One of the major contributing factors to the nursing shortage in Colorado and nationally is a scarcity of clinical faculty required to prepare new nurses. This article describes an innovative, collaborative project that purposefully prepares staff nurses to assume the role of clinical scholar. Although there are several models that have sought to make clinically expert nurses available as teaching faculty, the breadth and scope of the described project with its multiple partners is unique. In the first year of this grant, the identified goals were achieved. In addition, there have been significant serendipitous outcomes.

Although breastfeeding initiation rates have recently been at an all-time high, duration continues to be considerably low. Given the health benefits associated with extended breastfeeding, this discrepancy is cause for concern. This research examined the messages conveyed about infant feeding in a popular parenting magazine, Parents magazine, from 1930 through 2007. Findings indicated that the messages about infant feeding shifted in accordance with changing ideologies about the means of infant feeding-from bottle-feeding to breastfeeding. However, even with changing attitudes toward infant feeding, writers used scientific evidence and the advice of "experts" to justify the dominant form of feeding. The absence of practical advice regarding breastfeeding challenges, especially from "real" women set up false expectations about the breastfeeding experience, painting it as "natural" and best for the baby. The dependency on experts and lack of practical advice in popular media, like Parents magazine, may help explain a societal trend that downplays breastfeeding obstacles, giving insight into the vast discrepancy between breastfeeding initiation and duration.

The number of adolescents, young adults, and senior citizens experiencing hearing loss has significantly increased over the last 30 years. Despite this prevalence, hearing loss receives little attention in popular and political discourse, except in its connection to aging. Thus, hearing loss and the use of hearing aids have been stigmatized, discouraging adults from seeking hearing evaluation and screening, and justifying the lack of insurance coverage for hearing devices. This research explored how and why hearing loss continues to be stigmatized through a study of media messages about hearing loss. A textual analysis was conducted on 276 television episodes that involved d/Deaf characters and/or storylines about hearing loss and deafness from 1987 through 2013 (see Table 1). Only 11 fictional programs addressed the experience of hearing loss through 47 episodes, including Criminal Minds, Switched at Birth, House, M.D., and New Girl. Contrary to the assumption that hearing loss exclusively impacts older people, characters were typically young, attractive, working professionals who held prominent roles in the programs. For most characters, hearing loss developed suddenly and was restored by the end of the episode, with only four characters using hearing aids. Hearing loss was depicted as comical, embarrassing, lonely, and threatening to one's work. The scarcity of hearing loss portrayals, combined with the negative representations of hearing loss, could help explain why hearing loss continues to be stigmatized and overlooked, even though almost half of all Americans will eventually experience difficulty hearing.

Mass media content likely influences the decision of women to breastfeed their newborn children. Relatively few studies have empirically assessed such a hypothesis to date, however. Most work has tended to focus either on specific interventions or on broad general commentary about the role of media. In this study, we examined infant feeding advertisements in 87 issues of Parents' Magazine, a popular parenting magazine, from the years 1971 through 1999. We then used content analysis results to predict subsequent changes in levels of breastfeeding among U.S. women. When the frequency of hand feeding advertisements increased, the percentage change in breastfeeding rates reported the next year generally tended to decrease. These results underscore the need to acknowledge the potential role of popular media content in understanding breastfeeding patterns and public health trends.

Most Americans know little about the “Gypsies,” or Roma, other than what they learn in the media. Although research shows that media have perpetuated stereotypes, there is thin anthological attention to the representation of Gypsies in American media. This study examines portrayals of Gypsies in fictional and reality television programs 1953-2014, and reveals that American television has reinforced stereotypes, suggesting that Gypsies are consistently different, a closed ethnic community resistant to change. More recent representations convey that Gypsies may be misunderstood due to their cultural history, yet this considerably less visible depiction emerges as a mere nod toward tolerance.