The increasingly complex role of a nurse requires a much higher level of critical thinking and clinical judgment skills than in the past. Opportunities to provide critical thinking experiences in clinical settings are challenged by various factors, including limited clinical facilities and a shortage of nurse faculty. Alternative methods to provide critical thinking experiences in undergraduate...

AIM The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument with rigorous psychometric properties to comprehensively measure nursing student satisfaction and to identify areas for nursing program enhancement. BACKGROUND Measures of program quality are frequently designed to demonstrate to professional groups that the educational program will prepare graduates for success in a rapidly changing ...

CONTEXT Despite unambiguous legal regulation and evidence for lack of effectiveness and safety, physical restraints are still frequently administered in nursing homes. OBJECTIVE To reduce physical restraint prevalence in nursing homes using a guideline- and theory-based multicomponent intervention. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cluster randomized controlled trial of 6 months' duration c...

PURPOSE Effective transitional care is needed to improve the quality of life in older adult patients with chronic illness and avoid discontinuity of care and adverse events. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the key features, broader implications, and the utility of Meleis' transition theory intended for the transitional care of older adults with chronic illnesses. We present...

The debate over what actually constitutes nursing has raged fiercely for years. Traditionally, the influence of the medical hegemony has had a profound effect on nursing’s development (1), promoting a traditionalist, positivist approach to its future. This has fuelled the idea of nursing as science, and heavily influenced early research methods in nursing, which adopted primarily an empirical, ...

Comfort is a term that has a significant historical and contemporary association with nursing. Since the time of Nightingale, it is cited as designating a desirable outcome of nursing care. Comfort is found in nursing science, for example in diagnostic taxonomies, and in references to the art of nursing, as when practice is described. Roy, Orlando, Watson, Paterson and others use comfort in maj...

The Theory of Human Caring was developed between 1975-1979, while engaged in teaching at the University of Colorado; it emerged from my own views of nursing, combined and informed by my doctoral studies in educational-clinical and social psychology. It was my initial attempt to bring meaning and focus to nursing as an emerging discipline and distinct health profession with its own unique values...

I read with interest the recent prize-winning postgraduate essay by Martha Mackay on why nursing has not embraced the clinician-scientist role (Mackay, 2009). This is an important issue for nursing, and the paper posed some valid questions about the nature of nursing knowledge and the relationship between theory, research, and practice. Although there is limited scope for Mackay to present a fu...