Associate Professor and Students Published in Journal of Family Nursing

In 2011, Dr. Holtslander received the Provost’s College Award for Outstanding Teaching, which annually recognizes an exceptional teacher in each College at the University of Saskatchewan. Lorraine decided to use the award funding to work on a teaching approach evaluation entitled “The 15-Minute Interview as a Learning Strategy for Senior Undergraduate Nursing Students”. Over the next year, Holtslander, Solar and Smith completed their paper, which will be published in the Journal of Family Nursing in early 2013.

Journal Article Overview

In today’s health care system, providers continue to face challenges executing patient and family centered care. In undergraduate nursing, strategies to join classroom learning with clinical experiences need to be developed, so students form the skills required to build relationships with the families they are caring for. This article describes how undergraduate nursing students complete a 15 minute family interview (Wright & Leahey, 2009) in a clinical practice setting and then document the interview in a reflective paper. Students mix research and theory to identify ways to improve family care in the clinical setting, while building communication skills, gaining confidence to interact with families and learning how to apply family centered care in every day nursing practice. The article discusses the implementation of the assignment and the evaluation of the process, including quotes from ten student papers and 2 clinical faculty.

About the Researchers

Dr. Lorraine Holtslander has taught family nursing to undergraduate nursing students and qualitative research to graduate interdisciplinary students for over 5 years. Her research interests include community-based end of life care and developing interventions to support family caregivers during bereavement. She maintains a clinical practice in Home Care, including a focus on palliative care in the community setting.

Jessica Solar recently started her PhD studies with the College of Nursing. She has been working as a Research Assistant and Research Coordinator for Dr. Holtslander over the past year. Previously, Jessica worked as a Clinical Coordinator with the College of Nursing for 5 years. She has also been employed as a part-time instructor in a variety of roles on a contract basis over the last 6 years. Her research interests include grief and bereavement care for older adults, palliative care and research focusing on teaching families.

Nicole Smith is a recent graduate of the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS) and is now working as a Registered Nurse, implementing family centered care in her practice, on Acute Care Pediatrics at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. She spent her final year in her Undergraduate studies as a Research Assistant for Dr. Holtslander, working on this project. Recently, she has become a part-time Lab Instructor in the College of Nursing, with future goals of pursuing graduate studies and teaching.

About the Journal of Family Nursing

The Journal of Family Nursing is a peer-reviewed journal covering nursing research, practice, education and policy issues, as well as practical and theoretical studies on the subject of family health. The interdisciplinary, global and combined perspectives examine cultural diversity and families across the life cycle. The journal is published quarterly, both in print and online. For more information, please visit http://jfn.sagepub.com/.