Education in Nursing

Question: Discuss about the Education in Nursing? Answer: Introduction Education in nursing includes the practical and theoretical training imparted to the nursing students with the objective of preparing them as future nursing professionals. They are aimed to endorse with the duties of nursing care. The medical professionals or experienced nurses who have the experience and required qualifications for the tasks of education impart the education to the nurses. Nursing education can be generalized or specialized. Generalized nursing education includes the general aspects of the nursing profession and specialized nursing includes the specialized areas like pediatric, mental health and post-operatory nursing. Autonomic registration of nursing courses is typically of four years. There is also the scope for post qualification courses in the field of nursing for the specialized subjects. The doctoral programs in nursing are important for the development of nursing and their implementation in the profession. The student becomes a facilitated learner, evaluates the outcomes of the program, learns to use the evaluations and assessment strategies effectively and participates in the designing of the curriculum. The student becomes qualified enough to act as a nursing leader. Therefore, the present study will aim at the importance of the nursing education from five different peer-reviewed articles and their critical analysis. Article 1: Rush, K. L., Adamack, M., Gordon, J., Lilly, M., Janke, R. (2013). Best practices of formal new graduate nurse transition programs: An integrative review.International Journal of Nursing Studies,50(3), 345-356. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.06.009 Recruitment, retention and transition of the theory to practice of the new graduate nurses have been the matter of concern globally. With the ever-growing complexity of care and acuity followed by the advancements in the technology, a gap has been detected in the theory and practice of nursing education as a global phenomenon. Expectations are also differing between the practice and educational stakeholders along with the problematic lag of the nursing student and graduate nurse. The purpose of this study was the identification of the best practices of the transition programs for the formal graduate nurses. This review was found to be beneficial for the organizations in the development and support of the programs of transitions for the newly graduated and hired nurses. The purpose was extended to review the existing literature of research for the identification of the practices of the transition programs for the newly graduated nurses. The research design was the review of the research literature of nursing which employed various research designs from different research papers by a range of authors. These were quasi-experimental, longitudinal, descriptive and qualitative. Majority of the research designs were descriptive design (n=27) followed by quasi-experimental (n=8), longitudinal (n=7) and qualitative (n=5). The criteria for the study design had the quasi-experimental design with 3 points, qualitative and descriptive with 1 point each and longitudinal design with 2 points. The validity of this research work can be under threat as the study as the variability in the sample size and research design was limited. So the overall measures of outcome of the study were lacking and so the validity of this study is under threat. However, this can be overcome by employing study designs, which are rigorous. More longitudinal studies will help in tracking the transition program outcome for the graduate nurses. The finding of the research program was that the transition programs improve the retention. Availability of support opportunities and mentors provide support to the new graduates. Formal training is essential prior to entering the profession for the new graduates. The period of decreased job satisfaction and stress for the new graduates can be reduced by the implication of the transition programs for 9 months. The environment has to be made amenable for the transition of the new graduates. Article 2: Ward, J., Cody, J., Schaal, M., Hojat, M. (2012). The empathy enigma: An empirical study of decline in empathy among undergraduate nursing students.Journal of Professional Nursing : Official Journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,28(1), 34-40. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.10.007 The present standard of the healthcare organizations emphasizes on curing rather than caring, technological proficiency rather than personal skills, efficiency rather than the excellence, all the encounter of patient-nurse should be based on empathy. However, with the increasing complexity of healthcare, it is becoming more difficult to imply this empathy. So the nursing students are also facing complex challenges of steering their experiences and managing their responsibilities, with keeping in mind the humanistic needs. The purpose of the research was the examination of the changes in the empathy of the students of nursing during one year of their undergraduate program. How the empathy of the student changes and what are the responsible factors were closely examined in the clinical setting. The significant empathy changes were identified and the degree of exposure to the clinical experiences for the undergraduate students was determined to identify the empathy changes. The research design employed in this study was statistical analysis of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. 214 undergraduate students of nursing participated in the longitudinal study. Chi-square test was employed to determine the comparisons based on the demographic variables. T-test and ANOVA for the correlated group and repeated measure were performed for testing the statistical analysis of the significant changes in the empathy of the students throughout the period of study. The validity of the research can be under threat as the study lacked generalization. This was because it was carried out at only one academic institution. However, inclusion of more academic institutions and participants will produce reproducible results. Asking of questions which are open-ended and which solicited the examples from the experiences of the students will improve the determination of the empathic behavior of the undergraduate students of nursing. The findings of this research have been to be in consistency with several other research works which suggested that decline in the empathy of the nursing students who are either in the final year of nursing education or have entered the phase of clinical training with patients. Several strategies have been designed in this research study for the implication of empathy among the undergraduate students. However, further research is essential for determining the patient outcomes due to the impact of this study among the nursing students who enter the profession. Article 3: Button, D., Harrington, A., Belan, I. (2014). E-learning information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature.Nurse Education Today,34(10), 1311-1323. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2013.05.002 E-learning is the recent development in the nursing education globally. It has been implemented in the nursing curricula in most of the developed nations. Since electronic patient records are getting adopted globally, e-learning should be made compulsory in the course of nursing. Presently there are several issues regarding the information and computer literacy. So the advancements of nursing students and professionals dealing with electronic health records are being hindered. So e-learning is getting critical for both the students and educators. The purpose of this research study was to carry out a literature review for identification of the e-learning related research and the implementation of associated technologies in the programs of nursing. In addition, the purpose of the study was identification of the issues of the educators and students who are into the practice of using e-learning. All the literature and research articles were critically appraised, systematically reviewed and thematically analyzed. The research design involved 28 studies, which were further divided into three different groups: quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. The most frequently employed research method in the study was quantitative, which was employed in 16 studies. This was followed by mixed methods, which were employed nine studies and qualitative studies, which were employed in three studies. Six out of the sixteen peer-reviewed articles discussed the validity and reliability of the research study and their potential threats. Power analysis was not determined in any of the studies and the diversity of the survey tools made it difficult for the comparison of the results, especially the direct comparisons. Many of the reviewed articles involved studies in only a single university. So these limitations and validity threats can be minimized by conducting the study across multiple universities and implementing the power analysis. The findings of this research study suggested that information technology by computers have serious implications for the educators and students globally. The implication should also include the daily working of the nursing graduates on the computer information systems. For the learning and teaching of the nursing profession, computer information technology and its implication have become essentially important. Article 4: Henderson, A., Eaton, E. (2013). Assisting nurses to facilitate student and new graduate learning in practice settings: What 'support' do nurses at the bedside need? Nurse Education in Practice,13(3), 197. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2012.09.005 The process of continuous learning is essential in the workplace to assure that the practice of healthcare is contemporary. Professionals of healthcare set up communities regarding their practice where they get the opportunity to share the understanding and knowledge of their skills. This type of sharing will benefit the new graduates entering the nursing profession. With the continuous increase in the number of nursing students, it is becoming essential to provide them with the professional support by sharing the craft of the experienced nurses. The purpose of this research was to determine how this support process could be implemented. This includes the assistance required to be provided to the new nursing graduates who are engaged in patient care and act as mentors, buddies and preceptors. The process of support will eventually evolve these new graduates into learning guides. The undergraduate students or new graduates need this support as they enter a new context of practice. The research design involves literature review from various peer-reviewed articles about the learning guides in nursing education. Different topics have been analyzed in the study where the learning guides have been critically appraised. The advantages, shortcomings and the outcome of the support provided to the nursing graduates by the learning guides have been reviewed and discussed. Strategic planning for the development of leadership in the education and profession of nursing is essential, which has been discussed in the topic crucially with the aid of the various references. The validity of the study is threatened when few of the articles discuss the fact that learning guides are often not competent enough to facilitate the new nurses since they are poorly prepared. Insufficient preparation and training of the mentors often reduce the supervision standards. These hindrances can overcome by enrichment of the nursing abilities and clinical experience of the mentors. Positive dynamics of the team may enhance the mentorship abilities of the learning guides. The finding of the study suggests that learning guides make important contributions to the enhancement of learning of the new graduates. The implication of the learning guides facilitates professional interactions with the new professionals. The learning guides identify the needs of the learners and, therefore, requisite learning is provided to the bedside nurses. As the bedside nurses have designated caseload, they need the support of the learning guides for performing the important role. Article 5: Robinson, B. K., Dearmon, V. (2013). Evidence-based nursing education: Effective use of instructional design and simulated learning environments to enhance knowledge transfer in undergraduate nursing students.Journal of Professional Nursing: Official Journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,29(4), 203-209. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2012.04.022 Patient safety concerns need the healthcare providers to review the traditional practices of nursing. The nursing education programs prepare the new graduate nurses with clinical skills for safe and effective care for the patients. Lack of exposure in the clinical settings reduces the intuition development. In addition, the nurse graduates enter the profession with little information and understanding of their role as a bedside nurse. Shortage of faculty and limited clinical sites are the challenges that the nursing graduates face. The purpose of the article is the application of ADDIE model of the instruction design for the application of simulation in the education of nursing for the facilitation of better clinical performance. ADDIE model stands for analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation model. It has been found that simulation is an important learning-teaching strategy. Development of clinical experience in the curriculum of nursing education provides the need for a model of instructional design for simulation activities. The research design involves program level outcomes and objectives. Educational tools for the promotion of acquisition of skills and its proficiency, improvement of self-confidence and decision-making abilities are essential for the nursing programs. HFPS or high fidelity patient simulation are employed for the reduction of medical errors by the application of simulation. Other simulators like SimMan and NCLEX are also employed to create realistic simulation experience in the learning environment and integrate them into the nursing curriculum. The validity of this study is threatened when the effectiveness of the simulation program is assessed. Several limitations may come up like inadequate resources, communication breaks, and instructional design errors. These limitations may provide barriers to the simulated experience of learning. However, this can be prevented by the documentation of the systemic evaluation for the improvement of the outcome and the simulation process. This ultimately helps in achieving the objectives of nursing education. The findings of the research study are knowledge transfer and confidence building among the new graduates of nursing. Simulated learning experience needs communication and adequate training. The implication of the simulation technique has to be well planned. Successful simulation technique is based on the collaboration and communication among the facilitators and the faculty. Planned implementation of the simulation ensures the achievement of the learning objectives of the nursing education for the graduates. Research Refined For this part, article 3 has been taken as the reference for conducting the research study in a different method. Since e-learning is the recent development in the field of nursing education, so this part of the project has been conducted by its practical implementation in the nursing home setting. High quality of nursing care in the residential and end of life care nursing homes reduces the distress levels in residents, emergency hospital admissions and communication between the nursing staff and the residents. However, excessive staff overload because of conventional nursing practices, low training levels and spiritual and emotional challenges provides barrier to the nursing care to the residents. A wide range of policy and clinical initiatives are essential to face these challenges of quality healthcare delivery. The purpose of this research was to emphasize the importance of e-learning in the nursing home settings to provide the requisite skills, attitudes and knowledge through strategies of training. This research focuses on the elevation of the confidence and understanding for delivering quality nursing care and bridging the gaps of new understandings translations in the practice of nursing. End of life care nursing home settings have been preferred for the study, as long-term care requires deeper knowledge and skills over short-term care in nursing. The research design is mixed-methods approach of case study. The strength of this research design is that it allows complementarities and triangulations for the addition of insight and depth to the analysis. However, the weakness of this research design is that the collected data cannot be comprehensive to a broad range of the population. The biggest threats to the validity of e-learning in the nursing home settings are digital literacy, participant motivation and internet accessibility. However, the number of benefits that is obtained from e-learning overcomes these threats. The justification of the study can be found from the fact that there has been a positive change in the confidence and understanding for nursing care in the nursing setting. Evidences were derived for more holistic and detailed understanding of the core competencies of nursing care with enhanced confidence. Areas of further training were also revealed by the study. Data collection for the study was done by employing a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, which included a 36-item and 8-item post and pre-course questionnaire for self-completion by the nursing participants, collection of documentary, interviews which are semi-structured with the nursing participants and finally the observations of the facilitated workshops. Conclusion There should be an ideal balance between the theory and practice of the nursing education. The future nursing practitioners need to be sufficiently educated to have a wider view of the profession and manage the healthcare settings. To meet these objectives, the nursing education should aim at developing professionals with the skill for lifelong learning and have the ability to adapt to the professional changes in nursing. References Button, D., Harrington, A., Belan, I. (2014). E-learning information communication technology (ICT) in nursing education: A review of the literature.Nurse Education Today,34(10), 1311-1323. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2013.05.002 Henderson, A., Eaton, E. (2013). Assisting nurses to facilitate student and new graduate learning in practice settings: What 'support' do nurses at the bedside need? Nurse Education in Practice,13(3), 197. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2012.09.005 Robinson, B. K., Dearmon, V. (2013). Evidence-based nursing education: Effective use of instructional design and simulated learning environments to enhance knowledge transfer in undergraduate nursing students.Journal of Professional Nursing : Official Journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,29(4), 203-209. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2012.04.022 Rush, K. L., Adamack, M., Gordon, J., Lilly, M., Janke, R. (2013). Best practices of formal new graduate nurse transition programs: An integrative review.International Journal of Nursing Studies,50(3), 345-356. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.06.009 Ward, J., Cody, J., Schaal, M., Hojat, M. (2012). The empathy enigma: An empirical study of decline in empathy among undergraduate nursing students.Journal of Professional Nursing : Official Journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing,28(1), 34-40. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.10.007