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Preceptors are clinically based nurses that agree to participate with nursing students in an effort to provide them with opportunities to reinforce their knowledge with clinical experience. Preceptors serve as nursing role models to students and can facilitate their understanding and socialization into the reality of nursing. Studies on preceptorships have focused traditionally on the experience of precepting from the perspectives of student, employer, and preceptor. ⋯ Student learning and clinical experience can be influenced directly by the leadership characteristics that a preceptor possesses. To make the experience of precepting positive and beneficial for preceptor, student, and faculty, an examination and discussion of the potential preceptor's leadership style should be conducted. Situational leadership and the four different styles of leadership identified by Hersey and Blanchard provide a useful model for identifying leadership traits in preceptors that nursing faculty will find useful as they seek to match preceptors in a way that will facilitate knowledge acquisition and application for nursing students in the clinical setting.
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Group discussions tend to focus on information that was previously known by all members (shared information) rather than information known by only 1 member (unshared information). If the shared information implies a suboptimal alternative, this sampling bias is associated with inaccurate group decisions. The present study examines the impact of 2 factors on information exchange and decision quality: (a) an advocacy group decision procedure versus unstructured discussion and (b) task experience. ⋯ Further, with increasing experience, more unshared information was mentioned in advocacy groups. In contrast, there was no such increase in unstructured discussions. Yet advocacy groups did not significantly improve their decision quality with experience.
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Health Qual Life Out · Aug 2004
Multicenter StudyThe ECOS-16 questionnaire for the evaluation of health related quality of life in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis.
The aim of this study is to validate the questionnaire ECOS-16 (Assessment of health related quality of life in osteoporosis) for the evaluation of health related quality of life (HRQoL) in post-menopausal women with osteoporosis. ⋯ ECOS-16 has been proven preliminarily to have good psychometric properties, so that it can be potentially a useful tool to evaluate HRQoL of post-menopausal women with osteoporosis in research and routine clinical practice.
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The main treatment choices for chronic extensor pollicis longus (EPL) tendon rupture consists of tendon transfer and tendon repair with tendon graft. Tendon transfer with extensor indicis proprius (EIP) is currently considered the gold standard treatment which yields predictable and satisfactory results, but potentially compromises the strength of independent extension of the index finger. We propose our method of using a partial extensor carpi radialis longus (ECRL) tendon graft to repair chronic EPL tendon tears. ⋯ Our study showed that using a partial ECRL tendon graft to repair chronic EPL tendon rupture results in satisfactory functional outcomes. The advantages of this method include preservation of EIP function and using the same incision for graft harvesting and tendon repair. This method can be considered an alternative to EIP tendon transfer in patients with high demand for their index finger function.
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Systematic reviews are characterized by a methodical and replicable methodology and presentation. They involve a comprehensive search to locate all relevant published and unpublished work on a subject; a systematic integration of search results; and a critique of the extent, nature, and quality of evidence in relation to a particular research question. The best reviews synthesize studies to draw broad theoretical conclusions about what a literature means, linking theory to evidence and evidence to theory. ⋯ We outline core standards and principles and describe commonly encountered problems. Although this guide targets psychological scientists, its high level of abstraction makes it potentially relevant to any subject area or discipline. We argue that systematic reviews are a key methodology for clarifying whether and how research findings replicate and for explaining possible inconsistencies, and we call for researchers to conduct systematic reviews to help elucidate whether there is a replication crisis.