Paired practica as a pedagogical process in holistic nursing curriculum development.

Nurses have long advocated for significant transformations in the way that care is offered. Among advanced holistic nursing programs, there are no particular models for developing curricula and practica. This article describes a pedagogical process of a holistic health assessment as a context for paired practica of graduate and undergraduate nursing students to simultaneously engage in knowledge discovery.

Pursuing meaning and purpose in life among Thai adolescents living with HIV: a grounded theory study.

This grounded theory study aimed to understand how Thai adolescents living with HIV pursued meaning and purpose in life. Data were gathered from 11 adolescents in southern Thailand who were between ages 18 and 20 years, and who had lived with HIV for 2 or more years. Purposive and theoretical sampling techniques were used to recruit the participants. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observations, and field notes. Strauss and Corbin's (1998) grounded theory method guided data analysis. The core category of "pursuing meaning and purpose in life among Thai adolescents living with HIV" emerged out of a recursive process of uncertainty, inferiority, self-realization, and growth that comprised three categories: (a) condition: realizing self-value, (b) strategy: being connected to prolonging life, and (c) consequence: achieving peace and calm. The findings enhance knowledge that would benefit nurses helping adolescents living with HIV find meaning and purpose in life.

The covered wagon journey: student chronicles in advanced holistic nursing.

This article recounts the experiences of a first cohort of graduate students in a newly implemented advanced holistic nursing (AHN) track, one of only a handful in the nation, and the first in Florida. The increasing popularity of complementary and alternative healing processes represents the insufficiency of a health system of fragmented care and a desire for holistic healing that is beyond mainstream allopathic care. Graduate holistic nurse education equips nurses to explore the commitment needed to advance the evolution of health care. The covered wagon journey is a metaphor for this meaningful participation. Students journaled their experiences as cotravelers in a lone wagon: embarking on a courageous journey, forging a path of discovery, and reaching their destination as pioneers. This cohort experience embodied the central tenets of holistic nursing, thus creating conscious change and unity within a learning community. The future of AHN is addressed in the context of the contemporary health care environment.

Curriculum as environment: a focus group study.

Curricula development is critical for the advancement and evolution of holistic nursing education. Although the American Holistic Nurses Association offers advanced practice board certification for graduate nurses, there is a scarcity of available graduate holistic nursing courses and curricula. The researchers developed a curriculum for an advanced holistic nursing program at a university college of nursing in South Florida. The curriculum and process of development were presented at a workshop during a national holistic nursing conference. A portion of the workshop included an opportunity for attendees to voluntarily participate in a focus group research study. The specific aim of the research was to determine the best approaches for the development of curricula for the promotion of graduate holistic nurse education based on the insights of holistic nurses, nurse educators, nurse practitioners, and scholars. A content analysis identified 3 themes that addressed holistic nursing curriculum: (1) consider curriculum as an evolving blueprint for personal and professional growth; (2) embrace the uniqueness of students; and (3) encourage faculty to co-create the learning environment.

Creating a graduate holistic nursing program.

In Spring 2010, an innovative Master of Science in Holistic Nursing track was launched in as the realization of a vision for graduate holistic nursing held by the faculty of the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing in Palm Beach County. As 1 of 6 such tracks in the nation and the only holistic master's program in Florida, there were few guideposts to lead the way. The development of holistic nurse education that answered to student, community, and faculty needs within an unpredictable health care environment involved courage, commitment, and risk taking. The purpose of this article is to describe the philosophical foundations, professional framework, and development process that gave form and shape to the advanced holistic nursing track.

Altering the acid/alkaline balance of water via the use of an intention-host device.

BACKGROUND: The research presented in this article has satisfactorily followed the earlier protocols of the last 2 authors and has successfully replicated their earlier work, which utilized an intention-host device to increase the pH of highly purified water in equilibrium with air by approximately +1 pH units at room temperature with no intentional chemical additions. METHODS: In addition, the present experimental research, by the first 2 authors, breaks important new ground by revealing examples of both (1) different time-dependent pH-profiles than found in the earlier work and (2) a very nontraditional order of chemical-like reaction kinetics than has heretofore been observed. CONCLUSIONS: The time-dependence behavior of these reaction sequences support the hypothesis that such intention-host devices can produce a significant measure of coupling between two uniquely different, and normally noninteracting, levels of physical reality that exhibit a reciprocal-type of substance behavior.

Gleaning wisdom in the research on caring.

Light is the metaphor for wisdom; we seek and turn toward light as we seek and reach for wisdom, personally and professionally. The purpose of human life is, as Jung noted, kindling the light of meaning to illuminate the darkness. Nursing caring, focusing on the wholeness of persons regardless of life experiences, events, or circumstances, is intimately bound with wisdom, acquired both professionally and personally. In order to glean the wisdom reflected in current nursing research on caring, the author reviewed studies conducted from 2003 to 2008. Only a sampling of the 99 studies found are included here. Patients, students, nurse leaders, and administrators were asked what caring means and how it can be improved; ways to measure and evaluate caring were tested. This body of work can be used to enlighten nurses on the process of caring and how we teach our students to care.

Oncology nursing education: teaching strategies that work.

Faculty at a university school of nursing developed an innovative oncology nursing elective designed to enhance baccalaureate students' knowing and aesthetic appreciation of persons living with cancer. Following completion of the course, students rank ordered class activities they felt would help them most in their nursing careers. Students chose the cancer survivor interview first, followed by a seminar on spirituality and a clinical inquiry project. The implementation and outcomes of these three activities are described. Evaluative comments confirmed that experiential activities enhanced students' knowing of themselves and their patients.