Evaluating Undergraduate Nursing Students' Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams in the Context of an Interprofessionally-Focused Nursing Course

Teaming Up for Community Health Simulation Intervention: A Quasi-Experimental Study

AIM

The aim of this study was to examine whether participating in a team-based simulation intervention would improve nursing students' empathy and commitment to addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) and interprofessional teamwork attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Outcomes were compared for intraprofessional versus interprofessional team participation.

BACKGROUND

Nursing students must learn strategies to address SDOH, but this content is not well integrated in curricula. Teaming Up for Community Health was created to provide SDOH experiential team learning.

METHOD

Eighty-five nursing students participated in the intraprofessional comparison group or interprofessional intervention group. Surveys were completed before and after the intervention and two months later.

RESULTS

Participants had heightened empathy and commitment to addressing SDOH at baseline. Interprofessional teamwork beliefs and behaviors improved for both groups.

CONCLUSION

Experiential learning about SDOH should focus on improving students' self-confidence and performance. Based on the study results, experiential team learning should be threaded through curricula.

Using an interprofessional competency framework to enhance collaborative pediatric nursing education and practice

Background

Interprofessional education (IPE) provides healthcare students with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide safe and effective collaborative care in a variety of clinical settings. Inclusion of IPE in nursing curricula is required for program accreditation in Canada; a variety of learning strategies at varied levels are used to meet this requirement. As this formal requirement only occurred over the last decade, development, facilitation, and evaluation of IPE interventions are ongoing.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine if exposure to an introductory IPE activity influenced third-year undergraduate nursing students’ perceived ability to practice competent interprofessional collaboration (IPC).

Methods

The introductory IPE activity included ten-hours of interactive lectures and related case studies, grounded in the National Interprofessional Competency Framework, delivered by various healthcare professionals in a third-year nursing theory and clinical course. Following completion of the courses, quantitative data were collected via the Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS) which was used to evaluate nursing students’ change in competencies for IPC. Frequencies, percentages, and means were used to analyze the demographic data, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the internal reliability of the ICCAS, and paired t-tests were conducted to measure the difference from pre- to post-participation for all 20 items and 6 subscales of the ICCAS.

Results

Study participants (n = 111) completed the ICCAS at the end of the courses to measure change in six competencies. The survey results indicated improvements in all competencies following the IPE activity.

Conclusions

The significant findings demonstrate that exposure to introductory IPE activities, involving nursing students and other healthcare professionals, hold promise for enhancing IPC in pediatric clinical settings. These findings can be used to inform the development of formal IPE interventions.

Attaining interprofessional competencies by connecting oral health to overall health

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an annual oral-systemic health interprofessional education (IPE) clinical simulation and case study experience with nurse practitioner/midwifery (NP/MW), dental (DDS), medical (MD), and pharmacy (PharmD) students.

METHODS

The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) was used to measure students' self-reported attainment of interprofessional competencies before and after the IPE experience. Pre- and post-test surveys were completed by NP/MW, DDS, MD, and PharmD student cohorts from 2017 to 2019. Students also had the opportunity to provide qualitative feedback about their experience at post-test. Data were collected from IPE faculty facilitators to assess their perception of the value of the Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH) program.

RESULTS

Student ICCAS results demonstrated statistically significant improvement in self-reported interprofessional competencies among all types of students across all 3 years (P < 0.001); qualitative student comments reflected positive experiences with the TOSH program. Survey data from IPE faculty facilitators supported the value of the IPE experience for all students.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the TOSH program in using oral-systemic health as a clinical exemplar to develop interprofessional competencies. The 2017-2019 data reinforce the credibility of scaling the TOSH model for developing interprofessional competencies with students from different health professions.

Proceso de Atención de Enfermería como instrumento del cuidado, significado para estudiantes de último curso

Introducción: El Proceso de Atención de Enfermería (PAE) como guía para el cuidado, se aplica desde que inicia la formación académica. Comprender el significado que tiene para estudiantes del último curso permite visualizar la importancia y dificultades que se presentan en su aplicación, para proponer estrategias que fortalezcan la calidad educativa. Objetivo: Comprender el significado del PAE que tienen los estudiantes del último curso de Enfermería. Método: Estudio con enfoque cualitativo. Referencial teórico y metodológico fue el Interaccionismo Simbólico y la Teoría Fundamentada en los Datos. Muestra por saturación teórica. Colecta de datos con entrevistas semiestructuradas en 17 estudiantes del 10° ciclo de una universidad privada de Lima Este. Análisis de datos basado en la codificación de Strauss y Corbin posibilitó la identificación de categorías y subcategorías, y el fenómeno central. Resultados: Emergieron cinco categorías: 1) Cuidado enfermero utilizando el PAE desde el inicio de su formación (Condición causal); 2) Satisfacción o insatisfacción al dar cuidado con el PAE (Contexto); 3) PAE como herramienta de investigación en formación profesional (Condiciones Intervinientes); 4) Dificultades en la aplicación del PAE en el cotidiano de los profesionales (Estrategias de Acción/ Interacción) y 5) Mejora de la práctica al dar cuidado con PAE (Consecuencias). Conclusiones: El fenómeno central es el PAE, instrumento que guía el cuidado de enfermería para brindar a las personas atención integral y con fundamento en evidencia científica; a partir de la experiencia profesional con una proyección positiva al campo laboral, no exenta de limitaciones en su aplicación en el campo hospitalario.