Nursing Outlook RSS feed: Current Issue. Nursing Outlook provides innovative ideas for leaders in the nursing profession through peer-reviewed articles and timely reports. Each issue examines current issues and trends in nursing practice, education, and research, offering progressive solutions to the problems facing the profession. The journal serves nursing educators, policy makers, administrators, and practitioners with practical advice, new teaching methods and recruiting techniques, curriculum and heath policy developments, and information on proposals that will affect the profession. Nursing Outlook is included in MEDLINE, CINAHL and the Journal Citation Reports®. http://www.nursingoutlook.org/?rss=yesElsevier Inc.en © 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Nursing Outlook0029-6554581January 2010 © 2010 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. healthpermissions@elsevier.comhttp://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002413/abstract?rss=yesInformation for Authors10.1016/S0029-6554(09)00241-3Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2e1e1http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002346/abstract?rss=yes“Costly thy habit [dress] as thy purse can buy; But not expressed in fancy–rich, not gaudy. For the apparel oft proclaims the man.”— William Shakespeare, ‘Hamlet’ Act I Scene IIIThe current economic challenges in higher education are like few, if any, we have experienced before. In past recessions, universities may have delayed or passed over annual raises, but rarely did faculty find themselves in the position of being furloughed or having a permanent pay reduction levied. Now, in some disciplines, faculty have even been “let go” and entire departments closed. Fortunately, this has not happened in nursing—yet. As a citizen of one of the few states that have come late to the downturn, I am often silent but carefully listen to my dean colleagues as they discuss how financial events have affected them, their faculty and schools. They share, with much consternation and discomfort, the painful decisions they have made—and will continue to make—to reduce costs while trying to maintain productivity and quality. That is quite an order. Oh, we have been there before. But this time it is about more than just money. It is about people, time, effort, and conserving the resources we have.At what cost? Stewardship of our most important resourcesMarion E. Broome10.1016/j.outlook.2009.12.001Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2From the Editor12http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS002965540900236X/abstract?rss=yesThroughout the last decade, the leadership of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) has refined the Academy's mission and developed a series of specific, strategic plans to accomplish that mission. The mission of the AAN is to serve the public and nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis, and dissemination of nursing knowledge. Our stated vision is to transform health and health care policy and practice through nursing knowledge. At the AAN's November 2009 Annual Meeting, outgoing President Pamela Mitchell provided a comprehensive report of the organization's strategic accomplishments as guided by the strategic plan that is coming to a close. (The 2009 AAN's Annual Report is available at http://www.aannet.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4217.) As to be expected in any dynamic organization, the process of strategic review is cyclic; the time has come for the Academy to review and recommit to our strategic priorities.On the importance of being policy-readyCatherine L. Gilliss10.1016/j.outlook.2009.12.003Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2President's Message34http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002292/abstract?rss=yesTo the Editor: Dr. Wanda Mohr, deploring the torture perpetrated by Americans on prisoners at Guantanamo in an essay in the September-October issue of Nursing Outlook, called upon the American Academy of Nursing to develop a strong policy statement on torture and ratify it at the annual meeting. Dr. Mohr's commentary prompted me to search the archives of the journal that I edit, Issues in Mental Health Nursing. I remembered that the journal had published a policy statement on torture issued by the American Academy of Nursing in 2001. Brought forward to the larger body by the Expert Panel on Violence, the policy statement included 4 goals for the nursing profession: (1) incorporating the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights into nursing education and practice; (2) speaking forcefully and compassionately to denounce torture in all appropriate venues; (3) supporting the establishment of treatment centers for survivors of torture; and (4) conducting nursing research regarding the prevalence of torture and outcomes of treatment for victims. Additionally, the statement recommended support of a conference or institute on torture, inclusion of training in psychiatric nurse practitioner programs regarding treatment of victims, and several other actions of the Academy.Letter to the EditorSandra P. Thomas10.1016/j.outlook.2009.11.004Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor55http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002164/abstract?rss=yesTo the editor: I read with interest the editorial “Reflections on courage” in the September/October 2009 issue of the journal that discussed nurses' possible participation in the torture and abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo. The statement that “…no one in nursing had taken up this ‘call to action’” is incorrect. In the October 2004 issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), I wrote an editorial that addressed this important matter. I pointed out that the American nursing community had said little on the topic. In the same issue, we published a continuing education article on caring for survivors of torture, in recognition that torture is widespread in the world and we may be living next to or caring for someone who has been one of its victims.Letter to the EditorDiana J. Mason10.1016/j.outlook.2009.10.006Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor56http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002280/abstract?rss=yesTo the editor: Dr. Mohr's letter to the editor commenting on nursing journal reviews (Nursing Outlook, September/October 2009) is timely. She asks if there are editor's handbooks or a similar resource. As a matter of fact, as we read the letter, we were putting the finishing touches on “The Editor's Handbook: An Online Resource and CE Course” which we have co-authored. It is being published by Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins and will be available online at www.nursingcenter.com in the fourth quarter of 2009. The online book is meant to help editors in exactly the manner suggested by Dr. Mohr. We would also point those interested in the topic of journals and reviews to the recent group of articles published in the nursing literature by Baggs, Broome, Dougherty, Kearney, and Freda detailing results from a survey of international nursing peer reviewers, their views, interests, and desire for training.Letter to the EditorLeslie H. Nicoll, Margaret Comerford Freda10.1016/j.outlook.2009.11.003Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor66http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002176/abstract?rss=yesTo the editor: I applaud the focus on ethics and moral courage in the September/October 2009 issue of Nursing Outlook. As a member of the American Nurses Association Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board, it is always gratifying to see heightened interest on ethics as it relates to issues within our profession. However, as an active duty military nurse and President of the Federal Nurses Association, a constituent member of the American Nurses Association, I am troubled to see military nurses implicated in unsubstantiated unethical behavior such as torture and abuse of detainees. As Lieutenant General Schoomaker pointed out in his commentary, there is no evidence that military nurses participated in torture and abuse of detainees.Letter to the EditorJohn S. Murray10.1016/j.outlook.2009.10.007Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor67http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001444/abstract?rss=yesTo the editor: I read with interest the article by Dr. Kristine Gebbie, “20th century reports on nursing and nursing education: What difference did they make?” (Nursing Outlook 2009;57(2): 84–92). Although I think that Dr. Gebbie's careful review of previous reports on nursing education is of importance to the profession, I disagree with her conclusion that “nursing may remain in its rut until it can accept the recommendations for full professionalism.” She appears to be saying that nursing is to blame for not acting on the recommendations as did medicine, and suggests that this is because we are an oppressed group. I agree that nursing has a history of oppression and powerlessness, but would suggest that it is exactly because we have not had power and privilege that our history is different, not because there is something inadequate about us.Letter to the EditorSusan J. Roberts10.1016/j.outlook.2009.08.006Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor78http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS002965540900133X/abstract?rss=yesTo the Editor: Thank you for your recent issue, “Special Focus on Partnerships.” In today's healthcare crisis, partnering with other agencies to improve the healthcare system in any way is to be applauded. I was especially interested in the article “Partnering with rural communities to meet the demand for a qualified nursing workforce.” I was encouraged by the community's willingness and enthusiasm to provide more highly educated nurses.Letter to the EditorHeidi Penney10.1016/j.outlook.2009.07.007Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Letters to the Editor89http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001201/abstract?rss=yesAlthough nurses historically have responded to natural disasters, little is known about nurses' intentions to respond during bioterrorism and other infectious disease emergencies where they and their families may be at risk. To investigate that question, we surveyed nurses following their participation in a class on bioterrorism. Participants (N = 292) completed a Personal/Professional Profile (PPP), Test of Bioterrorism Knowledge (BT Knowledge), and an Intention to Respond (IR) instrument. IR was measured by participants' scores on their likelihood to care for patients (0 = extremely unlikely, 10 = extremely likely) for each of 10 infectious disease scenarios reflecting different infection risk. We calculated scores for each scenario, totaled them, and examined the total IR related to the participant's PPP and scores on BT Knowledge. Additionally, we examined participants' written comments explaining the reasons for their IR. Total IR scores ranged from 8-100 (mean and median of 70). The IR was higher in scenarios where the infection risk was lower. Overall IR scores were positively related to BT Knowledge and having had previous emergency and disaster experience. Those less likely to respond had dependent children and more years in nursing. Results indicate that nurses differentiated risks associated with different infectious disease situations and may decide to respond during a real emergency based on such information. Implications for nursing administrators and nursing educators are discussed.Nurses' intentions to respond to bioterrorism and other infectious disease emergenciesDeanna E. Grimes, Elnora P. Mendias10.1016/j.outlook.2009.07.002Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Practice1016http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409000864/abstract?rss=yesThis study examined factors that were determined to lead to failures in reporting medication administration errors (MAEs) for 838 frontline nurses from 5 teaching hospitals in Taiwan. The underreporting of these errors is a challenge to medication safety improvement. Results showed that 337 (47%) participating nurses had failed to report self- or coworker-MAEs and 376 nurses (52.4%) had not failed to report. The strongest predictors of the failure were experience of making MAEs, differences in attitude toward reporting self- and coworker-MAEs, and perceived MAE reporting rate in current work. The reporting barriers of fear, perception of nursing quality, and perception of nursing professional development significantly contributed to failure to report. Educating nurses about the goals of incident reporting systems and using MAE data to enhance patient safety culture is recommended. Further, hospital administrators should provide information and encouragement to nurses whose responsibility it is to report MAEs.Factors determining hospital nurses' failures in reporting medication errors in TaiwanHui-Ying Chiang, Shu-Yuan Lin, Su-Chen Hsu, Shu-Ching Ma10.1016/j.outlook.2009.06.001Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Practice1725http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409000736/abstract?rss=yesThis paper was originally written as a policy white paper and is formatted accordingly. Each section begins with bulleted assertions that summarize key points. The leading bullets are then followed by supporting evidence.Nurses transforming health care using genetics and genomicsKathleen A. Calzone, Ann Cashion, Suzanne Feetham, Jean Jenkins, Cynthia A. Prows, Janet K. Williams, Shu-Fen Wung10.1016/j.outlook.2009.05.001Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2009-06-17Nursing Outlook2009-06-17581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Practice2635http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001912/abstract?rss=yesThe expansion of US doctoral research programs raises questions about mentorship capacity, program quality, and decisions about future expansion. To describe capacity issues and, when possible, compare findings to those of an earlier study, a survey of US nursing research doctoral programs (n = 105) was conducted in 2008. The response rate was 84.8%. The Web sites of non-responding schools were reviewed providing some data from all programs. The mean ratio of students per current externally funded grant was 6.9 (SD 7.5) to 1. The mean ratio of student to ever-funded faculty was 8.3 (SD 8.3) to 1. The mean number of research activities required (out of 5 possible) was 1.8 (SD 1.4), and the most common was a research practica (77%), followed by attendance at a research meeting external to the school (37%), and submitting an article for publication (32%). The quality of many programs may be compromised by capacity issues. Attention to existing programs' requirements and capacities and determination of the roles of these variables in producing research competitive graduates is needed.Defining and describing capacity issues in US doctoral nursing research programsAnn F. Minnick, Linda D. Norman, Beth Donaghey, Linda W. Fisher, Irene M. McKirgan10.1016/j.outlook.2009.10.001Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Education3643http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001754/abstract?rss=yesSeveral formative documents have been developed recently under the auspices of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and are being used by colleges of nursing throughout the country to guide the curricula for educational programs preparing future nurses at or beyond the baccalaureate degree. The purpose of this paper is to report on an analysis of the degree to which nursing's disciplinary knowledge is reflected within these documents and to suggest ways to strengthen the focus on the discipline in our educational programs. We include an overview of nursing education in the United States, a summary of the current discourse in the literature explicating the focus of the discipline, and an analysis of the AACN documents in light of this discourse. There is insufficient emphasis in the formative documents on the disciplinary knowledge of nursing, and we encourage faculty to go beyond these blueprints to educate generalist, advanced generalist, and advanced specialty nurses who are grounded in the philosophies, theories, research, and practice models within the discipline of nursing.Disciplinary knowledge in nursing education: Going beyond the blueprintsMarlaine Smith, M. Patrice McCarthy10.1016/j.outlook.2009.09.002Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Education4451http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001195/abstract?rss=yesThis paper presents a situation specific theory—the Midlife Women's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity (MAPA) theory—that explains how women's attitudes toward physical activity influence their participation in physical activity. Using the integrative approach of Im, the theory was developed based on the Attitude, Social Influence, and Self Efficacy Model; a review of the related literature; and a study of women's attitudes toward physical activity. As a situation-specific theory, the MAPA theory can be linked easily to nursing practice and research projects related to physical activity in midlife women, especially interventions aimed at increasing midlife women's participation in physical activity.A situation-specific theory of Midlife Women's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity (MAPA)Eun-Ok Im, Alexa K. Stuifbergen, Lorraine Walker10.1016/j.outlook.2009.07.001Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2Research5258http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409001328/abstract?rss=yesWe have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.—Maria MitchellTraining new nurse scientists: Grants and opportunities available through the NINRPatricia A. Grady10.1016/j.outlook.2009.07.006Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2News from NiNR5961http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002401/abstract?rss=yesTable of Contents10.1016/S0029-6554(09)00240-1Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2FrontmatterA1A2http://www.nursingoutlook.org/article/PIIS0029655409002425/abstract?rss=yesInformations for Readers10.1016/S0029-6554(09)00242-5Nursing Outlook 58, 1 (2010)2010-01-01Nursing Outlook2010-01-01581S0029-6554(09)X0007-2FrontmatterA5A5