A measure to evaluate classroom teaching practices in nursing.

AIM: The Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE) Classroom Teaching Fidelity Scale was created to measure the implementation of the OCNE curriculum and its related pedagogy. BACKGROUND: OCNE is a partnership of eight community colleges and the five-campus state-supported university. OCNE developed a shared competency-based curriculum and pedagogical practices. An essential part of the OCNE evaluation was to measure the extent the curriculum and pedagogical model were implemented on each partner campus. METHOD: The scale was developed using a multistep methodology, including review of the literature and OCNE guidelines and materials, frequent consultation with local and national advisory boards, and multiple observations of OCNE classrooms over a two-year period. RESULTS: Fidelity scores are reported for 10 OCNE colleges observed in 2009. CONCLUSlON: The creation and use of this fidelity scale and similar measures may contribute to the emerging science of nursing education by more clearly documenting educational reform efforts..

Factors affecting the academic progression of associate degree graduates.

The Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE) is a coalition of community colleges and the campuses of the Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU), created to share a competency-based curriculum by which associate degree graduates from an OCNE campus are eligible to complete requirements for the bachelor's degree after 1 year of additional full-time study. Since 2006, three graduating classes from consortium community college programs have graduated 760 students eligible for direct transfer to OHSU; however, only 228 (30%) have actually transferred. This study aimed to explore the factors that influenced the 208 graduates in the class of 2010 not to transfer. The primary reasons for discontinuing their nursing education, in ranked order, were financial concerns, conflict with time and energy for work, and conflict with time and energy for family. This study has implications for achieving the academic progression goals recommended in the Institute of Medicine's The Future of Nursing report.