Learning to liaise: using medication administration role-play to develop teamwork in undergraduate nurses

The power of role play in nursing education: A bibliometric analysis and visualization

AIM

This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research involving the role play method in nursing education by visualizing global research trends in this area, identifying the journals with the most publications, and examining author and country collaborations.

METHODS

The study utilized data retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) database and conducted analyses using Vosviewer, Bibliometrix, and custom-written Python scripts. 281 publications were included in the bibliometric analysis.

RESULTS

Research on the role play method spans from 1993 to 2024. The top three research areas are; "Nursing," "Education & Educational Research" and "Health Care Sciences & Services". The dataset includes articles from 119 different journals, with minimal collaboration observed among authors, countries, and institutions.

CONCLUSION

This study thoroughly explored global trends and key areas of role play in nursing research using bibliometric and visualization analyses. The analysis results showed that the role play method is gaining growing recognition in nursing education and the development of clinical skills. Future research is recommended to explore its effectiveness across diverse cultural and clinical contexts and encourage interdisciplinary collaborations to expand the knowledge base.

Perceptions of undergraduate nursing students regarding their competency in administering medications: A qualitative study

AIM

This study aims to explore and describe self-reported perceptions of nursing students' competence in the administration of medication.

BACKGROUND

Medication errors are a significant concern in hospitals, as they can result in serious harm and even death for patients. Nursing students play a crucial role in administering medication and preventing errors, but they are also prone to making mistakes. While numerous studies have extensively examined the factors that contribute to medication errors, few have focused on the assessment of competency among nursing students.

DESIGN

This study employed a qualitative exploratory and descriptive design.

METHODS

A total of 10 undergraduate nursing students at a higher education institution consented to participate in face-to-face, semi-structured individual interviews. Data were collected between August and September 2022 using an interview guide. The interviews were audio recorded and analysed using Braun and Clarke's six steps of thematic analysis.

RESULTS

The study revealed two major themes: (1) 'Perceived barriers to competency', which include participants' concerns regarding making errors, knowledge in pharmacology, self-efficacy in mathematics and level of supervision; and (2) 'Mechanisms for improvement', which centre on enhancing simulation proficiency, improving supervision and integrating pharmacology education in year two of nursing training.

CONCLUSION

The study findings suggest that student nurses face various barriers to competence, such as a fear of making mistakes, a lack of pharmacology knowledge and low self-confidence in calculating drug dosages. To address these issues, prioritising supervision is crucial to facilitate student learning and ensure safety. Future research should consider investigating the perspectives of nurse educators on pharmacology curricula.

Peer Collaborative Clinical Decision Making in Nursing Simulation: A Theoretical Framework

BACKGROUND

Collaboration and decision making among nursing students are essential competencies in nursing education. However, how students collaborate and make decisions in simulation is a complex phenomenon and not well understood. This study aimed to develop a framework that describes peer collaborative clinical decision making (PCCDM) among nursing students in simulation.

METHOD

Charmaz's constructivist grounded theory method was used. The sample included 32 participants (16 dyads) from two nursing programs.

RESULTS

The PCCDM framework described three interrelated functional domains (cognition, behavior, and emotion) experienced through three interrelated processes (awareness, communication, and regulation), alternating between individual and collaborative spaces and changing across time according to the simulation's acuity levels.

CONCLUSION

The PCCDM framework provides a model that reflects how these processes unfold over time in simulations, which can be applied in nursing simulation, classroom, and clinical settings that require students to make collaborative decisions. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(7):435-443.].

Hybrid Concept Analysis: Peer Collaborative Clinical Decision-Making in Nursing Simulation

BACKGROUND

Nursing students collaborate and make clinical decisions in simulation scenarios. However, the literature does not clearly define the concept of peer collaborative clinical decision-making (PCCDM). This hybrid concept analysis explored and established the definition of PCCDM among nursing students in simulation.

METHOD

A total of 19 articles were reviewed, and 11 dyads of nursing students were interviewed after participating in virtual reality simulation for their perspectives on PCCDM.

RESULTS

Five major themes were identified: group (1) communication; (2) awareness; (3) regulation; (4) reasoning; and (5) emotion. The conceptual definition of PCCDM is a dynamic, nonhierarchical, and group-level process of cognitive and socioemotional interactions among peers about a clinical situation that involves group communication, awareness, and regulation of reasoning and emotion within the collaborative space.

CONCLUSION

This analysis provides a conceptual definition of PCCDM in nursing simulation as well as a pathway for developing a theoretical framework and instrument. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(5):269-277.].

Characterizing Team Orientations and Academic Performance in Cooperative Project-Based Learning Environments

Information technology professionals are required to possess both technical and professional skills while functioning in teams. Higher education institutions are promoting teamwork by engaging students in cooperative and project-based learning environments. We characterized teams based on their collective orientations and evaluated their team performance in a cooperative project-based learning environment situated in a sophomore-level systems analysis and design course. We explored the orientation patterns in terms of goals, roles, processes, and interpersonal relations (GRPI). Specifically, we analyzed team retrospectives of 23 teams using a mixed-method approach. Findings characterized teams into balanced and unbalanced orientations. Teams with balanced orientations demonstrated a higher level of team performance in terms of academic achievement than the unbalanced category.

PRN Medicines Optimization and Nurse Education

Medicines management is a high-risk and error prone process in healthcare settings, where nurses play an important role to preserve patient safety. In order to create a safe healthcare environment, nurses should recognize challenges that they face in this process, understand factors leading to medication errors, identify errors and systematically address them to prevent their future occurrence. ''Pro re nata'' (PRN, as needed) medicine administration is a relatively neglected area of medicines management in nursing practice, yet has a high potential for medication errors. Currently, the international literature indicates a lack of knowledge of both the competencies required for PRN medicines management and the optimum educational strategies to prepare students for PRN medicines management. To address this deficiency in the literature, the authors have presented a discussion on nurses' roles in medication safety and the significance and purpose of PRN medications, and suggest a model for preparing nursing students in safe PRN medicines management. The discussion takes into account patient participation and nurse competencies required to safeguard PRN medication practice, providing a background for further research on how to improve the safety of PRN medicines management in clinical practice.

Nursing students' perceptions of clinical learning opportunities and competence in administration of oral medication in the Western Cape

BACKGROUND

Medication errors may result in patients' harm and even death. The improvement of nursing students' competence in the administration of medication through education and training can contribute to the reduction of medication errors.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed at describing the Bachelor of Nursing students' perceptions about clinical learning opportunities and competence in the administration of oral medication.

METHOD

A quantitative descriptive design was employed. An all-inclusive sample of 176 nursing students registered at a university in the Western Cape, South Africa, in 2014 was considered for the study, of whom 125 students consented to participate and completed the questionnaires. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 was used for data analysis and descriptive statistics were conducted.

RESULTS

The findings showed that a minority of students did not have opportunities to rotate in all specific types of wards. The findings indicated that a total of 92% (115) and 86.4% (108) of the 125 respondents were placed in medical and surgical wards, respectively, where they more likely had opportunities to practise the administration of oral medication. However, 59.2% (74) did not practise administration of oral medication on a daily basis. Only 19.2% (24) of respondents perceived themselves as competent in the administration of oral medication.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicated that many students perceived their education and training as not providing sufficient learning opportunities to practise the administration of oral medication, whilst the majority of respondents perceived themselves as competent in some of the aspects related to the administration of oral medication, and very few perceived themselves as competent overall in the administration of oral medication.

The effect of high- and low-fidelity simulators in learning heart and lung sounds by undergraduate nurses: a randomized controlled trial

Aim: To determine the effects of high- and low-fidelity simulators on student nurses' learning of heart and lung sounds.Background: Simulation is an important part of nursing education because it helps to improve patient care and provides patient security.Method: The sample consisted of 3rd and 4th year students who studied at a nursing faculty in Istanbul between April and June 2017. In this randomized controlled experimental study, students were randomly divided into 2 groups, the high-fidelity simulator group (HFS group, n = 36), and the low-fidelity simulator group (LFS group, n = 35).Results: The auscultation skill levels of the HFS group were significantly higher post-training in comparison to the pre-training measurement (P < .05). There were no significant differences in the auscultation skill levels of the LFS group between the pretest and posttest measurements.Conclusion: The use of high-fidelity simulators is more effective in the learning of heart and lung sounds by student nurses than low-fidelity simulators.

Advancing Teams Research: What, When, and How to Measure Team Dynamics Over Time

Teams are complex and dynamic entities that face constant changes to their team structures and must simultaneously work to meet and adapt to the varying situational demands of their environment (Kozlowski and Ilgen, 2006). Agencies, industries, and government institutions are currently placing greater attention to the influence on team dynamics and teamwork as they are important to key organizational outcomes. Due to increased emphasis being placed upon the understanding the maturation of team dynamics, the incorporation of efficient methodological tools to understand how teams are being measured over time becomes critical. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a review of relevant academic articles detailing the science behind methodological tools and general approaches to study team dynamics over time. We provide an overview of the methodological tools used to understand team dynamics with accordance to specific temporal elements. Drawing from Kozlowski et al. (1999) process model of team development, we highlight relevant emergent team constructs within each stage. As well, for each stage, we discuss the what and how to measure team dynamics. Our analyses bring to light relevant, novel and complex approaches being used by researchers to examine specific constructs within different team developmental phases (e.g., agent-based simulations, computational modeling) and the importance of transitioning from a single source methodology approach. Implications and future research are also discussed.