Grounded theory is a systematic qualitative research method of data collection and analysis, ultimately leading to a theoretical explanation (a “grounded theory”) that is grounded in those data and that explains a phenomenon of interest. Widely used in nursing, grounded theory enables researchers to apply what they learn from interviewees to a wider client population. This book describes traditional and focused grounded theory, phases of research, and methodology from sample and setting to dissemination and follow-up. The grounded theory method was developed by Glaser and Strauss, in response to Blumer’s call for a method founded on concepts of symbolic interactionism, the social psychological theoretical framework that provides the guiding tenets of grounded theory methodology. Over the years, grounded theory has undergone an evolution of sorts. An alternate method of grounding data in qualitative research is dimensional analysis. Other scholars have developed variants of grounded theory, such as constructivist grounded theory and situational analysis. The book describes the extent to which nurse researchers have published grounded theory and presents an overview of the process of conducting a qualitative study using grounded theory as the method. Varied case studies range from promoting health for an overweight child to psychological adjustment of Chinese women with breast cancer to a study of nursing students’ experiences in the off-campus clinical setting, among many others. The book also discusses techniques whereby researchers can ensure high standards of rigor. Examples from published nursing research, with author commentary, help support new and experienced researchers in making decisions and facing challenges.

This book provides school personnel with information on how concussion (mild traumatic brain injury) can affect learning, mental health, and social-emotional functioning, skills in developing and leading a school-based concussion support team, tools for school-based concussion assessment, and information on a safe, gradual process of returning to the academic environment. It explains what happens to the brain at the moment of impact, terminology, prevalence rates, causes, risk factors, and issues related to underreporting of concussions. Educators will learn about developmental effects, how concussions can affect students of different ages, as well as difficulties that can result from concussions such as postconcussion syndrome and second impact syndrome. This book presents a school-based concussion team model, including the specific responsibilities of the concussion team leader (CTL), and a discussion of maintaining student privacy through regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Readers are familiarized with checklists that can be used within the school and assessment tools such as Acute Concussion Evaluation (ACE) and neuropsychological assessment. Readers are also familiarized with how physical and cognitive rest can be balanced with a return to activity during the recovery period. This book also book gives concussion team members guidance on the selection of appropriate strategies, as well as decision making during a student’s return to academics, and discusses concussion prevention information by providing guidance on how readers might train others on concussion recognition and response. Case studies are integrated throughout the chapters.

This book delivers everything nurses and other health researchers need to know about designing, testing, selecting, and evaluating instruments and methods for measurement in nursing. It features the most current content, strategies, and procedures available with direct applicability to nurses and health researchers engaging in interprofessional research, collaboration, education, and evidence-based practice. Chapters focus on challenges in using big data, evaluation, and measurement in interpersonal practice and education; metrics and benchmarking in health education and practice; and measurement issues in translational science. The book gives particular attention to measurement issues resulting from changes in nursing, health research, and the increased emphasis on and undertaking of interprofessional research and evaluation. Presenting the material in step-by-step format, the book is designed for readers with little or no experience in measurement, statistics, or interprofessional issues. It focuses on increasing the reader’s ability to use measures that are operationalized within the context of theories and conceptual frameworks, derived from sound measurement principles and practices and adequately tested for reliability and validity. Additionally, the text provides a pragmatic account of the processes involved in several aspects of measurement such as content analysis, interviews, and questionnaires. In nursing and health research, the Delphi technique is used for obtaining judgments from an expert panel about an issue of concern that is designed to structure group opinion and discussion. Visual analog scale (VAS) can be used even in high-stress, high-volume clinical settings, such as emergency departments.

This book gives readers all the direction and resources they need to be a confident and competent medical-surgical nursing clinical instructor. It offers insight and examples related to student evaluations, syllabus preparation, and contracts that would typically be used by an adjunct instructor. Week-to-week instruction, along with medication quizzes and student learning activities, helps ensure that students are learning new knowledge and skills on an ongoing basis. A caring plan and medication forms are included, along with medication administration guidelines. The major body systems are addressed, with comprehensive resources included on each one. The increasingly significant topics of delegation and patient teaching are also included. Each clinical week is prepared and sequenced in such as way as to provide the clinical instructor with enough material to teach without redundancy. Each clinical course must meet for a certain number of hours to ensure the student is meeting attendance requirements. When a student misses a clinical class, a makeup assignment should be given to meet the attendance requirement. There are several types of assignments included in the book on makeup assignments. The work assigned for the makeup assignment must be written in American Psychological Association (APA) format and must be thoroughly investigated with reliable evidenced-based references. The assignment should be detailed enough to makeup for the hours missed.

Preparing nurses and other health professionals to provide quality health care in the increasingly multicultural and global society of the 21st century requires a comprehensive approach that emphasizes cultural competence education throughout professional education and professional life. The ideas and suggestions presented in this book are offered to stimulate new ideas and invite health professionals to explore new paths on the journey to developing cultural competence in themselves and in others. The book is divided into five parts. Part I is composed of three chapters filled with resources to help educators begin teaching cultural competence. Essential background information about the multidimensional process of teaching cultural competence offers a valuable guide for educators at all levels who are planning, implementing, and evaluating cultural competence education. Educators and researchers are continually challenged to measure outcomes following educational interventions. Part II addresses this challenge by introducing several quantitative questionnaires and assessment tools and discussing implementation and data interpretation strategies in a detailed, user-friendly approach that can be easily adapted by novice and advanced researchers. The tools include Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool (TSET) and Clinical Setting Assessment Tool-Diversity and Disparity (CSAT-DD). Parts III, IV, and V offer a wide selection of educational activities that can easily be applied by educators everywhere. Three chapters provide a general overview and a menu of activities for use in three areas: the academic setting, the health care institution, and professional associations. Five chapters creatively link strategies via detailed case exemplars that spotlight various populations and settings. The book’s final chapter presents important implications for educators everywhere.

This book presents theoretical underpinnings of perinatal and pediatric bereavement, chapters on dimensions of perinatal and pediatric loss that have been of interest recently, and clinical interventions derived from research. It is divided into two sections. The first section has 10 chapters focusing on aspects of perinatal loss. It presents background content on various grief theories developed in the past five decades. These theories have expanded our understanding of the processes of death, dying, and bereavement. Grief after pregnancy loss can be more complicated for certain groups. The book provides a comprehensive overview of perinatal grief among lesbian couples and an overview of perinatal loss in adolescents, discussing normal adolescent growth and development, and using Sanders’s integrated theory of bereavement to discuss the common physical, emotional, social, and cognitive reactions to loss. The second section has eight chapters focusing on various aspects of caring for families whose children are dying or who have died, and caring for children who are grieving. Sometimes, the death of a child can occur under traumatic circumstances, setting the stage for very intense psychological responses. The book focuses on the impact of the cause of the death on posttraumatic stress responses and overall parental health after the traumatic loss of a child and describes supportive interventions for bereaved parents. Suicide is one of the most traumatic losses a family can experience. Finally, the book presents the importance of creating and capturing meaningful moments in the time leading up to and after the death of a child, focusing on the importance of relationships among families and professionals as they prepare for the child’s death.

Grief counseling refers to the interventions counselors make with people recent to a death loss to help facilitate them with the various tasks of mourning. These are people with no apparent bereavement complications. Grief therapy, on the other hand, refers to those techniques and interventions that a professional makes with persons experiencing one of the complications to the mourning process that keeps grief from progressing to an adequate adaptation for the mourner. New information is presented throughout the book and previous information is updated when possible. The world has changed since 1982; there are more traumatic events, drills for school shootings, and faraway events that may cause a child’s current trauma. There is also the emergence of social media and online resources, all easily accessible by smart phones at any time. Bereavement research and services have tried to keep up with these changes. The book presents current information for mental health professionals to be most effective in their interventions with bereaved children, adults, and families. The book is divided into ten chapters. Chapter one discusses attachment, loss, and the experience of grief. The next two chapters delve on mourning process and mediators of mourning. Chapter four describes grief counseling. Chapter five explores abnormal grief reactions. Chapter six discusses grief therapy. Chapter seven deals with grieving for special types of losses including suicide, violent deaths, sudden infant death syndrome, miscarriages, stillbirths and abortion. Chapter eight discusses how family dynamics can hinder adequate grieving. Chapter nine explores the counselor’s own grief. The concluding chapter presents training for grief counseling.

Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) play a critical role in ensuring the implementation of high-quality evidence based care, improved patient outcomes, and reduced health care delivery costs. Professional certification is one way we distinguish our unique contributions and advanced practice nursing expertise from other advanced practice roles. This first edition of the book represents a compilation of Clinical Nurse Specialist practice knowledge contributed by respected clinicians from across the nation for certification examination preparation. The book incorporates content from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist (AGCNS) Population Focused Competencies and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Scope and Standards for CNS Practice. It begins with an introduction to the current AGCNS examination options, test plans and processes, as well as test taking strategies for success. The remainder of the book organizes test plan subject matter according to the three spheres of impact of CNS practice. The book includes twelve chapters presenting the overview, pathophysiology, etiology, assessment, diagnosis, treatment/management, and related pharmacology content according to each body system. It addresses the nurse and nursing practice sphere of impact. Relevant content includes age-related response to illness and adult-gerontology population specific practice standards for care and advocacy of the older adult. Emphasis is placed upon culturally competent care and safe care transitions. Nursing practice content includes consultation, collaboration, education, mentoring and communication skills. Nurse and nursing practice advocacy topics review public policy, professional practice issues, and ethical concerns. The book covers systems and systems leadership competencies of the CNS. Relevant content involves quality improvement principles, safety initiatives, financial stewardship, organizational level program development and systems change. Clinical inquiry subject matter covers evidence- based practice, research methodology, and skills for dissemination of CNS work.

This book is written for faith community nurses (FCNs) and provides information and resources necessary to be successful in the practice of faith community nursing. This specialty nursing practice combines the caring aspect of nursing with the spiritual and the sacred. The book is divided into three parts. Part I provides an overview of faith community nursing practices its roots, practice models, roles, and legal and ethical parameters. Faith community nursing is the specialized practice of professional nursing that focuses on the intentional care of the spirit as part of the process of promoting holistic health and preventing or minimizing illness in a faith community. Parish nursing is a recognized specialty practice that combines professional nursing and health ministry. Health care practitioners who make several small changes in how patients’ religious commitments are broached in clinical practice may enhance health outcomes. There are four models through which faith community nursing practice is delivered: the institutional model, the congregational paid model, the congregational volunteer model, and the paid consortium model. Part II includes chapters that inform the FCN about initiating a faith community nursing ministry, assessing the health needs of the faith community, health education, teaching, and program planning and evaluation. Part III presents information on meeting the special needs of the faith community and includes content on acute and chronic care needs, palliative care, and grief and loss. Additional chapters focus on connecting with community resources and vulnerable populations.

This book offers leadership lessons for aspiring nurse leaders from luminaries in business, medicine, philanthropy, government, academia, research, and health care. It offers practical advice, lessons learned, and testimonials as to how nurses can prepare themselves for leadership, which in turn, will help them to provide exceptional patient care. As per the report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the heightened roles of the professional nurse allow nurses of all practices to more fully develop their leadership skills. Nurse leaders are moving the interprofessional collaboration agenda forward by serving in key leadership positions. A nurse leader who led public research in the Kent State University and Bowling Green State University challenged the common perception that successful leaders are born, complete with the requisite temperament and talents. Nurses who play leadership roles can fill in research on health care policy formulation and implementation that will change the course of health care payment, delivery, and quality. The book discusses nurse research leadership from an economist’s perspective, hiring leaders to understand leadership, and nursing leadership lessons from an association executive’s perspective, from a physician’s chief executive officer’s perspective, from a nursing friend’s perspective and from a collaborative team’s perspective. The book also highlights nursing leadership’s contributions to safety and quality, how leadership can usher in health reforms and achieve better health for all people, and advancing the cause of transformational nurse leadership.