Seeing Beyond the Theory: Empowering Novice Nursing Students in Their Ability to Save Lives Through Primary and Secondary Prevention

Students in early-level nursing courses often doubt their ability to intervene effectively to impact health, much less save a life, due to lack of hands-on experience and confidence. Theoretical concepts introduced in early-level courses are abstract terms that can be difficult for the novice student to grasp. Two strategies were designed to take early-level nursing students beyond the theory and increase their awareness of the power of prevention through risk identification, advocacy, health education, and early intervention. Opportunities to apply concepts such as health education, role of the nurse, communication, growth and development, and family systems theory were provided through use of these strategies. Both assignments have been well received by early-level students and other instructors. Informal feedback indicates that these strategies can enhance students' confidence in their perceived ability to promote health and prevent adverse outcomes. The strategies presented in this article respond to the call to provide opportunities within the curriculum that facilitate application of theoretical content; they can empower novice students in their ability to impact lives and can set them up for success as they progress through the program.

HI I CARE MNEMONIC ON MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION SKILLS AMONG UNDER GRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS

Background: A study conducted on HI I CARE: A mnemonic device to frame safe patient encounters and support simulation experiences for novice nursing students by Velinda J.Chapman et,al. concluded that the mnemonic helped the novice students to remember and organize key safety behaviors and patient care activities.Methods: Non experimental Cross Sectional design was used.HI I CARE mnemonic based procedural checklist was prepared to assess the student's performance and Opinionnaire collected about the HI CARE mnemonic.Results: Data analyzed using the descriptive statistics. Students were able to do the procedure without missing the steps with the assistance of the mnemonic.Study results shows that the HI I CARE mnemonic was effective as a performance support tool for the nursing students

HI I CARE MNEMONIC ON MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION SKILLS AMONG UNDER GRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS

Background: A study conducted on HI I CARE: A mnemonic device to frame safe patient encounters and support simulation experiences for novice nursing students by Velinda J. Chapman et,al. concluded that the mnemonic helped the novice students to remember and organize key safety behaviors and patient care activities. Methods: Non experimental Cross Sectional design was used. HI I CARE mnemonic based procedural checklist was prepared to assess the student’s performance and Opinionnaire collected about the HI CARE mnemonic. Results: Data analyzed using the descriptive statistics. Students were able to do the procedure without missing the steps with the assistance of the mnemonic. Study results shows that the HI I CARE mnemonic was effective as a performance support tool for the nursing students.

Using High-Fidelity Simulation to Introduce Communication Skills about End-of-Life to Novice Nursing Students

Background: High-fidelity simulation is being considered as a suitable environment for imparting the skills needed to deal with end-of-life (EOL) situations. The objective was to evaluate an EOL simulation project that introduced communication skills to nursing students who had not yet begun their training in real healthcare environments. Methods: A sequential approach was used. The “questionnaire for the evaluation of the end-of-life project” was employed. Results: A total of 130 students participated. Increasing the time spent in high-fidelity simulation significantly favored the exploration of feelings and fears regarding EOL (t = −2.37, p = 0.019), encouraged dialogue (t = −2.23, p = 0.028) and increased the acquisition of communication skills (t = −2.32, p = 0.022). Conclusions: High-fidelity simulation promotes communication skills related to EOL in novice nursing students.

Extracting Subtask-specific Metrics Toward Objective Assessment of Needle Insertion Skill for Hemodialysis Cannulation

About 80% of all in-hospital patients require vascular access cannulation for treatments. However, there is a high rate of failure for vascular access cannulation, with several studies estimating up to a 50% failure rate for these procedures. Hemodialysis cannulation (HDC) is arguably one of the most difficult of these procedures with a steep learning curve and an extremely high failure rate. In light of this, there is a critical need that clinicians performing HDC have requisite skills. In this work, we present a method that combines the strengths of simulator-based objective skill quantification and task segmentation for needle insertion skill assessment at the subtask level. The results from our experimental study with seven novice nursing students on the cannulation simulator demonstrate that the simulator was able to segment needle insertion into subtask phases. In addition, most metrics were significantly different between the two phases, indicating that there may be value in evaluating participants’ behavior at the subtask level. Further, the outcome metric (risk of infiltrating the simulated blood vessel) was successfully predicted by the process metrics in both phases. The implications of these results for skill assessment and training are discussed, which could potentially lead to improved patient outcomes if more extensive validation is pursued.

An Unfolding Case Study: Supporting Contextual Psychomotor Skill Development in Novice Nursing Students

BackgroundNursing students learn psychomotor skills in the nursing lab, removed from the context of real patient care. As a result, students experience challenges linking client conditions with pertinent assessments and the performance of skills in the clinical setting. To address this gap, we created an unfolding case study for the nursing lab that provides context and supports students to use assessment and theory to guide skill performance in practice.MethodFaculty and student focus groups were conducted to elicit feedback on the use of an unfolding case in the nursing lab with novice nursing students as they transition to clinical practice.ResultsImpacts that emerged from the faculty and student focus groups included knowledge synthesis, transferability to practice, and increased clinical competence.ConclusionsThe unfolding case study successfully supported students’ transition to acute care practice. Both faculty and student participants expressed a desire for use of this dynamic method in all nursing lab courses.