Qualitative study of social and healthcare educators' perceptions of their competence in education

Novice nurse educator professional learning and teaching at a transnational nursing campus: A case study

AIM

This study aimed to explore how novice nurse educators are supported in cultivating an understanding of teaching and learning as they become educators in higher education, how they understand their roles as nursing educators and to identify the opportunities and challenges in developing pedagogical content knowledge experienced at one transnational nursing campus is Qatar.

BACKGROUND

Novice nurse educators are frequently employed to begin educator roles because of their specialised clinical backgrounds and experiences. Yet, they often have little or no formal education regarding educational pedagogy and current teaching practices. These professional learning needs can be difficult to navigate and contribute to a challenging new role. Novice nurse educators often describe a need for more confidence in their teaching practices and understanding of their limitations and knowledge gaps regarding teaching and learning. Although research and policy emphasise the need for well-trained nurse educators with the appropriate education and knowledge to teach in post-secondary academic settings, nursing education still struggles with inconsistent approaches to recruitment and inadequate support for professional development, raising ongoing concerns.

DESIGN

A qualitative case study was used for this study.

METHODS

Four methods were used to collect data: teaching artifact collection, individual guided reflective questions, one-on-one interviews and observational notes. Seven novice nurse educators participated in this study. Data analysis was done using cycle coding to identify themes.

RESULTS

Three themes related to novice nurse educators' professional development include 1) initial and ongoing preparation, 2) professional learning and support needed during transitions into educator roles and 3) barriers to novice nurse educator professional learning.

CONCLUSIONS

Novice nurse educators may have significant professional learning needs as they begin new roles. It is essential to ensure that thoughtful and well-designed onboarding processes includes an early introduction to professional development while offering ongoing professional learning opportunities. Novice nurse educators will draw on various supports as they start their new roles. Developing well-rounded teaching practices and pedagogical content knowledge is difficult while navigating a full teaching load. Therefore, workload adjustments early in novice nurse educators' careers will allow time for professional development.

Ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that the rapid transition to emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging for healthcare teachers in many ways. This sudden change made them face ethical dilemmas that challenged their values and ethical competence.

RESEARCH AIM

This study aimed to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the ethical dilemmas healthcare teachers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This was an inductive qualitative study using a hermeneutic approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed thematically.

PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT

Healthcare teachers (n = 20) from eight universities and universities of applied sciences in the Nordic and Baltic countries participated.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This study was based on the research ethics of the Norwegian National Research Ethics Committee for Medicine and Health Sciences and approved by the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research.

FINDINGS

Healthcare teachers faced several ethical dilemmas due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis revealed three main themes: How should I deal with students' ill-being, and what can I as a teacher do?; What can I demand from myself and my students, what is good teaching?; How do I manage the heavy workload and everyone's needs, and who gets my time?

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the importance of healthcare teachers' continuous need for pedagogic and didactic education, especially considering new technology and ethical issues. During the pandemic, the ethical consequences of remote teaching became evident. Ethical values and ethical dilemmas should be addressed in healthcare education programmes at different levels, especially in teacher education programmes. In the coming years, remote teaching will grow. Therefore, we need more research on this issue from an ethical perspective on its possible consequences for students and healthcare teachers.

Evidence-based healthcare competence of social- and healthcare educators: A cross-sectional study

AIM

The purpose of the study was to describe social and healthcare educators' evidence-based healthcare competence and explore the associated factors.

DESIGN

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out.

METHODS

The research spanned 5 universities, 19 universities of applied sciences, and 10 vocational colleges in Finland from September to December 2022. Social and healthcare educators (n = 256), of which 21 worked at universities, 176 worked at universities of applied sciences, and 49 worked at vocational colleges. Data collection employed a self-assessed instrument that was designed to measure evidence-based healthcare competence based on the JBI Model of Evidence-based Healthcare. Competence profiles were formed using K-cluster grouping analysis.

RESULTS

The educators' self-evaluations of their level of evidence-based healthcare competence were generally at a satisfactory level, with subsequent analyses identifying four distinct profiles of evidence-based healthcare competence. The profiles demonstrated statistically significant differences in terms of evidence synthesis and evidence transfer competencies. The factors associated with evidence-based healthcare competence included level of education, the year in which a professional had obtained their highest degree, current organization of employment, and participation in continuing education.

CONCLUSIONS

Educators require various types of support for developing high levels of evidence-based healthcare competence. The identification of distinct competence profiles can be pivotal to providing educators with training that is tailored to their exact needs to provide an individualized learning path. WHAT PROBLEM DID THE STUDY ADDRESS?: Educators value the role of evidence in teaching, which reinforces the need to integrate aspects of the JBI Model of evidence-based healthcare into educators' competencies. Aspects of the JBI Model of evidence-based healthcare have not been holistically measured, with only certain components of the model considered separately. Educators need to better understand the global healthcare environment so they can identify research gaps and subsequently develop healthcare systems through their educational role. Higher academic education, work experience, organizational support, and continuous education play essential roles in the development of educators' evidence-based healthcare competence. WHAT WERE THE MAIN FINDINGS?: Educators generally have high levels of competence in evidence-based healthcare. Educators have mastered the different components of the JBI model of evidence-based healthcare but need to improve in areas such as the transfer and implementation of evidence. WHERE AND ON WHOM WILL THE RESEARCH HAVE AN IMPACT?: Determining evidence-based healthcare competence profiles for educators can be used to provide individualized learning paths for the development of evidence-based healthcare competence. Educators need to further develop their competence in evidence-based healthcare to ensure successful implementation and high-quality education in the future.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

The experiences of health sciences students with hybrid learning in health sciences education-A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Given the importance of health professionals in society, investing in their education and developing educators' competence to provide high-quality education to health sciences students is important. Health sciences education is evolving and hybrid learning is becoming increasingly common. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how hybrid education influences the competence development of health sciences students. In this study, hybrid learning means synchronised simultaneous learning in a group of students, where face-to-face and online teaching occurs via the hybrid learning environment.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to describe the experiences of health sciences students with hybrid learning in health sciences education.

DESIGN

This is a qualitative descriptive study.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 19 health sciences students, who participated in hybrid learning, both face-to-face and online, were interviewed.

METHODS

The data were collected using semi-structured focus group interviews during winter 2022. Data were analysed inductively using content analysis.

RESULTS

The experiences of health sciences students revealed that successful hybrid learning requires educators to have pedagogical, technical, ethical and interaction competences, effective technical solutions, and shared interactivity. Students indicated that hybrid learning enables meaningful learning as well as supports their competence development and well-being. Students need support for hybrid learning, for which organisational support is considered important. In addition, students desire that hybrid learning be developed as a student-centred and varied learning method.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this research can be used in the development of health sciences education, in ensuring the development of competence among health sciences students, and in supporting the digital pedagogical competence of health sciences educators.

A model to facilitate critical thinking of radiography students

INTRODUCTION

Critical thinking is a much-needed skill required by radiography students, across disciplines, when they graduate. The facilitation of critical thinking is a task that radiography educators are faced with in order to produce graduates who can apply these skills in the clinical setting, for the best care of the patient. The development of critical thinking skills is challenging, and currently there is no radiography-specific model which has been implemented and evaluated as a framework of reference for radiography educators. The aim of this article is to present a critical thinking model as a framework of reference that was implemented and evaluated by diagnostic radiography educators.

METHODS

A theory-generating qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used for the development of a model to facilitate critical thinking skills of diagnostic radiography students in a South African setting.

RESULTS

A theory-generation model to facilitate critical thinking skills for radiography students was developed. The model was implemented and evaluated by radiography educators. Three themes emerged from the evaluation of the model after implementation. The results indicated the implementation of the model provided a platform for radiography educators to collaborate and purposefully tailor activities to incorporate critical thinking into their teaching.

CONCLUSIONS

Through the implementation of the model, radiography educators felt empowered by using a framework of reference to facilitate critical thinking skills of radiography students.

Instruments assessing nurse educator's competence: A scoping review

AIM

The aim of this review was to synthesize the instruments that assess nurse educators' competence.

DESIGN

A scoping review was conducted with the five-stage process informed by Arksey and O'Malley.

REVIEW METHODS

The predetermined search strategy was used including an additional hand search. The studies were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria to answer the research questions followed: (1) "What instruments are used to assess nurse educators' competence?", (2) "How are the psychometric properties of nurse educators' competence instruments reported in the literature?". The thematic synthesis was used.

DATA SOURCES

The literature search was conducted in January 2021 using the CINAHL, MEDLINE and ERIC databases from January 2000 to December 2020.

RESULTS

Of the 1,567 articles searched through, 25 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 19 instruments with 10 areas of competence were identified. Typical competence areas were pedagogical and nursing competence. In addition, leadership in managerial competence was included in several instruments. However, the theoretical backgrounds of the instruments varied and the psychometric properties were reported in varied ways in reviewed studies.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION

This study provides evidence about the valid and comprehensive assessment of nurse educators' competence, as competent nurse educators promote excellence in nursing education. To assess a nurse educators' competence comprehensively, a variety of theoretical backgrounds of this competence and more than one instrument for the measurement need to be considered. The selection of the instruments to assess nurse educators' competence should be based on the selected theoretical background and use of valid measurements.

REPORTING METHOD

This study was reported by following the reporting recommendations of the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR).

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No Patient or Public Contribution was applied, since research design was a scoping review.

An integrative review of the continuing professional development needs for nurse educators

OBJECTIVES

The study aimed at describing the field of research in continuing professional development for nurse educators and the continuous education and development needs of nurse educators by asking: What research has been done in the field of continuing professional development of nurse educators? What are the continuing education and development needs and requirements reported for and by nurse educators?

DESIGN

An integrative review of peer-reviewed academic literature following a systematic search design.

DATA SOURCES

Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods publications in CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, ERIC, and PubMed.

REVIEW METHODS

Search results were screened for full text and assessed for quality using the Mixed Methods Assessment Tool. Full texts were then thematic analysed using an inductive and reflective process.

RESULTS

The number of published academic articles about the continuing professional development for nurse educators is small (n = 13). The themes produced from the articles identify heterogenous development needs for nurse educators, clustered around four themes: (1) professional competencies (2) management and resources, (3) communication and collaboration, and (4) agency. The findings of this review show that nurse educators have multiple roles which have specific and multiple personal and institutional needs.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this review show that the continuing professional development needs are heterogenous between nurse educators, yet share commonalities across departmental teams as a whole, and across different countries. This raises the issue of how these needs can or should be, focused on the sustainable development of nurse educators.

Effects of Blended Simulation on Nursing Students' Critical Thinking Skills: A Quantitative Study

Introduction

Critical thinking is regarded as imperative to healthcare quality and patient outcomes; therefore, effective strategies in nursing education are required to promote students' critical thinking abilities, leading to their success in clinical work. Accordingly, simulation-based education has been suggested as a measure for achieving this goal.

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore whether a nursing education course with blended simulation activities (hands-on simulations with high-fidelity manikins and a web-based interactive simulation program) could increase nursing students' critical thinking skills.

Method

A quasiexperimental, one-group pretest and post-test design was utilized. Data were collected through premeasurement and postmeasurement using a critical thinking questionnaire and were analyzed using paired sample t-tests, independent sample t-tests, and the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The effect size was calculated using Cohen's d formula.

Results

Sixty-one nursing students (57 women and four men, mean age 30 years) participated in the study. Findings of the paired sample t-test showed a significantly higher mean score for posteducation than pre-education, indicating a significant change in nurses' critical thinking capabilities (p < .001). The results for Cohen's d formula ( - 0.87) of the mean scores between pre-education and posteducation indicated a large effect size. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test also showed a statistically significant increase in the students' critical thinking abilities between pre-education and posteducation measures (p < .001). No statistically significant differences were found in the mean score according to age or sex.

Conclusion

This study concluded that blended simulation-based education can increase nursing students' critical thinking capabilities. As a result, this study builds on the use of simulation as a measure for developing and promoting critical thinking abilities during nursing education.

An empirical model of social and healthcare educators' continuing professional development in Finland

The objective of this work was to develop and test an empirical model of social and healthcare educators' continuing professional development. A cross-sectional survey study design was adopted, and a total of 422 part-time and full-time social and healthcare educators from 28 universities of applied sciences and vocational schools in different regions of Finland participated. Data were collected from October to December in 2018. The participants taught in the fields of healthcare, social services, and rehabilitation. The questionnaire included the EduProDe scale and background questions. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to develop the model, and its quality was assessed by computing goodness of fit indexes. The main finding was that when educators understand the benefits of continuing professional development, they will recognise their developmental needs and proactively seek support from their superiors. The results obtained provide insight into the preconditions for professional development and offer guidance for the design of future shared development programmes or activities for social and healthcare educators.

Development and testing of an instrument to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have investigated the competence of social and health care educators from different perspectives. However, there has been little research on the collegiality competence of social and health educators.

AIM / OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically test a new collegiality competence instrument (CollegialityComp) designed to enable social and health care educators to self-evaluate their competence in collegiality.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study design for instrument development and psychometric testing.

METHODS

Data were collected in the winter of 2020-2021 from social and health care educators at ten universities of applied sciences and ten vocational institutions in Finland (N = 1179), of whom 243 decided to participate. Face and content validity was assessed by seven experts, while structural validity and internal consistency were evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha, respectively.

RESULTS

The CollegialityComp development and testing process produced an instrument that includes 35 items representing five factors: (1) individual-centered collaboration, (2) educator action and fairness, (3) collaboration among colleagues, (4) collaboration outside the organization, and (5) communication and trust.

CONCLUSION

The CollegialityComp instrument can be used to measure the collegiality competence of social and health care educators in the context of vocational and higher education. It may also be useful during the training of teacher candidates.

Social, health care and rehabilitation educators' competence in professional education-Empirical testing of a model

The social and health care educator's role in educating future professionals need to be stronger emphasised and deserves international recognition. The purpose of this study was to develop and test an empirical model of social and health care educators' competence in higher and professional education. The presented research employed a cross-sectional study design. Data were collected using HeSoEduCo-instrument from 28 educational institutions in Finland. The model was empirically tested with confirmatory factor analysis through Structural Equation Modelling that applied the Full Imputation Maximum Likelihood estimator. A total of 422 social and health care educators participated in the study. The empirical model of social and health care educators including eight competence areas: leadership and management, collaboration and societal, evidence-based practice, subject and curriculum, mentoring students in professional competence development, student-centred pedagogy, digital collaborative learning, and cultural and linguistic diversity. All of the connections between concepts of the empirical model were found to be statistically significant. There were strong connections between most of the identified competence concepts; however, two weak connections were found, namely, the link between competence in evidence-based practice and competence in subject and curriculum, along with the link between competence in digital collaborative learning and competence in student-centred pedagogy. The presented empirical model can help stakeholders identify which areas of social and health care educators' curricula should be further developed. The model is also relevant for improving continuous education, allowing educators to assess their competence levels and evaluating educators' performance at the organisational level.

Evidence-based healthcare competence of social and healthcare educators: A systematic review of mixed methods

BACKGROUND

Social and healthcare operating environments are constantly evolving, so educators have major responsibility for ensuring that Evidence-Based Healthcare is included in the education of future healthcare professionals and applied in their practice. A holistic understanding and implementation of evidence-based healthcare competence is critical to the delivery of appropriate, relevant, and effective healthcare.

AIM

To identify and describe social and healthcare educators' EBHC competence according to the five main components of the JBI model and associated factors to it.

METHODS

A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted, with inclusion and exclusion criteria identified according to PICo and PEO inclusion criteria for qualitative and quantitative studies, respectively. Five databases-the CINAHL (EBSCO), PubMed, Scopus, Medic and ProQuest databases- were searched in June 2020. In total, 12 original studies (qualitative and quantitative) were included for quality appraisal, data extraction and narrative synthesis.

RESULTS

Key competence areas addressed in the selected studies were integrated into the four components of the JBI model of EBHC (evidence generation, synthesis, transfer, and implementation, and focus on its ultimate goal: global health). In the majority of chosen studies', it was found that educators had a positive attitude towards EBHC and wanted to stay up-to-date in the areas of global health and collaboration. Educators demonstrated their abilities to locate, appraise, and interpret the best current relevant evidence. They knew how to integrate EBHC into their teaching and had strong communication skills in evidence transfer. Their EBHC competence was strongest in the educational context and educators could transfer evidence when teaching but were not able to translate it into how to implement EBHC in clinical care. In addition to higher academic education and work experience, organizational support and continuous education reportedly play essential roles in development of educators' EBHC competence.

CONCLUSION

Measures are needed to maintain and improve social and health educators' EBHC competence and develop robust methods to reliably assess it.

Social, health and rehabilitation sector educators' competence in evidence-based practice: A cross-sectional study

AIM

The purpose of the study was to identify and describe the characteristic profiles of evidence-based practice competence of educators in the social, health and rehabilitation sectors and to establish relevant background factors.

DESIGN

This study was carried out as a descriptive cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Data were collected from social, health and rehabilitation sector educators working in the 21 Finnish universities of applied sciences and seven vocational colleges (n = 422; N = 2,330). A self-assessment instrument measuring evidence-based practice competence was used. Competence profiles were formed using a K-cluster grouping analysis.

RESULTS

Three distinct competence profiles were identified and delineated. Most educators feel that they can guide students' critical thinking and are able to seek and produce scientific knowledge. Evidence-based practice competence was explained by background factors such as year of graduation (for higher degree), level of education, job title, current employer and current field of work.

Development and testing of the Educators' Professional Development scale (EduProDe) for the assessment of social and health care educators' continuing professional development

BACKGROUND

Social and health care educators are crucial to educating competent professionals that are prepared to work in a rapidly changing society. Previous studies have primarily assessed educators' continuing professional development from a single perspective. It would be important to gauge educators' perceptions about their professional development from multiple dimensions to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current learning process.

AIM

To develop and validate a new educators' professional development scale that is relevant to social and health care education institutions.

METHOD

The development and validation of the scale comprised four phases: defining continuing professional development; creating an item pool; an expert review of the item pool; and psychometric testing of the scale. Face and content validity were evaluated by two expert panels. The initial item pool included 104 items, with 41 remaining after the expert review. A total of 2330 social and health care educators from 29 organizations were invited to respond to the developed self-assessment survey. The response rate was 18% (n = 422).

RESULTS

Explorative factor analysis identified six factors, including a total of 22 items, that accounted for 68.37% of the total variance. The factors defined different elements of continuing professional development for educators, namely, "need for pedagogical development" (7 items), "need to manage challenging situations in teaching" (3 items), "leadership of competence development" (3 items), "self-directed learning" (3 items), "need to develop clinical competence" (3 items) and "benefits of professional development" (3 items). Internal consistency for the six subscales, measured through Cronbach's alpha coefficient, ranged from 0.70 to 0.89.

CONCLUSION

The EduProDe scale is a relevant and reliable tool for the planning and evaluation of continuing professional development processes or programs designed for educators of social and health care students.

The competence of nurse educators and graduating nurse students

BACKGROUND

A nurse educator has an important role in promoting students' learning and professional development as well as in offering high quality nursing education.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the competence of nurse educators and explore its connection with the self-evaluated competence of graduating nurse students.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey design was used.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 1796 graduating nurse students in Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania and Spain participated in this study.

METHODS

The data were collected with structured electronic or paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Graduating nurse students evaluated the nurse educators' competence using six items derived from the Tool for Evaluation of Requirements of Nurse Teacher (ERNT) and in addition, the students evaluated their own generic professional competence using the Nursing Competence Scale (NCS). The data were analysed statistically.

RESULTS

On average, graduating nurse students evaluated the competence of nurse educators to be rather high. Icelandic and Irish students evaluated nurse educators' competence the highest. German and Finnish students were the most critical. The students also evaluated the level of their own professional competence as good. The higher graduating nurse students evaluated their own competence, the higher they also evaluated their nurse educators' competence.

CONCLUSIONS

Students' evaluations of their educators' competence and their own competence seem to be aligned. However, educators' competence and its connection with students' competence warrants further studies.

Health and social care educators' ethical competence

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Educators' ethical competence is of crucial importance for developing students' ethical thinking. Previous studies describe educators' ethical codes and principles. This article aims to widen the understanding of health- and social care educators' ethical competence in relation to core values and ethos.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND KEY CONCEPTS

The study is based on the didactics of caring science and theoretically links the concepts ethos and competence.

METHODS

Data material was collected from nine educational units for healthcare and social service in Finland. In total 16 semi-structured focus group interviews with 48 participants were conducted. The interviews were analysed with a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study is approved by the Declaration of Helsinki, the legislation regarding personal data and the General Data Protection Regulation. The study received ethical permission from the University of Jyväskylä. Informed consent was obtained from all the educational units and participants in the study.

FINDINGS

The findings are presented based on three general patterns, an ethical basic motive, an ethical bearing and ethical actions. Subthemes are Humane view of students as unique individuals with individual learning, Bearing of tactfulness and firmness, Bearing of perceptiveness and accessibility, Bearing of satisfaction and joy over student learning, Valuing bearing towards each oneself and colleagues, Ability to interact and flexibility, Collegiality and a supportive work community and Educators as role models and inspirators.

CONCLUSION

Educators' personal and professional ethos is crucial to student learning, personal growth and ethical reasoning. Therefore, it is important to further develop educators' training regarding ethical competence.

Development and testing of an instrument (HeSoEduCo) for health and social care educators' competence in professional education

BACKGROUND

Health and social care education is highly important for preparing future professionals for their future roles in sustainable health and social care. However, previous studies have emphasized that health and social care educators' competence is complex and poorly defined. Thus, there is a clear need for a psychometrically validated instrument to enable clarification and assessment of the required skills.

OBJECTIVE

To develop and psychometrically validate an instrument (the HeSoEduCo) for assessing health and social care educators' competence in higher and professional education.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

A HeSoEduCo instrument, with items inviting 1-4 Likert scale responses, was developed, based on one systematic review and one qualitative study, then validated in terms of face, content and construct validity and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha values). All health and social care educators based in all 21 universities of applied sciences in Finland and seven vocational colleges were subsequently invited to participate in a large-scale application of the instrument in fall 2018. In total, responses of 390 of these educators are analyzed here.

RESULTS

The face and content validity of 71 newly developed items were assessed by experts in two evaluation rounds. The final content validity showed high scores for the instrument's relevance and clarity. Confirmatory factor analysis (to test construct validity) yielded eight factors (43-items remaining), defining the following competence areas of educators: evidence-based practice, digital collaborative learning, student-centered pedagogy, collaboration & societal, leadership & management, cultural & linguistic diversity, mentoring student into professional competence development and subject & curriculum. Cronbach's alpha values for the factors ranged from 0.70 to 0.89.

CONCLUSION

The instrument can be used to obtain self-evaluations of educators' competence when assessing their general competence levels and help human resources departments and managers to identify suitable continuous education programs for their staff.

Competency of Academic Nurse Educators

Background

In the face of a rapidly changing social environment and increasing demand for health care services, there is a global concern that academic nurse educators should have expert-level competencies and should improve the level of nursing education.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the elements that constitute competency in academic nurse educators.

Methods

A cross-sectional self-completed online survey was conducted involving academic nurse educators working at universities in Japan. We invited 277 nursing universities to participate in the survey and to provide academic nurse educators with information about the research by contacting the dean of each university’s nursing department. In total, 372 educators completed the survey (response rate 4.03%), and after excluding those with incomplete data, 367 were analyzed (valid response rate 3.97%). The data were analyzed by exploratory-factor analysis, with the least-squares method and promax rotation performed.

Results

An exploratory analysis yielded five competency factors: “facilitating active learning,” “engaging in academic research activities,” “participating in university management,” “undertaking self-directed learning based on professional ethics,” and “practicing education autonomously.”

Conclusions

The competencies identified in the present study are essential for academic nurse educators, and the five factors are in accord with the findings of previous studies. Support systems for academic nursing educators should be established to improve their competencies comprehensively. However, further research is needed to develop the competencies of academic nurse educators into more comprehensive and sophisticated competencies.

Nursing students' experiences of nurse teacher mentoring and beneficial digital technologies in a clinical practice setting

Due to educational reforms in Finland, the nurse teacher's role is being reduced in mentoring of nursing students in the clinical practice. Students reported experiencing a lack of instruction and feeling abandoned in the clinical practice. The aim of this study was to describe nursing student experiences of mentoring by nurse teachers in clinical practice, as well as the benefits of digital technology in this context. Qualitative study design was used with semi-structured focus group interviews. Nursing students (n = 15) who had completed at least one clinical placement during their nursing education. Data were collected in autumn 2017 from two universities of applied sciences in northern Finland. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Mentoring by nurse teacher was perceived as a key part of learning evaluation, integrating theoretical and practical knowledge, understanding the student's role and emotional support. The results also revealed that mentoring can be improved by using digital technology. However, technology cannot completely replace face-to-face mentoring. The mentoring provided by nurse teachers plays an important role in the success of a nursing student's clinical practice. Digital technology can be leveraged to enhance the learning experience when easy-to-use and ubiquitous applications are integrated into the clinical learning setting.