Related Articles

Objective

To determine whether changes occur over 1 academic year in pharmacy students' critical thinking skills and disposition to think critically.

Methods

First, second, third, and fourth-year pharmacy students completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) at the beginning and end of 1 academic year.

Results

One hundred thirty-seven students completed the study. No significant changes occurred over the year in total scores on either instrument. However, scores in 3 of 12 subscale scores changed significantly and several significant correlations were found.

Conclusion

Pharmacy students' scores on 2 critical thinking instruments showed no major improvements over 1 academic year but most scores were above average. Some areas of possible weakness were identified. Additional studies comparing scores over a longer period of time (eg, admission to graduation) are needed.

In understanding fully persons’ moral predicaments, a core component of forming perceptual judgments, nurses may need to shift the epistemology of their practice from instrumental reasoning, or means-ends thinking, integrating a virtue-based practical reasoning. A bearing witness that achieves understanding of clients’ moral qualities is attained through the articulation of nurses’ self-identities within matrices, such as MacIntyre’s theory of virtue ethics and standards and codes of ethics. Moreover, nurse leaders who exercise stewardship could apply the concept of communities of inquiry to structure learning conditions by which nurses may engage in experiential learning. This leadership enhanced by the nurse steward’s phronetic knowledge, or practical wisdom, which guides understanding of how the clockwork of practical reasoning may evolve within such communities, is critical to nurses’ shift in reasoning. Nonetheless, nurse leaders need empirical evidence to comprehend how stewards’ accumulated moral insights may shape their character qualities, hence selection of values upon which to act in facilitating nurses’ self-expression.

wangensteen s., johansson i.s., björkström m.e. & nordström g. (2010) Critical thinking dispositions among newly graduated nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(10), 2170–2181.

Aim

The aim of the study was to describe critical thinking dispositions among newly graduated nurses in Norway, and to study whether background data had any impact on critical thinking dispositions.

Background

Competence in critical thinking is one of the expectations of nursing education. Critical thinkers are described as well-informed, inquisitive, open-minded and orderly in complex matters. Critical thinking competence has thus been designated as an outcome for judging the quality of nursing education programmes and for the development of clinical judgement. The ability to think critically is also described as reducing the research–practice gap and fostering evidence-based nursing.

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed. The data were collected between October 2006 and April 2007 using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. The response rate was 33% (n= 618). Pearson’s chi-square tests were used to analyse the data.

Results

Nearly 80% of the respondents reported a positive disposition towards critical thinking. The highest mean score was on the Inquisitiveness subscale and the lowest on the Truth-seeking subscale. A statistically significant higher proportion of nurses with high critical thinking scores were found among those older than 30 years, those with university education prior to nursing education, and those working in community health care.

Conclusion

Nurse leaders and nurse teachers should encourage and nurture critical thinking among newly graduated nurses and nursing students. The low Truth-seeking scores found may be a result of traditional teaching strategies in nursing education and might indicate a need for more student-active learning models.

Background

High income nations are currently exhibiting increasing ethno-cultural diversity which may present challenges for nursing practice. We performed an integrative review of literature published in North America and Europe between 1990 and 2007, to map the state of knowledge and to identify nursing assessment tools/models which are have an associated research or empirical perspective in relation to ethno-cultural dimensions of nursing care.

Methods

Data was retrieved from a wide variety of sources, including key electronic bibliographic databases covering research in biomedical fields, nursing and allied health, and culture, e.g. CINAHL, MEDline, PUBmed, Cochrane library, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and HAPI. We used the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tools for quality assessment. We applied Torraco's definition and method of an integrative review that aims to create new knowledge and perspectives on a given phenomena. To add methodological rigor with respect to the search strategy and other key review components we also used the principles established by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination.

Results

Thirteen thousand and thirteen articles were retrieved, from which 53 full papers were assessed for inclusion. Eight papers met the inclusion criteria, describing research on a total of eight ethno-cultural assessment tools/models. The tools/models are described and synthesized.

Conclusions

While many ethno-cultural assessment tools exist to guide nursing practice, few are informed by research perspectives. An increased focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of health services, patient safety, and risk management, means that provision of culturally responsive and competent health services will inevitably become paramount.

Background

The aim of this study was to assess nurses’ self-reported confidence in their professional skills before and after an extensive Emergency Department (ED) reform in Kanta-Häme Central Hospital.

Methods

Emergency nurses participated in transitional training commencing two years before the establishment of the new organization in 2007. Training was followed by weekly practical educational sessions in the new ED. During this process nurses improved their transition skills, defined house rules for the new clinic and improved their knowledge of new technology and instruments. The main processes involving critically ill ED patients were described and modelled with an electronic flow chart software.

During the transitional training nurses compiled lists of practical skills and measures needed in the ED. These were updated after feedback from physicians in primary and secondary care and head physicians in Kanta-Häme Central Hospital. The final 189-item list comprised 15 different categories, each containing from 4 to 35 items. Based on the work described above, a questionnaire was developed to reflect ED nurses’ skills in clinical measures but also to estimate the need for professional education and practical training. Nurses working in the ED were asked to fill the questionnaire in January 2007 (response rate 97%) and in January 2011 (response rate 98%).

Results

Nurses’ self-reported confidence in their professional skills improved significally in eight classes out of fifteen. These classes were cannulations, urinary catheterizations, patient monitoring, cardiac patients, equipment, triage and nurse practising, psychiatric patients as well as infection risk. Best results were noted in urinary catheterizations, patient monitoring and infection risk. When studying the group of nurses participating in both surveys in 2007 and 2011, improvements were observed in all fifteen categories. All but two of these changes were significant (p<0.05).

Conclusions

During an extensive reform of emergency services, we noted a significant improvement in the professional skills of nurses. This improvement was especially consistent among nurses working in the ED during the whole transition process. Nurses’ education and training program in the ED may be successfully put into practice when based on co-operation between nurses and physicians dedicated to emergency services.

Objective:

Evidence-based practice (EBP) provides nurses with a method to use critically appraised and scientifically proven evidence for delivering quality health care to a specific population. The objective of this study was to explore nurses' awareness of, knowledge of, and attitude toward EBP and factors likely to encourage or create barriers to adoption. In addition, information sources used by nurses and their literature searching skills were also investigated.

Method:

A total of 2,100 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to registered nurses in 2 public hospitals in Singapore, and 1,486 completed forms were returned, resulting in a response rate of 70.8%.

Results:

More than 64% of the nurses expressed a positive attitude toward EBP. However, they pointed out that due to heavy workload, they cannot keep up to date with new evidence. Regarding self-efficacy of EBP-related abilities, the nurses perceived themselves to possess moderate levels of skills. The nurses also felt that EBP training, time availability, and mentoring by nurses with EBP experience would encourage them to implement EBP. The top three barriers to adopting EBP were lack of time, inability to understand statistical terms, and inadequate understanding of the jargon used in research articles. For literature searching, nurses were using basic search features and less than one-quarter of them were familiar with Boolean and proximity operators.

Conclusion:

Although nurses showed a positive attitude toward EBP, certain barriers were hindering their smooth adoption. It is, therefore, desirable that hospital management in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, develop a comprehensive strategy for building EBP competencies through proper training. Moreover, hospital libraries should also play an active role in developing adequate information literacy skills among the nurses.

Objective: To investigate the tendency of undergraduate athletic training students to think critically, to assess their likelihood of using specific components of critical thinking, and to study the effect of selected demographic and educational variables on critical-thinking tendencies in this sample of students.

Design and Setting: Data were collected before regularly scheduled athletic training classes at the beginning of the spring semester.

Subjects: Ninety-one students enrolled in 3 Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs-accredited undergraduate athletic training education programs in the southeast. The subjects ranged in age from 19 to 29 years (mean age = 22.33 ± 1.94). Forty-six (50.5%) of the subjects were men and 45 (49.5%) were women.

Measurements: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory contains 75 Likert-type items assessing 7 components of critical thinking: truth seeking, open mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, inquisitiveness, cognitive maturity, and critical-thinking self-confidence.

Results: The overall mean indicated a general but mild trend toward critical thinking, with weak scores on the truth-seeking subscale. One-way analysis of variance reflected significant differences among the schools for truth seeking, open mindedness, and maturity subscales and for the overall mean score for the entire inventory. Only the open-mindedness difference persisted between 2 of the schools after post hoc testing. Correlation analyses indicated no significant relationship between total score and age, sex, ethnicity, year in athletic training program, cumulative grade point average, completed semester hours, or clinical-experience hours.

Conclusions: Athletic training students are inclined toward critical thinking, but this tendency is relatively weak. Classroom and clinical instructors should use teaching methods and techniques that facilitate the components of critical thinking. The promotion of critical thinking and critical-thinking skills has implications for athletic training education and the advancement of certified athletic trainers and the profession of athletic training.

Background

Nursing educators need rigorously developed instruments to assess competency in evidence based practice (EBP) at undergraduate level. This concept is defined as the capability to choose and use an integrated combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes with the intention to develop a task in a certain context. Also, we understand that EBP is gaining knowledge and skills, as well as increasing positive attitudes toward EBP that will promote a change in behaviour to implement EBP in practice. This study aims to develop a psychometric test of the Evidence Based Practice Evaluation Competence Questionnaire (EBP-COQ) among undergraduate nursing students.

Methods

The questionnaire was developed by item generation through a review of scientific literature and focus groups. The instrument was validated in terms of content validity through an expert review. The EBP-COQ was administered to a cohort of nursing students (n =100) to evaluate test reliability and select the best items. Psychometric properties of the final instrument were assessed in a sample of 261 nursing students.

Results

The EBP-COQ consisted of 25 items. A factorial analysis grouped the items into the three categories that define competence relating to EBP: attitude, knowledge and skills. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.888 for the entire questionnaire. The factor solution explained 55.55% of the variance.

Conclusions

EBP-COQ appears to measure with adequate reliability the attributes of undergraduate nursing students’ competence in EBP. The instrument is quick to disseminate and easy to score, making it a suitable instrument for nursing educators to evaluate students’ self-perceived competence in EBP.

Background:

The goal of palliative care is not to cure, but to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life for as long as life remains. The knowledge of nurses influences the quality of care provided to these patients. The present study aimed at identifying the level of knowledge and attitude of nursing students who are the future caretakers of patients, which helps to make recommendations in incorporating palliative care concepts in the nursing curriculum.

Objectives:

(1) To assess the level of knowledge of nursing students on palliative care; (2) To identify the attitude of nursing students towards palliative care; (3) To find the correlation between the knowledge and attitude of nursing students; (4) To find the association between nursing students’ knowledge, attitude and selected demographic variables.

Materials and Methods:

A correlative survey was carried out among 83 third-year Diploma Nursing students by using cluster sampling method from selected nursing schools of Udupi district.

Results:

The data analyzed showed that the majority (51%) of them was in the age group of 21years and 92% of them were females. Only 43.4% of them were aware of the term palliative care and it was during their training period. The data showed that 79.5% of students had poor knowledge (6.4± 1.64) on palliative care and 92.8% of them had favorable attitude (56.7± 8.5) towards palliative care. The chi-square showed a significant association between knowledge and age (χ2=18.52,P<0.01) of the nursing students.

Conclusion:

Palliative care aspects should be incorporated in the diploma nursing curriculum.

How do expert nurses reason when planning care and making clinical decisions for a patient who is at risk, and whose outcome is uncertain? In this study, a case study involving a critically ill elderly woman whose condition deteriorated over time, was presented in segments to ten expert critical care nurses. Think aloud method was used to elicit knowledge from these experts to provide conceptual information about their knowledge and to reveal their reasoning processes and problem-solving strategies. The verbatim transcripts were then analyzed using a systematic three-step method that makes analysis easier and adds creditability to study findings by providing a means of retracing and explaining analysis results. Findings revealed information about how patient problems were represented during reasoning, the manner in which experts subjects structured their plan of care, and the reasoning processes and heuristics they used to formulate solutions for resolving the patient's problems and preventing deterioration in the patient's condition.

Objective:

To provide a brief introduction to the definition and disposition to think critically along with active learning strategies to promote critical thinking.

Data Sources:

I searched MEDLINE and Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) from 1933 to 2002 for literature related to critical thinking, the disposition to think critically, questioning, and various critical-thinking pedagogic techniques.

Data Synthesis:

The development of critical thinking has been the topic of many educational articles recently. Numerous instructional methods exist to promote thought and active learning in the classroom, including case studies, discussion methods, written exercises, questioning techniques, and debates. Three methods—questioning, written exercises, and discussion and debates—are highlighted.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

The definition of critical thinking, the disposition to think critically, and different teaching strategies are featured. Although not appropriate for all subject matter and classes, these learning strategies can be used and adapted to facilitate critical thinking and active participation.

Within nursing, critical thinking is a required skill that educators strive to foster in their students’ development for use in complex healthcare settings. Hence the numerous studies published measuring critical thinking as a terminal outcome of education. However, an important comparison between different philosophical underpinnings such as person, truth and the nature of nursing, and how one defines and utilizes critical thinking in practice, has been absent from discussions about critical thinking and learning. When one views critical thinking with varying philosophical lenses, important questions are raised and discussion is expanded. These questions illuminate different perspectives of critical thinking and attempt to explore whether critical thinking can be learned in nursing. The implications of taking a single philosophical viewpoint and a pluralistic approach to understanding critical thinking and learning are explored.

Patient advocacy is an inherent component of professional nursing ethics; in other words, nurses' enough knowledge would be essential to gain a positive attitude towards nursing advocacy. Using a descriptive-analytic design, this study aimed to assess the correlation between nurses' perception and attitudes towards patient advocacy, amongst 385 nurses in Kerman, Iran; hence, a three-part questionnaire was applied: part I, a demographic data sheet, part II, attitude measuring instrument, and part III, perception measuring instrument in nursing advocacy. The results implied that fairly positive attitudes and perception were found amongst the participants, and nurses' attitudes, in general, were positively correlated to their perception toward nursing advocacy. This means that with an improvement in perception, the attitude would also improve. In addition to our findings, it seems that these nurses needed more advocacy educational programs and support from responsible employers.

The advancement in medical science has created health care environments that require nursing professionals who posses specialized clinical knowledge and skills to provide care and deal with critically and acutely ill children. This study explored gaps between knowledge and practice as perceived by the registered nurses of pediatric units by further recommending the changes suggested by them. A descriptive exploratory study design under the quantitative research methodology was utilized using universal sampling of all pediatric nurses working at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. The gaps between knowledge and practice, as perceived by the participants, were categorized into five major categories: (1) medication (34%), (2) skills (28.3%), (3) knowledge (13.36%), (4) handling of code blue and intubations (12.6%), and (5) operating medical devices (11.58%). As a result, anxiety and incompetency were notably seen in the participants which had great amount of impact on the level of care provided to the patients. The implications of the findings for quality patient care were also analyzed.

Background:

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are ranked as some of the major causes of patient morbidity and mortality. Spontaneous reporting of ADRs has remained the cornerstone of pharmacovigilance and is important in maintaining patient safety. This study was conducted to assess the nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards pharmacovigilance, reasons for not reporting ADRs, and their pharmacovigilance practice.

Materials and Methods:

A questionnaire was prepared to investigate knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of nurses regarding ADR reporting. In November 2009, the questionnaires were given to 500 nurses of a teaching hospital in Tehran.

Findings:

Knowledge and practice of participants were not satisfying; however, their attitude towards pharmacovigilance was at a high level. About 91% of the nurses had never reported an ADR. Most nurses liked to report the ADRs to the physicians (87.1%) and pharmacists in hospital's ADR center (1.8%) rather than the ADR National Center. The main cause of under-reporting of the suspected ADRs was unawareness about the existence of such a national center. Among nurses who had reported ADR for at least once, the majority preferred using phone (10 out of 50) or Yellow Cards (7 out of 50). Only 1 person out of 50 preferred using internet for submitting the reports

Conclusions:

Since the nurses in this study had little knowledge and poor practice regarding the pharmacovigilance and spontaneous reporting system, interventions such as holding pharmacovigilance workshops in the hospitals focusing on the aims of pharmacovigilance, completing the Yellow Card and clarifying the reporting criteria are strongly recommended.

Objectives

To assess the impact of a program to integrate introductory pharmacy practice experiences with pharmaceutical science topics by promoting active learning, self-directed learning skills, and critical-thinking skills.

Design

The Learning Bridge, a curriculum program, was created to better integrate the material first-year (P1) students learned in pharmaceutical science courses into their introductory pharmacy practice experiences. Four Learning Bridge assignments required students to interact with their preceptors and answer questions relating to the pharmaceutical science material concurrently covered in their didactic courses.

Assessment

Surveys of students and preceptors were conducted to measure the effectiveness of the Learning Bridge process. Feedback indicated the Learning Bridge promoted students' interaction with their preceptors as well as development of active learning, self-directed learning, and critical-thinking skills. Students also indicated that the Learning Bridge assignments increased their learning, knowledge of drug information, and comprehension of relevant data in package inserts.

Conclusion

The Learning Bridge process integrated the didactic and experiential components of the curriculum, enhancing student learning in both areas, and offered students educational opportunities to interact more with their preceptors.

Between 1981 and 1985 we carried out a study in two medium-sized nonteaching community hospitals to determine the rate of deterioration of knowledge and skills in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among physicians and nurses, the accuracy of their perceptions of their knowledge and skills, the effects of practice on retention and the effect of CPR training on mortality. The participants' knowledge and skills were measured before training and immediately after, 6 months after and 12 months after training. Information on all attempts at CPR involving hospital staff was collected from medical records and from interviews with the participants. A total of 31 physicians and 54 nurses were followed during the study. Six months after training there was no difference in CPR knowledge or skills between the physicians and the nurses. In both groups CPR skills had deteriorated to near pretraining levels. By 6 months the physicians' knowledge had deteriorated to a level not significantly different from that before training. The nurses maintained a significant improvement in knowledge test scores at 12 months over those before training (p = 0.037). The physicians had an accurate perception of their knowledge but not their skills 6 months and 12 months after training, whereas the nurses did not accurately perceive either their knowledge or their skills after training. Experience with CPR did not contribute to post-training knowledge or skills in either group. There was no evidence that death rates were lower when basic life support (BLS) was begun by trained staff than when it was begun by untrained staff. The probability of survival was greater when BLS was begun within 4 minutes of arrest than when it was begun after 4 minutes, regardless of whether advanced cardiac life support was begun within 10 minutes.

Aim:

The purpose of this paper is to describe the research surrounding the theories and models the authors united to describe the essential components of clinical reasoning in nursing practice education. The research was conducted with nursing students in health care settings through the application of teaching and learning strategies with the Self-Regulated Learning Model (SRL) and the Outcome-Present-State-Test (OPT) Model of Reflective Clinical Reasoning. Standardized nursing languages provided the content and clinical vocabulary for the clinical reasoning task.

Materials and Methods:

This descriptive study described the application of the OPT model of clinical reasoning, use of nursing language content, and reflective journals based on the SRL model with 66 undergraduate nursing students over an 8 month period of time. The study tested the idea that self-regulation of clinical reasoning skills can be developed using self-regulation theory and the OPT model.

Results:

This research supports a framework for effective teaching and learning methods to promote and document learner progress in mastering clinical reasoning skills. Self-regulated Learning strategies coupled with the OPT model suggest benefits of self-observation and self-monitoring during clinical reasoning activities, and pinpoints where guidance is needed for the development of cognitive and metacognitive awareness.

Recommendations and Conclusions:

Thinking and reasoning about the complexities of patient care needs requires attention to the content, processes and outcomes that make a nursing care difference. These principles and concepts are valuable to clinical decision making for nurses globally as they deal with local, regional, national and international health care issues.

Aim

This paper presents a middle-range Theory of Flight Nursing Expertise.

Background

Rotary-wing (helicopter) medical transport has grown rapidly in the USA since its introduction, particularly during the past 5 years. Patients once considered too sick to transport are now being transported more frequently and over longer distances. Many limitations are imposed by the air medical transport environment and these require nurses to alter their practice.

Data sources

A literature search was conducted using Pubmed, Medline, CINAHL, secondary referencing and an Internet search from 1960 to 2008 for studies related to the focal concepts in flight nursing.

Discussion

The middle-range Theory of Flight Nursing Expertise is composed of nine concepts (experience, training, transport environment of care, psychomotor skills, flight nursing knowledge, cue recognition, pattern recognition, decision-making and action) and their relationships. Five propositions describe the relationships between those concepts and how they apply to flight nursing expertise.

Implications for nursing

After empirical testing, this theory may be a useful tool to assist novice flight nurses to attain the skills necessary to provide safe and competent care more efficiently, and may aid in designing curricula and programmes of research.

Conclusion

Research is needed to determine the usefulness of this theory in both rotary and fixed-wing medical transport settings, and to examine the similarities and differences related to expertise needed for different flight nurse team compositions. Curriculum and training innovations can result from increased understanding of the concepts and relationships proposed in this theory.

Context:

Patients diagnosed with a disease like cancer require not only physical control of disease but also they need psychological reassurance, social and spiritual support in coming to terms with their disease. Nurses working in the specialized cancer hospitals play a significant role in the care of terminally ill patients. They must be knowledgeable, skilled and sensitive to the needs of these patients and their families in order to provide active, holistic care.

Aims:

In this study, we attempted to assess the level of knowledge about palliative care among nurses working in the oncology department using a self administered structured questionnaire and also to assess the effectiveness of information booklet designed on various aspects of palliative care on their knowledge.

Settings and Design:

Indo American Cancer Hospital, Hyderabad, AP, India. The design adopted for this study was One Group pretest – posttest, pre - experimental design.

Materials and Methods:

Hundred nurses working in Indo American Cancer Hospital, Hyderabad, AP, India were selected by using the non probability purposive sampling technique. A structured self administered questionnaire was prepared and administered as a pretest. An information booklet was developed pertaining to the general concepts of palliative care, care components (physical, social, emotional and spiritual) and role of the nurse in palliative care and it was given to the participants. As a post test, the same questionnaire was re-administered after four days to the same study subjects. Pretest and post test knowledge scores were compared and the findings were analyzed statistically.

Statistical analysis used:

Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Science package.

Results:

The post test scores were significantly higher than the pretest knowledge scores, which indicate that the developed information booklet regarding palliative care was highly effective in enhancing the knowledge levels of the nurses.

Conclusions:

The information booklet was effective in enriching the knowledge of nurses on palliative care. Enhancing the nurse’s knowledge about palliative care will promote their understanding of the needs of the advanced stage patients and will enable them to provide quality care.

Objective

To develop classroom games as alternatives to traditional pharmacokinetic instruction.

Design

Three classroom games were created for the following purposes: simple semester review, application of pharmacokinetics in a community-pharmacy setting, and development of critical thinking skills and concept application. All the games incorporated some degree of group activity.

Assessment

A survey was conducted of students' attitudes towards the incorporation of games into the classroom. A comparison of final examination scores to scores from the previous year was used to determine whether incorporating games hindered learning.

Conclusions

Overall, students found the games enjoyable, but some students questioned how much they learned. Although the games appeared to have a positive impact on grades and incorporated more than just factual, book knowledge (eg, critical thinking skills), determining how these games improved learning will require further assessment.

Nurses prepare knowledge representations, or summaries of patient clinical data, each shift. These knowledge representations serve multiple purposes, including support of working memory, workload organization and prioritization, critical thinking, and reflection. This summary is integral to internal knowledge representations, working memory, and decision-making. Study of this nurse knowledge representation resulted in development of a taxonomy of knowledge representations necessary to nursing practice.

This paper describes the methods used to elicit the knowledge representations and structures necessary for the work of clinical nurses, described the development of a taxonomy of this knowledge representation, and discusses translation of this methodology to the cognitive artifacts of other disciplines. Understanding the development and purpose of practitioner’s knowledge representations provides important direction to informaticists seeking to create information technology alternatives. The outcome of this paper is to suggest a process template for transition of cognitive artifacts to an information system.

This poster describes a pilot study conducted to establish validity and reliability of an instrument that will be used in a nationwide needs assessment, implemented to identify gaps in Information Literacy skills, competencies, and knowledge among key nursing groups nationally. Data and information gathered using the tool will guide the profession in developing appropriate education and continuing education programs to close identified gaps and enhance nurses’ readiness for Evidence-Based Practice (EBP).

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess nurse educators' and nursing service personnels' knowledge of and attitudes toward computer applicability to nursing practice in order to facilitate planning future education in the area of computer-based nursing practice. The data yielded no significant differences between nurse educators' and nursing service personnels' knowledge of and attitudes toward computer use in nursing practice. There were, however, significant differences in knowledge of and attitudes toward computer utilization in nursing practice for both study group and educational level. Suggestions related to educating nurses regarding the benefits of computer use to facilitate nursing practice are provided.

Background

The high rate of attrition among nursing students has caused some nursing leaders to think about the necessity of considering students' personality during the process of admission into nursing schools. Due to the lack of studies on Iranian nursing students' personality traits, this study was designed to assess freshmen nursing students' personality characteristics and their compatibility with the demands of the nursing profession.

Methods

A descriptive study was conducted at Tehran and kashan medical universities and one of the branches of Azad University. Convenience sampling was used and 52 freshmen nursing students were assessed using Holland's Vocational Interests Inventory.

Results

From the total participants 63.5% were females and 36.5% were males. Based on the Holland's Vocational Interests Inventory 44% did not have appropriate personality characteristics for the nursing profession. 77% of the nursing students participating in the study reported that they lacked information about nursing.

Conclusion

It seems that personality tests can help to select the best students for nursing schools from those who show good academic capabilities. This would decrease the rate of attrition and could improve the quality of care.