Rethinking nursing

Competence of newly-graduated nurses - a comparison of the perceptions of qualified nurses and students

AIM

This paper reports a study that compares opinions of final year nursing students, rating their own competence, with the opinions of experienced nurses on the competence of newly-graduated nurses.

BACKGROUND

The transition of nursing preparation into higher education is regarded as positive, although it has led to differences in opinion about the competence of newly-graduated nurses and their readiness to enter the nursing profession. There are studies showing that newly-graduated nurses perceive themselves as holistically focused, professional practitioners, while other nurses are concerned that newly-graduated nurses do not have necessary skills.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 106 nursing students in the final week of their course and 136 nurses who had experience of supervising nursing students completed a questionnaire. The data were collected in 2002.

RESULTS

Own competence, in the form of ability to perform nursing care, was rated by nursing students to be good or strongly developed in most of the investigated areas of nursing care. Experienced nurses also estimated newly-graduated nurses' competence to be good or strongly developed, although to a lesser extent. Nurses qualified within the previous 5 years rated newly-graduated nurses' competence to be higher in comparison with those with less recent education.

CONCLUSIONS

Further studies are needed to broaden our understanding of why some areas of nursing care, such as ethical awareness, were rated very highly, while others, like informing and teaching of co-workers and planning and prioritizing interventions had the lowest rating.

The Importance of Informatics Competencies in Nursing

Over the past two decades, dramatic changes have occurred in the nature and extent of communication and information technology use in nursing worldwide. The need for student nurses to be well prepared for the use and application of information technology in nursing is arguably now paramount. This article details areas where information and communication technology is used in nursing in Australia and discusses why nurses must be diligent in maintaining skills in this area to facilitate the delivery of safe, quality care in any healthcare setting. It will then discuss the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) skills, knowledge and understanding as an integral aspect of nursing programs in tertiary institutions. The challenge for training providers to prepare nurses for ever-changing ICT technology and technological applications in their workplace is highlighted.

Transformative teaching in nursing education: preparing for the possible

In these fractured and unsettling times, it is tempting to see nursing as a profession in crumbles. Many nurses are vocalising to media and to each other that they are overworked, underpaid, undervalued and intending to leave the system. Now more than ever, leaders, thinkers and change agents must organise themselves to restore life and vitality to the profession. Nursing educators are cornerstones in this restoration work, yet we too can at times feel overwhelmed and helpless to find engaging approaches to teaching nursing. This is the first of two papers, which argue that critical education is an illuminating philosophy for nursing. It can restore optimism and provide clear directions to assist neophytes and lifelong learners in nursing to become more self-confident, self-determining, optimistic, resistant and change oriented. In this article, the context for learning is considered, exploring transformative teaching as one choice among several learning models. The article offers strategies nurses may use to prepare a fertile ground for learning wherever that may be located.

Doing practice differently: solution-focused nursing

BACKGROUND

Critical thinking and reasoning take many forms; however, a problem-orientation remains the favoured approach in health care.

PURPOSE

This paper considers the effects of a problem-orientation and argues that a solution-orientation fits nursing's interests more closely and represents an exciting way forward in both education and practice.

DISCUSSION

Whilst a problem-focus is criticized by some, it remains largely unchallenged as the guiding light for nursing practice. A major reason is that the problem focused approach has strong cultural roots. It is deeply embedded in our thinking, and has become taken-for-granted and not often recognized or debated. Whilst problem-solving has an important place in helping to diagnose disorder and overcome difficulties, nursing needs to move beyond its borders because the role also concerns problem-free issues such as health and well-being. Creativity, imagination and focusing on strengths not problems are also important cognitive processes.

CONCLUSION

A problem-orientated approach in nursing has had a constraining rather than enabling influence. By refocusing on a solution-focused approach, we could show how we are different from medicine, and how we aim to do nursing differently through using skills such as engagement, resilience-building, community development, primary health care and health education.

Principles for curriculum development in Australian nursing: an examination of the literature

The teaching and learning environment involves a complex interplay of various elements, each of which has been the subject of much educational research. This paper uses a framework for understanding these teaching and learning elements and provides a review of relevant literature. This critical review provided a foundation and focus for the development of a new bachelor of nursing program within a School of Nursing in a Queensland University.

Critique of the graduate nurse: an international perspective

Differences of opinion exist between nurses 'in service' and nurses 'in education' in all Westernized democracies with respect to their expectations of new graduate and diplomate Registered Nurses (RNs). Nurses in service complain that graduates and diplomate RNs are inadequately prepared for service provision at time of graduation. They complain, in particular, that graduates and diplomats have insufficient clinical and patient management skills. In contrast, nurses in education claim to prepare 'beginning' rather than competent practitioners, who are critically reflective and committed to lifelong learning. They also complain that service colleagues could do more to ease the transition experiences of new RNs. These differing views, the conceptualizations of nurse education and the socioeconomic pressures which underpin them will be explored in this paper. It will be argued that more intersectoral collaboration in terms of both pre-registration and transition programmes could result in the graduates'/diplomates' expeditious acquisition of clinical and patient management skills.