Promoting Cultures of Thinking: Transforming Nursing Education to Transform Nursing Practice.

Contemporary nursing education is highly invested in the development of the academic, critical, and empirical aspects of education that represent the science of nursing, and concomitantly less attentive to the development of the creative, interpersonal aspects of education typically associated with the art of nursing. This represents a reversal of historic patterns in nursing education, but the pendulum may have swung so far that there could be costs to nursing practice unless the creative, interpersonal aspects of education can be reclaimed and balanced. Ideas and suggestions regarding how nurse educators might foster the creation of cultures of thinking, which represent whole-brain, integrated teaching approaches that are based on emerging neurocognitive evidence, are discussed.

Moms growing together: Piloting action methods and expressive arts in a therapeutic group for teen mothers.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this pilot study was to test the safety, acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of Moms Growing Together (MGT), an intervention to prevent and reduce psychological distress in teen mothers. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A mixed method design was used. The primary outcomes were reported satisfaction with MGT (acceptance); successful recruitment and retention of teen mothers (feasibility); and prevention or reduction of psychological distress (safety and effectiveness). Summary scores on each of three symptom measures operationally defined psychological distress. Sixteen African-American teen mothers participated in the study: eight in MGT and eight in a comparison group. RESULTS: MGT was considered safe and acceptable. MGT had a negative small effect (effect size [ES] = -0.028) on decreasing depression in participants and a moderate effect in reducing anxiety (ES = 0.395) and trauma symptoms (ES = 0.521-0.554) relative to the comparison group. Prolonged recruitment limited feasibility. CONCLUSION: Because psychological distress casts a long shadow on teen mothers' well-being, developing teen-friendly clinical programs that address their mental health is a high priority.

Using lecture capture: a qualitative study of nursing faculty's experience.

BACKGROUND: As lecture capture technology becomes widely available in schools of nursing, faculty will need to master new technological skills and make decisions about recording their classroom lectures or other activities. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to understand faculty's experience of using a new lecture capture system. DESIGN AND SETTING: This qualitative study used Kruger's systematic approach to explore undergraduate nursing faculty's first-time experience using a lecture capture system purchased by the university. METHOD: Four focus groups were conducted with a total of fourteen undergraduate faculty using lecture capture for the first-time. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and then analyzed by the researchers. RESULTS: Four themes were identified from the faculty interviews. Two of the themes expressed faculty's concerns about the teaching role, and two themes expressed the faculty's concerns about student learning. CONCLUSION: Participants experienced stress when learning to use the new lecture capture technology and struggled to resolve it with their own beliefs and teaching values. The impact of lecture capture on student learning, impact on class attendance, and the promotion of a culture of lecturing were revealed as important issues to consider when lecture capture becomes available.

Promoting cultures of thinking: transforming nursing education to transform nursing practice.

Contemporary nursing education is highly invested in the development of the academic, critical, and empirical aspects of education that represent the science of nursing, and concomitantly less attentive to the development of the creative, interpersonal aspects of education typically associated with the art of nursing. This represents a reversal of historic patterns in nursing education, but the pendulum may have swung so far that there could be costs to nursing practice unless the creative, interpersonal aspects of education can be reclaimed and balanced. Ideas and suggestions regarding how nurse educators might foster the creation of cultures of thinking, which represent whole-brain, integrated teaching approaches that are based on emerging neurocognitive evidence, are discussed.

Futures thinking: preparing nurses to think for tomorrow.

Nursing students must be prepared with skills to help them think for the future. Thinking for the future means that students have the ability to envision desired futures for nursing and health care, embrace change and complexity, and believe that they can make a difference. Readers are introduced to the field of futures studies along with strategies and tools to teach futures skills in the nursing curriculum. Basic ideas and assumptions underlying futures studies are presented, and an argument for the importance of futures thinking to nursing education is made.

"It's the little things that count": the value in receiving therapeutic letters.

The focus of this qualitative study was to explore patient's perceptions of having received a therapeutic letter (TL) from a nursing student. Patient feedback contributes to student learning and is especially salient when students are trying to understand complex relationships and to deliver care that is individualized and personalized. Four themes from recipient interviews were identified, which show the influence of TLs on the student-patient relationship and the benefits of TLs to patients who receive them. Strategies to promote relationship building, such as TL writing are needed, particularly when students are required to work with patients who have long-standing psychiatric and social disabilities and find these relationships challenging. Findings are discussed in light of the value of TLs to patients and as a powerful strategy for student learning.

Therapeutic letters in undergraduate nursing education: Ideas for clinical nurse educators.

Therapeutic letter writing (TLW) is a well-known intervention in family nursing practice but it has been overlooked as a strategy in nursing education to promote relationship-building. This article reviews what is known about TLW and presents what was learned by adding a TLW assignment to undergraduate clinical nursing courses. This paper adds to the evidence supporting TLW as an effective clinical teaching strategy to promote students relational skills and to recognize patients' strengths. TLW has benefits for students, patients and faculty.

Writing therapeutic letters in undergraduate nursing education: promoting relational skill development.

Although therapeutic letters (TLs) have been included in graduate nursing programs, studies have not examined the impact of TLs on the clinical learning of undergraduate students. This qualitative study was part of a larger project that introduced TLs into already established undergraduate clinical courses. Instructors prepared students for writing TLs by discussing their purpose and by providing a relevant article and examples. In all, 74 students participated in 12 focus group interviews. Interviews were audiotaped, professionally transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative description. Results suggest that TLs cultivate rapport building and the development of students' relational skills. Although the assignment promoted clinical learning and reflection on helping relationships for the vast majority of students, a few students treated TLs as an instrumental activity. Implications for educating health professionals are described.

Mediators of suicidal ideation within a sheltered sample of raped and battered women.

The relationship between suicide attempts and the experience of intimate partner physical violence has been examined in recent literature. The present study extended this literature by examining the relationship between intimate partner rape and suicidal ideation in a sheltered sample of battered women. Fifty women were recruited from a regional shelter setting for battered women in a Midwestern city in the United States. Fifty-eight percent had experienced intimate partner rape. More than one-third of the sample confirmed experiencing suicidal ideation at least "some of the time" within the past week. Experiencing intimate partner rape was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Tests of mediation revealed that both PTSD and depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between intimate partner rape and suicidal ideation.

Action methods in the classroom: creative strategies for nursing education.

Nursing education recognizes the need for a framework of experiential learning that supports the development of professional roles. Action methods, originated by Jacob L. Moreno (1953), can be readily adapted to any nursing classroom to create the conditions under which students learn and practice professional nursing roles. While nurse faculty can learn to use action methods, they may not fully comprehend their theoretical underpinnings or may believe they are only used in therapy. This article explores Moreno's ideas related to psychodrama and sociodrama applied in classroom settings, and presents many examples and tips for classroom teachers who wish to incorporate action methods into their classes.