We need nurses to accept the call to leadership to achieve Sigma’s mission of improving the health of all people. Nurses function as leaders daily by inspiring, educating, and advocating for patients, families, communities, ...

Purpose:  The clinical nurse specialist (CNS) mentored a unit based staff nurse as Champion of Performance Improvement through nursing’s shared governance council. Significance: Within shared governance, nurses are empowered to make decisions about practice, quality, and development. A staff nurse, acting as a unit based champion, can role-model effective decision making affecting clinical practice and patient outcomes. Performance improvement is one area that benefits from staff nurse participation. CNSs can be instrumental in developing staff nurse knowledge of and skills in performance improvement. Background: The CNS identified within the shared governance structure at a large, public hospital that identification and development of a unit based champion was one method to advance practice. A staff nurse, serving as a unit champion, is expected to act as a practice leader for improved patient outcomes. Performance improvement was an area selected for the unit champion initiative. Description: The CNS initiated a mentored experience for a medical-surgical staff nurse Champion of Performance Improvement. Teaching and coaching were the primary strategies. The staff nurse champion learned to describe problem significance, review evidence, identify needed changes, establish goals aligned with organizational mission, determine methods for evaluation, and mobilize resources.  Expected outcomes for the mentored experience included collecting and analyzing data; collaborating to identify resources; designing strategies to improve outcomes using feedback to reinforce practice changes and disseminating results of performance improvement to stakeholders at unit and organizational levels. Outcome: Three performance improvement projects were implemented by the staff nurse Champion for Performance Improvement under the mentorship of the CNS. The staff nurse evaluated the mentored experience as most valuable in developing knowledge and skills for conducting unit based performance improvement. The shared governance structure was pleased with the mentoring experience provided by the CNS. Interpretation: CNS mentorship of a staff nurse was a successful strategy for developing a Champion for Performance Improvement. Implications: CNS competencies in teaching, coaching and mentoring can support the professional development of a staff nurse and can contribute to overall shared governance initiatives to empower nursing staff....

A recent study has indicated that primary care providers hold comparable and possibly more negative attitudes towards persons with mental illness than the general public (Mittal et al., 2016b). Because of their regular ...

This is book is the first edition of nursing service and nursing education in ASEAN. This is the result of international nursing symposium involving many nursing leaders from ten ASEAN countries, conducted by the Faculty ...

The clinical instructor may use prompts to guide the student through elements of critical thinking. The prompts are leveled according to Bloom’s Taxonomy to assist the instructor in cultivating the student’s higher- level ...

Aim: To develop a reliable and valid instrument for self-assessment of perceived level 3 informatics specialist and level 4 informatics innovator competencies in selected informatics activities.

Vulnerable groups with respect to health care are those susceptible to heightened adverse physical, psychological, or sociological health because of their particular status within society (De Chesnay & Anderson, 2008). ...

The QSEN Competencies include implementation of quality improvement strategies, evidence-based practice, patient safety, integration of informatics into patient care and health management, patient centeredness in care ...

An online community was created to support a cohort of undergraduate nursing students in their final capstone course positioned in different cities acrosst he country. It was developed to facilitate collaborative learnign ...

Nursing faculty are challenged to provide baccalaureate nursing students with a basic understanding of the important concepts, as well as fostering an appreciation for nursing research that will ultimately be integrated into their future practice.  An experiential learning activity similar to Thiel’s Great American Cookie Experiment was implemented on the first day of a nursing research course.  This experiential activity introduced accelerated baccalaureate nursing students to key concepts and the process of nursing research.  The concepts incorporated into this activity were qualitative and quantitative research methods, sampling techniques, data collection and measurement, legal and ethical considerations of engaging in nursing research, as well as other concepts related to the research process.  Students readily engaged in the activity.  Surveys were administered at the start and the completion of the semester to obtain student feedback regarding their perceptions and understanding of nursing research.  A positive change in student responses was noted....