Nursing doctoral program evaluation: Alumni outcomes.

Meaningful examination of program outcomes is one of the most challenging tasks facing faculty and administrators involved in the design and delivery of educational programs. This article reports the outcomes for one doctoral program in nursing and elucidates salient conceptual and methodologic issues in educational outcomes research for this discipline. Career development, scholarly productivity, and professional leadership were the foci of this outcomes study. Three instruments were used; data were provided by alumni, graduate faculty, and alumni supervisors. Data analysis techniques included content analysis and descriptive and correlational statistics. Results showed that graduates embarked on diverse career paths with the majority employed in academic institutions. Most graduates reported active involvement in research, publications, presentations, and professional leadership. Employment pattern differences were noted between academic year and summer-only program graduates with associated divergence in career emphasis, research productivity, and job satisfaction. A positive correlation of time since degree conferral with scholarly productivity and professional leadership was noted. Recommendations for future research include refining outcomes, linking process to outcome, using longitudinal designs, and attending to unique nursing student and doctoral program characteristics.

Parental risk factors for infant obesity.

PURPOSE: To facilitate an understanding of the influence of parental characteristics on the development of infant obesity. DESIGN: Conducted in collaboration with a NIH-funded study of infant growth, this study employed a longitudinal prospective design. METHODS: Anthropometric measures were obtained monthly and home visits were conducted five times through 15 months of age. The sample was 630 infants and their families. Information about parental characteristics was obtained from the Demographic and Perinatal Data Questionnaire, developed by the investigators of the NIH study. The modified version of Holmes and Rahe Recent Life Change Questionnaire was used to assess family stress. RESULTS: Parental characteristics predictive of obesity varied across age, and included the maternal variables of weight, weight gain, age, and smoking. Father's presence in the home, parental education, marital status, and socioeconomic status were not significant. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings in this research contribute insights into parental risk factors for early obesity. Recommendations include eliminating prenatal smoking and controlling prepregnancy weight and pregnancy weight gain.

Effect of maternal prenatal smoking on infant growth and development of obesity.

It is well-documented that infants born to smoking mothers weigh less at birth than infants born to nonsmoking mothers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of prenatal smoking on the development of later infant obesity. Evidence suggests prenatally smoke-exposed infants catch up in weight by age 6 months, although results of this accelerated growth are inconsistent across the body of research literature. In this descriptive study of 630 infants, catch-up growth rate continued and smoke-affected infants were more likely to be obese than their nonsmoke-affected counterparts from age 6 to 14 months. The findings of this study provide insight about the potential effects of maternal prenatal smoking on the risk of early obesity. This paper also discusses the importance of assisting mothers to cease smoking while pregnant.