Journal of professional nursing : official journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing
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Over time there has been debate within nursing regarding its designation as a professional career or "skilled craftsperson" job. Although the respectability of nursing has always been acknowledged, for some nursing is not considered a high-status career. This qualitative study sought to identify the reasons why women chose to become nurses. ⋯ Paramount was the desire to be of service. The other primary motivator was the need for a practical career that was viewed as satisfying, flexible, accessible in terms of cost of schooling, always in demand, and respectable. When nursing was chosen in the face of family opposition, it was viewed as a calling where one could be of service.
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Many nurse practitioners were prepared in nondegree certificate programs and lack academic credentials desired in today's marketplace. The history of nurse practitioner education is reviewed, and a master's completion program for certified nurse practitioners is presented.
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The purpose of this phenomenological, Heideggerian hermeneutical study was to describe the lived experiences of 23 undergraduate nursing students in relation to their perceptions of "caring" experiences in their nursing programs. Data were collected by the primary investigators at a statewide nursing convention, with students relating stories of critical student experiences related to caring. Themes related to caring experiences included "caring as offering," "leaps ahead caring," and "creating a caring place." A recurrent pattern of "power inherent in teaching" was identified across student narratives, suggesting the need to study how teachers can use the tact of teaching to empower students. Implications drawn from the data suggest the need to explore how nursing students' learning is shaped by caring interactions with nurse clinicians and other health professionals as well as with nursing faculty.
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Despite widespread evidence of the concept of mentoring in nursing, it has been largely undefined, borrowed from other disciplines, viewed as static, and/or confused with related terms. Building on the work of Yoder and using a literature-based method developed by Rodgers, an evolutionary concept analysis is presented to provide an understanding of the meaning of mentoring in nursing, its current status, and the conceptual clarity necessary for additional systematic and rigorous inquiry. A random sample of 82 research abstracts and journal articles, representing 26 per cent of the total population of literature, was used to extract six essential attributes of the concept: a teaching-learning process, a reciprocal role, a career development relationship, a knowledge or competence differential between participants, a duration of several years, and a resonating phenomenon. ⋯ A model case, encompassing all of the critical attributes, depicts the Investigators' mentoring experience. Major changes in mentoring are viewed within the context of nursing as a learned profession, a legitimate academic enterprise, and a clinical science. Implications for further development are posed to further mentoring as a process for the socialization of nurse scholars and scientists and the proliferation of a body of professional knowledge.