In this Fall 2006 issue of Academic Exchange Quarterly, we have included 
eight manuscripts that deal with issues both in and out of the healthcare classroom.  
To begin, Prince, Triplett, and Lindsey discuss the destructive aftermath of Hurricane 
Katrina in light of the relationships among three factors in Mississippi and Louisiana:  
childhood poverty, children’s well-being, and academic achievement.  An additional 
classroom study is included with the research of Pritchard and Wilson who studied 
faculty and student stress and health during midterm examination week.  Readers will 
discover similar findings among both faculty and students, with faculty reporting 
fewer physical health symptoms and less tension, depression, and confusion.  Their 
conclusions and interpretation of findings will make for appealing reading.  Balogun 
and Germain add to the research on university faculty with their in-depth literature 
review on tenure policies and practices in allied health and nursing education.  
Within their summary of published studies, the authors include topics such as 
educational requirements for tenure, roles of scholarship, teaching and service 
in tenure decisions, and tenure innovations.

In the area of service learning, we wish the reader to note the flow of topics: 
service tied to university mission statements, a proposed program of service 
learning, and the practice of service from reflective action research to serving 
the elderly.  In their paper, Miller and Giugliano explore how several collaborative 
disease prevention and health promotion projects can overlap to meet the missions 
of a school of nursing, academic nurse-managed health center, and a university, 
while Kearney discusses the challenges encountered developing a service learning 
course in a healthcare curriculum.  Kearney describes a required service learning 
course, and assesses its success relative to outcomes supporting an exemplary model 
for service learning in healthcare education.  Henderson poses several questions 
and shares personal reflections as she explores the practical challenges and 
successes emerging from a community-based master’s thesis.  Finally, there are 
two papers in this issue, from two perspectives, in which the authors discuss 
service learning with communities of elderly.  Getahun presents findings from a 
qualitative study on the possible benefits of service learning as an antidote to 
ageism within a retirement-home environment.  Her theme analysis indicates students’ 
increased awareness of ageism and a shift towards a more positive attitude towards 
the elderly.  Somewhat related, Singleton studied the effects of service learning 
assignments in a social work curriculum and discusses both the development and 
implementation of those assignments in agency settings and the outcomes presented 
in terms of services and benefits provided, including the degree of satisfaction by 
the agencies and students with this pedagogical method.

We thank the readers for your interest in these essays related to health education 
and healthcare issues.