Clinical nursing instructors are continually telling their students that they just need more confidence. But how do students find this needed confidence and how can nursing instructors help them? The author discusses sources and principles of confidence in relationship to teaching behaviors and strategies for increasing self-confidence, such as simulations, peer modeling, story telling, skill review sessions, and journaling.

Arginine is a stabilizing element in both thermophilic and low molecular weight proteins. Similarly Lys+-->Arg+ substitutions increase the helix content of designed helical peptides. Here we explore this 'arginine effect' by examining how Lys+-->Arg+ substitutions influence the 3(10)-helix-->alpha-helix equilibrium in the helical peptide Ac-(AAAAK)3A-NH2. The unsubstituted sequence contains a significant amount of 3(10)-helix, however, single Lys+-->Arg+ substitutions shift the peptide conformation toward alpha-helix in a position-dependent fashion. The single substitution closest to the carboxy terminus induces the largest conformational change at the helix amino terminus. These findings suggest that a single strategically-placed arginine can exert long range control on helix structure.

Kinetic analysis of the time-dependent data suggests a model whereby the amorphous aggregate has a previously unsuspected dual role: it releases monomer into solution and also provides initiation sites for fibril growth. These findings suggest that the beta-sheet-rich PrPSc may be stabilized by aggregation.

Students often have misconceptions regarding the reality of nursing and the opportunities available to nurses that sometimes result in poor choices related to pursuing nursing as a career. To help prenursing students make better-informed career decisions and address misunderstandings, faculty developed the DVD and Web site Perspectives on Nursing, a collection of 15 nurse interviews. The authors describe and discuss the project, the value of recorded nurses' stories, analysis of student feedback, and recommendations.

The impact of a cultural awareness course among nursing students may affect the particular person for years to come. Cultural awareness can be taught via many methods, often requiring study abroad and/or extreme investment of time, money and effort. There is little research on sustained effects on nursing alumni from such a course. The purpose of this descriptive survey study was to determine the long term outcomes of a cultural awareness course and 2) compare the long term effects between alumni who went abroad and those who chose to complete the course locally. One hundred and twenty-one nursing alumni completed the International Education Survey (IES) (Zorn, 1996) with additional open-ended questions. Quantitative and qualitative results concluded: 1) nursing alumni were influenced long term by a course dedicated to public and global health and 2) all alumni had statistically significant IES scores but alumni who studied abroad had the greatest increase.

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