Describes a faculty development program designed to implement the concept of culture in clinical practice settings and to stimulate culturally focused nursing research. (JOW)

Third year medical students (n=26) participated in a pilot program of an entirely outpatient multispecialty clinic experience. Overall, 61 percent of outpatient encounters involved a surgical diagnosis currently managed entirely on an outpatient basis, illustrating the importance of this setting in broad student exposure to surgery and surgical…

Suggests that clinical social work methods will become increasingly problem-oriented in assessment, more active in intervention, more specific in setting treatment goals, briefer in duration, and more amenable to evaluation. Presents clinical-administrative model and discusses implications for social work education and research. (Author/NB)

Computerized Clinical Simulation Testing is an uncued, dynamic, interactive test that permits examinees to simulate the clinical decision-making skills used in the nursing management of client needs. It has the potential for helping boards of nursing to make more valid assessments about who is competent to practice nursing. (JOW)

Two occupational therapists rated 13 students after 1-week placements, using the Performance Evaluation of Occupational Therapy Students (PEOTS). The instrument had good interrater reliability but test-retest reliability was difficult to evaluate. Preliminary findings support the use of PEOTS as an evaluation tool. (JOW)

Notes that empirical clinical practice has become important approach to social work practice. Analyzes metatheoretical and methodological justification for empirical clinical practice. Based on analysis, concludes that argument for empirical clinical practice as dominant approach to social work practice is weak and that alternative approaches…

Interventions aimed at physicians' practice setting or reimbursement policy are more likely to effect change than those aimed at changing knowledge or skill, because of their greater relevance and opportunities for practice and feedback. Interventions should consider attitudes, abilities, and economic disincentives. (SK)

The revised Stetler model of research utilization has six phases: preparation, validation, comparative evaluation, decision making, translation/application, and evaluation. It can be used to facilitate application of nursing research findings at the practitioner level. (JOW)

Compared to 120 controls, 80 nursing students participating in international clinical-immersion experiences showed a significant increase in cultural self-efficacy and awareness, ability to overcome ethnocentrism, and ability to integrate patients' cultural beliefs into health-care practices. (SK)

Student Nurses in action is an interdisciplinary academic-service-research partnership model that brings health care to urban, suburban, and rural communities. A 5-year evaluation gave the program excellent ratings for cost-effectiveness, student experience, and quality of care. (SK)

Describes accountability methods built into practicums for school psychology trainees. Results of intervention-based services were summed across individual cases developed by trainees as a means of examining the overall effectiveness of the practicum experiences. Outcomes are reported as procedural adherence to the model of service delivery,…

A centralized relational database is used to manage information on advanced practice nursing students and their preceptors at Johns Hopkins University. The system relieves faculty of time-consuming tasks and enables rapid report generation, consistent tracking, and timely communications. (SK)

Clinical concept mapping promotes critical thinking and prepares nursing students for clinical experience by helping them organize patient data and view patients holistically. It aids their assessment of what they know and what they still need to learn. (SK)

In a study of 211 associate degree (AD) and 204 baccalaureate nursing students, AD students reported significantly higher stress in clinical practice. Stress for both groups increased as they progressed. Instructors were the predominant source of stress. Students had the most difficulty coping with the demands of patient care and the clinical…

A longitudinal study of nursing students showed that without sponsorship by clinical staff students found it difficult to participate and learn. The strategy of scaffolding, building on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, enables recognition of learning needs and the relationship between theory and practice. (SK)