Uncovering the Process of Reasonable Academic Accommodations for Prelicensure Nursing Students With Learning Disabilities.

AIM: The purpose of the study was to explore the process by which nursing faculty make reasonable academic accommodations in the classroom setting for students with learning disabilities. BACKGROUND: Nursing students with identified learning disabilities require academic accommodations. The process of reasonable academic accommodations for nursing students with learning disabilities has not been examined within nursing education literature and clarification is needed. METHOD: Constructivist grounded theory methods, as described by Charmaz, guided data collection and analysis. RESULTS: Literature supports the categories, themes, and subthemes of the academic accommodations process found in this investigation. However, further research is necessary regarding the academic accommodations process and faculty development to support nursing students with identified learning disabilities. CONCLUSION: Nursing education needs standards of academic accommodations for students with learning disabilities.

Peer mentoring in nursing education: A concept analysis.

AIM: This peer-mentoring concept analysis aimed to explore and define the concept of peer mentoring in nursing education and the impact it may have on nursing education. BACKGROUND: A lack of literature exists explicitly defining peer mentoring in nursing education. The interchangeable use of processes, terms, and applications may contribute to the lack of consistency and obscurity of nursing education scholarship on peer mentoring. Since peer mentoring can be used to enhance student success, there is a need to clarify the concept of peer mentoring in nursing education for accuracy in future nursing education research. DESIGN/REVIEW METHOD: Using Walker and Avant's framework, the authors identified defining attributes, antecedents, and consequences of peer mentoring. DATA SOURCE: The literature search involved a combination of terms in the MEDLINE with Full Text, Academic Search Complete, Humanities International, ERIC, CINAHL, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, and Consumer Health Complete-EBSCOhost databases. RESULTS: This concept analysis revealed a consistent definition of peer mentoring for use in nursing education. The definition of peer mentoring in nursing education is a formal learning partnership between two individuals (mentor and mentee) with differing levels of nursing school experience. The peer mentor promotes a positive academic and emotionally supportive environment, decreasing stress and increasing the mentee's confidence and competency. CONCLUSION: A shared definition and understanding of peer mentoring within nursing education can contribute to the consistent use of the concept in research and advance the scholarship of nursing education.

Integrating technology in skills lab: Using smartphones for urinary catheter validation.

Nurse educators are challenged to promote student success in all learning environments. Historically, students had increased anxiety associated with poor outcomes for indwelling urinary catheter skill validation. Faculty were looking for alternative ways to reduce stress, improve learning, and achieve successful student skill validations. The purpose of this process change project was to implement and evaluate an innovative teaching strategy of a psychomotor skill. Specifically, the integration of smartphone technology, self-evaluation, and peer feedback on indwelling urinary catheter skill validation was implemented and student perceptions of this strategy were evaluated. Throughout two, four-hour skills lab sessions, 81 students in the second semester of a baccalaureate program in nursing participated in peer pairs where they used smartphones to video and refine their indwelling urinary catheter skills through self-reflection and peer feedback. Students reported the utilization of technology and peer feedback positively enhanced learning and "decreased anxiety". However, students agreed integrating technology into a psychomotor skill validation was not without challenges. However, the benefits outweighed the challenges providing implications for nursing education to use smartphones to evaluate a psychomotor skill as a strategy to integrate technology, self-reflection, and peer feedback into a clinical skills lab environment.

The evolution of rural hospitals viewed through a population ecology framework.

Rural hospitals face formidable environmental challenges and have experienced closure rates higher than those of their urban counterparts. However, many of these rural hospitals appear to be surviving by developing interorganizational relationships that include network formation, absorption into investor-owned systems, and contract management arrangements. The concept of population ecology has been applied to organizational survival and can be used to examine health care organizations and specifically explain the evolution of rural hospitals. In this paper concepts from population ecology are used to explain the survival of rural hospitals and how new organizational structures are being developed to compensate for environmental changes.

Technology acceptance among physicians: a new take on TAM.

The proliferation of information technology has been a revolutionary force that has increased efficiency and effectiveness in many industries. However, health care organizations, particularly physician practices, are noticeably lagging in the adoption of such technologies. This article provides a systematic review of the literature on physician acceptance of information technology. An overview of the technology acceptance model (TAM) is discussed, and a modified version of this model is proposed. Finally, ideas for testing this new model in a physician setting are presented. By providing a better understanding of physician technology acceptance, this model will inform health care managers about barriers that make physicians hesitant to embrace new technologies designed to increase efficiency and improve quality in a health care setting.

A resource-based view of partnership strategies in health care organizations.

The distribution of management structures in health care has been shifting from independent ownership to interorganizational relationships with other firms. A shortage of resources has been cited as one cause for such collaboration among health care entities. The resource- based view of the firm suggests that organizations differentiate between strategic alliances and acquisition strategies based on a firm's internal resources and the types of resources a potential partner organization possesses. This paper provides a review of the literature using the resource-based theory of the firm to understand what conditions foster different types of health care partnerships. A model of partnership alliances using the resource-based view is presented, strategic linkages are presented, managerial implications are outlined, and directions for future research are given.