TOC Summary Line: Healthcare workers in hospitals affected by SARS experience increased psychological stress 1–2 years after the outbreak.

The article describes the development and initial psychometric evaluation of an instrument to measure patients' perceptions of learning needs at time of discharge from hospital to home. Evaluation of the Patient Learning Needs Scale was based on responses of 301 adults hospitalized with a medical or surgical illness. Factor analysis isolated seven subscales: medications, activities of living, feelings related to condition, community and follow-up, treatment and complications, enhancing quality of life and skin care. These seven factors accounted for 56.1% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha for the 50-item scale was 0.95.

In today's digitally enabled healthcare environment, it is vitally important to assess Canadian nurses' competency in informatics. The researchers developed the Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale, a 21-item comprehensive measure based on entry-to-practice informatics competencies for registered nurses, to facilitate assessment of informatics competencies and consequent, planning of formal and continuing education in informatics. The Canadian Nurse Informatics Competency Assessment Scale was used in a cross-sectional survey to determine self-perceived informatics competencies for Alberta's practicing nurses. Results from 2844 completed surveys showed that these nurses perceived their overall informatics competency as slightly above the mark of competent. Perceptions of competency were highest on foundational information and communication technology skills, slightly lower on competencies related to professional regulatory accountability and the use of information and communication technologies in the delivery of patient care, and lowest on information and knowledge management competencies. This study shed some light on priority areas for informatics education among practicing nurses in Alberta. Implications for nursing practice and research are discussed.

Aim: This paper is a report of the results of a review of the literature conducted with the goal of determining how nurses' clinical uncertainty has been conceptualized in the nursing literature.Background: Although existing research has advanced the body of knowledge regarding the concept of uncertainty in decision-making, this has been largely from physicians' viewpoints and from patients' perspectives (patients' uncertainty). Understanding how nurses' experience and act on uncertainty remains relatively unreported.Method: A search of Medline, CINAHL, and PubMed databases was conducted to retrieve literature published from 1990 to 2007. The question guiding the literature review was: How has nurses' clinical uncertainty been conceptualized in nursing literature?Findings: Little exploration has been done of nurses' experience of uncertainty in practice. Many investigators have not theorized about the uncertainty in their studies, but have described nurses' uncertainty in the context of clinical decision-making. The findings from these studies indicated that unfamiliarity with the aspects of patient care is a source of uncertainty, and nurses tended to rely on heuristics or on the expertise of colleagues as sources of information for practice decisions. Expressing uncertainties as information needs might help guide information seeking and reduce uncertainty. However, studies indicated that nurses have difficulty recognizing or expressing uncertainties, and as a result, information needs are not recognized and information seeking is not initiated.Conclusions: A more comprehensive understanding of nurses' uncertainty could lead to the development and implementation of strategies to support nurses in their clinical decision-making and practice. Descriptions are needed about how nurses experience and respond to uncertainty in their practice, and the influence of uncertainty on their information needs and information seeking.