The impact of Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidation on the professional identity of academic staff in a higher education institution: A qualitative study

"I want to have stories too". Nursing students' views on nursing identity and reasons for choosing nursing as a career: A qualitative study

AIM

To understand and interpret nursing students' views on nursing identity and their reasons for choosing nursing as a career after participating in a face-to-face storytelling panel by academics.

BACKGROUND

Knowing nursing students' view of the profession and their thoughts about the profession, their roles and their future will guide nursing academics to develop evidence-based strategies that will enable participants to realize their own professional identities. Storytelling has an important role in creating and strengthening a strong professional identity among participants.

DESIGN

This study is a sample case study.

METHODS

This research was carried out in the fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic year with participants registered in nursing program at the Faculty of Health Sciences of a state university in the Central Anatolia Region of Türkiye. The study was completed with one hundred ten participants. Five academics were invited to the panel at the Faculty of Health Sciences to share their experiences, stories and reasons for choosing nursing as a career through storytelling. The data were collected using the surveys, which includes five structured open ended questions and analyzed using descriptive analysis.

RESULTS

Five main themes emerged: 1. Participants' views on nursing profession; 2. Awareness of positive/negative emotions related to the profession as a part of nursing stories and feeling that these emotions are experienced in the stories; 3. Changes in the perspective of the profession and sense of belonging to the profession as part of nursing stories; 4. Facilitators in choosing nursing as a career; and 5. Barriers to choosing nursing as a career.

CONCLUSION

Providing participants with the chance to both listen to the real stories of academic nurses and to reflect on themselves through writing was a dynamic experience that motivated participants to understand their perceptions of nurses and nursing profession.

What do we know about midwives' transition from clinical practice to higher education teaching roles? A scoping review

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this review was to examine the literature to identify what is known about midwives' experiences as academics and their perspectives of transition from clinical practice to university.

INTRODUCTION

Literature on health care practitioners, particularly nurses' transition from clinical experts to novice teachers suggests the transition to academia is challenging.Challenges reported by research studies have identified stress, uncertainty, and lack of a supportive and structured transition. There was a dearth of primary research evidence of midwives' perspectives.

METHODS

A scoping review using the Johanna Briggs Institute three step approach was employed. First, an initial limited search of Google Scholar and CINAHL was undertaken to identify articles on the topic. Second, the text words contained in the titles and abstracts of relevant articles and the index terms used to describe the articles were used to develop a complete search strategy in databases: EMBASE, MIDIRS, Scopus and PubMed. Finally, a manual search of the reference lists of all included sources of evidence was manually searched for additional studies.

RESULTS

Ten papers that included midwives as the participants were located from Australia, The United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) between 2006 and 2022. Analysis of the findings led to three themes: Theme 1: Challenges associated with the transition; Theme 2: Dichotomy of identity; and Theme 3: Fear of losing clinical credibility.

CONCLUSION

In most studies midwives formed a subset of the sample meaning that the voices of midwifery academics are minimised by the experiences of other health practitioners. However, in depth details were located from four personal reflections which identified that transition from clinical practice to academia can result in a duality of roles while individuals come to terms with their new reality and overcome their fear of losing credibility as clinicians. New academics from health tend to hold onto their identity as clinicians rather than adopting their new persona as academics. Fear of losing credibility stems from the need to maintain competence for continued professional registration as clinicians. Further research is needed which focuses on midwives as the target sample to validate the research evidence from this scoping review.

Midwifery students' experiences of objective structured clinical examinations: A qualitative evidence synthesis

OBJECTIVES

To identify and synthesise the evidence of midwifery students' views and experiences of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs).

DESIGN

A qualitative evidence synthesis was undertaken using Thomas and Harden's synthesis methods and reported according to the ENTEREQ guidelines.

DATA SOURCES

PubMED, CINAHL Plus, Embase, ERIC, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index (via Web of Science) and Scopus were searched from inception to 19th February 2020 and an updated search was performed on 12th May 2021 to identify qualitative and mixed method studies, reporting qualitative data of undergraduate midwifery students' views and experiences of OSCEs.

REVIEW METHODS

Studies were independently screened by title and abstract according to a predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Full text review was then conducted independently by two authors. Studies providing qualitative data on undergraduate midwifery students' views and experiences of OSCEs during their midwifery registration education programmes were included. Quality appraisal was performed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool. Data synthesis was performed using Thomas and Harden's thematic synthesis method.

RESULTS

Eleven studies were identified and included. Thematic synthesis identified 13 descriptive themes which translated into four analytical themes that represented midwifery students' views and experiences of OSCEs: the preparation phase, the assessment phase, the feedback phase and the translation phase.

CONCLUSIONS

This synthesis offers insight into undergraduate midwifery students' views and experiences of OSCEs and how they are experienced across four phases. This is determined to be a useful structure to guide midwifery educators and researchers in their consideration of the student experience of OSCEs in the future. Midwifery students in this synthesis reported high levels of nervousness, anxiety, and stress during the OSCE process. The findings reveal that there are a number of controllable factors impacting on midwifery students' feelings of safety in the assessment environment, and that these should be addressed to maximise the advantages that the OSCE has to offer in terms of learning and preparation for clinical practice.

Supporting the Professional Identity Development of Nursing Alumni: A Phenomenology Study

BACKGROUND: Professional identity is the expected outcome of nursing educational institutions reflected in the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of nursing alumni as professional nurses. Nursing alumni’s experiences at the Bachelor nursing program in Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) related to professional identity development (PID) at various nursing careers need to be explored. AIM: This study aims to describe Ners alumni in PID at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). METHODS: This study was a phenomenological approach with a maximum variation sampling technique. Seventeen nursing alumni who have been working as professional nurses for a minimum of two years and worked in various nursing careers were recruited. A semi-structured interview between 60-90 minutes was conducted. Data analysis used Colaizzi’s methods and Nvivo 12TM Plus. RESULTS: There were two themes emerged from data; 1) Internal motivation to enhancing nursing career, with two sub-themes: having a great personal motivation and developing expertise, 2) External support driving nursing career, with five sub-themes: family encouragement, supports from a leader, accreditation and credential, exemplary role model and positive nursing image. CONCLUSION: Nursing alumni engaged in a variety of professional roles that contributed to the nursing workforce. The supporting of PID impacts personal and professional capability and strengthens nurses’ careers.