Success

The purpose for this research was to study the meaning of the lived experience of excellence in nursing practice as described by registered nurses. The phenomenon of excellence in practice is a commonly cited goal of individual nurses, as well as of organized departments of nursing service and nursing education. Ray's phenomenological method was used to describe and identify themes and to construct the meaning of excellence in nursing practice experience as used in the language by nurses. Registered nurses were interviewed by using an open-ended question technique. In addition, audiotape was employed, and the interviews were transcribed to text. The phenomenological analytic method of dwelling with and describing the data was used to identify emergent themes. The themes allowed for the emergence of a unity of meaning of the lived experience of excellence in nursing practice. Relationships with and visions for nursing were presented.

This study sought to identify characteristics and experiences that were indicators of success in courses that required a degree of self-direction in learning. Data were collected from 121 nurses enrolled in 17 home study courses. The course content and evaluation tools were designed to be of similar difficulty for each of the courses offered. The course grade furnished the criterion variable. Predictor variables included information obtained from the Biographical Data Questionnaire and the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Instrument. The predictor variables were grouped into four main categories: (a) personal, educational, and employment characteristics; (b) motivation for enrolling in and completing the course; (c) orientation toward, and experience with self-directed learning; and (d) self-directed learning readiness. The null hypotheses, tested at the 0.05 level, were: (1) that there is no relationship between final grade received in a home study course and the variables relating to personal, educational, and employment characteristics; and (2) that motivation for involvement in, orientation toward, and experience with self-directed learning, and learner readiness was not related to final grade earned. The following statistical treatments were conducted on the data: (a) reliability studies for the 17 home study courses; (b) correlations measured the relationship between the predictor variables and the criterion variable; and, (c) multiple regression computed the relationship between sets of predictor variables and test scores. Reliability studies found lower coefficients than had been reported. Since the relationships were not significant at the 0.05 level of significance, the null hypotheses were not rejected. Sample characteristics were congruent with those described by researchers for self-directed adult learners. Subjects viewed themselves as self-directed learners and highly motivated to complete the course. Results of the study may have been affected by the inclusion of technical and professional nurses in one sample group; a sample highly motivated for completion; low reliability for the posttests; and a sample who answered most items correctly, which could limit possible correlation between the criterion and predictor variables.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that a cognitivebehavioral based psycho-educational group counseling program would increase at-risk female adolescent emotional intelligence (EI). The EI research reviewed and discussed entailed a competency building program composed of affirmations, meditation guided imagery, individual therapy sessions, group therapy, psychodrama, journaling, and parent handouts. The study was based upon theories related to the development of EI in at-risk youth, and the outcome research related to the effectiveness of emotional interventions for enhancing positive social-emotional development of at-risk adolescents. ...T his study investigated whether a group therapy process that encompasses programmatic components fostering self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, and positive social skills, could effectively increase the EI and social adjustment of a target group of at-risk female adolescents.