Creating a culture of caring: a partnership bundle

Transition shock among nursing interns and its relationship with patient safety attitudes, professional identity and climate of caring: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Nursing interns often experience lots of challenges during their clinical nursing internships, which can adversely affect career decisions and result in a squandering of nursing education resources. Patient safety attitudes, professional identity and climate of caring may affect nursing interns' clinical experience. However, more evidence is requested to validate these relationships for nursing educators to develop effective education programs and facilitate interns' successful transition.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study, which used a convenience sampling method to recruit 387 nursing interns during December 2022 to April 2023 in university affiliated hospital in Hunan province, China. Data were collected using standardized scales. Spearman correlation and multiple regression analysis were employed to examine the relationship between transition shock, patient safety attitudes, professional identity, and climate of caring.

RESULTS

Nursing interns experienced transition shock at a moderate level and the highest levels of transition shock in response to overwhelming practicum workloads, with the second being related to the conflict between theory and practice. Transition shock was negatively correlated with patient safety attitudes, professional identity and climate of caring among nursing interns.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing managers and educators need to value the transition shock experienced by nursing interns. Our study suggests that developing a strong sense of professional identity and a positive attitude toward patient safety can be effective in reducing the level of transition shock among nursing interns. In addition, a caring climate within the nursing unit can significantly enhance the overall experience of nursing interns. This can be achieved by enhancing the support of clinical mentors, providing patient safety-focused education, and facilitating team communication among nurses.

Engaging Clinical Partners in Curricular Initiatives to Improve Practice Readiness

BACKGROUND

The release of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's updated Essentials creates an opportunity for nursing programs and clinical partners to collaborate on strengthening curricula and improving new graduate practice readiness. This scoping literature review examined published models for collaborating with clinical partners on curricular initiatives to guide this process.

METHOD

Three electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles describing models for collaborating with clinical partners when revising nursing curricula to improve practice readiness. The final sample included seven articles representing five models developed for prelicensure undergraduate education.

RESULTS

Themes identified among the models were creating a shared mission, leadership support and involvement, representative committees with regular meetings, clear role expectations, collaboratively determining concepts and competencies, and developing training and resources for consistent implementation of changes.

CONCLUSION

These themes provide recommendations for engaging clinical partners in the process of integrating the new Essentials in curricula and improving graduates' practice readiness. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(12):706-710.].

Perception of nursing students from the Middle East about caring: A descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional study

AIM

To investigate the perception of undergraduate nursing students in different countries in the Middle East about caring.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative design.

METHODS

A total of 1,582 nursing students from six different countries in the Middle East completed the Caring Dimensions Inventory.

RESULTS

The total mean score of caring was 138.8 (± 15.8), indicating a high level of caring. The highest mean score was for nursing students from Egypt (M = 145.37 ± 15.97), whereas the lowest was for nursing students from Palestine (M = 135.36 ± 13.48). The caring perception was more significant for female students than male students, and no significant correlation was found between students' ages and caring scores.

CONCLUSIONS

The high level of caring among nursing students reflects the involvement of caring behaviour in the nursing curricula, which motivates nursing schools to continue stressing the importance of caring and to enhance this behaviour among their graduates.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Improving the students' caring competencies as recommended by the study will influence the caregiving quality in the future that will be reflected in nurse-patient caring relationships and raise the patients' and public satisfaction with nursing care.

Creating a Culture of Caring: A Shared Academic-Practice Clinical Curriculum

BACKGROUND

Preparation of nursing students has traditionally occurred in academic settings where faculty develop programs of study. Practice settings often find themselves investing in significant education and support as the new-graduate nurse transitions into the RN role.

PROBLEM

A gap in preparation exists between academic and practice expectations for the generalist RN role.

APPROACH

Collaboration among academic and practice partners in the development of a core clinical curriculum, along with supporting content and learning activities, provides enriched clinical experiences that enhance readiness for the practicing role.

OUTCOMES

The Culture of Caring (COC) Model guides academic and practice partners as a teaching-learning framework for the preparation of nursing students.

CONCLUSIONS

The COC clinical curriculum bundles together supporting resources that include a handbook, workbook, faculty pocket guide, calendar, and nursing student cards used to foster the clinical experience.

Creating a culture of caring: A collaborative academic-practice approach to clinical education

Strong academic and practice partnerships are needed in the ever-changing health care environment. Sometimes an invisible barrier exists between clinical practice and academia; academic-practice partnerships are a way to bridge this barrier. Since 2008a team-based model of clinical education known as the Culture of Caring (COC) has brought together three academic institutions with a large hospital system to develop a unified clinical experience and curriculum that improves the student, provider, and patient experience. In the COC model the team consists of academic-practice leaders, clinical instructors, staff nurses, and students. Together they engage in a structured curriculum that is integrated into both the clinical environment and the academic setting. Each week of clinical the students focus on a topic that is paired with journal articles and learning activities that allow the team to engage in learning that is applicable to the clinical practice environment. The learning activities allow students to engage in learning about evidence-based practice and quality improvement initiatives that are taking place on the unit. The implementation of this collaborative approach to a clinical nursing education model has had a positive impact on the working relationships between the academic partners and clinical practice leaders.