Teaching baccalaureate nursing students in clinical settings: development and testing of the Clinical Teaching Knowledge Test.

Seasoned clinical teachers are in short supply and high demand. Although many nursing programs have developed orientation programs for new clinical teachers, many issues arise when students are assigned to health care and community agencies. This study developed and tested the Clinical Teaching Knowledge Test (CTKT), a 40-item multiple-choice test. Items were based on clinical teaching literature and clinical vignettes provided by experienced nursing faculty. A convenience sample (n = 160) of faculty who taught prelicensure students attending baccalaureate programs completed the second version of the test. Proportion correct index, point biserial correlation, and Kuder-Richardson 20 statistics are reported. Proportion correct indexes less than .75 revealed that items testing legal responsibilities to patients, student-faculty relations, counseling approaches, education theory in clinical teaching, students' legal rights, and nursing administrators' rights and responsibilities challenged participants. Results of future testing may help faculty members plan workshops that foster explorations of areas to improve clinical teaching and provide a stimulus for ongoing conversation and reflection about clinical teaching. Additional testing of the CTKT is necessary.

Defining the boundaries of the nurse faculty role.

Professional boundaries are society-defined limits that provide a safe place where relationships can evolve. Although frequently discussed in the mental health and counseling literature, discussion on boundaries regarding the nurse faculty role is sparse. The author explores the concept of professional boundaries, discusses its application to nurse faculty, and provides recommendations for faculty development and orientation programs.

Mentoring adjunct faculty: innovative solutions.

Rising enrollments in schools of nursing have increased the demand for qualified nursing faculty. In the midst of a nurse faculty shortage, many academic institutions are relying on adjunct faculty to fill the gap. The increasing number of adjunct faculty and their need for orientation to the faculty role presents a challenge to schools and departments of nursing. The authors discuss innovative solutions to these challenges.

Perinatal litigation and related nursing issues.

Obstetric and neonatal nurses are expected to provide an abundance of guidance, support, monitoring, and education to women and their babies during and after delivery. Nurses should adhere to standards of professional nursing practice. This will ensure that optimal and safe care is provided for the mother and fetus or neonate. Perinatal nurses are vulnerable to litigation should complications occur. Perinatal nurses are responsible for providing routine assessments as well as initiating and performing emergency interventions. This includes recognition of the symptoms of complications in the mother and the neonate, resuscitation, and activation of the emergency system. Occasionally, nurses are obliged to question the practice of other health care providers. Although perinatal nurses continue to be at risk for malpractice vulnerability, risk reduction techniques are available to them. This article provides the nurse with knowledge of legal proceedings and strategies to reduce liability when caring for pregnant women and newborns.

Adult student satisfaction in traditional and accelerated RN-to-BSN programs.

The pressures and complexities that the registered nurse (RN) encounters in today's health care system have motivated many RNs to return to college to obtain their baccalaureate degrees. Competition among institutions of higher education has led faculty to develop and offer more nontraditional delivery models of nursing education. In developing these new models of educational delivery, it is important for faculty to determine what items of education are essential to adult learners. A survey was conducted to assess two delivery formats, traditional and accelerated, for a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program for RNs. The goal of the research was to determine what items of education are essential to students and whether one group of students was more satisfied with one delivery system over the other. Items of importance and the concomitant level of satisfaction were surveyed by using an adult students' priorities scale. The survey was distributed to 53 RN students. The results demonstrated that the students in the accelerated format were more satisfied with the institution, program, and services than the students in the traditional format.

Interim leadership in an era of change.

As dean and chair positions in baccalaureate programs in nursing are vacated, the role of the interim leader can emerge as a confusing yet crucial role during the interregnum. This can occur even if the new administrator has had a faculty role at the institution. Without a comprehensive orientation or mentorship, the interim administrator may find the role perplexing and question which tactics they need to exercise to meet the expectations of the university, faculty, and stakeholders. The following article depicts a paradigm that the interim chair may employ to achieve the goals of the institution and department. An amalgamation of leadership theories and concepts create a framework for the interim leader to employ as the search for a permanent replacement ensues. The interim chair may be able to apply some of the relevant theories and discover that there are a plethora of resources within the nursing community to assist the individual in creating a positive impact within the academic setting.