Triggers for reflection in undergraduate clinical nursing education: A qualitative descriptive study

Communities of reflection in nurse education programs: A qualitative multi-methods study

BACKGROUND

Nursing students often face challenges reconciling theoretical concepts with clinical realities. This study examines a novel concept 'Communities of Reflection' designed and tested to enhance coherency between theory and practice. The concept involves reflection groups comprising students, preceptors, and faculty during clinical placements.

AIM

To examine the meaning of 'Communities of Reflection' regarding the coherency between theory and practice as perceived by the involved participants.

METHOD

A qualitative multi-methods approach involved nursing students, preceptors, and faculty members who participated in 'Communities of Reflection.' Data collection methods included interviews, focus groups, written reflections, and observations.

FINDINGS

The content analysis revealed that 'Communities of Reflection' facilitate a shared engagement in nursing, fostering a deeper level of reflection. Creating a safe space and embracing vulnerability are key aspects of this shared engagement.

CONCLUSION

'Communities of Reflection' offer a valuable framework for promoting coherency between theory and practice. It appears to be crucial to students' outcomes that a well-established, equitable theory-practice partnership is the solid foundation, acknowledging that emotions can serve as a catalyst for the development of professional expertise.

Humanistic Nursing Care for Patients in Low-Resourced Clinical Settings from Students' Perspectives: A Participatory Qualitative Study

INTRODUCTION

It is of utmost importance to understand how we can better prepare students to value humanistic spirits and provide humanistic care, a core element of quality care for patients/family characterized by empathy and holistic care, from school to clinical settings (practicum) in low-resourced healthcare environments with seriously low nursing staffing levels. The current study explored participants' experiences of learning and delivering humanistic care for patients.

METHODOLOGY

This is a participatory qualitative study. Eligible participants are undergraduate students who completed all the core curricula and are ready to start their one-year clinical practicum/internships. A total of 120 eligible undergraduate students were included in the study. Participants were encouraged to share their own thoughts, questions, and perspectives on learning and providing humanistic care in clinical settings during their one-year practicum from 2020 to 2021.

RESULTS

Three major themes emerged: 1. From Textbook to Providing Humanistic Care in low-resourced work contexts; 2. Ethical Considerations; and 3. Implications for Humanistic Nursing Care Education.

DISCUSSION

Systematic reforms are needed to make clinical settings more humanistic care-friendly for nurses and nursing students. It is significant to help students internalize the essence of humanistic care in low-resource settings.

The effect of clinical mentor in developing caring behaviors of nursing students: A mixed method

PURPOSE

The study was conducted to determine the effect of clinical mentors on developing caring behaviors in nursing students.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The present research was conducted using a mixed-method design and quasi-experimental pre-posttests (N = 14 Nursing Students). The Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 and a semi-structured interview form were administered.

FINDINGS

As a result, five themes, humanism, caring, interpersonal caring relationship, caring behaviors, and motivation were determined. The postclinical interviews showed an increase in their caring behaviors compared with the previous interview.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

A clinical mentor, who is an expert in caring behaviors, has a positive effect on nursing students. Therefore, student nurses gain professional self-confidence and the quality of care and patient satisfaction increase.

Adaptability, Interdisciplinarity, Engageability: Critical Reflections on Green Social Work Teaching and Training

The upward tendencies of global climate change, disasters, and other diverse crises have been urgently calling for green social work (GSW) interventions which engage a holistic approach to explore diverse societal dimensions’ compounded influences on inhabitants’ individual and collective health and well-being in disaster settings. Though globally gaining more attention, GSW has been slow to develop in the Canadian social work curriculum and professional training. This deficit jeopardizes integrating environmental and climate justice and sustainability in social work research and practice in Canada. In response to this pedagogical inadequacy, this article employs a critical reflection approach to examine two authors’ two-academic-year teaching–learning and supervision-training experiences of GSW-specific in-class and field education in a Master of Social Work program. The content analysis illustrates three essential components for GSW-specific teaching and training, namely adaptability, interdisciplinarity, and engageability. These components enhance the prospective social workers’ micro-, mezzo-, and macro-level practices to better support individuals, families, and communities affected by extreme events and promote their health and well-being in disaster and non-disaster scenarios. These GSW-specific pedagogies shed light on the fact that integrading climate change, disasters, and diverse crises in pedagogical innovations should be encouraged beyond the social work profession. A multidisciplinary multi-stakeholder engagement approach would comprehensively investigate and evaluate the essential components and evidence-based strategies that better serve inhabitants and promote resilience and sustainability.

Saudi nursing student satisfaction and evaluation of reflective practice: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Regardless of the fact that reflection has been documented in nursing literature for several years and is recognized in the nursing profession to improve learners' knowledge and mindfulness, this topic requires investigation in Gulf countries from a student perspective, as no studies have been published in the gulf regarding nursing students' perspectives on reflective practice.

METHODS

A total of 261 nursing students from the third and fourth academic years at one major educational institution were recruited using a quantitative cross-sectional study design.

RESULTS

The participating nursing students reported high scores on the level of all domains of reflective practice as well as on the level of student satisfaction, where 3rd year students scored higher on the level of reflection with others (p = .03), as well as the reflection on action domains (p < .01). A significant correlation was found between reflection and satisfaction (p < .01), where reflection explained 6.87% of the changes in variance of satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Nursing students who took part in this study has demonstrated a positive regard towards reflective practice and indicated high correlated satisfaction with learning.

The Use of Guided Reflection in Simulation-Based Education With Prelicensure Nursing Students: An Integrative Review

BACKGROUND

This integrative review synthesized the findings of studies to determine the uses and outcomes of guided reflection in simulation-based education (SBE) with prelicensure nursing students.

METHOD

A search of Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) Plus, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Education Research Complete (ERC), and PsychINFO using the key words reflection, guided reflection, simulation (nursing education or nursing student), traditional, and baccalaureate identified 18 articles.

RESULTS

Findings suggest facilitation of guided reflection in SBE has a positive effect on leadership development, clinical judgment, student satisfaction, and critical thought. Development of a tool to accurately measure guided reflection is warranted.

CONCLUSION

Current evidence on the use of guided reflection in SBE calls for a major paradigm shift in higher education. Guided SBE experiences enhance participant knowledge, and guided reflection should be used as an innovative teaching strategy in SBE. [J Nurs Educ. 2022;61(2):73-79.].

Enhancing reflection on medical and surgical nursing among nursing students: A participatory action research study

BACKGROUND

Medical and Surgical Nursing (MSN) is a core course in baccalaureate nursing programs that requires active and effective teaching and learning strategies to enhance students' engagement.

OBJECTIVE

To develop and implement an effective learning process for students undertaking the MSN course.

DESIGN

This participatory action research study used reflection as the center of action in the cycle of planning, acting, observing and reflecting and re-planning.

SETTING

The study was conducted at a University in southern Taiwan.

PARTICIPANTS

Thirty nursing students in their second year of a bachelor program in nursing, aged 19 to 20 years, were recruited via email and completed the study.

METHODS

The data were collected from February to June 2019 through reflective workshops, group discussions, individual interviews, and field notes. A qualitative content analysis was performed. Four criteria were considered to ensure the trustworthiness of the study process: reliability, validity, transferability, and authentic citations.

RESULTS

Four key themes - two challenges and two adaptive strategies - emerged in relation to the spiral process of improving teaching and learning in the MSN course. Participants experienced two main challenges: the large amount of multidisciplinary knowledge expected, and the rapid pace of the course. The two adaptive strategies were: recognizing their own unique way of learning and becoming an active learner and achiever.

CONCLUSIONS

The project helped students to identify their own learning challenges, recognize the need to modify their attitudes and approaches to learning, improve teaching and learning in the MSN course, and identify the characteristics relevant to becoming an active learner and achiever.

Learning about user participation among nursing students: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

User participation is an important aspect of nursing, especially within a rehabilitation setting where the emphasis is on the patient's ability to become as independent as possible. It is also decreed by law that students should learn about user participation. Furthermore, to achieve good nursing skills it is important for the students to understand "the what" and to reflect on "the how" regarding user participation.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to explore how students learn to apply user participation in a context of rehabilitation.

DESIGN AND METHOD

The design of the study is qualitative. Content analysis was adopted, and both inductive and deductive approaches were used. The informants were nursing students in the second and third years of the bachelor's degree at a university in Norway. Most of the students were in community health services, but some of them performed their internship at hospitals. Two focus groups with 11 students were conducted. In addition, the data also consist of 28 written reflections and 31 written work requirements in relation to rehabilitation. The students from the focus groups and the written work requirement were in practice in community health services. In the written reflections it was 14 students who had their internship at hospital and 14 students in community health services.

RESULTS

The main categories of the study are barriers to learning, dialogue as a tool and reflection as essential. The students learn to use check lists and focus on organizational planning, which might be a barrier to learning. Dialogue is important to improve the students' learning. Students need to reflect on user participation together with their supervisor to learn to be confident in encountering users, which indicates that reflection is essential.

CONCLUSION

The major findings indicate that students lack competence og user participation and that their supervisors seldom talk about it with them. Also, it should be compulsory reflection notes about user participation in the student's internships. Teachers at universities must inform supervisors and develop courses about mentorship and user participation. This may be a step forward to overcome theory-practice gap.

A predictive model of student nursing competency in clinical practicum: A structural equation modelling approach

BACKGROUND

Clinical teaching is the most important element in the development of students' nursing competencies. However, students' learning modalities in clinical settings are unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To analyse path relationships affecting students' learning outcomes in clinical practicum using LISREL software.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey was administered.

SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS

Participants were 392 senior students who had completed their final internship recruited from two nursing programmes in central Taiwan.

METHODS

Administration and completion of the following structured questionnaires: the Competency Inventory of Nursing Students, the Teaching Competence of Nurse Preceptor questionnaire, the Student Evaluation of the Clinical Education Environment, Level of Reflective Thinking, and the Metacognitive Inventory for Nursing Students.

RESULTS

The results suggested that teaching competence may indirectly affect nursing competence through metacognition and reflection. The clinical learning environment may directly affect nursing competence or indirectly affect nursing competence through metacognition. Both metacognition and reflection have direct effects on nursing competence, and reflection exerts indirect effects on nursing competence through metacognition. The path relationships differed according to the employment plan group.

CONCLUSIONS

Reflection and metacognition are essential skills for the development of nursing competence in clinical settings. Clinical instructors must facilitate student learning by fostering a positive learning environment and teach students the reflective and self-regulation skills necessary to achieve favourable learning outcomes in clinical settings.