Maximizing learning outcomes by videotaping nursing students' interactions with a standardized patient.

1. Videotaping is a beneficial instructional methodology to help undergraduate students develop awareness of their strengths and opportunities for growth in therapeutic interactional skills. 2. Educational interventions with undergraduate students provide an opportunity to involve doctoral students in vital instruction, research, and knowledge dissemination through publication and presentation. 3. Allowing novice nurses to view their interactional skills with a simulated patient can reduce the anxiety they experience in first therapeutic encounters with assigned patients. 4. Continuous quality improvement in educational methodology is dependent on listening carefully to students who have invaluable feedback to offer and making appropriate correction as indicated.

A review of forgiveness literature with implications for nursing practice.

This article describes clinical practice where forgiveness is a central patient/family issue. In this case, the professional nurses learned substantively from the family about the tragic consequences of forgiveness withheld and the transformative nature of forgiveness extended. The concept of forgiveness is defined and forgiveness as a primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention is considered. Implications for professional practice are developed. Practical forgiveness-based assessment questions are included. A review of instrumentation from other disciplines measuring interpersonal dimensions of forgiveness is offered. Significant aspects of the process of forgiveness are elucidated and opportunities for forgiveness-related nursing research are identified.

Community service-learning in an undergraduate psychiatric mental health nursing course.

This article reports the outcomes of a descriptive study of service-learning undertaken in a Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Course at Virginia Commonwealth University. Following a review of the service-learning (S-L) literature, study questions are presented. The S-L intervention is presented, as are characteristics of learners and sites where S-L was conducted. Gains for all stakeholders and lessons learned are reported.

Developing staff nurse experts in nursing diagnosis-based care planning.

In this article, the authors describe the Program to Increase Nursing Knowledge and Facilitate the Utilization of Nursing Diagnosis (PINK FUND) undertaken at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. The program prepared unit-based nurses to be facilitators for nursing diagnosis-based care planning. Major curriculum threads included theory of nursing diagnosis, planned change, and adult learning. Instructors modeled innovative instructional methodologies for participants. Program planners vigorously marketed the program to nurses within the institution. The program succeeded in preparing nurses to use the nursing process to deliver planned care. The program description will serve as a potential model for staff development educators seeking to increase staff competence in nursing care planning and documentation.