Reality or a Dream: Barriers and Facilitators for Nursing Assistants Pursuing a Nursing Career

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) serve a critical role in the care of older adults. However, CNAs often experience significant professional and personal burdens related to caregiving work. Professionally, CNAs experience exorbitant workplace stress (e.g., physical injury, burnout, emotional exhaustion, staffing shortages, turnover). Personally, CNAs may have only a high school education, are subjected to low-paying jobs, and little opportunity for career advancement. Further, CNAs are disproportionately of minority race. Clearly, CNAs are negatively impacted by many social determinants of health. Ultimately, these burdens negatively impact older adults’ care provision and quality of life. Transitioning to a nursing career may alleviate some of these complex problems, but this has scantly been explored. A qualitative descriptive study was designed to 1) identify interest in a nursing career, and 2) explore perceived barriers and facilitators of transitioning into a nursing profession. CNAs from nursing facilities participated in private, semi-structured interviews. Recorded interviews (n = 6) were transcribed verbatim. Preliminary thematic analyses yielded two overarching themes: The Dream and The Reality. Rich subthemes began emerging from both overarching themes. Example subthemes from The Dream were: family legacy in healthcare, and finding purpose. Example subthemes from The Reality were: versus (CNAs vs. nurses; nurses vs. nursing care), and work-life balance. These preliminary findings suggest that CNAs express desire in becoming a nurse, although a range of personal and professional barriers and facilitators exist. Making the nursing dream become reality may improve CNAs’ social determinants, workplace outcomes, and resident outcomes, but further exploration is warranted.

Supporting the Professional Identity Development of Nursing Alumni: A Phenomenology Study

BACKGROUND: Professional identity is the expected outcome of nursing educational institutions reflected in the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of nursing alumni as professional nurses. Nursing alumni’s experiences at the Bachelor nursing program in Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) related to professional identity development (PID) at various nursing careers need to be explored. AIM: This study aims to describe Ners alumni in PID at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY). METHODS: This study was a phenomenological approach with a maximum variation sampling technique. Seventeen nursing alumni who have been working as professional nurses for a minimum of two years and worked in various nursing careers were recruited. A semi-structured interview between 60-90 minutes was conducted. Data analysis used Colaizzi’s methods and Nvivo 12TM Plus. RESULTS: There were two themes emerged from data; 1) Internal motivation to enhancing nursing career, with two sub-themes: having a great personal motivation and developing expertise, 2) External support driving nursing career, with five sub-themes: family encouragement, supports from a leader, accreditation and credential, exemplary role model and positive nursing image. CONCLUSION: Nursing alumni engaged in a variety of professional roles that contributed to the nursing workforce. The supporting of PID impacts personal and professional capability and strengthens nurses’ careers.

Team working part 5: Everyone is valuable

John Fowler, Educational Consultant, explores how to survive your nursing career

Coming full circle: a nursing career shaped by living with congenital heart disease

In this month's issue of Spotlight on Nurses, Sarah Ellison reflects on her journey as both a cardiac nurse and a cardiac patient, as well as the inspiration and support received over the years, and how all of these have helped to shape her life and her career.

Service-learning: experience of teacher-tutors in the nursing career

Introduction The learning process demands appropriate and effective strategies. Furthermore, the service-learning methodology implies significant challenges for both the student and the teacher-tutor. Objective To reveal the experience of community-based teacher-tutors work with nursing students from the Austral University of Chile, using the service-learning methodology. Method Descriptive and exploratory qualitative research through an intrinsic case study. Non-probabilistic and intentional sample of cases by criteria and convenience. Five teachers from the Austral University of Chile Nursing Institute hired by the university were interviewed. They fulfilled the role of teacher-tutor after signing the informed consent. The information was obtained through semi-structured interviews, and the analysis was carried out through the data reduction methodology, which considers the analysis of results at three levels. The Scientific Ethics Committee of the Austral University of Chile School of Medicine approved the study. Results At level 1: One hundred and seven (107) units of meaning were identified, grouped into five descriptive categories. At level 2, three meta-categories were formed: "opinion of the tutor-teachers on working with the service-learning methodology", "factors that influence working with the service-learning methodology" and "generic competencies developed with the service-learning methodology. Finally, at level 3, two qualitative domains were identified: "Teacher-tutors appreciation for the development of the service-learning methodology" and "Contributions of the service-learning methodology for developing generic competencies". Conclusions The efficient implementation of the methodology requires training and motivation of tutors, teachers, students and community partners.

Relación entre sesiones de atención plena y el nivel de estrés en estudiantes universitarios

Introducción: El estrés académico constituye una problemática importante de abordar en la actualidad, la población estudiantil durante los últimos 10 años se ha enfrentado a diversos estresores desencadenando signos y síntomas, que se exacerban al enfrentarse a ciertas asignaturas. Estas asignaturas son las que incluyen metodologías nuevas en pro de lograr los resultados de aprendizajes esperados, dentro de las cuales encontramos la simulación clínica, la cual busca situaciones cercanas a lo real.Objetivo: Determinar la relación existente entre el número de sesiones Mindfulness sobre el nivel de estrés frente a la metodología de simulación clínica en estudiantes universitarios de 3ero y 4to nivel de la Carrera de Enfermería en una Universidad privada de la ciudad de Antofagasta, norte de Chile. Método: Cuantitativa, experimental de tipo cuasi experimental con medición de test post-intervención. Muestra de 58 estudiantes. Para procesar la información se utilizaron pruebas de normalidad a las variables de la escala aplicada (SISCO) mediante Shapiro-Wilks, ANOVA, prueba de Tukey y pruebas T (hombres y mujeres). Resultados: El nivel de estrés presentado en la muestra fue destribuido de la siguiente manera: 5% leve, 79% moderado, 16% profundo. Existiendo una asociación entre estrés y género, así como diferencias de medias en reacciones físicas y comportamentales en estudiantes que asisten a 4 sesiones (reacciones físicas: 0.91 y reacciones compartimentales: 1.07). Conclusión: A mayor número de sesiones de Mindfulness, disminuye el nivel de estrés en las áreas de reacciones físicas y comportamentales. Introduction: Academic stress constitutes an important problem to be addressed today, the student population during the last 10 years has faced various stressors triggering signs and symptoms, which are exacerbated when facing certain subjects. These subjects are those that include new methodologies in order to achieve the expected learning results, within which we find clinical simulation, which looks for situations close to the real thing.Objective: To determine the relationship between the number of Mindfulness sessions on the level of stress compared to clinical simulation methodology in university students of 3rd and 4th level of Nursing Career at a private University Antofagasta, Chile.Method: Quantitative, quasi-experimental experimental with post-intervention test measurement. A sample of 58 students was studied. To process the information, normality tests were applied to the variables of the applied scale (SISCO) using Shapiro-Wilks, ANOVA, Tukey's test and T tests (men and women).Results: The stress level presented in the sample is distributed as follows: 5% mild, 79% moderate, 16% profound. There is an association between stress and gender, as well as mean differences in physical and behavioral reactions in students who attend 4 sessions (physical reactions: 0.91 and compartment reactions: 1.07).Conclusion: It is shown that the greater the number of Mindfulness sessions, the lower the stress level in the areas of physical and behavioral reactions.

Perceived stress factors among newcomers to the nursing career

Objective: To determine the prevalent stress factors among new students to the Faculties of Nursing at the Faculties of Nursing at the Universities of Cadiz, Cordoba, Huelva and Seville, and the influence of socio-demographic, academic, socio-economic, orientation and health factors. Design: A descriptive, observational and cross-sectional study. Methodology: 617 first year nursing students were surveyed (with a 95.66 % response rate) by means of two questionnaires, one for socio-demographics and health, the other for the stress perceived by new students. A descriptive analysis of the stress factors was then carried out for the frequency, mean and standard deviation. The relation between factors was examined through differential analysis by means of the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric tests. Results: The situations of greatest anxiety among new undergraduates are “taking examinations” and “the amount of work I have to do”. Consequently, the most stressful factor is “academic stress” whilst the least stressful is “feelings of loneliness”. The students who feel most stress across various factors can be identified as: over 25, women, studying outside their home province, and living in rented accommodation during the academic year. Conclusions: Starting a degree in nursing is a stressful time, and students can find their health, quality of life and academic performance negatively affected. The main determinants of stress among new undergraduates are the joint demands of examinations and workload. It would undoubtedly be enlightening to examine this issue further in order to find the possible causes of the problem and to develop strategies that can help in its prevention and so improve the students’ experience of university.