Education Institutions In England Research Articles

Third year student nurses perceptions of the role and impact of Clinical Nurse Specialists: a multi-centred descriptive study

The United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS) has experienced a rapid expansion in the number of clinical nurse specialist (CNS) posts in the last two decades. Despite this, there is limited robust evidence that evaluates the role and impact that the CNS makes. Furthermore there is reportedly considerable confusion and inconsistency surrounding the titles, descriptions, qualifications and grading of CNS posts. It is against this background the findings from this multi-centre descriptive survey are presented which explored final year `soon to be qualified' student nurses' perceptions of the CNS role and the impact they had on care delivery and other members of the nursing team. A specially designed self report instrument was distributed to 269 student nurses undertaking pre-registration adult branch nurse education at three higher education institutions in England and Scotland. A response rate of 82% ( n=220) was obtained. The instrument contained a combination of open and closed questions. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS (v 11.0) and a thematic approach as described by Miles and Huberman (1994) was used to categorise responses to the open ended items. The results indicate that the students had encountered clinical nurse specialists during their education. The students ranked CNS' in the fields of diabetes, palliative care and acute pain as the most frequent recipient of patient referrals. The students recognised the added value brought to patient care by involvement of a CNS in care delivery and valued the CNS as a source of knowledge and support to both themselves and other staff. Students also identified a number of disadvantages associated with the CNS role. These included role conflict and potential for deskilling nurses fulfilling a generalist role. This paper will discuss the findings and offer possible explanations for the results.

Do they practise what we teach? A survey of manual handling practice amongst student nurses.

Experience of training students of nursing in manual handling suggested that they did not practise the techniques they had been taught. A search of the literature revealed that there was indeed a theory-practice gap. The aim of the project was to answer three questions: do students know what they should be doing, do they do what they should be doing, and if not, why not. A survey design was used, with questionnaires designed specifically for the study. Self report questionnaires were distributed to students of nursing (n = 148) on the adult branch in one higher education institution in England. One hundred and thirty-nine completed questionnaires were returned. Results showed that students' knowledge of whether particular techniques were 'recommended' was fair. They indicated however, that they were frequently unable to use recommended techniques in practice. The most frequent explanation given was the influence of other nurses. Results of this small study indicated that male students and younger students were more susceptible to socialization into poor ward practice than others. Other reasons for not using recommended techniques were unavailability of manual handling aids, lack of time and patient needs. The complexity of relationships within the nursing team emerged, with students ever aware of the impression they were making with regard to their assessment of practice, and their need to be accepted as a member of the team. Changes to training are suggested, to help reduce the theory-practice gap.

Seeing it from both sides: reasons for withdrawing from one-year secondary postgraduate certificate in education courses

Teacher recruitment and retention are a major concern. Recruitment to Postgraduate Certificate in Education courses (PGCE), whilst improving in some subject areas, remains problematic in others; potential teachers are leaving in larger numbers than has formerly been the case. Since 1996-97, initial teacher education providers have been losing about 11% of their intake when previously they had experienced an annual withdrawal rate of 5-6%. This article describes research funded by the Teacher Training Agency which examined the question of PGCE (secondary) student withdrawal from eight higher education institutions in England. Data were obtained from both the students and from the schools in which they were working at the time of withdrawal. The main findings relate to three major concerns: the mentor/student relationship, the workload expected of students and the image of the profession as perceived by the students in schools.

Pre-registration nurse education in pharmacology: is it adequate for the roles that nurses are expected to fulfil?

Nurse education has undergone many changes over the last 30 years in line with the changing expectations of the nurse's role. A review of the literature suggests that nurses are inadequately prepared for their role in medication administration. With the introduction of nurse prescribing, the issue of education in pharmacology is becoming increasingly important. This paper describes a study conducted via a questionnaire survey of all nurse education institutions in England. The aim of the survey was to identify current pharmacology education provided for pre-registration nurses, in terms of curriculum design and content, and also to elicit the personal opinions of those involved in the delivery of nurse education. The results support the notion that many nurses may be inadequately prepared for the role that they are expected to perform once qualified. The reasons for this appear to be complex, though they may include insufficient guidelines from the nursing regulatory bodies, local political difficulties and a lack of consistency between educational establishments.

Nurses’ educational preparation for a medication education role: findings from a national survey

Nurses have a potentially important contribution to make to educating patients about medications. This nursing role is likely to acquire increasing significance as the number of nurses independently prescribing medicines grows, in addition to those nurses occupying autonomous and extended roles that involve ongoing assessment and monitoring of patients’ medicine-taking behaviour. As part of a study1commissioned to evaluate nurses’ educational preparation for, and practice of, medication education, a national survey of nurse education institutions was undertaken. A postal questionnaire was distributed to identified individuals within 51 education institutions in England. Respondents were asked about a number of curriculum design and delivery factors related to subjects central to medication education: pharmacology, patient education and communication skills. Analysis highlighted a number of themes: the teaching of pharmacology is generally integrated within other curricular modules; respondents were dissatisfied with insufficient curricular time devoted to taught pharmacology; the importance of lecturers’ ability to apply theory to practice; a lack of clarity concerning pharmacology learning outcomes applied to medication education; and respondents’ perceptions that opportunities for integrating pharmacology knowledge, patient education and communication skills were available within practice settings. The significance and implications of the findings are discussed in the context of current educational policy.

'Walking the walk and talking the talk': Bodies, conversation, gender and power in higher education in England

Combinations of speaking, listening and bodily behaviour have been neglected in accounts of the operation of power. Although often described as fluid and interactionally produced, power has been the subject of few empirically based analyses at micro-interactional scales. Drawing on interviews with undergraduates and extracts from teaching interactions at higher education institutions in England, this article focuses on talk as a situated practice. It describes how verbal and bodily behaviours together are fundamentally involved in the enactment of instructor and student roles and power relations, and the collective interactional (re)production of teaching spaces. It discusses two broad types of teaching interaction in terms of gendered differences in the structure of talk, drawing attention to how these are shaped by differences in how instructors enact power. I suggest that men may routinely engage in conversations with 'feminine' structures in teaching spaces without this compromising heterosexual masculinity, and present reasons why it may be more likely that women be problematized for using 'masculine' verbal styles. I also argue that rather than simply being inscribed on to instructors' bodies in ways that accord with the hegemonic discourses of gender, authority and respect have to continually be earned from students, and verbal behaviour is deeply involved in this process. It is not enough to 'walk the walk', instructors must also 'talk the talk', in ways that students deem legitimate.

JSTOR: Large Scale Digitization of Journals in the United States

The JSTOR database now includes well over 2 million pages from 61 important journals in 13 academic disciplines. Additional journal content is being digitized at a rate of more than 100,000 pages per month. More than 320 libraries in the United States and Canada have become participating institutions, providing support for the creation, maintenance and growth of this database. Outside of North America, we have established a mirror site in the United Kingdom. Through a novel collaborative relationship with the Joint Information Systems Committee, the JSTOR database is now being made available to over 20 higher education institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from a mirror site at the University of Manchester. In addition, plans are underway to establish a second overseas mirror site in Budapest, Hungary to serve institutions in Eastern Europe and Russia. As each day passes, new opportunities are presented to us to extend the reach of this enterprise. It is an exciting and challenging time.

Non‐completion of Undergraduate Study: some implications for policy in higher education1

The extent to which students complete programmes of study, and the time that ‘computers’ take are two matters of concern to policy makers, not least because of their implications for the consumption of national resources. This paper draws upon a substantial study of non‐completion in the North West of England, which was commissioned to provide information that could be used to guide policy for the funding of higher education institutions in England, and discusses some of the implications of the findings. 1Revised version of a paper originally presented at the conference of the Consortium of Higher Education Researchers, Alicante, 18‐20 September 1997.

Pastoral Care in Initial Teacher Education: A Survey of Secondary Teacher Education Institutions

The study reported in this paper was undertaken to discover the extent of pastoral care training carried out during secondary initial teacher education. Questionnaires were sent to heads of initial teacher education institutions in England and Wales. It was found that institutions were likely to provide some form of training in pastoral care but the extent and method of training varied greatly between institutions. However, training in actual practical skills such as basic counselling skills was much less likely to be available. The authors conclude that there is still some considerable way to go before newly qualified teachers are likely to feel adequately prepared for their pastoral roles.

Could ‘Criteria’ used in Quality Assessments be Classified as Academic Standards?

AbstractThe Higher Education Funding Council for England was given responsibility by the government of the day for assessing the quality of higher education institutions in England. It decided to make subject areas the focus of these quality assessments, within an objectives‐based approach to assessment. Assessments are made by peer subject assessors during visits to institutions. The report postulates that criteria‘other’than the aims and objectives of the institutions and subjects areas were used in the assessments. An analysis was done of reports of the assessments done in 1993–94. The study identifies which criteria were used and argues that these could be labelled as academic standards.