Nursing professionals are in key positions to support end-of-life decisions and to advocate for patients and families across all health care settings. Advocacy has been identified as the common thread of quality end-of-life nursing care. The purpose of this comparative descriptive study was to reveal acute care nurses' perceptions of advocacy behaviors in end-of-life nursing practice. The 317 participating nurses reported frequent contact with dying patients despite modest exposure to end-of-life education. This study did not confirm an overall difference in advocacy behaviors among novice, experienced and expert nurses; however, it offered insight into the supports and barriers nurses at different skill levels experienced in their practice of advocacy.

The outcomes of a longitudinal research study on a nurse residency program indicated improvement in the onboarding experience for new graduate nurses. Practice changes and implications for nursing professional development practitioners resulting from the study include the number and orientation of preceptors, program length standardization, and improvement of emergency clinical response education. Additional research studies were implemented to further explore issues novice nurses and their proficient registered nurse colleagues experience throughout the organization.

With the belief that diversity is strength, the community of Reading, Pennsylvania, set forth an effort to meet the challenges of the disparity within the local nursing workforce with a comprehensive, long-term approach for the recruitment and retention of an underrepresented group. An academic-community partnership was formed to develop multifaceted programs and support across school and community agency systems. The Alvernia College Nursing Department has taken a leadership role to coordinate many community and health care agencies with the goal of increasing the number of baccalaureate-prepared Hispanic and bilingual nurses to provide culturally competent and sensitive care to the community.