Reading Among Nursing and Nonnursing Students in Undergraduate Education.

Promoting reading compliance is a common concern in undergraduate education. This study described the reading behaviors, preferences, and perceptions of 519 undergraduate nursing and nonnursing students concerning course-related reading assignments. Mean time completing assigned course readings for nursing students was 6.63 hours per week; it was similar for other majors (6.73 hours). Nonnursing majors read a greater percentage of their assigned readings than nursing students (t = -6.59, P < .01). Implications highlight strategies faculty can implement to facilitate student reading.

Physical Assessment Techniques in Nursing Education: A Replicated Study.

BACKGROUND: It has been nearly a decade since findings revealed that a sample of U.S. nurses routinely used only 30 physical assessment techniques in clinical practice. In a time of differentiating nice-to-know from need-to-know knowledge and skills, what has changed in nursing education? METHOD: This cross-sectional, descriptive study examines the physical assessment skills taught and used among nursing students at one baccalaureate nursing education program located in the midwestern United States. RESULTS: Findings highlight the similarities and differences from previous studies and offer insight as to how closely nursing education mirrors the skills needed for clinical practice. CONCLUSION: Nurse educators must continue to discriminate content taught in prelicensure nursing education programs and should consider the attainment of competency of those essential skills that most lend to optimal patient outcomes. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(5):287-291.].

Design and Development of a Proactive Rapid Response System.

Timely identification of patient deterioration can prompt intervention and prevent the escalation of care and unplanned intensive care admissions. However, both personal experience and professional literature reveals that staff nurses in the acute care setting may not notice subtle signs of patient deterioration or may be reluctant to activate the rapid response system. To overcome these barriers, a proactive rapid response system with early warning signs was created and studied. Using a quasi-experimental design, data were collected from two medical-surgical nursing units at one large tertiary medical center over a 6-month period. One unit used the new rapid response system and early warning sign criteria with real-time data entry and trigger activation. A second unit served as the control and relied on the nurse for rapid response system activation. Findings revealed that the use of the newly developed rapid response system demonstrated significantly greater sensitivity to subtle signs of patient deterioration and prompted early evaluation and intervention.

The use of Web 2.0 technologies.

Although many publications laud the potential benefits of using Web 2.0 technologies in nursing education, little has been published on the extent of their use. This descriptive study examined the personal and academic use of Web 2.0 technologies among nursing students enrolled in 3 different baccalaureate programs.

Engaging students in an undergraduate research course.

Nursing educators must be creative and dynamic in course design and seek to adopt pedagogical strategies that promote learner outcomes. Using multiple teaching strategies and experiential methods, the author describes one such attempt to engage students enrolled in an undergraduate nursing research course.

Teaching drug calculation in nursing education: a comparison study.

Medication errors related to incorrect drug dose calculation continue to plague nursing and jeopardize patient welfare. This research study spans 2 academic years (4 classes of senior undergraduate nursing students) and compares the use of 2 approaches to drug calculation: dimensional analysis and conventional methods (ratio-proportion and calculation formulas). Data analysis looked at several factors but primarily focused on conceptual accuracy.