Six experts in the field of athletic training. </p><p> <b>Data Collection and Analysis</b>: In round 1, participants were first asked to identify individual skills within predetermined skill categories created from the Competencies and existing research. In rounds 2 and 3, participants ranked and rated their responses from round 1. Using Delphi methodology with qualitative and quantitative analysis, a Duty-Task List (DTL) was created from the data, which identified the essential skills for entry-level athletic trainers. </p><p> <b>Results</b>: Ranking of the skill categories produced four tiers, the top tier consisting of skill categories developed from the Competencies. The bottom tier consisted of two items, both from the Competencies: use of evidence-based medicine in practice and therapeutic interventions. Data further revealed communication, its many different forms, was the most important individual skill for entry-level athletic trainers. </p><p> <b>Conclusions</b>: The Delphi methodology used in this study was once again shown to be as effective as DACUM in producing an industry-supported DTL. In doing so, the participants gave a clear conceptualization of the essential skills needed as an entry-level athletic trainer, while also identifying some skills missing from the Competencies. Consideration should be given to the consumers of athletic training services when the next version of the Competencies is created. The athletic trainers on the panel consistently ranked higher skill categories from the Competencies, while the administrators on the panel ranked the non-competency skill categories higher. Additionally, there is still some resistance to increased use evidence in practice, which may be further proof of the chasm between what is considered desirable by clinical setting athletic trainers and academic setting athletic trainers.</p>

<p> Physical therapists are licensed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The State Board of Physical Therapy within each state regulates licensure and the majority of the states mandate continuing professional education (CPE) as a requirement for renewal. In Pennsylvania, the practice act was amended on July 4, 2008 requiring physical therapists to complete 30 hours of CPE during each biennial renewal period. This new act became effective December 22, 2012 with the first cycle beginning on January 1, 2013. </p><p> Many physical therapists express challenges in acquiring CPE indicating barriers such as stress with caseload size, travel to courses from rural locations, time restraints and commitments to family and work. Distance education (DE), defined as the application of communications and electronic devices that enable students to receive instruction from a distant location, may offer flexibility in CPE for physical therapists. </p><p> This study investigated the use and adoption of DE to meet continuing education requirements by physical therapists using an adapted survey. Email invitations with an anonymous link to the survey were sent to 2047 Pennsylvania physical therapists and a total of 361 completed online surveys were attained. </p><p> 57% of the subjects reported incorporating some form of DE into their 30 required CPE hours over the last 24 months. On average, 12.25 of the 30 required CPE hours were completed through DE. The most frequent type of DE used by the subjects was Internet/World Wide Web, followed closely by print. When evaluating the innovation-decision process, subjects considered course content, quality and applicability of the information first, and time away from work or home last. The most commonly used provider of DE is a national professional organization. Those subjects that report using distance education confirm that their distance education experience was positive and believe that their CE experience will be positive in the future. </p><p> Using Rogers's method to determine rate of adoption, it appears that Pennsylvania physical therapists are already adopting DE. The results of this study indicate that, DE has good relative advantage, good compatibility, good observability and no evidence of complexity.</p>

<p>Researchers have developed strategies used in nursing programs to promote cultural awareness (Hunter &amp; Krantz, 2010). Minimal research has focused on the graduating associate degree-nursing students to determine if a relationship existed between the use of an integrated cultural curriculum and the nursing student&rsquo;s level of cultural awareness (Kardong-Edgren &amp; Campinha-Bacote, 2008, Sealey, Burnett, &amp; Johnson, 2006). The associate degree-nursing program accreditation, statistical, and benchmark reports mandated the integration of diversity content, local, national, and worldwide perspectives in the curricula (NLN, 2008). Additionally societal and cultural patterns must be integrated across the entire nursing school curricula (Board of Registered Nursing, 2012, section 1426-e7). A correlational approach was implemented to determine if relationships existed between the integrated cultural curriculum and level of cultural awareness in graduating associate degree nursing students in a large metropolitan area, such as in Los Angeles (Sealey et al., 2006). The Cultural Awareness Scale (CAS) was used to survey the participants. Based on the findings of the 51 participants surveyed in this study, the cultural awareness level may be attributed to several factors, including the integrated cultural curricula. The nursing student&rsquo;s learning style, perception of faculty, personal experiences, and cultural encounters may also contribute to the cultural awareness level. Analysis of variance results revealed no statistically significant difference on the CAS total or subscale scores based on gender, age, and ethnicity. The outcome of this study may encourage academic affairs leaders to emphasize cultural awareness as a significant student-learning outcome for nursing educational programs. </p>

<p>Nurse educator perspectives about knowledge, awareness, skills, and attitudes regarding documentation, as a component of health information technology can offer important data on the links between achieving safe and quality patient outcomes. A classic grounded theory approach was used to explore nurse educator faculty perceptions of issues and strategies related to teaching effective patient care documentation. The current problem with teaching nursing documentation among nurse educators surfaced during the interviews with nurse educators and the specific problem was identified in the study from the views of study participants. This study included two main purposes: (a) to explicate the issues and strategies of nurse educators teaching of nursing documentation while transitioning from paper-based to an electronic health record format, and (b) to generate an explanatory theory of teaching nursing documentation and its negative or positive influences of student learning of the competency. In-depth interviews with observation were conducted among sixteen nurse educators from a baccalaureate nursing program. A grounded theory of internalizing accountability emerged as the core variable/core category through classic grounded theory data collection and analysis in a simultaneous fashion. Four sub-categories and components also emerged and include (a) progressing levels, (b) reflecting on conflicting roles of nurse educators, (c) accepting transitioning, and (d) engaging and empowering through leadership. As a result of the analysis of the study findings, conclusions in this study filled the current gap in the literature through development of a new theory of internalizing accountability with future use in undergraduate and graduate nursing education. </p>

Physical Education (PE) includes the development of knowledge and positive attitudes toward physical activity. Regular physical activity participation during childhood and adolescence has many beneficial effects on health. The purpose of the study was (a) to describe student physical activity level, lesson context and teacher behavior, (b) to determine the relationships among physical activity, lesson context and teacher behavior, (c) to investigate the differences among these variables in public and private schools. Nineteen PE teachers from public and private schools in Ankara participated to the study. For data collection, 6th, 7th and 8th, (n=144) grade elementary school students were observed systematically by using SOFIT during 36 lessons. Results showed that students were spending little time in moderate to vigorous physical activity and they were generally standing or sitting in PE lesson. During the active time, they were generally practicing skill in both public and private schools. Teachers spent majority of lesson time on providing instruction for skill practice. However, teachers did not spend time on fitness knowledge and promotion of fitness in PE lessons. The findings of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between student activity level, lesson context and teacher behavior variables. PE teachers in public schools had higher scores of demonstration but teachers in private schools had higher scores of observation. In addition, there were no significant differences in lesson context variable between schools. Physical Education classes require active participation of students for skill and fitness development. However this study indicated that although students were practicing some forms of skills, there were not spending time on fitness development and fitness promotion during classes. Provision of in service training for teachers and revision in PE teachers&rsquo / education curriculum might be needed to improve the health-related physical activity levels and knowledge of adults of future.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2243. Adviser: Cara A. Finnegan. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 281-303) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 1834. Adviser: William L. Yarber. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2008)."