Innovative strategies for nursing education program evaluation.

Nursing programs are mandated by accreditation bodies to report data significant to program quality and outcomes. The history at one school of nursing in the southern United States revealed the program evaluation committee experienced roadblocks in retrieving such information. Creative approaches were adopted to overcome some of the barriers to program evaluation, including the use of more technological-based approaches to engage alumni who embrace this technology as a way of life. Among the many advantages of these approaches were convenience, ease of administration and analysis, cost effectiveness, and more meaningful data. The advantages far outweighed the few disadvantages incurred, with the most prominent being potential sampling bias.

Compelling teaching with the four Cs: caring, comedy, creativity, and challenging.

The traditional classroom, particularly in nursing, often is stifling to students and teachers. A dynamic co-learning experience creates a potential to move students from merely obtaining knowledge to practice. This article presents an exemplar of the transformative learning process within the nursing education setting. The concepts forming this compelling teaching approach are caring, comedy, creativity, and challenging (the four Cs). Through this innovative teaching method, opportunities are created for authentic co-learning to occur.

Acknowledging dependence: a MacIntyrean perspective on relationships involving Alzheimer's disease.

As people living with Alzheimer's disease experience their lifetime of memories slowly slipping away, they become dependent on society's independent practical reasoners family, health care professionals and society. Many people grow accustomed to the cognitive decline and begin to view the person with dementia as less than a person. In Dependent rational animals, Alasdair MacIntyre emphasized a moral framework that encompasses two sets of virtues needed for human beings to flourish in society and to achieve genuine common goods--the virtues of independent practical reasoners and the virtues of acknowledged dependence. Virtues of acknowledged dependence are discussed ethically in terms of benevolence towards those who are disabled or dependent upon people who are strong and independent. The authors propose that using MacIntyre's perspective of the two sets of virtues is valuable in the care of persons with Alzheimer's disease. According to MacIntyre, independent reasoners who understand and practice these two sets of virtues will help those people in communities who are dependent and vulnerable, and, subsequently, human flourishing can occur.

Rational suicide: uncertain moral ground.

BACKGROUND: The ambiguities involving end-of-life issues, such as physician-assisted suicide and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking, have caused a blurring of the definition of rational suicide and have prompted rich dialogue with moral deliberations that seem to be on disparate paths among bioethicists and other health care professionals. With the evolution of advanced medical technology extending life expectancy in older, disabled, and terminally ill people, rational suicide has become a critical issue of debate. AIM: The purpose of this article is to address the ethical positions supporting and opposing rational suicide and to consider whether coherence can be achieved through an ethic of care. FINDINGS: Attitudes towards suicide have been controversial, varying from acceptance to non-acceptance depending on social, political and religious influences. Nursing attitudes are no different from general societal attitudes and, consequently, nurses are treading on uncertain moral ground. CONCLUSION: Nurses who have not reflected on the moral issues involved with rational suicide may be unprepared psychologically and professionally when working with patients who may be contemplating such actions.

Project BART: effectiveness of a behavioral intervention to reduce HIV risk in adolescents.

PURPOSE: To examine the effectiveness of Project BART (Becoming a Responsible Teen, [St. Lawrence, 1998]), a behavioral-based curriculum for adolescents at risk for developing HIV. The purpose of BART was to help adolescents acquire the skills needed to reduce risks, thus encouraging them to make safe, healthy choices concerning sexual behaviors. METHODS: This was a one-group, pre-and post-test intervention study with 105 adolescents (ages 12 to 18) of culturally diverse backgrounds. RESULTS: Results of the main effects varied. Significant differences were found between pre-and posttest means of the scores on the HIV Attitudes (P = 0.018) and between the means of the AIDS Risk Knowledge Test (P = 0.001), but no significant difference was found between the pre-and posttest means of two other questionnaires: the Condom Attitude Scale (CAS) and Risk Behavior Survey. Process evaluation of the program indicated positive reactions toward the content and presentation methods of the program. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The need for programs to which adolescents' have positive reactions is vital to community-based participation by teens. Nurses can implement this comprehensive, theory-based program in community settings. Implementation should include a modification of the instruments for better clarity and more one-on-one instruction/attention during data collection. More research with clarified instruments and facilitated data collection is needed to further substantiate the effectiveness of Project BART with adolescents.