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Biomedical subjects

M M Swenson

Publications and source records attributed to M M Swenson.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Toward a narrative-centered curriculum for nurse practitioners.

This paper discusses various alternative and nontraditional teaching strategies currently used in nurse practitioner curricula. These instructional strategies include case-study analysis (Ryan-Wenger & Lee, 1997) and problem-based learning/practice-based learning (Barrows, 1994). We suggest a further evolution, using principles and practices of a narrative pedagogy (Diekelmann, 1995) to allow convergence of these several narratively-focused inductive and interpretive approaches. This combination of ways of learning has led us toward a narrative-centered curriculum for family nurse practitioners (FNPs). Specific ways to use narrative in the FNP curriculum are presented to demonstrate how to take the curriculum beyond traditional ways of teaching and learning.

Curriculum↗

Essential elements in a qualitative dissertation proposal.

This article clarifies the requirements of a qualitative research proposal, specifically a qualitative doctoral dissertation. The recommendations will be useful to graduate students and faculty members who are writing a qualitative proposal for the first time or who are critiquing one. A summary of assumptions of non-traditional research paradigms as they apply to inquiry design, a suggestion of the contents of the first three chapters of a qualitative dissertation (usually included in a dissertation proposal), and suggestions for ensuring rigor in the design and conduct of the dissertation research are included.

Academic Dissertations as Topic↗

Using fourth-generation evaluation in nursing.

Evaluation is disciplined inquiry undertaken to determine the value, including merit and worth, of some entity: a curriculum program, a clinical intervention, an academic course, a care plan. An evaluation is conducted to improve or refine the thing being evaluated (evaluand) or to assess its impact and effectiveness. Evaluation in nursing has been designed using various positivistic and post-positivistic models in the first three "generations" in the evolution of evaluation practice. This article describes a new model of nursing evaluation more consistent with a nursing paradigm than with a traditional, scientific, medical paradigm. Responsive nursing evaluation informs and empowers all those involved in its outcomes (the stakeholders) when framed within the research stance called naturalistic or constructivist inquiry. The fourth-generation-evaluation approach of Guba and Lincoln (1989) is consistent with a nursing paradigm and a constructivist approach. Fourth-generation evaluation is presented with specific application to nursing evaluation.

Models, Theoretical↗

Primary health care of elderly women.

Traditional health care of the expanding elderly population has focused on illness diagnosis and management. However, because more individuals, women especially, are living longer and living better, the emphasis should be shifted and modified to include primary health care for elderly people. Primary health care includes active health promotion and health maintenance, prevention of illness or disability, and attention to the quality as much as to the quantity of life. Unfortunately, the health concerns of elderly women, especially the oldest-old groups who live more or less independently, have been addressed inadequately in medical and nursing literature. Routine approaches to health care for women aged 70 and older must consider women's apparent hardiness, potential social isolation, and unique worries about safety and independence. Nurse practitioners in adult health, family practice, and gerontology must expand their repertoire of health promotion and health maintenance strategies to meet the needs of this special population. This article outlines the role of the nurse practitioner in the care of the well elderly woman.

Aged↗