School Psychology Manpower Characteristics and Needs in Rural and Urban Tennessee: A Five Year Follow-Up.
A five-year followup survey was conducted with both rural and urban Tennessee school administrators to ascertain current school psychology manpower characteristics and needs and to determine how these parameters have changed over that period of time. Psychological services continue to be reported as available in almost all districts reporting, and increases are reported in the number of full-time personnel providing service, in the number of personnel holding State Department of Education certification as a school psychologist, and in the level of desired training of psychological personnel. A substantial number of administrators continue to indicate the quantity of psychological services is inadequate to meet their needs, but the number of actual position openings has declined over the five year period and are very few in number in relation to reported needs. The possible implications of the data to overall manpower concerns, and specifically to the Master Teacher-Better Schools programs, are discussed.
A Survey of School Psychology Manpower Characteristics and Needs in Rural and Urban Tennessee.
School administrators in both rural and urban districts were surveyed to determine their level of psychological services at the time of the study (1977-1978), as well as their immediate additional and future (1982-1983) manpower needs. Information regarding availability of positions and appropriate training was also gathered. Though services were reportedly available to nearly all districts, substantial immediate additional services were reported as needed. Such need, however, was highly discrepant with reported job availability. Characteristic differences between rural and urban districts are presented along with concern for an oversupply of school psychologists in the near future.
Nurse responsiveness to cancer patient expressions of emotion.
OBJECTIVE
This theoretically based study examined nurse responses to cancer patient expressions of emotion using a videotaped, simulated cancer patient.


METHODS
This study used an experimental crossover design with a videotaped patient expressing anger, sadness, and neutral emotion to elicit nurse responses. Seventy-four nurses from eight sites participated. Responses were coded using Roter interaction analysis system. Correlations explored relationships between variables that impact communication (age, gender, work experience, trait anxiety, work stress, self-efficacy). Regression models explored the effect of variables on nurse affective responsiveness.


RESULTS
Patient expressions of sadness elicited more affective responses than anger. Expressions of anger or neutral emotion elicited more instrumental behaviors than sadness. Variables such as age, work stress and work experience were significantly correlated. No variables predicted affective responsiveness to patient expressions of anger or sadness.


CONCLUSION
Nurse communication showed significant variation in response to patient emotional expressions. Understanding the relationships between demographic, personality, and work variables, and identification of new variables that influence nurse-patient communication, has implications for interventional studies.


PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Over 90% of the participants indicated that the videotape simulation would be a useful method for teaching and practicing communication skills with patients expressing emotions.