Caring for nurses: hospital-based study groups for certification.

This article describes a hospital-based initiative that provides support for nurses who wish to become certified in a nursing specialty. Because certification becomes increasingly important to individual nurses and acute care organizations, opportunities to support nurses in this endeavor need to be developed. Through the efforts of the director of education and the support of nursing administration, study groups aimed toward assisting nurses to become certified have grown in number throughout this hospital.

A pilot project to evaluate the academic performance, abilities, and satisfaction of second-degree students.

The literature on students matriculated in the growing number of second-degree nursing programs in the United States typically describes them as exceptional on many parameters of interest. The experience at the authors' university in an integrated second-degree baccalaureate nursing program did not support prevailing notions regarding these students. The purpose of this pilot project was to evaluate the performance and satisfaction of second-degree students in comparison to traditional students. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, a standardized exit examination, the nursing grade point average (GPA), and focus groups were used in the evaluation. Findings showed little difference between second-degree students and traditional students on the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory and no difference in exit examination scores and nursing GPA. Social and learning differences were apparent as a result of the focus group experience.