Students connecting critical appraisal to evidence-based practice: a teaching-learning activity for research literacy.

This article describes the implementation of an innovative research literacy teaching-learning activity. The Research in Practice Challenge activity promoted the importance and relevance of evidence-based practice with second-year nursing students in an undergraduate research course. Students appraised the evidence within policies and practice guidelines identified by managers in practice. Collaboration among students, faculty, managers, and the librarian enabled completion of the activity. Essential skills of identifying research problems in practice, searching the literature, and critically evaluating evidence were applied. Ultimately, students were asked to respond to the question: "Does this policy or guideline need revision, and how, based upon current evidence?" Effectiveness of this activity was garnered from the students' responses to course evaluations and analysis of teaching notes. Course evaluation revealed that students valued how the activity highlighted the relevance of research literacy for their practice. Further recommendations for research literacy teaching and learning are suggested.

Linking global citizenship, undergraduate nursing education, and professional nursing: curricular innovation in the 21st century.

As we move into the 21st century, our roles as nurses are becoming more complex. Inequities in health within and across nations demand that nursing students examine the interconnectedness between local and global health challenges and contribute to the development and implementation of solutions to these challenges. In this article, we examine concepts related to global citizenship, globalization, social responsibility, and professionalism and link them to curricular innovation in nursing education. We argue that the development of global citizenship is a fundamental goal for all nursing students and that to achieve this, nurse educators must move beyond the creation of international placement opportunities or the use of global examples within existing courses. Nurse educators must develop strategies and design innovative curricula to provide opportunities for all students to become engaged with the concept of global citizenship and the role of nurses in a global world.