Community health nursing practice education: preparing the next generation

Sherpa Romeo yellow journal. Permission to archive final published versionUndergraduate nursing practice rotations today are quite different from what many practicing nurses experienced during their own education. This is especially true of community health practice rotations. Increasingly, non-traditional community health sites are being used as practice sites—sites such as schools, homeless shelters, non-profit agencies, and even churches. Increasingly, non-traditional practice experiences are eclipsing traditional practice experiences involving home care and public health. Why has this shift occurred, and what do these experiences offer students? Do these experiences actually prepare nursing students for clinical practice once they graduate? What does preparing the next generation of community health nurses entail?Ye

Rural youth and violence: a gender perspective

The public health system must consider violence as an all too common reality in modern life. Violence can contribute to long-lasting negative consequences for individuals and communities. Research on violence has primarily focused on urban environments. Research examining youth violence within rural communities is limited. This is particularly the case for the links between gender and violence in small rural settings. The purpose of this study was to examine rural violence from a gender perspective by examining four variables: meaning, causes, consequences and solutions.Ye

Violence in rural communities: Youth speak out

Introduction: The current available literature does not present the viewpoints of rural youths regarding the meaning of violence. Design: A mixed method exploratory, descriptive study was conducted to generate information from rural youth about violence. The qualitative phase of the exploratory, descriptive study is reported here. Results: Interviews with fifty-two youth (20 males and 32 females), ranging in age from 11 to 19 years in grades 7–12 in the public school system were conducted in two rural communities. The participants initially defined violence as a physical act with intent to harm, but did not consider weapon carrying as an issue in their communities. They identified alcohol consumption as a trigger for violence and described planned fights that occurred away from school grounds. Physical fights were not limited to the male students. The youth openly stated that violence exists in rural communities and felt isolated from adults with regard to understanding the youths’ experiences with violence. Conclusion: It is important to generate information about violence directly from rural youth. Programs to reduce violence that include the youth are important to pursue.Jennifer Richmond (Rural and Remote Health online production editor

Bullying perspectives among rural youth: A mixed methods approach

Introduction: Few studies have examined violence among rural youth even though it is recognized as a societal concern. A mixed method, descriptive study was conducted to examine violence among rural youth including their perceptions and experiences of it. This article focuses specifically on the perceptions and experiences of bullying among rural youth that were generated from the Qualitative Phase One interviews and Quantitative Phase Two responses. Method: A mixed method study was conducted in two separate phases. The information generated from the Qualitative Phase One (n = 52) was used to develop a survey instrument employed in the subsequent Quantitative Phase Two (n = 180). The youth who were involved in each phase lived in different geographic areas of a Western Canadian province. The qualitative phase generated a number of comments about the experience of being bullied or how it felt to be a bully. In the survey instrument, specific questions related to bullying were embedded within it. Demographic information was collected in both phases of the study. Research assistants were used to collect the data in each phase. The transcripts from the qualitative phase were analyzed for categories and themes. The survey instrument included demographic questions and seventy questions that included a four-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS v14 (SPSS Inc; Chicago, IL, USA). For this article, the survey questions that focused on bullying were considered alongside the qualitative comments in order to more fully understand the perceptions and viewpoints of rural youth regarding this particular aspect of violence. Results: Conducting a mixed method study provides a more in-depth understanding of bullying among youth in the rural context. The pain and humiliation of being bullied provided a personalized understanding of the survey responses that indicated which youth are targets of bullying. For example, comments were made about being picked on because of personal characteristics such as being overweight or dressing in an unacceptable manner. In addition, bullies openly talked about the power they gained from their role. The frequency responses to the questions in the survey confirmed that bullies obtain power from their behavior and that youth who are different are bullied. The participants also noted that something needed to be done to address bullying but remarked that they would not seek professionals’ help. Discussion: The findings negate the myth that rural places are ideal places to raise children. Although the youth did not identify that they would access professionals, it is important for members of rural communities to acknowledge bullying, its impacts and how they can prevent it. Working from the social structure of rural communities is a first step in this process. Conclusion: Rural communities will benefit as a whole if bullying, an important societal concern, is addressed. Building on the social structure of rural communities is important, However, listening to rural youth themselves is the key if true change is to be implemented.Jennifer Richmond (Production Editor for Rural and Remote Health Onlin

Nurses' perception of death education

xi, 160 leaves : ill., charts ; 28 cm.The primary purpose of this study was to examine nurses including student nurses perceptions of death education in southern Alberta as one way of improving futrue nursing curricula. Five nurse subgroups were included, as follows: college and university students, hospital nurses, community nurses, and nurse educators. A questionnaire was developed and piloted prior to distribution to 450 nurses in six locations, including two urban and four rural sites, in southern Alberta. Completed, useable returns numbered 373 (83%). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and t-tests were used to analyze the data from scaled questionnaire items; content analysis was used to interpret written response items. Theoretical and conceptual frameworks were developed and utilized to guide the interpretation of findings. Generally, nurses perceived that existing death education remains inadequate as preparation for sound clinical nursing practice. Several statistically significant findings related to the provision of professional terminal care were reported amon the five nurse subgroups. Nurses identified concerns and deficits within existing nursing death educaiton and offered several specific suggestions for improvement. The improvement of death education for nurses will most likely result in the delivery of safe, effective, quality nursing care practice to the dying person and family

Healing within families following youth suicide

Despite preventive efforts, youth suicide is identified as a public and mental health problem of epidemic proportion in Western society. The short- and long-term health and human consequences associated with youth suicide are enormous, affecting each family survivor, the family, and ultimately, the community and society. Youth suicide has its greatest impact on the family, yet health care responses to these grieving families remains inadequate at best. This grounded theory study, based on a health promotion philosophy that embraces the strengths and resilient nature of grieving individuals, examined how individuals within the context of the family heal in the aftermath of youth suicide. Eleven families from rural and small urban centres were interviewed for the study during an 18 month period. Individual healing following youth suicide is conceptualized as Journeying Toward Wholeness. This journey is characterized by the inter-relationships among three enfolding, fluid, and iterative themes, which in themselves, each represent one portion of the overall journey: Cocooning (Journey of Descent); Centering (Journey of Growth); and Connecting (Journey of Transcendence). Within each theme, five self-organizing and inter-relating patterns (i.e., relating, thinking, functioning, energizing, and finding meaning/exploring spirituality) operate in mutual rhythmical interchange with the other patterns unbound by time. Each pattern describes one facet of the individual's experience in response to youth suicide. Journeying toward wholeness (i.e., healing) varies in expression and intensity over time in response to a variety of contextual factors including personal history, factors related to the suicide, social considerations, and the health care environment. Importantly, healing emanates, as an act of volition, from the survivor's consciousness (i.e., the healing epicentre) as a result of decision making. The degree to which healing occurs depends on a number of intervening variables reflecting the survivor's capacity to say yes to life; step out and speak up; achieve a sense of peace, harmony, and balance; and expand personal consciousness. As a major outcome of the healing process, each survivor creates a love knot, symbolic of the healing strategies he or she uses to facilitate healing within both private and public spheres. The love knot represents the creative expression of love as a healthy and continuing bond between the survivor and deceased youth. The love knot is based on the meaning the survivor attributes to his or her experience with youth suicide and the relationship between the survivor and deceased youth prior to death. Ultimately, individual healing expands outward influencing family, societal, and global spheres. The theory presented in this dissertation will be of particular interest to clinical nurse specialists and mental health care professionals from a variety of disciplines who work closely with families in the community. With its focus on health promotion, this theory captures some of the intricacies and complexities of the healing process and is intended to serve as a possible reference to guide evidence-based health care practice.Applied Science, Faculty ofNursing, School ofGraduat