Seeking inclusion while navigating exclusion: Theorizing the experiences of disabled nursing faculty in academe.

Despite repeated calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in nursing education and the significance of disability for the vocation of nursing, the voices and experiences of nursing faculty with disabilities are largely absent from our literature. In this paper, we present a critical grounded theory of the experiences of disabled nursing faculty in academe to begin to amend this gap. Using critical disability studies as a sensitizing framework and building on prior work on racism and other systems of oppression in nursing, we theorize that nursing academe is a normalized space produced by White, able-mindbodied, and cis-heteropatriarchal discourses that regulate the boundaries of inclusion via exclusionary social norms. Further, we describe the operations of normalcy in nursing academe, discuss implications for education and health care, and consider avenues for change.

Authentic Literature: Literary Fiction as a Textbook to Engage in Nursing Professional Practice Content.

ABSTRACT: This innovative teaching strategy sought to evaluate authentic literature as the primary textbook in a nursing theory course. Arts-based pedagogy can potentiate students' development of critical thinking skills, which are necessary for sound clinical judgment. At the end of the course, students responded to an online survey to better understand their experience of using authentic literature in nursing. Students reported a high level of agreement on the interconnectedness of themes in the authentic literature with the course purpose and content. Authentic literature provided a contextual perspective for analysis, debate, and formation of clinical nursing judgment.

Examining Relationships Between Resilience Protective Factors and Moral Distress Among Nursing Students.

A correlation pilot study was conducted to examine relationships between resilience protective factors and moral distress associated with clinical practica in nursing students. Aggregate moral distress rating was x = 3.67. Two of four resilience protective factor subcategories demonstrated significant inverse correlations with moral distress rating. Inverse correlations were found between social support and moral distress (r = -.27, p < .05) and between goal efficacy and moral distress (r = -.37, p < .01). The findings should help educators prioritize resilience-enhancing educational strategies.

Care coordination: Identifying and connecting the most appropriate care to the patients.

Although nurses are increasingly expected to fulfill the role of care coordinator, the knowledge and skills required to be an effective care coordinator are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to describe the knowledge and skills required in care coordination practice using an interpretive phenomenological approach. Fifteen care coordinators from 10 programs were interviewed over a 6-month period. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using interpretive phenomenology. The central theme of care coordination practice was bridging the patient and the healthcare systems. To bridge, care coordinators needed to have knowledge of the patient and healthcare system as well as the skills to identify and negotiate treatments appropriate for the patient. The most salient finding and new to this literature was that care coordinators who used their medical knowledge about available treatment options to discern and negotiate for the most appropriate care to the patient made differences in patient outcomes. Nurses with medical and healthcare system knowledge, combined with the skills to navigate and negotiate with others in an increasingly complex healthcare system, are well situated to be care coordinators and generate optimal outcomes. Further investigations of critical care coordinator competencies are needed to support nurses currently enacting the role of care coordinator and to prepare future nurses to fulfill the role.

A Conceptual Model to Promote the Retention of Women with Physical Disabilities in Research.

Inadequate participant recruitment and retention practices can affect sample representativeness and thus the generalizability of research findings. Retention of research participants has been examined within the literature to some extent; however, there is no consensus on best practice in achieving acceptable results. Furthermore, there is a gap in understanding how to engage and retain women with physical disabilities (WPDs) in research. To address these oversights, we review (1) the significance of retention as a methodological concern, (2) factors that influence the involvement and retention of participants in research, including individual, population, and health-illness considerations, and (3) particular circumstances impacting the inclusion and retention of WPDs in research. On the basis of a review of the literature and our experience with the Healing Pathways randomized controlled trial (RCT), we present a conceptual model to guide culturally sensitive health research implementation with WPDs, and promote the engagement and retention of this group in RCTs and other forms of interventional health research.

Reducing incivility in the workplace: results of a three-part educational intervention.

BACKGROUND: Incivility among nursing staff has a negative impact on the workplace environment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a three-part educational intervention improved the work environment in two units of a major health sciences hospital. METHOD: Staff (N = 94) participated in assessments of the intervention at designated time points postintervention. Interviews of eight volunteer participants followed the intervention. RESULTS: Perceived acts of incivility decreased significantly for both units. Self-efficacy increased for both units, whereas collective efficacy decreased for one unit and increased for the second unit. Qualitative data supported the positive impact but identified that participants were not confident their units could effectively combat incivility without refresher sessions. CONCLUSION: A three-part educational intervention was effective in decreasing incidences of perceived incivility and increasing self-efficacy. Collective efficacy might be improved and sustained with unit refresher sessions or regular discussion.

Promoting Inclusion of Disabled Nursing Faculty.

BACKGROUND: Disabled nursing faculty make important contributions, yet little information is available about this group. PROBLEM: Although information specifically about disabled nursing faculty is limited, available evidence and related literature point to a need for disability inclusive policy and practice in nursing academe. APPROACH: The authors gathered available information to inform development of 10 recommendations for change using universal design as a guiding framework. Universal design is development of an environment usable by all people to the greatest extent possible. OUTCOMES: The article includes 10 recommendations to promote inclusion of disabled faculty in nursing academe. Although disabled faculty are the focus, these recommendations have the potential to benefit all faculty. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing the recommendations may be challenging and will look different across schools. Nevertheless, such change is necessary to counteract exclusionary practices that impact disabled nursing faculty and promote inclusion of this important and underrepresented group.

Poetry: An Innovative Teaching Strategy for Exploring Empathy With Beginning Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND: Empathy is a professional value difficult to teach and challenging for beginning nursing students to grasp. This article describes how a poem was integrated in a seminar to engage students in exploring empathy and its relevance to their forming professional identities. METHOD: Preseminar, nursing students (N = 8) read a book chapter about thinking empathetically. In seminar, they read an assigned poem and, using guiding questions, discussed it in small and large groups. Postseminar, students wrote self-reflections about their most important learning of the week. RESULTS: Through in-seminar discussions and postseminar reflections, students crafted new meanings of empathy, contemplated new insights, and integrated them into their imagined professional identities. In written self-reflections, six of eight students indicated the seminar was their most important learning of the week. CONCLUSION: Poetry is an engaging platform that makes accessible to beginning students the values of the profession that are difficult to articulate and grasp. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(5):315-318.].

Centering the concept of transitional care: a teaching-learning innovation.

Coordination of care, including the provision of safe and effective transitions, is a core professional standard for nurses. However, as currently designed, prelicensure nursing education prepares nurses to function in discrete settings rather than across settings. A teaching-learning innovation focusing on transitional care was implemented as an educational pilot project with 20 senior-level baccalaureate students in their leadership course. Students in the educational pilot immersed in the subject of transitional care via concept-based learning activities and performance improvement projects. During the course, students were assigned to designated clinical sites representative of a continuum of care. An integrated clinical postconference offered students the opportunity to discover the role of the nurse in transitional care from a systems perspective and facilitated a deeper understanding of the subject that extended beyond the walls of students' discrete clinical sites.