The importance of academic literacy for undergraduate nursing students and its relationship to future professional clinical practice: A systematic review

Nursing students' expectations of group supervision while writing a bachelor thesis: A pre-post survey

BACKGROUND

Writing a bachelor thesis has a central role in nursing education. Nursing students require both information and academic literacy in order to write their theses, and there is an expectation that these skills will contribute to putting their knowledge into practice.

OBJECTIVES

To describe students' perceptions of the student and supervisor roles and to investigate students' experienced self-efficacy during the supervision of their bachelor thesis.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional pre-post design.

SETTINGS

Four universities were included. All four had bachelor thesis courses organized as a group supervision process, with a student active approach. Nursing students met together one hour prior to meeting with their supervisor, in order to discuss concerns, try to solve upcoming problems, and plan the agenda for the upcoming supervision session.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 472 undergraduate nursing students were invited to participate.

METHODS

A web-based questionnaire was used, incorporating the Supervision of Thesis Questionnaire and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Data were collected at two points: before and after the thesis course. Descriptive statistics and frequencies were calculated, and the independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for analytic analysis.

RESULTS

The response rate was 39 % (160/472) pre-course and 28 % (130/472) post-course. Nursing students had high expectations of supervision at both time points. Students reporting high self-efficacy had higher expectations of the supervisor's knowledge of the subject and the methods, compared to those reporting lower self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing students reported high expectations for the supervision process, the supervisor, and themselves, both when entering and when ending the bachelor thesis course. Self-efficacy may contribute to these expectations. Active learning in a group (i.e., collaborative learning) may contribute to nursing students' commitment during the group supervision process in a bachelor thesis course. Further studies are warranted on the optimal group composition to support learning during bachelor thesis courses.

Supervising Undergraduate Nursing Students on Their Bachelor's Thesis. A Qualitative Study

Introduction

The bachelor's thesis (BT) in undergraduate education is often an autonomous and individual assignment. It aims to demonstrate knowledge gained through education, to be an assessment tool, and to give new learning outcomes through working on the thesis. The process of working with the BT most often includes individual supervision. There is an absence of support for teachers supervising undergraduate nursing theses, which includes a lack of national or institutional guidelines, role definitions and research material.

Objective

Given the lack of helpful guidelines, this study aims to explore what the teachers emphasize as important regarding their supervision of nursing students writing their BT.

Methods

The study has a qualitative approach, featuring individual semi-structured interviews with nursing teachers supervising nursing students on the BT. Reflexive thematic analysis is used as the method of analysis.

Results

The analyses resulted in two generated themes, each with two subthemes, describing the patterns the teachers emphasize as important aspects of their supervision of nursing students writing their BT. The themes were "The pedagogical approach to the supervision" and "The advantages of the bachelor's thesis to the nursing profession."

Conclusions

The teachers balanced different roles in the supervision of the students. They wanted the students to grow through challenging them, grounded in a relationship of trust and confidence. They were role models for how to be critical thinkers and incorporated critical thinking as a pedagogical implement in supervision, wanting to raise the students to become nurses who think critically. The teachers sought to combine clinical relevance with academic literacy to secure a new generation of nurses able to be a part of the future development of the profession. They wanted to equip the students with knowledge, skills, and confidence to speak up and communicate nursing. Last, the teachers combined their clinical and academic identities in the supervision of the BT.

Student perceptions of scientific writing in pharmacology: Student generation of collaborative rubrics to score a social pharmacology writing project

Scholarly writing is an important skill in all fields of study. Despite a strong focus on writing in many courses, faculty and students have disparate expectations related to scholarly writing. Herein, a classroom exercise is presented in which students were asked to develop a rubric that would be used to evaluate their summative writing assessment. Students were provided with a list of elements that commonly represent good scholarly writing, asked to define what effectively demonstrating these elements looks like, and asked to assign the weight that would be given to each element. The weights given to each element by students were compared to a faculty-generated, departmental writing rubric. Students assigned significantly higher weights to ideas, and significantly lower weights to sentence fluency. Overall, students favored content over writing mechanics. A random selection of student papers was scored using both the departmental rubric and the student rubric, with about a half-letter grade difference between the two groups, though the difference was not statistically significant. The outcomes suggest this exercise may be valuable in offering insight into student perceptions of scholarly writing and in furthering student engagement in the writing process.

Selection tests and their predictive value in university nursing students' success in the first year of study

BACKGROUND

Academic performance factors, such as school-leaving grades and other academic indicators for selection, play a significant role in student success. The study aimed to determine the best predictors of academic success in the first year of study for nursing studies at a South African university using three National Benchmark Test (NBT) domains and four National Senior Certificate (NSC) subjects.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective review of the admission data of first-time students (n = 317), enrolled on the Bachelor of Nursing between 2012 and 2018. Hierarchical regression was used to explore important variables predicting success in the first year of study. Cross tabulations were used to determine the association between progression outcome, proficiency levels of the NBT and school quintiles.

RESULTS

All predicting variables explained 35% of the variance in the first year of the study. The NBT MAT (Mathematics), Academic literacy (AL), and NSC's Life Sciences were statistically significant predictors for passing the first year. Analysis of progression outcomes by the NBT proficiency levels suggests that most students begin studies with lower entry-level skills than required, which hinders academic progress. No major differences in academic performance were observed for the students who attended different quintiles.

CONCLUSION

Selection test results predict areas where students are likely to encounter difficulties and inform the interventions needed to achieve academic success. There may be serious implications for students admitted with low entry-level skills in variables predicting academic success and they would need tailored academic interventions to improve their grasp of mathematical and biological concepts and their ability to read, think and reason.

A multi-layered approach to developing academic written communication skills for nursing students

OBJECTIVES

Academic literacy in nursing students has historically been poor this research therefore aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an embedded multidisciplinary approach to academic written communication skills for first year Bachelor of Nursing students in Australia.

METHODS

This initiative consisted of (1) collaboratively embedding academic skills with nursing staff and Learning and Academic Skills Advisors using scaffolded tasks, curriculum/material development, workshops/tutorials on writing skills; and (2) individual support sessions. Data was obtained via questionnaire.

RESULTS

Responses were received from 92 (74% local and 26% international) students. Key findings showed the collaborative approach to embedding skills with added follow up, was beneficial for students' skills development, including improved academic writing, increased confidence, and recognition of the importance of academic writing.

CONCLUSIONS

It is important to equip student to develop academic literacy and an embedded academic literacy program has been determined to assist and may contribute to future professionalisation in nursing.

Service Learning in the Nursing Bachelor Thesis: A Mixed-Methods Study

The Final Degree Project (FDP) is a module that, although intended for the completion of a bachelor thesis (BT), consists of theoretical and clinical teaching. Therefore, introducing service learning (SL) can support student adjustments to the real-world professional role. This study plans to evaluate a teaching innovation project that combines BT and SL through Kirkpatrick's four-level model (reaction, learning, behaviour and results). It takes the form of a convergent parallel mixed-methods design study. The participants were 15 final-year students obtaining a Bachelor of Nursing degree, 4 BT supervising mentors and 4 nurses. At the request of a hospital institution, in their BT, students completed a review of evidence-based nursing protocols. For data collection, the researchers used: an SL questionnaire, student narratives, mentor field diaries and nurse interviews. According to student opinion, the results showed high satisfaction rates (4.44 out of 5), the most developed skills were Independent Work and Information Management, but they signal the need to reinforce the research methodology skills. Finally, positive feedback from all participants is that using SL promotes both the opinion that the BT is useful and also promotes a collaboration between academic and clinical settings.

Knowledge and practices of female students at university of Kara regarding sexually transmitted infections in Togo, 2021

A good knowledge of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in female students is an important element in the prevention of STI transmission. The objective of this study is to describe the level of knowledge and practices on STI among female students at the University of Kara. A cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Kara from July to September 2021. Data were collected using a standard, digitalised, selfadministered questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to describe factors associated with the level of knowledge of STIs. A total of 1,055 female students with a median age of 21 years (interquartile range: 20-24) participated in the study. More than one-third (33.7%) of the students had good knowledge of STI. Having already been tested for HIV (aOR=3.25; 95% CI 2.36-4.52), having already had sex (aOR=1.56; 95% CI 1.10-2.24) and the level of education (AOR=3.46; 95% CI 2.10-5.85) were significantly associated with good STIs knowledge. Among the 723 female students (68.5%) who already had sex, 32.5% reported inconsistent use of condoms during sexual intercourse and 18.9% reported having multiple sexual partners. The results of this study highlight the importance of intensifying STIs prevention efforts (awareness, screening, and vaccination) among female students at the University of Kara.

Methods and strategies to promote academic literacies in health professions: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Universities enroll students from diverse backgrounds every year, with 300 million students expected in higher education by 2025. However, with widening participation, increasing numbers of students enrolling in higher health education and future health professions will be underprepared to meet demands of academic literacies, i.e. ability to read, interpret and critically evaluate academic texts and communicating the understanding verbally or in writing. The aim of this scoping review was to describe and explore methods and strategies to promote development of academic literacies.

RESULTS

Thirty-one relevant studies were included and analyzed according to scoping review guidelines. The results showed four strategies: (1) integrating learning activities to develop academic literacies in the regular curriculum, (2) changing the course design with new methods for teaching and learning, (3) establish collaborations amongst academics and librarian faculty, and (4) adding courses or foundation year focusing on development of academic literacies. The results are discussed in light of the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development, Goal 4, Quality Education, and widening participation.

CONCLUSIONS

Aspects of widening participation and inclusion in higher education have been debated, and increasing numbers of students from diverse backgrounds are expected to enter health studies in higher education. We encourage integration of teaching and learning activities targeting parallel learning of course materials and development of academic literacies, beyond study skills. Embracing epistemic complexity and diversity as well as choosing strategic work with academic literacies may provide a starting point toward realizing sustainable development goals and widening participation.

Self-efficacy beliefs among baccalaureate nursing students - A cross-sectional, comparative study

The aim of this study is to explore baccalaureate nursing students' self-efficacy beliefs related to theoretical coursework. Self-efficacy, i.e., the perception of one's ability to successfully complete a task, has been shown to correlate positively with academic performance and persistence. Nursing students from a large Norwegian university participated (n=132). Data were collected through a digital questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS statistics. Descriptive analysis was performed. Student groups were compared according to gender, age, and year of study using one-way analyses of variance and independent sample t-tests. The findings suggest that the students' self-efficacy beliefs related to theoretical coursework are quite high, with few significant differences between the groups. While the students have confidence in their ability to reach academic goals, self-efficacy when facing stress and distraction is lower. The findings may be of interest to educators striving to optimize learning in baccalaureate nursing programs.

Literacy culture management of elementary school in Indonesia

Literacy has become one of the education needs in the 21st century. Literacy education implementation can be held through the management of literacy culture in schools. This step is taken as an effort to optimize the quality of education and equalize the students’ achievement at the international level. This study aimed to analyze the implementation of literacy culture management applied in elementary schools, in Indonesia. This research used the mixed-method sequential explanatory. The interviews, questionnaires, and documents study techniques were performed to collect data from teachers, students, and principals of public elementary schools in Boyolali, Central Java, Indonesia as data sources. Data were validated using the triangulation technique and triangulation sources. The data then were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study revealed: (a) literacy culture planning has been implemented optimally; (b) the organization of literacy culture has been carried out by establishing a school literacy team and it has operated optimally; (c) management of literacy culture; which consists of habituation, development, and teaching; has been implemented, and the objectives have been achieved (d) control includes regular academic supervision and evaluation has been carried out properly. This research implies that management literacy culture implementation in Boyolali, Indonesia can be a good reference and guideline for schools that will adopt a literacy culture program that needs intensive efforts to improve literacy culture in schools.

E-Learning and Blended-Learning Program in Wound Care for Undergraduate Nursing Students

BACKGROUND

Due to an increasing number of undergraduate students in a Bachelor of Nursing Science program, the existing teaching modalities in wound care were shifted into blended- and e-learning units. The aim is to present the development and implementation of a blended- and e-learning wound care curriculum in an actual nursing program.

METHOD

The development of the blended- and e-learning units is based on literature reviews and expert discussions. The process was guided by the learning outcomes defined by the European Wound Management Association. The implementation was planned for 3 years.

RESULTS

All 14 learning units were developed and implemented using 12 blended and two e-learning units. Flipped classrooms using asynchronous e-learnings and workshops with clinical wound care specialists were used for blended learning.

CONCLUSION

Blended and e-learning are valuable modalities to provide flexibility and deliver learning units based on the latest evidence. The effectiveness of this curriculum needs to be investigated. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(1):53-57.].

Information literacy: assessment of undergraduate and graduate nursing students

Purpose

To describe the perceived level of information competency among nursing students in Jordan.

Design/methodology/approach

Cross sectional-correlational design was utilized. Data were collected using an electronic self-administered questionnaire from graduate and undergraduate nursing students in Jordan.

Findings

Nursing students showed a moderate mean total score of information competency (184.11 out of 280, SD = 22.92). Among information competency subscales, using the information technologies subscale had the highest mean score, while information from the mass media subscale had the lowest mean score. Information competency of nursing students was positively correlated with students' age. Significant differences were found in information competency according to the academic level, addressing scientific research and research in databases in the course of the study, frequency of meeting the supervisor to discuss the research and university sector.

Originality/value

Although there are numerous studies worldwide that assessed nursing students' information literacy, this paper represents the first study of information literacy competencies among nursing students in Jordan. While the content supports conclusions that have been drawn from other studies, this study is novel in terms of the student population it addressed. Information competency among nursing students can be improved by integrating standard research and information competency courses at the undergraduate level and involving mass media platforms in the nursing education curricula.

An examination of technologies in complementary medicine education and practice: The perceptions and experiences of naturopathy students, faculty and educational leaders

OBJECTIVES

Little is known about the education of future CM practitioners. The objective is to explore the perceptions and experiences of students, faculty and professional leaders toward technologies in complementary medicine education and practice.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Qualitative focus groups and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted in CM educational organizations and institutions in North America (United States / Canada) and Australia involving seven focus groups (29 naturopathic students), and 30 one-on-one interviews (faculty, educational and professional leaders of the naturopathic profession).

RESULTS

Data analysis identified five issues reported. These related to perceptions of; the shortfalls of CM classroom technology, the value of technology within CM clinical practice, learning technologies in the classroom, addressing equity concerns as a consequence of learning technology use, and the need to develop technology literacy skills amongst students and faculty.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to examine the perceptions of students, faculty and professional leaders toward technologies in CM education and practice within an education setting. CM students exhibited complex attitudes and adoption patterns to technology. CM students were critical of faculty who have perceived low levels of digital literacy. The technology issue that students in our study found most challenging was PowerPoint use in the classroom. There is an urgent need to establish a strategic research agenda and modelling around this important area of health care education in order to ensure a well-educated, effective workforce able to deliver the best outcomes for the patients and communities they serve.

Addressing Nursing Student Understanding of Health Care Transitions Through a Cross-Course Writing Assignment

ABSTRACT

Caring for patients with chronic health conditions and providing them appropriate transitional care that provides positive outcomes and decreased rehospitalizations is essential in today's heath care environment. Nursing students must learn to think critically and communicate effectively in order to provide appropriate transitional care. This pedagogical challenge may be met in part by implementing a cross-course writing assignment that combines the concepts of chronic illness and community health as an effective tool to teach students about transitional care, stimulate critical thinking, and improve writing competencies.

Nursing students' expectations of the process of writing a bachelor's thesis in Sweden: A qualitative study

While performing various academic work, such as writing a bachelor's thesis, are known to be challenging for university students, less is known about students' expectations in this regard.

AIM

The aim was to describe students' expectations of the upcoming process of writing a bachelor's thesis.

DESIGN

The study employed an explorative, qualitative approach with a single, written open-ended question design.

METHODS

The data were collected consecutively 2013-2016 in class. A total of 93 final-year students volunteered and provided hand-written accounts which were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

The students' accounts revealed three generic categories of expectations: Gaining professional knowledge and competency, Planning and organizing the work, and Taking stock of personal resources. Writing a bachelor's thesis was a new challenge for most of the students and the answers testify to mixed feelings about the upcoming work and its supervision.

CONCLUSIONS

The nursing students' expectations included present and future competencies, skills and abilities. In promoting development of transferable skills and knowledge, educators of future health-care professionals would be well advised to invite students to reflect on and discuss, their expectations prior to writing a bachelor's thesis and similar academic student papers. This study adds to the research on students' studying and learning in nursing education by bringing to the fore students' expectations of academic learning tasks as an important aspect to consider in higher education contexts, both nationally and internationally.

Psychometric evaluation of the 11-item English language usage scale in commencing nursing students

BACKGROUND

Globalisation has increased the number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds enrolling in nursing programs where English is the primary medium of instruction. These students may experience challenges with English language usage and need to be identified early to ensure academic success.

OBJECTIVE

To develop and test the psychometric properties of a self-report English language usage scale (ELUS-11).

METHODS

Prospective, correlational study of commencing nursing students enrolled in a communication unit at a university in the western Sydney region of Australia. English-language usage was measured using the ELUS-11, an 11-item self-report tool with a 5-point Likert scale response format. Factorial validity was examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and logistic regression was used to compute the predictive validity of the ELUS.

RESULTS

Of the 1723 students enrolled, 1100 (64%) returned surveys with all items of the ELUS-11 completed. The mean age of respondents was 25.4 years (SD: 8.0 years), 85% were female and 67% spoke a language other than English at home. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a one-factor structure that explained 65% of the variance, with factor loadings ranging from 0.72 to 0.86; and high internal consistency (α = 0.96). The ELUS-11 was able to discriminate among different groups of students based on age, domestic/international enrolment status and language spoken at home (all p < 0.001). Logistic regression revealed the ELUS-11 had good predictive validity, with those in the high ELUS-11 group over three times more likely to obtain a pass grade in their first written assessment (Adjusted odds ratio: 3.01, 95% CI: 2.05-4.43).

CONCLUSION

The ELUS-11 is a valid and reliable measure of English-language usage, and appropriate for use in an undergraduate nursing population to identify students at risk of poor academic performance.

Seeking transformation: how students in nursing view their academic writing context – a qualitative systematic review

Writing practices in nursing education programs are situated in a tension-filled context resulting from competing medical-technical and relational nursing discourses. The goal of this qualitative meta-study is to understand, from the student perspective, how the context for writing in nursing is constructed and the benefits of writing to nursing knowledge development. A literature search using the CINHAL, Medline, ERIC, and Academic Search complete databases, using systematic methods identified 21 papers and dissertations which gathered qualitative interview or survey data from students in nursing at the pre-registration, continuing education, and graduate levels. The studies provided evidence that writing assignments promote professional identity development but overemphasis on writing mechanics when grading have a deleterious effect on learning and student engagement with writing. Relationship building with faculty should extend beyond what is needed to maximize grades. Suggestions for writing pedagogical reform are identified to facilitate a change in focus from mechanical-technical to transformative writing.

The effect of evidence-based practice perception, information literacy self-efficacy, and academic motivation on nursing students' future implementation of evidence-based practice

BACKGROUND

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing is an important tool for promoting quality care and improving patient outcomes. Global evidence suggests that the rate of EBP implementation among nurses and nursing students is low. The effects of EBP perception, information literacy self-efficacy, and academic motivation on nursing students' future implementation of EBP have not been fully explored.

PURPOSE

To examine the effect of EBP perception, information literacy self-efficacy, and academic motivation on future implementation of EBP among pre-registration nursing students.

METHOD

A cross-sectional study used a self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed data from 148 pre-registration nursing students at a university in central Israel. A hierarchical forced steps regression analysis was conducted to predict future implementation of EBP.

RESULTS

Information literacy self-efficacy, EBP perception, and intrinsic academic motivation to experience stimulation, may predict EBP future implementation. The model explained 46.3% of the variance.

CONCLUSION

The results indicate the importance of information literacy skills and positive attitudes to EBP, as well as of intrinsic academic motivation, for enhancing future implementation of EBP among nursing students.

Development of a Transformative Standardized Approach for Written Communication Skills in an Online RN-BS Program

ABSTRACT

The perceived quality of health care received is highly dependent upon the quality of communication between patients and their health care providers and between members of the health care team (Institute of Medicine, 2003). A comprehensive, standardized module for developing effective writing skills was established and integrated in a research-intensive university in the southeastern United States. One year after integration, more than 60 percent of students and 50 percent of targeted courses accessed and adopted the module. The impact of the module upon student outcomes is being measured.

Interdisciplinary Peer Mentorship: An Innovative Strategy to Enhance Writing Competency

BACKGROUND

Writing competency is imperative for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)-prepared advanced practice nurses (APNs), who serve as clinical leaders and educators of the nursing workforce.

METHOD

As part of a writing quality improvement project, a Writing Tutor Round Table program was developed. Interdisciplinary tutors from the campus writing center worked with groups of three to four DNP students to enhance the quality of their written assignments. At an open table in a quiet room, tutors critiqued the writing of one student while the other students listened. Financial records were used to determine the direct cost of the intervention, and participant survey data provided evidence for acceptability.

RESULTS

This intervention was a cost effective and highly acceptable experience for both tutors and students.

CONCLUSION

A Writing Tutor Round Table intervention is an acceptable, low-cost, low-faculty burden intervention for improving the quality of writing among APNs. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(3):173-175.].

Developing advanced practice nurse writing competencies as a corequisite for evidence-based practice

Writing competency is increasingly recognized as imperative for advanced practice nurses (APNs) who are engaged in evidence-based practice (EBP). Writing skills are an implied expectation inherent in many APN evidence-based practice competencies, such as "formulating evidence based policies and procedures," and "communicates best evidence …." A quality improvement project was implemented for APN's within a post-Master's Doctor of Nursing Practice program, to create a novel set of low-cost, high-impact strategies that could be embedded into a program of study to improve APN writing skills. Prior work has indicated that mentorship and peer support are useful strategies that can contribute to the enhancement of APN writing skills. This study builds on prior work to develop a quantitative evaluation of a peer-supported writing intervention for APNs. Read Aloud innovation was one of two strategies chosen from among many writing improvement strategies identified in the literature because of easy implementation, even by faculty who lacked confidence in providing traditional writing instruction. If explicit development of writing competencies is not elevated to a higher priority in APN education, suboptimal writing confidence is likely to continue across the professional lifetime and will present as a recurring challenge for APNs who pursue higher educational degrees, transition into faculty roles, or seek to fully develop APN EBP competencies. Findings from this study indicate that feedback received from peers during the structured Read Aloud innovation, with emphasis on hierarchy of paragraph sentences (i.e., explicit examination for overarching quality of the leading sentence), is effective in improving clarity and brevity of writing among APNs.

An analysis of current practices in undertaking literature reviews in nursing: findings from a focused mapping review and synthesis

BACKGROUND

In this paper we discuss the emergence of many different methods for doing a literature review. Referring back to the early days, when there were essentially two types of review; a Cochrane systematic review and a narrative review, we identify how the term systematic review is now widely used to describe a variety of review types and how the number of available methods for doing a literature review has increased dramatically. This led us to undertake a review of current practice of those doing a literature review and the terms used to describe them.

METHOD

We undertook a focused mapping review and synthesis. Literature reviews; defined as papers with the terms review or synthesis in the title, published in five nursing journals between January 2017-June 2018 were identified. We recorded the type of review and how these were undertaken.

RESULTS

We identified more than 35 terms used to describe a literature review. Some terms reflected established methods for doing a review whilst others could not be traced to established methods and/or the description of method in the paper was limited. We also found inconsistency in how the terms were used.

CONCLUSION

We have identified a proliferation of terms used to describe doing a literature review; although it is not clear how many distinct methods are being used. Our review indicates a move from an era when the term narrative review was used to describe all 'non Cochrane' reviews; to a time of expansion when alternative systematic approaches were developed to enhance rigour of such narrative reviews; to the current situation in which these approaches have proliferated to the extent so that the academic discipline of doing a literature review has become muddled and confusing. We argue that an 'era of consolidation' is needed in which those undertaking reviews are explicit about the method used and ensure that their processes can be traced back to a well described, original primary source.

Student perceptions, experiences and support within their current Bachelor of Nursing

BACKGROUND

This study was developed to assist academics and curriculum designers to understand the perspectives and expectations of students when designing a program of study and inclusive of students as partners. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing (BN).

SETTINGS, PARTICIPANTS, METHODS

The setting is a multi-campus university in Australia. Participants were currently enrolled and recruited from the Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Nursing Advanced and Bachelor of Nursing Graduate Entry. Semi-structured focus group interviews and thematic analysis was used to collect and analyse the data.

RESULTS

Three major themes were identified from the focus group interviews: 1. Expectations; 2. Interesting and stimulating; and 3. Preparedness for study and clinical practice.

CONCLUSION

Students held strong personal reasons for pursuing a nursing degree. The geographic location and international rankings were factors for choosing the university in this study. Student's perceptions and experiences of the curriculum and support identified that their BN program was interesting and adequately prepared them for clinical practice. Some areas for improvement were more detail during program orientation related to clinical practice requirements and more assistance with engaging with learning and teaching technologies.

Effects of a programme to advance scholarly writing

BACKGROUND

Scholarly writing, although central to the completion of doctoral studies, is often not supported by systematic teaching/learning approaches that specifically help students to convey scholarship through writing. The purpose of this project was to promote writing as an essential component of scholarship, provide opportunities for students to develop a self-awareness of confidence in writing and challenges to writing, and to improve writing competence.

METHODS

An innovative set of peer-supported interventions was embedded within a core foundational course in a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programme during the first academic semester as part of a continuing quality improvement process to improve DNP student writing. The first curriculum innovation was a substantive writing assignment, in which students exchanged papers with a classmate and were required to critique both writing conventions (e.g. criteria such as punctuation and citation) and structural and thesis-driven aspects of writing (e.g. criteria such as clarity, organisation and the use of paragraph leading sentences). Students then read their papers aloud, without hesitation while reading, in order to identify any discrepancies between the written words and the audible 'plain language' that would be necessary to enhance clarity. The second innovation was an optional writing workshop in which students received coaching from interdisciplinary mentors and from their peers.

RESULTS

Evaluation of the implementation of this innovation suggests that mentorship, peer support and the use of commonly spoken language may be useful tools for improving the writing competencies of DNP students.

DISCUSSION

Students with broad diversity in writing competency, including low levels of proficiency, benefitted from a writing-enriched curriculum given at the start of the course of study. DNP faculty may not themselves be prepared to mentor students for doctoral-level writing.

A curriculum-wide assessment of writing self-efficacy in a baccalaureate nursing program

OBJECTIVES

This study explores patterns of writing self-efficacy fluctuation across three academic years in a baccalaureate nursing program. The goal was to assess if writing self-efficacy predicted program grades.

DESIGN

Longitudinal exploratory design.

SETTING

Three-year accelerated nursing program in a college setting in Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Follow-up cohort included 49 students; 32 (65.3%) synchronous in program progression and 17 (34.7%) had become asynchronous between first and third year.

METHODS

Data was collected five times between August 2013 and May 2016 at program admission, the start of their discipline-specific first-year writing course, the end of the writing course, start of third-year, and the end of third-year. Variables assessed included writing self-efficacy (two measures), writing anxiety, entrance degrees of reading power (DRP) scores, final college cumulative grade point average (GPA), and grades earned on first, second, and third-year papers.

RESULTS

Writing self-efficacy statistically significantly improved from the start of the nursing program to the finish (p < .001). Writing self-efficacy fluctuated decreasing from post first-year writing course to the start of the third-year, returning to or exceeding end of writing course levels by the end of the third year. Students who progressed normally through the program (synchronous) were academically stronger (paper grades, DRP, GPA scores) and had higher writing self-efficacy scores than asynchronous students. Using hierarchical regression, DRP scores and synchronous/asynchronous status in the program made a larger contribution to the prediction of final program GPA and paper grades, while the inclusion of writing self-efficacy in the models made a minor contribution to overall variance.

CONCLUSIONS

Writing self-efficacy will fluctuate based on context and complexity of writing demanded in academic programs. Second and third-year students require continued support with writing beyond an introductory course. Programs should attend to developing reading comprehension in students as part of their across-the-curriculum writing plans.