New nurses seem unable to find a means of flourishing professionally in acute care practice and, consequently, exit far earlier than expected. Worldviews of baccalaureate students have changed from previous generations; yet, the approaches to nursing education remain essentially the same. Just as clinical settings benefit from nursing theory as the basis for nursing practice and scientific inquiry, the science of nursing education would benefit from nursing theory as a basis for guiding educational practice. Parse's human science theory, the Human Becoming School of Thought, is a fitting theoretical framework for a model of teaching-learning for undergraduate baccalaureate nursing education. In addition, as a theory of dynamic relational synchrony, Parse's work provides an appropriate framework with which to promote professional resilience and career longevity by purposefully engaging students within student-faculty dyads to explore personal meanings and philosophies of caring, and to create strong professional identities.
A middle range theory of professional resilience and career persistence makes visible skills and practices acute-care nurses use to weather continuous change and challenge in health care. Teachable practices can be integrated into nursing education and staff development to improve professional career longevity of experienced nurses at the bedside.
Successful nurses function effectively with adaptability, improvability, and interconnectedness, and can see emerging and unpredictable complex problems. Preparing new nurses for complexity requires a significant change in prevalent but dated nursing education models for rising graduates. The science of complexity coupled with problem-based learning and peer review contributes a feasible framework for a constructivist learning environment to examine real-time systems data; explore uncertainty, inherent patterns, and ambiguity; and develop skills for unstructured problem solving. This article describes a pilot study of a problem-based learning strategy guided by principles of complexity science in a community clinical nursing course. Thirty-five senior nursing students participated during a 3-year period. Assessments included peer review, a final project paper, reflection, and a satisfaction survey. Results were higher than expected levels of student satisfaction, increased breadth and analysis of complex data, acknowledgment of community as complex adaptive systems, and overall higher level thinking skills than in previous years.
Paradoxical tension of inertia-movement in the chronically ill elderly appears to be linked to the broader concept of energy in nursing science, and to Parse's theory of human becoming. Masterworks of art can generate energy exchange between the elderly and caregivers, providing a plausible catalyst for meaningful interventions that transcend age and practice settings.
Background and purpose:
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex metabolic disorder associated with clinical manifestations that could be psychologically distressing to adolescent girls considering the concern of body image during the developmental stage of adolescence. Poor psychological functioning is related to increased mortality, higher health care costs, and negative health outcomes. Coping has been identified as impacting health and adaptation to illness; therefore, the purpose was to examine coping and depression in adolescent girls with PCOS.
Methods:
Adolescent girls, aged 13–18 years and diagnosed with PCOS completed questionnaires regarding coping and depression and participated in interviews. A convergent, parallel, mixed-method design was used.
Conclusions:
Girls perceived very little control over the aspects of PCOS, with menstrual irregularities and the threat of infertility reported as the most stressful and least controllable aspects of PCOS. Lower control was a predictor of greater depression among the participants.
Implications for practice:
Providers should strive to establish rapport with adolescent girls and ask specifically about their concerns surrounding PCOS to provide meaningful health education. Providers should also be aware of the risk for depression among this population and should routinely screen patients and keep channels of communication open regarding the symptoms of depression.
Attributes of this pedagogical approach provide opportunity for prelicensure students to explore professional interdependence while adequately mastering fact-based content.
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