No abstract

This article reports on a biannual baccalaureate nursing program designed to concentrate student learning on the tenets of professionalism in nursing. A seminar structure is used to promote student interaction, the exploration of professional issues, and critical thinking. Miller's Wheel of Professionalism in Nursing provides a framework for discussion of professional concepts in nursing. Several teaching-learning strategies are used, including a short slide show, interactive lectures by area experts, and student-led group discussions of scenarios based on the elements of professionalism illustrated by Miller. Use of Miller's framework and these various educational strategies yielded greater faculty satisfaction and student participation than witnessed in previous years, resulting in a deeper foundation for professional behavior development throughout the curriculum.

An award-winning journalist spoke to a group of students during their first month in a baccalaureate nursing program, challenging the nursing profession to abandon its image of nurses as angels and promote an image of nurses as competent professionals who are both knowledgeable and caring. This presentation elicited an unanticipated level of emotion, primarily anger, on the part of the students. This unexpected reaction prompted faculty to explore the students’ motivations for entering the nursing profession and their perceptions of the relative importance of competence and caring in nursing. The authors begin this article by reviewing the literature related to motivations for selecting a profession and the contributions of competence and caring to nursing care. Next they describe their survey method and analysis and report their findings regarding student motivations and perceptions of competence and caring in nursing. Emerging themes for motivation reflected nursing values, especially altruism, and coincided with students’ beliefs of self-efficacy and goal attainment. Student responses indicated their understanding of the need for competence and revealed idealistic perceptions of caring. The authors conclude with a discussion of these themes and recommendations for student recruitment, curricular emphasis, and future research in this area.

In October 2004 the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) endorsed the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) as the single entry degree for advanced practice nurses (APNs) beginning in 2015. This action initiated significant changes in many graduate nursing programs. Currently 153 DNP programs have enrolled students and an additional 106 programs are in varying stages of development. This article will examine real and potential outcomes of having the DNP degree as the single entry level for APN practice using an effects-based-reasoning framework. The author begins with a discussion of factors that influenced the DNP initiative and an explanation of effects-based reasoning. Within an effects-based framework, the author examines acceptance or rejection of the DNP initiative by APN programs and professional organizations, as well as the effects within the broader healthcare community. Concluding observations will be shared.

Since opening the Air Force's first in-hospital birth center, the United States Air Force Academy Hospital has followed a policy of 24-hour discharge of mothers and babies--a major paradigm shift in traditional military treatment facility practice. This study was conducted to evaluate this change. Records were reviewed of all vaginal births in the first 3 years of operation. Factors considered included demographic data, parity, gestational age, and complicating factors, both mother and infant. Postpartum bed days were reduced by 48%, the maternal readmission rate was 0.59%, and the infant readmission rate was 0.29%. It is the opinion of this author that 24-hour discharge is safe, cost effective, promotes access to care, and is desirable for patient satisfaction. With 1,340 subjects evaluated, the results of this study are provided to encourage and support a change in traditional practice patterns in military treatment facilities.