The effects of interprofessional education – Self-reported professional competence among prehospital emergency care nursing students on the point of graduation – A cross-sectional study

Psychometric evaluation of Nurse Professional Competence Scale-Short-form Chinese language version among nursing graduate students

Aim

The aim of the study was to determine the psychometric properties, construct validity and internal consistency of the Chinese language version of the Nurse Professional Competence scale short form.

Design

A methodological design was used.

Methods

Questionnaire data from 260 nursing students nearing graduation from 2 universities in China were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis, known‐group validity and internal consistency.

Results

The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the model was acceptable, and the analyses for known‐group validity revealed statistically significant differences in all factors and the total scale of the Nurse Professional Competence scale short form. Internal consistency revealed that Cronbach's alpha values exceeded 0.70 for all factors and the total scale. The Chinese language version of the Nurse Professional Competence scale short form has acceptable construct validity and good internal consistency.

Does collective efficacy drive readiness for interprofessional learning? Evidence from a large-scale interprofessional education program in Hong Kong

Interprofessional education has been widely integrated into health education curricula to enable students to work comfortably as members of a healthcare team. However, not much is known about the psychosocial mechanism that defines students' readiness for interprofessional learning. Drawing from social cognitive theory, we examined the pathway where collective efficacy was construed to influence subsequent students' satisfaction with team experiences, readiness for interprofessional learning, and attainment of interprofessional learning outcomes. Through path analysis, we examined data from 1,005 health and social care students who participated in a large-scale interprofessional education in Hong Kong. Results indicated that collective efficacy directly and indirectly predicted students' readiness for interprofessional learning and perception of attainment of IPE learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of findings in the management of interprofessional education are discussed.

Iranian Nurses' Experiences of Workplace Violence in Prehospital Emergency Care: A Qualitative Study

Prehospital emergency care nurses experience severe workplace violence. However, despite the widespread violence they experience, this phenomenon has not been well studied among these nurses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of Iranian nurses working in prehospital setting regarding workplace violence with a focus on the factors leading to such violence. In this qualitative descriptive study, 23 prehospital nurses participated purposefully. The data were collected by individual face-to-face semistructured interviews and analyzed using content analysis methodology. Data analysis led to the identification of 4 main themes, including job competency mismatch, inadequate resources, criticality of the situation and circumstances, and inadequate awareness and misplaced expectations of society. These nurses have not completed specialized training courses, work in a system that is in a critical situation, and face many barriers and deficiencies in terms of intra- and interorganizational coordination. On the other hand, people in the community do not have sufficient awareness about the duties and services provided by prehospital nurses and thus have unrealistic expectations to receive services. The results showed that there was a deep gap between the prehospital emergency realities and public expectations, leading to workplace violence. Therefore, efforts to improve the working conditions of nurses with an emphasis on teaching specialized prehospital emergency courses, especially violence control courses, promoting intra- and interorganizational coordination, and increasing the equipment and personnel of ambulances for special missions, as well as raising the public awareness and outlining more realistic expectations, may reduce the prevalence of violence against prehospital nurses.

Dual use of instruments for assessing nursing students professional- and clinical competence

BACKGROUND

Changes in demographics and the development of health systems have a direct impact on patients' nursing needs and nurses' ability to meet them. Modern and forward-looking nursing education programmes that will help nursing students to develop their professional competence require useful tools for assessment and self-reflection that can be combined in theoretical and clinical education.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the associations between the Nurse Professional Competence Scale - Short Form (NPC-SF), and the tool Assessment of Clinical Education (AssCE) tool, and to assess the graduating students´ professional competence based on their self-assessment.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS

A total of 151 nursing students at a Swedish university college completed the NPC-SF and the AssCE (response rate 77%).

METHODS

In their final weeks of the nursing programme, students were invited to respond to two questionnaires: the NPC Scale - Short Form (35 items) and the AssCE tool (21 items).

RESULT

There are significant correlations between the nursing students' responses to the NPC-SF competence areas and the AssCE areas (r = 0.19-0.57). Students score in the NPC-SF were highest in Value-based Nursing Care and lowest in Development, Leadership and Organization of Nursing Care, and in the AssCE areas student scores were highest in Examination and treatment and Professional Approach and lowest in Management and Cooperation.

CONCLUSION

The NPC-SF and AssCE are valid and reliable instruments, showing a high level of correlation. Results imply that dual use could strengthen student-centred theoretical and clinical learning as well as professional competence development. Additional research is needed to assess student's competence development during the nursing program.

The Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale: A tool that can be used in national and international assessments of nursing education programmes

The quality of basic nursing bachelor programmes nationally and internationally must regularly be assessed to ensure that they fulfil requirements and are appropriate in relation to developments and changes in societies and healthcare systems. There is a need for instruments in helping to assess this. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale could serve as a tool to measure and detect possible differences between universities/university colleges regarding nursing students’ self-reported competence. Totally, 543 nursing students who had just completed their academic three-year nursing bachelor programmes at 10 universities/university colleges in Sweden participated in the study (response rate 71%). The students answered the NPC Scale with its 88 items constituting eight competence areas (CAs) and two overarching themes. The results from using the NPC Scale by the students were then compared between the 10 universities/university colleges. Significant mean score differences were found between the universities/university colleges on all CAs and on both themes. The highest mean score differences were found for the CAs ‘Medical and technical care’ and ‘Documentation and information technology’. The lowest mean score differences were found for the CAs ‘Value-based nursing care’ and ‘Leadership in and development of nursing’. It is concluded that the NPC Scale can serve as a useful tool in national and international assessments of nursing bachelor programmes.

A short version of the nurse professional competence scale for measuring nurses' self-reported competence

BACKGROUND

The Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale with 88-items has been used to measure self-reported competence among nursing students and registered nurses in many national and international nursing research projects. However, a shorter version of the scale with maintained quality has been requested to further enhance its usability.

OBJECTIVES

To develop and evaluate the construct validity and internal consistency of a shorter version of the NPC Scale.

DESIGN

A developmental and methodological design.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS

The study was based on a sample of 1810 nursing students at the point of graduation from 12 universities in Sweden.

METHODS

The number of items in the original NPC Scale was reduced using several established research steps and then evaluated for data quality and construct validity using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was measured as internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha.

RESULTS

The extensive process of reducing the number of items resulted in a version with 35 items. Principal component analysis resulted in six factors explaining 53.6% of the variance: "Nursing Care", "Value-based Nursing Care", "Medical and Technical Care", "Care Pedagogics", "Documentation and Administration of Nursing Care", and "Development, Leadership, and Organization of Nursing Care". All factors showed Cronbach's alpha values of >0.70. The confirmative factor analysis goodness-of-fit indexes were for root mean square error of approximation 0.05 and for comparative fit index 0.89.

CONCLUSIONS

The NPC Scale Short Form (NPC Scale-SF) 35-items revealed promising results with a six-factor structure explaining 53.6% of the total variance. This 35-item scale can be an asset when used alone and together with other instruments it can provide the possibility of more complex analyses of self-reported competence among nursing students and registered nurses.

Integrating cross-border emergency medicine systems: Securing future preclinical medical workforce for remote medical services

The European Union intends to enable its citizens to interact across borders in relevant areas of society and culture to further integrate neighboring regions. Medicine has not been at the core of recent EU-funded efforts in central Europe, partially due to significant differences in health care administration, delivery, reimbursement, and culture. However, impeding changes in social structure and centralization of specialized care warrant changes in preclinical administration of medical care, which are already transforming practices across developed countries in central Europe. Moreover, demographic and social changes are transforming not only patients but also health care providers, thus leading to an increased need for specialized medical personnel, particularly in regions close to formerly secluding borders. The EU-funded cooperation project presented in this article is located in the Euroregion Pomerania, which consists of northeastern Germany and northwestern Poland. This project emerged because of the need to solve practical emergency medicine-related problems for many years, which brought partners together. Unfortunately, administrative and medical interaction has not become significantly easier with Poland joining the Schengen area in 2007 and, subsequently, initial international contracts regarding, among other things, emergency medicine being negotiated and signed thereafter. Three different interdependent areas of cooperation within the project deal with key aspects of an improved and eventually integrated cooperation. An accepted clarification of administrative and legal foundations - or the lack and thus the need thereof - needs to be defined. Specialized language and simulation-based education and practice sessions employing modern technology throughout will be introduced to the entire region. Finally, the pre-existing and developing acceptance and sustainability aspects of personnel involved in the aforementioned actions and stakeholders on both sides of the border will be evaluated. In essence, the project focuses on a multimodal improvement of professional cooperation of key providers of emergency medicine services in the Euroregion Pomerania. Thereby, it aims to improve infrastructure; interpersonal and professional skills of involved personnel, administrative, and cultural relations; and eventually identification of specialized personnel with their workplace and region to secure and retain important medical workforce in an otherwise remote area on both sides of a formerly secluded border.