Creative Nursing

Health-care leaders work at the highest levels of organizations and face unique challenges in today's health-care systems. This article reports the lived experiences of an executive nurse to better understand their leadership journey and leadership shadow, exploring their professional development of health-care leadership while navigating change and conflict by interpreting critical turning points in their career and triangulating data to identify and analyze central themes. Offering a real-world perspective, the article uses personal reflection aligned to professional inquiry, workplace observations, document reviews, and personal accounts to focus on executive nursing and the construction of a social movement from within a large managed care organization. The purpose of this evaluation is to create deeper understandings of ways in which to improve patient and provider experiences, reduce system waste, and improve population health. The theme of transformational leadership emerged, and new insights were created to inform future thinking.

Community health centers have withstood adversity for several decades. As health-care systems seek to reverse health inequities experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), learnings from community health centers demonstrate tangible ways to improve access and health for all. During the COVID-19 pandemic many community health centers have engaged in innovations in services to build on trust and to reach community members with testing and other needed services. Lessons around leading these efforts could support systemic change in the health-care system.

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the well-being of nurses and has exacerbated long-standing issues of stress and burnout. Expecting or hoping that nurses will recover quickly or bounce back from the stress and deep trauma of the pandemic is not realistic. Each nurse has a story, and while these stories may have similar themes, they are all different. It is important to reflect on our stories, identify the myriad of emotions we are experiencing, and find ways to work through our feelings. Ignoring, denying, or suppressing feelings does not serve us well in the long run. Stifling negative emotions does not make them go away. A Call to Action is needed to address the impact of the pandemic, clinician burnout, and systemic racism on health-care organizations and educational institutions. Strategies are identified that will support personal and organizational well-being.

Evidence-based nursing management, developed as a framework for improving the quality of decisions to provide the most effective health-care outcomes, is a synthesis of clinical expertise, research evidence, and patient values, to create effective patient care strategies. Effective use of evidence-based nursing management requires identifying the sources of evidence and assessing their utilization. This article suggests a model for evidence-based nursing management in nursing practice. The literature shows six sources utilized for nursing management decisions: scientific and research evidence, information from hospitals, political-social development plans, managers ‘professional expertise, ethical-moral evidence, and values and expectations of all stakeholders.

There is an urgent need to address the nursing faculty shortage and evaluate current enrollment in nurse educator programs across the country. In this article, we describe a nationwide review of graduate nursing programs focusing on the nursing education shortage; program, faculty, and student demographics; methodological approaches; concentrations, content and practice areas; and future directions for graduate program development.

Clinical professors are a particularly important determinant of student success in becoming a proficient nurse. The clinical professor is responsible for helping students apply didactic knowledge to clinical skills. This article discusses strategies clinical professors can use to maximize undergraduate nursing students ‘skills and competencies and to raise awareness of healthy behaviors affecting patient care. Applying effective and fun strategies can help students decrease anxiety, apply critical thinking, develop autonomy, and learn time management. These applied strategies help students develop delegation skills required to be professional, competent nurses, while promoting health and well-being.

Students in early-level nursing courses often doubt their ability to intervene effectively to impact health, much less save a life, due to lack of hands-on experience and confidence. Theoretical concepts introduced in early-level courses are abstract terms that can be difficult for the novice student to grasp. Two strategies were designed to take early-level nursing students beyond the theory and increase their awareness of the power of prevention through risk identification, advocacy, health education, and early intervention. Opportunities to apply concepts such as health education, role of the nurse, communication, growth and development, and family systems theory were provided through use of these strategies. Both assignments have been well received by early-level students and other instructors. Informal feedback indicates that these strategies can enhance students ‘confidence in their perceived ability to promote health and prevent adverse outcomes. The strategies presented in this article respond to the call to provide opportunities within the curriculum that facilitate application of theoretical content; they can empower novice students in their ability to impact lives and can set them up for success as they progress through the program.

University of California San Diego Health was set to launch its 13th annual Nursing and Inquiry Innovation Conference event in June 2020. However, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic placed a barrier to large gatherings throughout the world. Because the World Health Organization designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the University committed to continuing the large-scale conference, converting to a virtual event. This article reviews the methodologies behind the delivery of the virtual event and implications for user engagement and learning on the blended electronic platform.

Background: This quantitative educational intervention was conducted to determine the effectiveness of a 1 -day internal medicine orientation for new interns, led by nurse educators instead of medical doctors. Methods: Scheduled within the orientation week curriculum, this project had a purposeful convenience sample of 14 students comprising the entire intern class. An afternoon of 1:1 clinical skills with nursing guidance followed a morning of didactic lecture on medical knowledge and skills transfer. Students completed a pre/postmedical education test (MET) to evaluate knowledge and skills acquired. Results: Interns reported increased confidence with clinical competencies to both nurse educators and the chief resident. Outcome questionnaires revealed statistically significant increases in knowledge about clinical skills after the intervention. Interns witnessed interprofessional teamwork. Conclusion: Nurse educators teaching medical interns facilitates interprofessional team collaboration, communication, and mutual respect. This simulation pedagogy focusing on principles of deliberate practice can have a positive impact on academic and clinical performance.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of nursing students ‘assessment of cases of medical error. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 145 nursing students in İzmir, Turkey. The epidemiology of the medical errors that the students witnessed during clinical practice was examined. Then, the success of the students in using the Text-Based Medical Error cases tool developed by the researchers was examined. Results: Of the students, 24.1 % had witnessed medical errors during clinical practice. The percentage of students successfully analyzing cases of medical errors related to patient identification, falling, medication administration, blood transfusions, health-care-associated infections, and pressure ulcers were 51.72%, 7.59%, 17.24%, 8.28%, 45.52%, and 56.55%, respectively. Conclusion: The students ‘ability to evaluate cases of medical error needs improvement.

Individuals who are incarcerated are disproportionately affected by chronic disease, mental health concerns, and substance use, compared to the general population. Despite the need to improve health in individuals who are incarcerated, the delivery of quality health care, including health education, often meets with challenges. Quality health education lays a foundation for improved health, and is one strategy nurses can use to improve the health of incarcerated individuals. To address this pressing health need, students in a community health nursing course at the University of Illinois at Chicago provided health education to men finishing their prison sentences at an adult transition center. Verbal and written statements from the men and the students indicate that the educational offering was a positive experience. One man's attendance at a health education class had a life-changing impact on another man at the center.

Florence Nightingale formally documented much of the early history of the nursing profession, a goal that remains important today to guide our practice. Many nurse scholars have published detailed accounts of historical research. Story-based narratives can be especially effective to describe the contributions of individual nurses in a way that resonates with nurses and lay readers. Two nurses, Terri Arthur and Jeanne Bryner, have successfully disseminated stories of nurses through creative writing. This article describes their journeys to capture nursing history using historical narrative, poetry, and reflective prose.