A new normal
I enjoyed your article "Developing Nurse Leaders from Within" (May 2016). Promoting from within isn't a new concept, but the Nurse Leadership Academy developed by the authors' healthcare system to train and develop future nurse leaders is inspiring and innovative. Nurse leaders are often promoted to leadership roles based solely on clinical performance and nursing knowledge; most have never had any formal leadership training and development, which is especially important for communication skills and financial competency.
As a nurse leader, I remember transitioning from the clinical environment to a leadership role. A program like the Nurse Leadership Academy would have made a huge impact on my transition! It's refreshing to read about programs like this one and I hope to see this become the norm for nursing.
-SHERICE MATTHEWS, BSN, RN, MSRN
Odessa, Tex.
Preventing plagiarism
I found "Conquering Plagiarism in Nursing Education" (July 2016) very interesting. In my experience, education seems to be the best option for preventing plagiarism before it starts; it's much easier than correction. At my institution, the first course graduate students take is Publication Ethics and Plagiarism. As a second line of defense, we also use screening tools and expert peer review to evaluate student reports before presentation or submission. Nevertheless, plagiarism still occurs and students occasionally fail assignments for their breach of ethics. However, as an educator, I choose to support these students, provide them with intensive, remedial plagiarism education, and ensure they promise not to plagiarize again. This multistep approach has been very successful. Prevention really can help decrease the problem of plagiarism!
-VIROJ WIWANITKIT, MD, FRFM
Bangkok, Thailand