Nursing Research Update: Journal Club Fun is the best way to stay informed and inspired

Alright, alright already! GEEZ!!!!  I  know, I am behind in my research postings, but that does not mean I haven’t been keeping up with my research reading.  Also, I know, I know… I am a total sucker for all things pro-nursing profession, networking with other cool nurses, and events which include beverages and snacks!

Inspired by Teresa Heithaus and her SIUH journal club on facebook, and in the interest of networking, relationship, and the vast amount of nursing knowledge… (Drum roll please)… I have started a small journal club with nurses from varied backgrounds and employers.  There are only 5 of us, but that number was just right for discussion and connection.  It was great to get to meet with nurses who I admire, consider friends, and who are exceedingly intelligent to discuss nursing, research, and ideas without the constraints of political correctness or the over-hang of employer scrutiny.  Although not every article was strictly research, the manuscripts stimulated ideas, expanded discussion, and stimulated problem solving among the group.

Setting Up a Journal Club: I had no idea what I was doing so I just made up rules and they were…

1.  Bring 5 copies of a journal or research article.

2. Bring your favorite appetizer or beverage to share (no rules as to what).

3. Bring any current project you need help on (no limitations) for editing, feedback, etc.

4. Come to relax, nothing fancy.

It was a huge hit! People made new acquaintances, we laughed, we agreed, we disagreed… and we plan to meet again this summer sometime.  It was like water for the nursing soul! Below is a synopsis of the articles brought/presented with their citation.  They are ranked by interest in the group that night.

What I learned from Journal Club (Research)

1. Ethics, the ICU patient, and Nurses’ Personal Grief and Opinions: Most popular award of the night goes to a non-research article that provided excellent qualitative reflection from several nurses who cared for a pregnant vegetative patient.  The emotions in the article run deep and an interesting dialog ensues in both the lay-out of nurse responses within the manuscript, and internally within the reader! Take home message: Caring for patients is ethically messy and often family emotions and the rights of third parties affect the process of care.  I highly suggest you read it. Check it out:

Abazzia, C. et al. (2010). In the Name of Good Intentions: Nurses’ perspective on caring for pregnant patient in a persistent vegetative state. Critical Care Nurse 30(1), 40-46.

2. Making an Online Nursing Course Worth Taking – FEEDBACK: A few in the group are faculty members and teach online, so an article about improving feedback to students in online courses was also quite popular.  This article reviewed evidence-based strategies to help faculty provide ‘diverse’ feedback to students in an online course.  Suggestions included: providing multiple sources of feedback, give some assignments with automated/immediate responses,  allow for assignments that are sent in in smaller parts to allow for multiple feedback opportunities, provide clear course introductory materials and an orientation with strategies for learner directed learning, be active in discussion boards, use grading rubrics, and allow students to self-reflect on their learning.

Bonnel, W. (2008).  Improving Feedback to Students in Online Courses. Nursing Education Perspectives (29)5: 291-294.

3.  Online Academic Integrity… Don’t all online learners cheat? This was a great article that sparked some discussion on the idea of barriers to online learning from faculty and administration; namely in the form of ‘increased risk for academic integrity infractions’.  This article was a presentation of research from two different RN-BSN cohorts, one seated and one in an online program. Number of participants online 330, seated 44.  The results were not what one would expect.  The seated students reported higher levels of cheating compared with online students such as getting questions or answers from someone who has already taken the exam (47% traditional classroom reported YES in the 40 and younger crowd and 13 % in 40 and older, compared to a respective 2 and 0.8%).  In traditional seated students ages 40 and younger, 28.6% reported helping someone else cheat on an exam, 19% reported working on an assignment with others in person or via e-mail that was supposed to be individual work, compared to 0% of online students. Needless to say, online students, who may have different characteristics or learning motivations than seated students, cheat much less than traditional students.

Hart, L. & Morgan, L. (2010) Academic integrity in an online registered nurse to Baccalaureate in nursing program. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. 41(11); 498-505.

4.  Which is better manual or automated blood pressure readings? This article was a great systematic review of 10 solid studies comparing manual versus automated devices. Findings and conclusions were that automated devices were less accurate, but in most cases provided sufficient enough information for clinical use.  However, mercury auscultatory devices were found to be the gold standard and certain automated devices were better than others.  Many of the automated devices over-estimated blood pressure and in specific patients use of such devices was discouraged and included; hypertensive patients, patients with arrhythmias and trauma patients.

Skirton, H. et al. (2011).  A systematic review of variability and reliability of manual and automated blood pressure readings. Journal of clinical nursing; 20(5-6); 602-614.