Student nurses, increasing placement capacity and patient safety. A retrospective cohort study

Pre-registration nursing students' perceptions of a district nursing career: a qualitative descriptive study

District nursing vacancies are recognised as high in comparison to many other nursing specialities. The role is often considered as an option for nurses after a period of registration as a nurse, which may be informed by multiple factors. The objectives of the study were to explore barriers to district nurse employment from the perspective of undergraduate nurses. A descriptive qualitative design was employed using focus groups as the method of data collection in accordance with study approval reference no: 21/NAH/006, 30/03/23. Participants were recruited from the current undergraduate nursing programme (n=60). Thematic analysis was chosen as a flexible method of qualitative data analysis. The study produced themes relating to role ambiguity, personal preferences, educational opportunities and recruitment and employer engagement. The experiences provided an insight into the barriers to recruitment of student nurses into district nursing on qualification. Increased engagement from community nurse providers is required to inform the role and incentivise entering this career option. Educational strategies that support community career pathways are required to ensure a balanced view of nursing roles among undergraduates.

Student nurses as a future general practice nursing workforce. Implementing collaborative learning in practice: implications for placement learning and patient access. A mixed methods study

BACKGROUND

There is a global shortage of nurses, with particularly acute shortfall in General Practice Nursing in the United Kingdom estimated at as high as 50% vacancy rate by 2031 by some sources. There has previously been reluctance for General Practices to host student nurses on placement, but it has become imperative to increase placement capacity if practices are to be able to recruit a future workforce. Collaborative Learning in Practice is a means of organising placement learning for student nurses using a coaching model, that allows for leadership development, peer support and earlier engagement in patient care, and increases placement capacity.

METHODS

This was a mixed methods study using qualitative data from focus groups to evaluate the implementation of Collaborative Learning in Practice, and routinely collected audit data on numbers of clinic appointments to investigate the potential impact an increased capacity of student nurses might have on patient access to services. The aims of this study were: to implement and evaluate Collaborative Learning in Practice in General Practice Nursing settings; to explore issues of interprofessional learning; to explore patient access to services related to increased student nurse capacity.

RESULTS

Our qualitative data indicated the following themes as important to students and staff: Peer Support; Interprofessional Learning; and the Importance of 'own clinics' for students to see patients. The audit data indicated that having students leading their own clinics increased the clinic numbers available by approximately 20% compared to when students were not in placement.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that student nurses increased clinic capacity and improved access for patients. Students valued their placement, felt that they were more 'part of the team' than in other placements and consequently had a greater sense of belonging. This was multifaceted, coming in part from the welcoming practice staff, in part from the opportunities for peer support engendered by the collaborative learning in practice model, and in part from the interprofessional learning opportunities available. General Practice Nursing placements for students are important for future workforce recruitment and can help meet Quality and Outcomes Framework targets for General Practices.

Effect evaluation of case-based learning with situated cognition theory on competence training for student nurses in pediatric surgery

Objective

The case-based learning with situated cognition theory (CBL-SCT) approach focuses on teaching over learning, making it suited to student nurse education. However, it is rare in student nurse training in pediatric surgery, and some subjective evaluations of the learning effect are still affected by the assessor. This study investigated the effect of the CBL-SCT approach on improving the nursing quality/safety and comprehensive performance of student nurses, and explored a method for analyzing the reliability of subjective evaluations.

Methods

Thirty-six student nurses were divided into a control group and an experimental group and received seven days of orientation via conventional and CBL-SCT training, respectively. The learning effect was evaluated via examining their implementation of nursing quality criteria within the following month and their comprehensive clinical performance after six months. Among the evaluation indicators, professional skills, job competency, and professional quality were evaluated by assessors, whose scores were tested for consistency using Cronbach's alpha.

Results

Among the 11 nursing quality criteria, the correct implementation of patient identification and communication (t = 2.257, P = 0.031), medication-checking (t = 5.444, P < 0.001), tumbles/bed-falling prevention (t = 3.609, P = 0.001), pressure injury prevention (t = 3.834, P = 0.001), catheter management (t = 3.409, P = 0.002), and nursing record writing (t = 2.911, P = 0.006) in the experimental group were all higher than in the control group. Six months after training, the experimental group was also higher in professional theory (t = 4.889, P < 0.001), professional skills (t = 2.736, P = 0.010), job competency (t = 5.166, P < 0.001), and professional quality (t = 16.809, P < 0.001). Cronbach's alpha test verified that the assessors' evaluations had good internal consistency and reliability for job competency (alpha = 0.847, 95% CI lower limit = 0.769), professional quality (alpha = 0.840, 95% CI lower limit = 0.759), and professional skills (alpha = 0.888, 95% CI lower limit = 0.822).

Conclusions

The CBL-SCT method can help student nurses quickly change their nursing role, and Cronbach's alpha test can verify the reliability of subjective evaluations, thus indirectly reflecting the training effect equitably and objectively.

Giving nurses a voice through 'listening to staff' conversations to inform nurse retention and reduce turnover

Health and social care employers in the UK cannot afford to lose nurses given the current nursing workforce crisis. A variety of staff engagement initiatives aim to improve employee retention. This article describes how Listening to Staff (L2S) events were used as part of a service review to inform nurse retention strategies in one acute hospital trust. Over a 3-year period, 576 nurses took part in L2S events that examined nurses' perspectives of teamworking and support as well as career plans in areas with high nurse turnover rates. Comparative content analysis was used to analyse narrative data, which informed managers' retention plans. Examination of retention data before and after L2S events showed nursing turnover decreased, suggesting a variety of strategies to retain staff may have improved nurse retention. Findings imply capturing nurses' perceptions through staff engagement events may offer solutions for nurse retention.