As estrelas estão alinhadas: As enfermeiras devem exercer a sua voz

The author develops in this editorial a claiming discourse whose purpose is to draw attention to the nurses to make their voices heard at a particularly propitious time for it (the stars are aligned). Afaf Meleis describes the current situation as the ideal for the nursing profession, finally, exercise your voice and contribute to optimizer health care through greater presence of nursing in all areas related to health. Demographic, educational, social and health changes, increasingly require the presence of nurses to optimize the quality of care, especially self-care.La autora desarrolla en esta editorial un discurso reivincativo cuyo propósito es llamar la atención a los profesionales de enfermería para que hagan oír sus voces en un momento especialmente propicio para ello (las estrellas están alineadas). Afaf Meleis describe la situación actual como la idónea para que el colectivo enfermero, por fin, ejercite su voz y contribuya a optimizar los cuidados de salud mediante una mayor presencia de la enfermería en todos los ámbitos relacionados con la salud. Los cambios demográficos, educativos, sociales y de salud, requieren cada vez más la presencia de las enfermeras para optimizar la calidad de los cuidados, especialmente de los autocuidados.O autor desenvolve neste editorial discurso um vingativo cujo objetivo é chamar a atenção para os enfermeiros para fazer suas vozes ouvidas em um momento particularmente propício para isso (as estrelas estão alinhadas). Afaf Meleis descreve a situação atual como o ideal para a profissão de enfermagem, finalmente, exercer a sua voz e contribuir para o otimizador de cuidados de saúde através de uma maior presença de enfermagem em todas as áreas relacionadas com a saúde. Mudanças sociais e demográficas de educação em saúde, cada vez mais exigem a presença de enfermeiros para otimizar a qualidade dos cuidados, especialmente auto-cuidado

Enhancing cultural competence: Trans-Atlantic experiences of European and Canadian nursing students

This paper describes the enhancement of cultural competence through trans-Atlantic rural community experiences of European and Canadian nursing students using critical incident technique (CIT) as the students' reflective writing method. The data generated from 48 students' recordings about 134 critical incidents over a 2-year project were analysed by qualitative content analysis. Five main learning categories were identified as: cross-cultural ethical issues; cultural and social differences; health-care inequalities; population health concerns; and personal and professional awareness. Four emergent cultural perspectives for the health sector that became apparent from the reflections were: health promotion realm; sensitivity to social and cultural aspects of people's lives; channels between the health sector and society; cultural language and stories of local people. CIT was successfully used to foster European and Canadian undergraduate students' cultural reflections resulting in considerations and suggestions for future endeavours to enhance cultural competence in nursing education

A Scoping Review of Transitions, Stress, and Adaptation Among Emerging Adults

This scoping review examined research on transitions among emerging adults, 18- to 30-year-olds, to identify designs, populations, frameworks, transition types, and transition outcomes. A librarian conducted the search, yielding 2067 articles. Using predefined criteria, teams screened abstracts and reviewed articles, with 82% to 100% interrater agreement. Data from the final 160 articles were placed in evidence tables and summarized. Most frequently, the studies had exploratory-descriptive designs (69%), nondiagnosed samples (58%), no theoretical frameworks (58%), developmental transitions (34%), and health-related behavior outcomes (34%). This transition research is in an early stage of knowledge development and would benefit from further theory development

Designing theoretically-informed implementation interventions

Clinical and health services research is continually producing new findings that may contribute to effective and efficient patient care. However, the transfer of research findings into practice is unpredictable and can be a slow and haphazard process. Ideally, the choice of implementation strategies would be based upon evidence from randomised controlled trials or systematic reviews of a given implementation strategy. Unfortunately, reviews of implementation strategies consistently report effectiveness some, but not all of the time; possible causes of this variation are seldom reported or measured by the investigators in the original studies. Thus, any attempts to extrapolate from study settings to the real world are hampered by a lack of understanding of the effects of key elements of individuals, interventions, and the settings in which they were trialled. The explicit use of theory offers a way of addressing these issues and has a number of advantages, such as providing: a generalisable framework within which to represent the dimensions that implementation studies address, a process by which to inform the development and delivery of interventions, a guide when evaluating, and a way to allow for an exploration of potential causal mechanisms. However, the use of theory in designing implementation interventions is methodologically challenging for a number of reasons, including choosing between theories and faithfully translating theoretical constructs into interventions. The explicit use of theory offers potential advantages in terms of facilitating a better understanding of the generalisability and replicability of implementation interventions. However, this is a relatively unexplored methodological area

Commentary: Human Capital in Health Care, A Resource Crisis or a Caring Crisis?

Predicting and shaping the human capacity resources for health care globally for the future requires voice and valuation of, and about, caring

The evolving nursing scholarliness

The thesis of this discussion is that nursing is involved in a scholarly evolution, that this evolution has properties and norms that have evolved from previous stages of development, and that every previous stage had a major contribution leading to our current evolution. The discussion is based on the premise that a reflective stance and self-analysis are essential to growth and development and that meaning and ideas are enhanced when one is able to trace their origins, the problems that motivated their development, the conceptualizations to which they relate, and the knowledge of how one intellectual tradition grows from another. Progress in nursing theory is a most significant aspect of this scholarly evolution and a cornerstone of the discipline of nursing. It behooves us, therefore, to review the events that influenced the current stage of nursing scholarliness and the contributions of nursing theory to it. In its search for professional identity and meaning, nursing has proceeded through several stages. Self-analysis and evaluation and the view and status accorded nursing in our patriarchal society made it appear as if each successive stage was a deviation from the goal of establishing the discipline of nursing. But in essence each stage has sharpened and clarified the dimensions needed for establishing the scientific discipline, prompting or leading to the scholarly evolution in nursing