As part of a larger investigation of health behaviors and beliefs during pregnancy, a sample of 529 women were asked to identify their major sources of information about what they should and should not do during their pregnancies. Health care providers and books were cited as first or second most important by the largest number of respondents. When associations between respondent characteristics and preferred information sources were explored, it was found that women of higher socioeconomic status (SES) relied more on books and less on family than did women of lower SES. In addition, having had a previous pregnancy was associated with greater use of one's self as an information source. Although provider characteristics were not associated with choice of information source, women who perceived more support from their providers viewed them as more important sources of information. A similar effect for family was found. Health locus of control beliefs also were related to the relative importance of selected sources of information, while general social support was not.

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Nurses at the Well-Being Institute, a community-based nursing outreach clinic in Detroit, Michigan, located 75 women living with HIV, mental illness, and substance abuse who were lost to follow-up at their HIV medical clinic as part of a nursing research study. Women who had been scheduled for an appointment in the last 4 months but who had missed that appointment were considered "lost to follow-up" in the HIV clinic. The purpose of the research was to study factors related to health care access in women not participating in regular health care for their HIV infection. Women were randomly assigned to two study groups. Women assigned to "care as usual" study group (n = 37) received no additional services beyond study interviews for 1 year. Women assigned to the "nursing intervention" group (n = 38) were provided with nursing services designed to facilitate their return to and continued connection with their HIV clinic. Findings showed that factors related to the women's vulnerability, such as mental illness and drug use, were more related to their use of expensive health care services such as hospital emergency departments or hospital inpatient admissions than was assignment to either the "nursing intervention" or "care as usual" study groups. Two case studies describing the cost of care for 2 of the multiply diagnosed women in the study is presented. The women differed on whether they had stable housing and were accessing care for their mental illness.

Administrative leadership inspires, encourages innovation, assists staff to grow and promotes and facilitates excellent nursing. Although one might argue that these activities are administrative, data collected in research at the University of Michigan suggest that they have a strong educational tone. Analysis of the data resulting from in‐depth interviews in practice and education indicates that the role of the executive is on a trajectory of intrapersonal integration of the professional components of practice. The education component is vital to integrating the role and is the linchpin in linking the components of professional practice.

In the belief that graduate nursing students should be able to analyze, evaluate, and critique both qualitative and quantitative research methods and should be able to design their own research projects, two faculty members developed a two-course sequence integrating the two methods. The authors, each an expert in one of the methods, describe how they designed and co-taught these innovative courses.