A model to support nursing students with dyslexia

Accommodating and supporting students with disability in the context of nursing clinical placements: A collaborative action research

AIM/OBJECTIVE

To examine issues and challenges encountered by university and clinical milieus in addressing the needs of students with disability during their clinical placements; and to identify existing or potential accommodation and support measures to address the challenges encountered.

BACKGROUND

The influx of students with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder [with or without hyperactivity], mental health disorders or on the autism spectrum has caused an increase in the number of students with disabilities of more than 900% in universities in the past decade. This increase is causing added pressures to both the academic services providing student assistance and the personnel responsible for these students' clinical placements. While several studies have focused on measures designed to accommodate students with disabilities during their theoretical courses, only a small number worldwide have focused on student accommodation and support in the context of clinical placements. In the current paper, strategies highlighted in these studies were grouped under three categories: prior, during and post clinical placements.

DESIGN

Collaborative action research conducted amidst three learning communities.

METHODS

The larger study included learning communities from three disciplines: education, social work and nursing. Three tools helped guide the discussions: 1) brainstorming and classification tool; 2) contribution and feasibility tool; and 3) carrousel tool. The current study focusses solely on the findings from the five meetings of the nursing learning community (n = 14 participants).

RESULTS

Six categories of challenges were documented: 1) Poor writing skills; 2) Difficulty adapting to clinical milieus; 3) Difficulty linking theory with practice and setting priorities; 4) Difficulty managing specific and situational needs; 5) Issues with interpersonal skills and overall attitude; and 6) Challenges pertaining to students' professional responsibility to disclose their condition. Several accommodation and support measures were identified for each set of challenges and were also grouped under three categories: prior, during and post clinical placements.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study revealed that the issues identified could in fact be faced by any students, albeit their impact and complexity increased considerably when dealing with students with disability. It brought to light that the implementation of some of the measures identified will require changes to the structure of nursing programs. It also highlighted the ever-growing complexity of the clinical instructor role and the fact that clinical instructors do not always feel adequately prepared to support students with disability.

Investigating Learning Challenges from the Perspective of Nursing Students and Educators at a University in Casablanca, Morocco

Background:

Whether in an academic or clinical setting, many students often consider nursing studies to be difficult. Identifying learning challenges could help to improve the quality of the training and students’ skills.

Objective:

This study aimed to identify the main learning challenges of nursing students.

Methods:

The study utilised a two-phase mixed methods design. First, a focus group discussion with nine teachers and tutors was conducted to explore the learning challenges observed by staff. Then, based on the results, a questionnaire was developed for 54 students to explore and estimate the frequency of learning challenges perceived by them.

Results:

The data analysis confirmed 15 major learning challenges, including cognitive challenges, consisting of theoretical gaps, and challenges related to clinical reasoning, and non-cognitive procedural and behavioural challenges. Challenges related to clinical reasoning, such as the difficulty in developing care plans (100%) and choosing care actions (90.2%), remain the most frequent regardless of the level of study.

Conclusion:

Supervisors should consider students’ learning challenges when designing, developing and implementing their educational interventions.

How does dyslexia impact on the educational experiences of healthcare students? A qualitative study

AIMS

To explore the impact of dyslexia on the educational experiences of undergraduate students in medicine, dentistry, dental therapy and biomedical sciences.

METHODS

It was a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. The study was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at a University in the South West region of the United Kingdom. Purposive sampling was used, and the participants included undergraduate students from the schools of medicine, dentistry and biomedical sciences.

RESULTS

The sample consisted of fifteen undergraduate students including five from medicine; four from dentistry; three from dental therapy; and three from biomedical sciences. All students had a formal diagnosis of Dyslexia. The students shared their views and experiences regarding disclosure, transition into the university, learning environments, assessments and challenges after graduation.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to explore the impact of dyslexia on the educational experiences of healthcare students from multiple programmes in a variety of educational settings. The findings show that the students were confident regarding disclosure of their dyslexia and had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia established during their school years. Although the participants experienced typical academic difficulties associated with dyslexia, problem-based learning (PBL) was perceived to be enjoyable and less stressful than traditional lectures and no specific challenges were reported in acquisition of clinical, communication and team-working skills.

Clinical education of nursing students with learning difficulties: An integrative review (part 1)

Schools of Nursing have witnessed an increase in the number of nursing students who struggle with learning difficulties. Support and accommodations are available in academic settings. Because nursing is a practice profession students also learn in clinical settings, which may not have similar support and accommodations. The compatibility of the clinical setting for the education of students with learning difficulties has not been studied. Staff nurses responsible for the clinical education of students and new nurses receive little preparation for their role as educator, and may not feel supported to meet the needs of those with learning difficulties. This is part one in a series of articles about the clinical education of nursing students with learning difficulties. This paper provides a framework and literature review for the development of a study (part 2) exploring the issue from the perspective of the nurse preceptors who educate students and new graduates with learning difficulties.

Widening participation in nurse education: An integrative literature review

BACKGROUND

Widening participation into higher education is espoused within educational policy in the UK, and internationally, as a mechanism to promote equality and social mobility. As nurse education is located within higher education it has a responsibility to promote widening participation within pre-registration educational programmes. It could also be argued that the profession has a responsibility to promote equality to ensure its' workforce is as diverse as possible in order to best address the health needs of diverse populations.

OBJECTIVES

To undertake an integrative review on published papers exploring Widening Participation in undergraduate, pre-registration nurse education in the UK.

DESIGN

A six step integrative review methodology was utilised, reviewing papers published in English from 2013-2016.

DATA SOURCES

Search of CINAHL, Education Source, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, SocINDEX, Science Direct, Business Source Complete, ERIC, British Library ETOS, Teacher Reference Centre, Informit Health Collection and Informit Humanities and Social Science Collection which highlighted 449 citations; from these 14 papers met the review inclusion criteria.

REVIEW METHODS

Both empirical studies and editorials focusing upon widening participation in pre-registration nurse education in the UK (2013-2016) were included. Papers excluded were non UK papers or papers not focussed upon widening participation in pre-registration nursing education. Research papers included in the review were assessed for quality using appropriate critical appraisal tools.

RESULTS

14 papers were included in the review; these were analysed thematically identifying four themes; knowledge and identification of WP, pedagogy and WP, attrition and retention and career prospects.

CONCLUSIONS

Whilst widening participation is a key issue for both nurse education and the wider profession there is a lack of conceptualisation and focus regarding mechanisms to both encourage and support a wider diversity of entrant. Whilst there are some studies, these focus on particular individual widening participation groups rather than a wider strategic focus across the student lifecycle.