Nontechnical skills are critical for good anesthetic practice but are seldom addressed explicitly in clinical training. The purposes of this study were (1) to evaluate the reliability and validity of the observation-based assessment tool Nurse Anaesthetists' Non-Technical Skills system (N-ANTS) and (2) to evaluate the effect of training nurse anesthetist supervisors in the use of N-ANTS. This s...

The successful orientation of new employees facilitates their transition to the complex and demanding world of perioperative nursing. Whether a nurse is a recent graduate or an experienced nurse who has recently joined the facility or department, a new nurse benefits from a transition period during which new skills, processes, and concepts can be learned. Training should offer new employees the...

CONTEXT California's Reproductive Health Privacy Act, which became law in January 2003, clarified that advanced practice clinicians could legally provide medical abortion. Little is known about the characteristics associated with nonphysician clinicians' interest in receiving medical abortion training or their perceptions of barriers to medical abortion provision. METHODS In early 2003, a tot...

As demand for nurse practitioners in all types of intensive care units continues to increase, ensuring successful integration of these nurses into adult and pediatric general and specialty intensive care units poses several challenges. Adding nurse practitioners requires strategic planning to define critical aspects of the care delivery model before the practitioners are hired, develop a compre...

Five registered mental nurses (R.M.N.s) were trained over two years to become behavioural psychotherapists for adult neurotic disorders. They achieved results comparable to those obtained with similar patients and methods by psychologists and psychiatrists. Similar results were maintained when over a third year the therapists were seconded to work in four hospitals and a general practice. Patie...

This article examines the development of the competency based approach to assessment in practice within pre-registration nursing. An historical perspective to the approach is given, including brief descriptions of the different models that have been used in nurse training and how these relate to the current system of nurse education. The approach is examined in relation to government, professio...