Description:
This chapter discusses what it means to be an awake student and how you can be an engaged student to take the maximum advantage of the learning environment. It will explore the interrelationship of being an awake student and an awake nurse. Nursing requires constantly observing the situation, being aware of the context of practice, the situation or event in which you are taking part, and the patient in your care in order to make professional nursing decisions. To be successful in learning and practice, you will need to develop the graduate attributes of a nurse. These including being a professional and ethical decision-maker, politically astute situational leader and citizen, socially and culturally aware agent of change, critically reflective thinker adept in clinical reasoning, creative problem-solver, skilled therapeutic communicator, capable interdisciplinary healthcare team member and competent, caring, safe and professional nurse (Federation University Australia 2015). This chapter also provides ideas for how to overcome difficulties and engage in your learning together with ways that will help you to spend effective time in your learning endearvour. It discusses how you can transition to university learning in a way that makes you an equal partner in the learning process towards becoming an independent learner.
Description:
In this chapter, you will learn how to plan your study around your existing commitments. You will be encouraged to build on your stengths and improve in areas that may hold you back. You will learn how to find time to study and be kind to your future self. This chapter gives you an idea of the different kinds of academic support you may be able to access and provides some hints for using the online study environment to your advantage. Critical reflection in self-directed learning will assist you to develop strategies for lifelong learning. Learning in the university context is self-directed, and the skills developed and employed in your nursing education will ensure you have mastered the graduate attributes needed to continue learning while you practise a s a nurse. Self-directed learning means being active and constructive in your learning process. This entails being clear on what your learning goals are and making a choice about how you will achieve your learning goals. It also involves deciding what strategies you will adopt in your own learning, together with what the teachers require you to do for successful completion of your courses. The section on relection and self-directed learning provides you with strategies for deep learning, which is learning for understanding as opposed to surface learning like cramming to pass tests. If you employ deep learning strategies, this learning will form the basis of your knowledge and skills, and you will be able to build on and apply it in new contexts. You are a partner in the learning endeavours. You will discover that you learn not only from your lecturers, but also from your peers and networks. You will be provided with hints for making both formal and informal peer support and group work function effectively for you. Finally, you will be given suggestions for using social media to help feel connected while simmultaneously avoiding common pitfalls in your journey to become the best nurse you can.
Description:
Ongoing challenges for nurses working in the primary care/community setting include professional development external policy which esteems productivity greater than the quality of care and changes in the economy which have shaped the community at large.
Description:
Ongoing challenges for nurses working in the primary care/community setting include professional development external policy which esteems productivity greater than the quality of care and changes in the economy which have shaped the community at large.
Description:
A research project was conducted during 2015 to gain an understanding of the perspectives and actions of the nurses and personal care assistants, (participants) as they sought to provide person centred care (PCC) in a residential care setting.
Description:
Each year registered nurses apply for registration renewal. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia stipulate all nurses and midwives are expected to take responsibility and accountability for participating in continuing professional development (CPD) as a declaration that their practice is current, safe and competent. The code of professional conduct and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC) competencies governing registered nurses and midwives, outline the professional and personal responsibility nurses hold in order to maintain clinical competence; which may be achieved through continuing nurse education and professional development. As the health care industry shifts focus to keep up with changes in technology, economics, demographics and culture, the nursing profession must respond accordingly. With the implementation of a national registration scheme in Australia, this paper provides a review of the literature relating to mandatory CPD and how CPD may assist nurses to respond to the changing needs of the health care system and its consumers, to ensure the best possible health outcomes. Suggestions of possible avenues of research into the concept of CPD are also offered.
Description:
This globally focused resource integrates sound research evidence, real-life case scenarios, and effective, practical strategies to address a key health care initiative of the 21st century: optimal quality of life for older adults. Distinguished by its broad outlook, the book includes contributions from an international cadre of widely published scholars and is designed for easy integration into traditional nursing education curricula. The book explores the experiences of older adults at home, in assisted living, and in nursing home environments, examining their complex and wide-ranging health, spiritual, and emotional needs.
Description:
Technology use in higher education teaching has become widespread and ubiquitous, affecting many areas of teaching and learning (Bond et al., 2020). Nurse education has been impacted by this shift with increasing use of technologies in the classroom (Koch, 2014). Although there has been a large research focus relating to students’ elearning, there has been less focus on the academic and their elearning role, in particular, how academic attitudes influence technology use in teaching (Drysdale et al., 2013; Martin, Polly, et al., 2020). The aim of this study was to explore nurse academics’ attitudes to technology and the influence attitude has on their use of technologies in teaching. There were three objectives: 1) To investigate nurse academics’ attitudes to technology through the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2). 2) To develop an understanding of how and why nurse academics engage with technology through individual interviews. 3) To integrate the quantitative (Objective 1) and qualitative (Objective 2) findings in order to gain a holistic understanding of academics’ use of technologies in teaching. A mixed methods sequential explanatory design consisting of two phases was used to address the aim. The first phase was a survey based on a previously validated, 16 item questionnaire, the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2), which was distributed to Australian nurse academics. The second phase included semi-structured individual interviews focussed on academics’ use and attitudes to technology, incorporating elements from the survey. The Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2) was used in this study for the first time with nurse academics. The phase one findings indicate that nurse academics were technology ready, had higher overall TRI mean score than the general population (Parasuraman & Colby, 2015), but with similar outcomes to previous nurse academic research. Of note was that TRI was significantly associated with frequency of technology use, number of technologies used and self-rated confidence to use technology. The findings revealed three main Technology Readiness groups, representing three attitudes to technology in teaching: Explorers, Sceptics and Hesitators. Explorers were found to be innovative, positive and confident in their use of technology; Sceptics showed aversion to technology, were cautious when considering the impact on pedagogy and concerned about the impact on interpersonal skills; Hesitators showed preference for traditional teaching and distrust and were anxious about technology use. Overall, attitudes were found to be complex, based on experience and the potential impact technology may have on nursing students. The groups identified in this thesis explain behaviours and enable institutes to support academics in their engagement with technology. Recommendations include flexible training to meet the needs of academics, the use of simple and reliable technology across TR groups and adjusting workloads to account for the time-consuming nature of technology. There is also a need for academics to consider their attitudes to technology and the impact this may have on their teaching. This thesis demonstrates that technology engagement is not a binary choice but a complex process based on attitudes and other factors.
Description:
Technology use in higher education teaching has become widespread and ubiquitous, affecting many areas of teaching and learning (Bond et al., 2020). Nurse education has been impacted by this shift with increasing use of technologies in the classroom (Koch, 2014). Although there has been a large research focus relating to students’ elearning, there has been less focus on the academic and their elearning role, in particular, how academic attitudes influence technology use in teaching (Drysdale et al., 2013; Martin, Polly, et al., 2020). The aim of this study was to explore nurse academics’ attitudes to technology and the influence attitude has on their use of technologies in teaching. There were three objectives: 1) To investigate nurse academics’ attitudes to technology through the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2). 2) To develop an understanding of how and why nurse academics engage with technology through individual interviews. 3) To integrate the quantitative (Objective 1) and qualitative (Objective 2) findings in order to gain a holistic understanding of academics’ use of technologies in teaching. A mixed methods sequential explanatory design consisting of two phases was used to address the aim. The first phase was a survey based on a previously validated, 16 item questionnaire, the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2), which was distributed to Australian nurse academics. The second phase included semi-structured individual interviews focussed on academics’ use and attitudes to technology, incorporating elements from the survey. The Technology Readiness Index 2.0 (TRI 2) was used in this study for the first time with nurse academics. The phase one findings indicate that nurse academics were technology ready, had higher overall TRI mean score than the general population (Parasuraman & Colby, 2015), but with similar outcomes to previous nurse academic research. Of note was that TRI was significantly associated with frequency of technology use, number of technologies used and self-rated confidence to use technology. The findings revealed three main Technology Readiness groups, representing three attitudes to technology in teaching: Explorers, Sceptics and Hesitators. Explorers were found to be innovative, positive and confident in their use of technology; Sceptics showed aversion to technology, were cautious when considering the impact on pedagogy and concerned about the impact on interpersonal skills; Hesitators showed preference for traditional teaching and distrust and were anxious about technology use. Overall, attitudes were found to be complex, based on experience and the potential impact technology may have on nursing students. The groups identified in this thesis explain behaviours and enable institutes to support academics in their engagement with technology. Recommendations include flexible training to meet the needs of academics, the use of simple and reliable technology across TR groups and adjusting workloads to account for the time-consuming nature of technology. There is also a need for academics to consider their attitudes to technology and the impact this may have on their teaching. This thesis demonstrates that technology engagement is not a binary choice but a complex process based on attitudes and other factors.
Description:
Background: Anxiety has a powerful impact on learning due to activation of anxiety hormones, which target related receptors in the working memory. Experiential learning requires some degree of challenge and anxiety. Patient simulation, as a form of experiential learning, has been an integrated component of health professional education internationally over the last two decades, especially in undergraduate nursing education. Little information is available to determine if and how anxiety impacts nursing students’ clinical performance during simulation. Objectives: To investigate physiological and psychological anxiety during emergency scenarios in high-fidelity simulation and understand the effect of anxiety on clinical performance. Design: First2Act was the model for the simulation intervention. Second and third year undergraduate nursing students attended a two-hour simulation session and completed a demographic questionnaire plus pre-simulation self-reported psychological anxiety scale. A heart rate variability monitor was attached to each student's chest to measure heart rate variability (as a sign of anxiety) before engaging in two video-recorded simulated emergency scenarios (cardiac and respiratory) with a professional actor playing the patient. Performance was rated by a clinician followed by video-assisted debriefing. Finally, heart monitors were removed and students repeated self-reports of psychological anxiety. Results: Students’ psychological anxiety was high pre-simulation and remained high post-simulation. With regard to physiological anxiety, students were anxious at the start of the simulation but became more relaxed toward the end as they gained familiarly with the simulation environment (p < .007). Clinical performance increased significantly in the second scenario (p < .001). Factors found to positively affect clinical performance were length of enrolment in the nursing degree (p = .001), current employment in a nursing or allied healthcare field (p = .030), and previous emergency experience (p = .047). The relationship between physiological anxiety and clinical performance was statistically not significant, although there was an indication that low level anxiety led to optimal performance. Conclusion: High-fidelity patient simulation has the capacity to arouse novice nurses psychologically and physiologically while managing emergency situations. Indicative outcomes suggest that optimal performance was apparent when anxiety levels were low, indicating that they had received insufficient training to deal with situations that induced moderate to high anxiety levels.
Description:
It is crucial to the development and credibility of the nursing profession that its knowledge base be recognised as legitimate scholarly endeavour by established members of academia. For that reason, this report concerns examination of the attitudes and values of a group of non-nurse academics employed in universities in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the degree to which they view nursing as an epistemic entity. Perceptions are considered within the dual contexts of recent major changes in nursing education and in academia. Naturalistic Inquiry, informed by a hermeneutic attitude, is employed as a heuristic to examine the sub-culture of nursing within the broad culture of academia. Analysis of extensive interview data provided by the contemplation of study participants provides emergent themes. Several metaphors are chosen to explicate the findings that nursing is largely perceived to be nebulous, atheoretical, and subservient to the medical profession, Implications are discussed and recommendations are made with the view to encourage modernisation of the university through improving internal communication and challenging traditional models of operations within the tertiary sector.
Description:
Abstract AIM: To describe the research protocol that will be used to investigate factors contributing to effective interprofessional practice in a rural context in Australia. BACKGROUND: Interprofessional practice is a key strategy for overcoming rural health challenges; however, our knowledge of interprofessional initiatives and consequences in rural areas is limited. DESIGN: A modified realistic evaluation approach will be used to explore the structures, systems, and social processes contributing to effective interprofessional outcomes. This 'context-mechanism-outcome' approach provides a useful framework for identifying why and how interprofessional practice works in rural contexts. METHOD: Initial propositions regarding the factors that explain effective collaborative practice will be generated through interviews with lead clinicians, policy-makers, and clinician managers. Clinician interviews, document analysis, and multi-participant focus groups will be used as evidence to support, refine, or redevelop the initial propositions. This will allow the development of a model of rural interprofessional practice that will explain how and why collaborative approaches work in rural environments. This study is funded by an Institute of Rural Clinical Services and Teaching grant (January 2010). DISCUSSION: Rural healthcare challenges are well documented; however, studies investigating the nature of interprofessional practice in rural contexts are not common. Rural contexts also present research design, particularly data collection, challenges. This proposed research is one of the first to identify the factors that facilitate or constrain effective interprofessional work in rural settings. This is particularly important, given the continuing workforce shortages and maldistribution and poorer health outcomes in rural communities globally.