Abstract
Background: The most recent nursing home regulations indicate that nurses must possess the skills sets needed to properly provide residents’ care (“Reform of Requirements,” 2016). Nursing home directors of nursing (DONs) frequently meet the requirement to train their nurses using online continuing education programs. However, the hands-on practice of fundamental clinical nursing skills necessary to maintain proficiency cannot be accomplished with this method. Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether an educational intervention including hands-on practice of two clinical skills would improve the skills proficiency of nursing home nurses. Method: The study used a pretest-posttest design with skills fair-style educational intervention for nursing home nurses recruited from two nursing homes. The pretest and posttest each included a multiple-choice quiz and hands-on demonstrations of two different clinical skills. Statistical analysis using paired t-tests showed significantly improved skills proficiency for the participating nurses following the educational intervention with hands-on practice of the two clinical skills. Findings: The findings suggest that nursing home DONs should consider educational interventions that include hands-on practice to maintain clinical skills proficiency.
Highlights
In the years since the Institute of Medicine published two landmark reports on the status of healthcare in the United States, much emphasis has been placed on prevention of infection and decreasing the number of hospital readmissions (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000; Institute of Medicine, 2001)
Urinary catheterization and medication administration and nourishment via gastrostomy tubes were the skills chosen as representative of fundamental clinical skills for this project
The hypothesis for this scholarly project was that the clinical skills proficiency of nursing home nurses would improve following an educational intervention emphasizing the hands-on practice of two clinical skills in a school of nursing lab
Summary
The most recent nursing home regulations indicate that nurses must possess the skills sets needed to properly provide residents’ care (“Reform of Requirements,” 2016). The hands-on practice of fundamental clinical nursing skills necessary to maintain proficiency cannot be accomplished with this method. Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether an educational intervention including hands-on practice of two clinical skills would improve the skills proficiency of nursing home nurses. Statistical analysis using paired t-tests showed significantly improved skills proficiency for the participating nurses following the educational intervention with hands-on practice of the two clinical skills. Findings: The findings suggest that nursing home DONs should consider educational interventions that include hands-on practice to maintain clinical skills proficiency. Little literature was found, other than nursing education texts, which discussed collective clinical skills or that used the term proficiency. For purposes of this project, the term proficiency was used when discussing the changes in the performance of the two clinical skills chosen for this project
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
