Considering a growing nurse shortage and the need for qualified nurses to handle increasingly complex patient care situations, how ethical beliefs are influenced and the consequences that can occur when moral conflicts of right and wrong arise need to be explored. The aim of this study was to explore influencers identified by nurses as having the most impact on the development of their ethical beliefs and whether these influencers might impact levels of moral distress and the potential for conscientious objection. Nurses whose ethical beliefs were most influenced by their religious beliefs scored higher in levels of moral distress and demonstrated greater differences in areas of conscientious objection than did nurses who developed their ethical beliefs from influencers such as family values, life and work experience, political views or the professional code of ethics.

Research during the past 40 years has reported negative attitudes toward older people by nurses and nursing students. To date, nurse educators' perceptions have not been specifically studied. Interview data from 14 baccalaureate nurse educators using a grounded theory approach described their personal perspectives related to long-term care settings. The study highlighted four major themes that clearly supported the view that these nurse educators harbored many of the same negative perspectives that nurses, nursing students, and other health care providers have about long-term care settings. One gerontology nurse specialist shed some positive perspectives on this topic. This study makes a recommendation for gerontology specialists to be directly involved in nurse education. Future research is needed with culturally diverse nurse educators in other national and international nursing programs.

This study aimed to explore and compare expectations of syllabi between students and faculty in a university baccalaureate nursing department. Knowing what students expect from syllabi can lead to improved student success and may reduce faculty time in clarifying class policies. Faculty and nursing students from eight semesters volunteered to complete a survey exploring syllabi definitions, pertinent content, and the importance of student involvement in syllabi development. The findings suggest there are differences between faculty and student perceptions regarding important syllabi content. Students wanted syllabi that provided the nuts and bolts of how to accomplish each assignment and course requirement most efficiently. Faculty preferred information about student behavior, such as student conduct, participation, and attendance rules. Adult Learning Theory was used to explain these differences. This article points out that faculty may not be as in touch with the needs of adult learners as they claim to be.

A baccalaureate nursing (BSN) program is using the philosophy of adult learning as a tenet of curriculum development. This philosophical approach is to support the uniqueness of the adult learner. Are nursing faculty composing course syllabi in a way that allows accommodations for adult learners' complex lives? Which syllabi items, if any, would adult learners negotiate? This descriptive study was part of a larger study conducted by the same researchers that compared nursing faculty and student expectations of syllabi. One hundred ninety-nine BSN students reported they would ask for syllabi accommodations and identified the rationale for doing so. The most frequently selected accommodation to be negotiated was assignment deadlines (46%), followed by attendance requirements (35%) and testing deadlines (28%). Personal or family issues was identified by more than 80% of students as the reason they would request a change.

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