Exploring the Intersection Between Academic and Professional Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Undergraduate and Graduate Nursing Students’ Experiences

Background The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has implications for students who are also nurses. Purpose and Methods This qualitative descriptive study used a practice development approach to explore the intersection between academic and professional work experiences for undergraduate Post-Diploma Registered Practical Nurses bridging to Registered Nurse Bachelor of Science in Nursing students and Master of Nursing graduate nursing students during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study incorporated critical aesthetic reflections that focused on the personal and aesthetic ways of knowing, as a data collection approach and knowledge dissemination strategy. Results Analysis of the narrative component of participants’ reflections revealed the following themes: sensing a “call to duty,” experiencing a myriad of emotions, shifting societal and individual perceptions of nursing, and learning in an uncertain environment. Conclusions The results of the study can inform educational strategies and academic policies to support this unique nursing population, who are frontline practitioners as well as student learners.

Female nursing graduate students’ stress and health: the mediating effects of sense of coherence and social support

Background Ninety-five percent of nursing graduate students in South Korea are women, and most are often engaged in both academic coursework and work outside of the academic environment. Nursing graduate students often experience stress leading to physical and mental health problems that negatively affect their academic performance and persistence during graduate programs. The purpose of this study was to test multiple mediation effects of sense of coherence (SOC) and social support in the relationship between stress and health status of nursing graduate students. Methods The participants of this study were 231 female nursing graduate students from 14 universities. Data were collected using an online survey conducted between August and October 2019. Bootstrap techniques using the PROCESS macro for SPSS software were applied to assess the multi-mediating effects. Results The total effect (B = − 12.29, p < .001) and direct effect (B = − 7.07, p < .001) of perceived stress on health status were significant. Perceived stress had negative direct effects on social support (B = − 0.41, p < .001) and SOC (B = − 5.77, p < .001). SOC had a positive direct effect on health status (B = 0.59, p < .001). However, social support was not a significant predictor of health status (B = 1.24, p = .232). In addition, there was a positive direct effect of social support on SOC (B = 5.23, p < .001). Furthermore, the indirect effect of perceived stress on health status through SOC was significant (B = − 3.42, 95% CI = − 5.2616, − 1.8906). There was also a significant indirect effect of perceived stress on health status through social support and SOC (B = − 1.28, 95% CI = − 2.1663, − 0.5992). Conclusion It is necessary to create strategies that enhance nursing graduate students’ SOC and social support to reduce their perceived stress and to improve their health status.

Historicity of nursing graduate studies in Brazil: an analysis of the Sociology of the Professions

ABSTRACT Objectives: to analyze the scientific productions about the history of graduate studies in Brazilian nursing in the light of Eliot Freidson’s Sociology of the Professions. Methods: an integrative review, carried out in the databases indexed in Virtual Health Library. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses recommendations were followed. Thematic content analysis and Eliot Freidson’s concepts were adopted. Results: two categories emerged: “Institutionalization of graduate courses in Brazilian nursing”, highlighting the historical process of professionalization in nursing through transition from empirical to professional care, subsidized by the monopoly of the construction of one’s own knowledge; “The scientific production of graduate nursing in Brazil”, showing the strengthening of a new generation of nurse researchers, given the greater scientificity in teaching due to implementation of graduate studies. Final Considerations: the analyzes present the historicity of graduate studies’ institutionalization, supporting the understanding of professionalization outlines of Brazilian nursing.

SIMULATION IN NURSING: PRODUCTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GRADUATE COURSES IN BRAZIL FROM 2011 TO 2020

ABSTRACT Objective: to synthesize the production of knowledge on simulation in Nursing generated by the Nursing graduate programs in Brazil between January 2011 and February 2020. Method: a documentary research study, which adopted as primary source the official documents of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level personnel, conducted by means of an integrative literature review from October 2019 to February 2020, with quantitative analysis of the data. Results: initially, 68 studies were identified, 40 of them comprising the final sample. The following categories stood out: purpose of the studies; types of simulation; Health Care level; variables analyzed regarding the effectiveness of the simulation; themes addressed; comparison of the effectiveness of simulation with that of other teaching strategies, and weaknesses and potentialities of simulation. The scientific research of the Brazilian graduate courses prioritized the analysis of the effectiveness of simulation in the development of knowledge, satisfaction and confidence, in an off-site or virtual teaching environment, aimed both at hospital care and at primary care, mainly in Neonatology and Pediatrics, with the participants' anxiety as main weakness; and satisfaction, knowledge, critical thinking, safety, confidence and the ability to articulate theory and practice as potentialities. Conclusion: this study contributes to research, teaching and care in Nursing, for enabling the identification of the scientific production setting on simulation, which supports new research studies, with a focus on objectives and settings not yet explored. Simulation is indicated as an effective strategy for the development of cognitive, psychomotor and attitudinal skills in Nursing.

Quilting emergent advanced practice nursing educator identity: an arts-informed approach

Objectives Arts-informed pedagogy in the graduate nursing classroom is used to support the integration of theory with advanced practice nursing (APN) competencies (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008, 2019). Methods Using the patterns of knowing (Carper, 1978; Chinn & Kramer, 2018), Iwasiw & Goldenberg’s curriculum development model (2015) and practice development (McCormack, Manley, & Titchen, 2013), two course professors facilitated the delivery of an innovative arts-informed approach in a nursing graduate program, the Quilt. Results The Quilt was meant to invite graduate students to critically reflect and create a visual depiction of their emergent identities as advanced practice nurse educators (APNEs). As three graduate student authors, we reflect on our experiences engaging with arts-informed pedagogy to explore the features of the collective APNE identity. The design and delivery of the Quilt is described. Conclusions Finally, we discuss the lessons learned, and the value of arts-informed pedagogy to support the meaningful integration of theory amongst graduate nursing students becoming APNEs.

PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING IN NURSING GRADUATE COURSES IN BRAZIL

ABSTRACT Objective to analyze how professors’ education takes place in Graduate Programs in Nursing in Brazil. Method this is an exploratory and descriptive study that used as a technique document analysis of data obtained from the examined programs. Data collection was carried out in May 2020. Numerical data were analyzed using simple and relative frequency. Course description and other information of the available courses were grouped according to the themes addressed. Results fifty-three stricto sensu graduate programs in nursing were identified that offered 61 courses related to pedagogical training. Of these, 28 had a course description/information available online, and they were analyzed. The themes emerging from the analyzes were grouped into two dimensions: “The pillars of faculty training” and “Didactics” both indicate essential elements for faculty training. The training of professors who work in higher education, especially in the health area, is of fundamental importance due to today’s demands, which require competent and versatile professionals, capable of solving problems and working as a team. Conclusion pedagogical training is inherent to teaching and requires educational intentions, in addition to encouraging self-reflection processes on new ways of planning and executing the teaching and learning process. In nursing, it is necessary to encourage professor trainers to expand the offer of pedagogical training courses, make course descriptions available and produce knowledge in the area aiming at exchanging experiences.