Serving Those Who Serve Their Country: Preparing Military Veterans for Nursing Degrees.

BACKGROUND: Challenges remain for integrating Veterans into civilian occupations postservice. This article describes an innovative project affording military service personnel serving in health occupational specialties the opportunity for completion of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. METHOD: The Vets2BSN project, launched in July 2014, has achieved several years of enrollment and graduation success using standardized measures and assessment of student modifiers to establish project success. RESULTS: Nearly 80 eligible students holding current or former rank as corpsmen or medics have enrolled in the program with 59 conferrals and an NCLEX pass rate of 98% (48 of 49). Prospective assessment of progress allows real-time intervention and remediation to achieve successful graduation rates. CONCLUSION: Collaboration of university administration and faculty has provided a foundation for reintegration of military health professionals possessing skills allowing for educational credit and acceleration of studies toward earning the BSN and joining the workforce as nursing professionals. [J Nurs Educ. 2019;58(8):444-453.].

UMDNJ school of nursing mobile healthcare project: a component of the New Jersey Children's Health Project.

This article describes a mobile ambulatory care nurse-managed center on wheels designed to address the healthcare needs of at-risk inner city residents. A grant-funded initiative, the Project uniquely joins nursing academe with community-based organizations in a partnership that brings healthcare services directly to those communities most in need. In addition to providing healthcare services, the Project serves as a site for faculty practice and community clinical rotations for nursing and medical students. The broad objectives of this nurse-faculty managed mobile healthcare project are: (1) to screen, identify and provide health promotion/disease management services for at-risk populations, (2) to foster community involvement in the health assessment and referral process; and, (3) to provide culturally and linguistically sensitive health promotion/disease management health education.

Enhancing Success in Advanced Practice Nursing: a grant-funded project.

The Enhancing Success in Advanced Practice Nursing (ESAPN) Project is designed to improve access to a diverse and culturally competent and sensitive health professions workforce by increasing the number of Hispanic, African-American and Asian nurses recruited, enrolled in and graduated from the MSN program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Nursing (UMDNJ-SN). In addition, the project plan includes the development and implementation of a comprehensive program that incorporates academic support services, career advisement and mentoring activities to retain and graduate an increased number of culturally, racially and ethnically diverse advanced practice nurses for the State of New Jersey. The project also seeks to improve the quality of care by preparing advanced practice nurses to provide culturally competent and sensitive care by assuring that the MSN curriculum includes content and clinical experiences relevant to the development of cultural competence. Faculty participation in workshops, designed to increase knowledge of cultural competence, is a key component. The success of the project will be evaluated using a variety of measures that track increases in the number of diverse students recruited and enrolled, the number of students accessing services associated with the ESAPN program, and increased retention and graduation of Hispanic, African-American and Asian nurses prepared as advanced practice nurses.

Enhancing cultural competencies of advanced practice nurses: health care challenges in the twenty-first century.

Shifting population demographics will have a major impact on the practice of advanced practice nurses (APNs). The ethnic composition of people in this country is becoming increasingly diverse. Massachusetts and, in particular, the city of Worcester is also experiencing changes in the diversity of its population. These trends testify to the great need for APNs who are sensitive to and competent to care for culturally diverse populations. To address these changes, specific curricula enhancements focused on ethnically diverse populations were implemented for the nurse practitioner specialties at the Graduate School of Nursing (GSN), University of Massachusetts Worcester. The processes used for this project included visiting community and clinical sites, identifying key curricular components, and evaluating existing didactic and clinical learning experiences. The GSN faculty developed a systematic plan for integrating these components into the graduate nursing core, advanced practice core, and specialty courses of the respective curricula. A major outcome of this project was the enhanced preparation of APN students to meet the multifaceted needs of ethnically diverse patients, families, and communities.

African American nurse faculty satisfaction and scholarly productivity at predominantly white and historically black colleges and universities.

The aim of this study was to examine faculty satisfaction and the relationships among selected elements of African American women nurse faculty productivity at two types of institutions: predominantly white (PWCUs) and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Organizational Culture Theory was used as the conceptual framework to provide the basis to explore the extent of productivity and levels of satisfaction among the study participants. Satisfaction was measured using a six-point Likert attitudinal scale. Scholarly Productivity was measured as the extent of published/submitted works (authorship), number and dollar amounts of grant submissions (grantsmanship) and elected/appointed positions held in professional organizations (leadership). Consistent with previous research studies of minority faculty in other disciplines, the current study found that the majority of African American women nurse faculty tended not to hold senior professorial rank, administrative positions, or tenure status. When comparisons were made between HBCU and PWCU faculty, however, a higher percentage of HBCU faculty reported holding Deanships or program coordinator positions and, on average, had slightly larger dollar amounts for funded grant awards and held significantly more leadership positions in professional nursing organizations. The aggregated data findings of this study did not support a strong relationship between selected elements of satisfaction with the academic institution's organizational culture and the scholarly productivity of African American women nurse faculty teaching at HBCUs and PWCUs. However, when the data were disaggregated by type school, moderately significant differences between HBCU and PWCU faculty were found, such that along several dimensions of the constructs of organizational culture the levels of dissatisfaction among PWCU faculty significantly skewed the overall data findings. In general, while PWCU faculty demonstrated higher levels of authorship, reported larger salaries, and held more tenured positions when compared with HBCU faculty, PWCU respondents tended to be significantly less satisfied with the leadership, environment, and socialization processes of their respective collegiate schools of nursing than were their HBCU counterparts. Among HBCU faculty the extent of productivity positively correlated with satisfaction for three of the six dimensions of organizational culture.

End of life issues in a palliative care framework for a critically ill adult African American with cystic fibrosis: a case study.

The purpose of this investigation, using case study methodology, was to explore the end of life issues and to give meaning to the biopsychosocial experiences of the study participant, an adult African American female patient diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Two theoretical frameworks were used to guide the investigation of the study: Kubler-Ross Model of the Stages of Dying and the Conceptual Framework for Palliative Care Practice. Data analysis included review of medical records and patient journals, interviews, observations and clinical assessment. The findings indicated that end of life issues can be articulated within the context of a palliative care framework and that the biopsychosocial experiences of the dying person acquire meaning when situated within life history, ethical values and metaphysical belief systems.