Spatial variability of total dissolved copper and copper speciation in the inshore waters of Bermuda.

Total dissolved copper (Cu) and Cu speciation were examined from inshore waters of Bermuda, in October 2009 and July-August 2010, to determine the relationship between total dissolved Cu, Cu-binding ligands and bioavailable, free, hydrated Cu(2+) concentrations. Speciation was performed using competitive ligand exchange-adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (CLE-ACSV). Mean total dissolved Cu concentrations ranged from 1.4 nM to 19.2 nM, with lowest concentrations at sites further from shore, consistent with previous measurements in the Sargasso Sea, and localized Cu enrichment inshore in enclosed harbors. Ligand concentrations exceeded dissolved [Cu] at most sites, and [Cu(2+)] were correspondingly low at those sites, typically <10(-13) M. One site, Hamilton Harbour, was found to have [Cu] in excess of ligands, resulting in [Cu(2+)] of 10(-10.7) M, and indicating that Cu may be toxic to phytoplankton here.

Enacting narrative pedagogy. The lived experiences of students and teachers.

Reforming nursing education to meet contemporary challenges in educational and clinical environments is needed through the development and implementation of new pedagogies. Nancy Diekelmann is advancing the science of nursing education by describing a new phenomenological pedagogy, Narrative Pedagogy, identified through interpretive research in nursing education. Narrative Pedagogy is an approach to reforming nursing education that is always site specific and not generalizable from school to school. However, the processes of Narrative Pedagogy are transferable and can be enacted in many contexts. This study describes the common experiences and shared meanings of teachers and students engaging in or enacting Narrative Pedagogy. Diekelmann gathered seven teachers and students in five schools of nursing in four midwestern states to share their experiences. Interpretive phenomenology was used to analyze the group interview. One of the findings identified during this analysis, Enacting Narrative Pedagogy, is explicated, and two themes, Decentering Skill Acquisition and Content and Attending to the Practices of Thinking, are described.

Toward a narrative-centered curriculum for nurse practitioners.

This paper discusses various alternative and nontraditional teaching strategies currently used in nurse practitioner curricula. These instructional strategies include case-study analysis (Ryan-Wenger & Lee, 1997) and problem-based learning/practice-based learning (Barrows, 1994). We suggest a further evolution, using principles and practices of a narrative pedagogy (Diekelmann, 1995) to allow convergence of these several narratively-focused inductive and interpretive approaches. This combination of ways of learning has led us toward a narrative-centered curriculum for family nurse practitioners (FNPs). Specific ways to use narrative in the FNP curriculum are presented to demonstrate how to take the curriculum beyond traditional ways of teaching and learning.

Essential elements in a qualitative dissertation proposal.

This article clarifies the requirements of a qualitative research proposal, specifically a qualitative doctoral dissertation. The recommendations will be useful to graduate students and faculty members who are writing a qualitative proposal for the first time or who are critiquing one. A summary of assumptions of non-traditional research paradigms as they apply to inquiry design, a suggestion of the contents of the first three chapters of a qualitative dissertation (usually included in a dissertation proposal), and suggestions for ensuring rigor in the design and conduct of the dissertation research are included.

Primary health care of elderly women.

Traditional health care of the expanding elderly population has focused on illness diagnosis and management. However, because more individuals, women especially, are living longer and living better, the emphasis should be shifted and modified to include primary health care for elderly people. Primary health care includes active health promotion and health maintenance, prevention of illness or disability, and attention to the quality as much as to the quantity of life. Unfortunately, the health concerns of elderly women, especially the oldest-old groups who live more or less independently, have been addressed inadequately in medical and nursing literature. Routine approaches to health care for women aged 70 and older must consider women's apparent hardiness, potential social isolation, and unique worries about safety and independence. Nurse practitioners in adult health, family practice, and gerontology must expand their repertoire of health promotion and health maintenance strategies to meet the needs of this special population. This article outlines the role of the nurse practitioner in the care of the well elderly woman.

Using fourth-generation evaluation in nursing.

Evaluation is disciplined inquiry undertaken to determine the value, including merit and worth, of some entity: a curriculum program, a clinical intervention, an academic course, a care plan. An evaluation is conducted to improve or refine the thing being evaluated (evaluand) or to assess its impact and effectiveness. Evaluation in nursing has been designed using various positivistic and post-positivistic models in the first three "generations" in the evolution of evaluation practice. This article describes a new model of nursing evaluation more consistent with a nursing paradigm than with a traditional, scientific, medical paradigm. Responsive nursing evaluation informs and empowers all those involved in its outcomes (the stakeholders) when framed within the research stance called naturalistic or constructivist inquiry. The fourth-generation-evaluation approach of Guba and Lincoln (1989) is consistent with a nursing paradigm and a constructivist approach. Fourth-generation evaluation is presented with specific application to nursing evaluation.