Perceptions of Baccalaureate Graduates on their Clinical Nursing Education and its Effectiveness in their Service Delivery

Good clinical education underscores good nursing practice and is the avenue through which students develop clinical skills. Baccalaureate graduates have been perceived as less skilled professional nurses when compared with graduates from the diploma-based nursing programme. However, this assumption is based on a perceived deficiency of clinical education in the baccalaureate programme. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of baccalaureate graduates on their clinical education and the effectiveness of clinical education in their service delivery. This was a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, contextual study. Twenty-nine graduates from four different universities, who had worked for a minimum of two years post-graduation, were interviewed for a period of 45–90 minutes each. The graduates of the baccalaureate nursing programme indicated that their clinical education was adequate, despite limited time allocated for clinical education and challenges at the clinical placement site. From the study, the researchers recommended that the nursing curriculum be evaluated to balance the time allocated for the theoretical and clinical components of the programme, and to ensure that in future there is better theory-praxis articulation.

An Immersion Approach to Client-Sponsored Projects: Preparing Students with Soft Skills Required for Hiring - Face to Face & Virtual Methods

As higher education is pressured to prove its students’ readiness to work, preparing marketing students to become successful professionals requires faculty to employ a myriad of approaches. Among these approaches that emerged over the past 30 years are client-sponsored projects (CSP) as a superior method to transferring practical experience compared to utilizing text-based case studies. However, according to recent surveys, industry remains unsatisfied with baccalaureate graduates’ readiness to work. Graduating student-preparedness surveys show employers claim an absence of key skills among baccalaureate graduates. To address the gap between current industry survey results, while drawing on CSP literature, this article introduces a semester-long CSP pedagogy where the classroom, face-to-face or virtual, becomes an immersion of a typical corporate team project culture thereby practicing the very skills industry report students lack. In the model presented, students serve as consultants by developing an executable marketing plan for implementation by a client company. The procedures presented yield an experience providing students with performance expectations, much like an individual working in a business environment. During the semester-long journey, students develop the key competencies to specifically address the highlighted skill gaps from surveys among hiring managers. Although most CSPs are tools to help students hone some abilities, most projects typically become nothing more than another teaching tactic. The distinctiveness of the immersion approach presented in this article expands the use of CSP with a rigorous corporate-like in-class experience for both face-to-face and fully online courses. This article describes procedures educators can use for developing a classroom experience integrating real-business world pressures, coaching, and accountability to better prepare graduating students for their careers and satisfy the skills business managers expect.

Comparisons and Approaches of PREP Programs at Different Stages of Maturity: Challenges, Best Practices and Benefits

Programs (PREP) are designed to provide research training and educational oppor­tunities for recent baccalaureate graduates from targeted groups defined by NIH who would benefit by academic enhancements between the completion of undergraduate studies and admission to a PhD program. These programs offer exposure to the biomedical science community in a way that helps post-undergraduate individu­als visualize future careers as well-trained, enthusiastic leaders in biomedical research who represent and will promote diversity in science. Specifically, PREPs provide the preparation and skills required for en­trance into, and successful completion of, a PhD program via in-depth exposure to a research setting, which helps to refine the post-undergraduate’s research interests, assists in providing a realistic understand­ing of the end results one can expect from research, and offers a forum for discussion with lab peers and mentors about possible career paths. Beyond the lab, PREPs offer programmatic activities to develop ana­lytical, writing, and oral presentation skills necessary for a competitive graduate school application and success in graduate school thereafter. Individual mentoring increases the post-undergraduate’s confidence and familiarity with members of the research community, so that pursuit of a PhD be­comes a realistic and less-intimidating path. Interventions and developmental activities are matched to the background preparation, research experience, and learning style of each post-undergraduate. As with all train­ing programs, there is no perfect model and each program must fit in and adapt to their respective institutional environments and cultures. Thus, in this article, we provide perspectives and approaches developed by a long-standing program in existence almost since the beginning of the PREP program along with one PREP at an early stage of maturity, having just been through one renewal. Ethn Dis. 2020;30(1):55-64; doi:10.18865/ed.30.1.55

Perceptions of preparedness for nursing practice using a preceptorship model

Nursing graduates need to be “real world ready”, and able to meet the demands of the healthcare workforce. Research indicates that baccalaureate graduates have adequate theoretical base, but often lack competence in the clinical setting. Preceptorship programs are an effective way of developing clinical competence in the nursing student. The purpose of this study was to compare a traditional senior clinical course to a preceptorship model on students, faculty, and nurses’ perceptions of student preparedness for the nursing role. A formal preceptorship program with the support of a clinical nurse faculty member was developed to enhance the success of clinical nursing education. A quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent groups was used to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a preceptorship model for senior nursing students comparing the students’, the faculty, and the nurses’ perceptions of the students’ preparedness for clinical practice after a traditional clinical and a preceptor clinical experience. The sample consisted of the fall 2017 senior semester cohort and the spring 2018 senior semester cohort, senior faculty who taught in those semesters, and nurses at the participating facilities. Overall, findings did not show a statistically significant difference between the traditional cohorts and the precepted cohorts; however, there is evidence of clinical significance. After implementation of the preceptorship model, there was an increase in the percent of nurses (100%), faculty (100%), and students (95%) who felt that the senior nursing students were ready for the professional role of a registered nurse.

Comparison of Outcomes in a Traditional versus Accelerated Nursing Curriculum

In this descriptive study, graduates of a traditional baccalaureate nursing program were compared with graduates of an accelerated baccalaureate program at the same university between 1991 and 2006. A survey was sent to a random sample of two groups: traditional baccalaureate graduates and graduates of the accelerated program who had previous degrees in another major and completed the nursing curriculum in a shorter time frame than the traditional students, resulting in a total sample of 73 graduates. Outcome variables included demographics, NCLEX passing rates, transitioning to the professional role, employment, professional development, certifications and self-reported reasons the respondents entered the nursing profession and why they remained. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups on these variables. Results of a t-test revealed that the GPA of the accelerated group was significantly higher than the traditional group. Future considerations include the impact that accelerated program development may have on both the current and projected nursing shortage.