Nursing handover is a common part of nursing practice that is fundamental to safe patient care. Despite this, the literature provides little direction on the best way to conduct handover. This project aimed to examine nurses' perceptions of handover and to determine the strengths and imitations of the handover process. A staff survey was distributed to nurses in all inpatient wards at a metropolitan tertiary hospital. A total of 176 nurses responded to the staff survey. The findings revealed conflicting opinions about the effectiveness of the handover process; although a number of nurses were positive about current handover practice, indicating they were provided with sufficient information about patients and given opportunity to clarify patient care information, other nurses identified aspects of handover that could be improved. These included: the subjectivity of handover information, the time taken to conduct handover, repetition of information that could be found in the patients' care plans, and handing over of information by a nurse who has not cared for the patient. Some attention needs to be given to addressing the perceived weaknesses associated with the handover process.

Simulation appears to be an effective educational tool for teaching patient assessment knowledge and skills to graduate nurses. Incorporation of such technology into graduate nurse education may decrease the time required to become clinically proficient, resulting in more confident and work-ready practitioners.

Managers need to be cognisant of nurses underlying values and motivators in addressing recruitment and retention issues. Strategies need to be considered at both unit and organizational levels to ensure that the 'desire to care' does not become lost.

Objective The factor structure of the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) and the predictors of problem eating were examined in young boys and girls. Methods Two hundred and twenty eight children from Grades 2 and 4 completed questionnaires which examined problem eating attitudes and behaviors, body image, and self‐concepts. Results Four factors were found for girls and boys. The girls' four factors, Dieting, Food Preoccupation, Social Pressure to Eat, and Restricting and Purging, corresponded closely to previous studies with older girls and women. Four different factors were found for the boys, Global Problems, Dieting versus Purging, Dieting and Food Preoccupation, and Emotional Eating. However, dieting behaviors in both girls and boys were predicted by poorer body image and in boys emotional concerns about eating were predicted by poorer body image and lower self‐concepts. Discussion There is still relatively little research that has examined problem eating attitudes and behaviors of boys and men. As boys tend to report infrequent dieting, we may need to focus more on the emotional concerns about eating and becoming overweight as a potential indicator of eating problems in boys. © 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 25: 281–286, 1999.

The result is a document stating the core competencies for entry-level registered nurses in the 10 participating jurisdictions and includes several components that establish the context in which entry-level competencies are developed and applied. The 119 competency statements are organized in a standard-based framework of five categories: professional responsibility and accountability; knowledge-based practice; ethical practice; service to the public; and self-regulation. The project team plans to follow up on implementation as each jurisdiction decides how to use the competencies within their particular jurisdiction.