Managing change in nurse education: the introduction of Project 2000 in the community

Mentoring a student immediately prior to registration: a qualitative study

A literature search revealed limited research exploring the experience of the community nurse mentoring the student nurse immediately prior to registration. This qualitative study was undertaken in order to describe the lived experience of the community nurse when mentoring a final placement student. The study was conducted in compliance with relevant ethical procedures and institutional guidelines. Three focus groups were convened and the experiences of twelve community nurses working within a large city-based community health practice in Scotland who had mentored a student nurse immediately prior to registration were explored. Analysis suggests the community nurse mentors require support and development opportunities in relation to mentoring and assessing final placement pre-registration students.

The evolution of social work education in England: a critical review of its connections and commonalities with nurse education

Social work education in England underwent significant change in its move to degree status in 2003. It is hoped that the result will be increased professional standing for social workers, an improvement in the current widespread problems with recruitment, and assurance that all newly qualified social workers meet the National Occupational Standards for Social Work (Available from: http://www.topssengland.net/files/cd/). This change has pre-occupied social work educators and debate within the profession has concentrated on the practicalities and expectations of reform. This paper suggests that those working in nurse education may observe a number of similarities with its own earlier reforms and with current debates on whether nursing should move to an all-graduate profession. It then highlights three aspects of the new requirements for social work training: service user involvement, the place of research-minded practice, and the primacy of practice--that may be of interest and relevance to nursing colleagues.

Staff nurses' perceptions of supernumerary status compared with rostered service for Diploma in Nursing students

BACKGROUND/RATIONALE

In the Republic of Ireland, the amount of clinical teaching expected of staff nurses has increased substantially in the wake of the transfer of nursing education to universities, and the advent of supernumerary status for students. A modicum of previous research noted that staff nurses are unclear about their role in relation to facilitating the clinical learning of supernumerary students.

AIMS OF THE PAPER

To explore staff nurses' perceptions of their role in the facilitation of learning for university-educated diploma students in the clinical area and their attitudes towards these students.

DESIGN/METHODS

Sixteen staff nurses were interviewed in depth using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed qualitatively, using content analysis, with the help of the software package NUD*IST.

FINDINGS

Among the central themes to emerge, upon which this article is focused, was participants' perceptions of supernumerary status compared with rostered service for diploma students. Data suggested that the rostered status of students was generally favoured by staff nurses over and above supernumerary status because, unlike supernumerary students, rostered students did not disrupt the existing social structure within the clinical setting. Both structuration theory and role theory are drawn upon to explain the reproduction of the prevailing social structure, where the concentration is on getting through nursing work with little emphasis on the supervised learning of supernumerary students.

STUDY LIMITATIONS

This study is constrained by eliciting only the views of staff nurses. Further studies are required of student nurses' experiences of rostered service and supernumerary status.

CONCLUSIONS

Because staff nurses are part of the system within which they work, they need to modify their role to include active student teaching as a legitimate component of that role.

Supporting preceptors

For effective teaching of nursing students and management of stress of increased workloads, preceptors require a great deal of support from nursing faculty, peers, and administrative personnel. Through a mailed survey, 295 preceptors reported that they would have appreciated more support. The best support is the continued and visible presence and involvement of instructors, which can be provided in person, by telephone, or via fax. This is best achieved if nurse educators, directors, and deans view themselves as copreceptors.

Being a preceptor is stressful!

Results of a mail survey of 295 preceptors indicated preceptoring nursing students can be a stressful experience, with overwork identified as the main source of stress. Overwork resulted from unsuitability of students for the clinical area, lack of time, and insufficient feedback and guidance. The findings suggest that both students and preceptors require proper readiness assessment and preceptorship preparation. Preceptorship stress needs to be acknowledged; it can be addressed through workload adjustments and by providing feedback and support from nurse educators, peers, and managers.

Clinical teaching by community nurses in the Australian context

A study was conducted to explore factors that impact on the clinical teaching role of community nurses involved in the education of pre-registration nursing students. Respondents were community nurses working in the Western Sydney Area Health Service in New South Wales, Australia. A self-report questionnaire was developed to collect data. Results indicate that community nurses are interested in clinical teaching, that it is an important part of their role and that they perceive themselves to be effective clinical teachers, with the majority indicating motivation to continue developing their clinical teaching skills. Aspects of clinical teaching important to community nurses included facilitating the transition of education from theory to practice, sharing expertise, knowledge and skills and maintaining high standards of nursing practice. There was little support for the view that community nurses experienced difficulty in managing the dual teaching and practice role. Approximately a third of participants reported that being with a student on a one-to-one basis could be stressful. Strategies to assist community nurses in their clinical teaching role were identified.

Should service providers be paid for providing pre-registration clinical placements?

The authors have argued elsewhere that second- and third-year student nurses and midwives on ward-based clinical placements make a service contribution which is of significant value to the service provider. The value of the service contribution made by students in community-based clinical placements is lower, not least because such placements cannot free staff time in the same way as on the wards, and thus the presence of students appears to form a cost to the service provider. It is clear that there is no case for introducing a system of payments for ward-based placements, but in community-based placements the position is less obvious. The argument hinges upon the perceived value to the service provider of the qualitative benefits associated with the presence of students on placement. Other studies have suggested that these benefits are such as to outweigh the associated costs. Because the presence of students on clinical placement is associated with both costs and benefits, efforts should be made to ensure that both ward-based and community-based placements are distributed as fairly as possible between locations so that no one location is unduly advantaged or disadvantaged by the number of students which it receives.

Continuing education needs of community nurses, midwives and health visitors for supervising and assessing students

The objective of this study was to ascertain the changing educational needs of community nurses, midwives and health visitors in relation to the teaching, supervising and assessing of pre- and post-registration students. A questionnaire was sent to all education institutions providing community nursing experience in England (Whittaker et al. 1997), which allowed identification of three centres for in-depth study. Questionnaires were sent to practitioners (community nurses and midwives, health visitors and school nurses), their managers, and teachers of community courses in the three centres: 314 were returned. Eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with volunteers in each of the study centres (n = 24). Extensive demands are being made on community staff to provide learning experiences for students on a wide range of courses. Practitioners reported that in order to fulfil their teaching and assessing functions they needed continuing education in matters which would assist them to provide research-based practice and education, teaching and assessing in the community and personal skills, for example assertiveness and counselling. Less than a quarter of practitioners were undertaking continuing education courses. However, opportunities for further academic study varied enormously and most practitioners had to study in their own time at their own expense.