Influence of simulated and actual community vaccination clinics on student empowerment and self-efficacy for public health nursing competencies.

OBJECTIVES: To examine students' structural empowerment during simulated learning and actual nursing practice, and assess students' self-efficacy for public health nursing competencies (PHNC) after involvement in a mass influenza vaccination clinic as a community practice experience. DESIGN: A nonexperimental survey design was used with a sample of year three baccalaureate nursing students. METHODS: Students completed a demographic form after the simulated clinic experience, they were assessed for perceptions of empowerment after being involved in the simulated and actual clinic settings, and self-efficacy was assessed after the actual clinic experience. RESULTS: Students perceived themselves as structurally empowered after completing the simulated and actual community vaccination clinics. Students reported a high level of self-efficacy for PHNC after their actual community vaccination clinic involvement. There was a significant correlation between empowerment and self-efficacy, which suggests that when students have access to empowering structures, they feel more confident to enact PHNC that align with practice in the clinics. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that nursing students acquired the necessary knowledge and skills for safe vaccination administration through the combination of simulated practice and participating in an actual public health vaccination clinic.

Strategies used by rural women to stop, avoid, or escape from intimate partner violence.

In this mixed methods study we examined the strategies rural women use to deal with intimate partner violence (IPV). The Intimate Partner Violence Strategies Index (IPVSI) was used to analyze results from a sample of 43 rural women who had left abusive partners. Qualitative interviews then were conducted with a different sample of nine rural women to explore their perspectives about the findings and their impressions of the influence of rural culture and context on women's experiences of IPV. Findings exposed the degree to which social control acts as a key determinant of health for rural women exposed to IPV.

Critical assumptions: thinking critically about critical thinking.

The concept of critical thinking has been featured in nursing literature for the past 20 years. It has been described but not defined by both the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the National League for Nursing, although their corresponding accreditation bodies require that critical thinking be included in nursing curricula. In addition, there is no reliable or valid measurement tool for critical thinking ability in nursing. As a result, there is a lack of research support for the assumptions that critical thinking can be learned and that critical thinking ability improves clinical competence. Brookfield suggested that commitments should be made only after a period of critically reflective analysis, during which the congruence between perceptions and reality are examined. In an evidence-based practice profession, we, as nurse educators, need to ask ourselves how we can defend our assumptions that critical thinking can be learned and that critical thinking improves the quality of nursing practice, especially when there is virtually no consensus on a definition.