Student Preparation for Nursing Leadership: Lessons from an Undergraduate Programs Review.

Facilitating student achievement of nationally recognized entry-level-competencies in nursing leadership is a critical step in building capacity to promote patient safety, quality of care, and healthy work environments. Data for this substudy were drawn from a larger multi-phased, multi-method, cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted to inform comprehensive undergraduate curricular revision. The research question for this substudy was: what are the perceptions about undergraduate program preparation for nursing leadership? Frequencies and percentages summarized relevant quantitative data from the surveys and deductive content analysis was used to further explore the category of leadership which emerged from content analysis of qualitative data in the larger study. Key findings illustrate need for additional attention to learning experiences in conflict management, delegation and supervision of clinical teams, and advocacy. Greater collaboration between educational and clinical agencies is needed to find mutually beneficial strategies to support nursing leadership development for nursing students and new graduates.

Dealing with a Latent Danger: Parents Communicating with Their Children about Smoking.

The purpose of this study was to understand parental approach to the topic of smoking with school-age preadolescent children. In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 parents and yielded a grounded theory that explains how parents communicated with their children about smoking. Parents perceived smoking to be a latent danger for their children. To deter smoking from occurring they verbally interacted with their children on the topic and took action by having a no-smoking rule. There were three interaction approaches, which differed by style and method of interaction. Most parents interacted by discussing smoking with their children. They intentionally took advantage of opportunities. Some interacted by telling their children about the health effects of smoking and their opposition to it. They responded on the spur-of-the-moment if their attention was drawn to the issue by external cues. A few interacted by acknowledging to their children the negative effects of smoking. They responded only when their children brought it up. The parents' intent for the no-smoking rule, which pertained mainly to their homes and vehicles, was to protect their children from second-hand smoke and limit exposure to smoking. The theory can be used by nurses to guide interventions with parents about youth smoking prevention.

Finding a balance: toward a substantive theory of employed mothers' personal and family health decision making.

PURPOSE: We investigated how mothers employed in support staff positions make personal and family health decisions. DESIGN: We used a critical feminist grounded theory design. METHODS: Twenty women employed at a large Canadian institution participated over two years in repeat interactive interviews. FINDINGS: "Finding a balance" was the emergent core process of health decision making in response to the basic social problem of multiple demands and uncoordinated, sometimes conflicting ideologies. Women emphasized recursive movement within a continuous process of four action phases: cueing in, figuring out, generating solutions, and assessing results. Two distinct views of finding a balance were revealed: weighing competing interests or harmonizing multiple interests. These distinctive views contributed to variation in women's approaches to decision making and to their personal and family health experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Women's experiences suggest a capacity for reflective practice in health decision making that provides an excellent basis for holistic, emancipatory nursing practice.

Employed mothers' worker ideology and social support network composition.

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine employed mothers' social support network composition in relation to their orientation to worker ideology. A reanalysis of data from two longitudinal, interview studies was conducted. Ecomaps were developed to depict women's social support network composition, revealing five types of support sources: household family, nonhousehold family, friends and neighbors, workplace, and formal services. A typology of diverse, restricted, and mixed networks, reflecting patterns in availability, consistency, and types of support sources, was identified and analyzed in relation to women's orientation to worker ideology. Women with innovator or conformist orientations to worker ideology tended to have mixed or diverse networks. Women with a conformist orientation did not utilize formal services but tended to have a supportive workplace. Most of the women who transitioned into an innovator orientation had available, consistent support, most notably from household family.