Enhancing the undergraduate nursing education experience with clinical elective courses.

The nursing faculty, in concert with the University's vision of personalized learning for undergraduate students, sought creative opportunities for nursing students to explore distinctive career specialty paths. The development, implementation, and evaluation of three undergraduate clinical electives developed by a School of Nursing (SON) is described here, in collaboration with three clinical practice partners. These nursing elective courses were designed to meet student requests for additional content in specialty nursing practice areas, enhance new nurse career readiness, and meet practice partner staffing needs for nurses with additional knowledge and skills in specific identified specialties. These nursing specialties included perioperative nursing, neonatal intensive care nursing, and oncology nursing. The SON faculty and each practice partner co-developed unique specialty-nursing elective courses that provide foundational specialty knowledge and skills in each practice arena. Project outcomes include enhanced relationships between the SON and practice partners, high levels of satisfaction of students and employers, and subsequent recruitment and employment of these students as new graduate nurses by our practice partners.

Leadership Practices and Engagement Among Magnet® Hospital Chief Nursing Officers.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the relationship between leadership practices and engagement of chief nursing officers (CNOs) in Magnet® organizations. BACKGROUND: Transformational leadership practices and CNO engagement are vital in influencing nursing practice. METHODS: Magnet hospital CNOs were invited to participate in a quantitative descriptive study via an online survey published in 2 newsletters. RESULTS: The CNOs rated their leadership practices high across all dimensions; the top leadership practice of Magnet CNOs was enabling others to act. There was a strong positive correlation between the vigor of engagement and the challenge the process leadership practice. CONCLUSION: This is the 1st study of Magnet CNOs transformational leadership practices and their work engagement and therefore adds to our understanding of the important characteristics to build future leadership development programs for nurse leaders at the executive level. Particularly noteworthy for the development of future nurse executives is the strong link between vigor and challenging the process.