Professional Nursing Education Research Articles

Credits granted for professional education of paramedics and nurses at at US colleges with paired programmes

Aims: To compare professional education requirements for Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Educations Programs (CAAHEP)-accredited community college paramedic programs and associate degree registered nurse programmes at the same institution. Methods: All CAAHEP-accredited community college paramedic programmes were identified from the CAAHEP website. The college website was visited to determine credits granted for paramedic professional education, followed by a search of the college website to determine if there was an associate degree registered nursing programme. If there was, the credits granted for registered nurse professional education was determined and the pair was recorded. Results: At the 259 community colleges in the United States that had both a CAAHEP-accredited paramedic and registered nursing education programme that were offered for college credit, paramedic professional education was granted more college credit than nursing professional education at the individual college level 81% of the time. At the national level, median (48 versus 40 college credits) of paramedic professional education exceeded associate degree registered nursing professional education by 20%. Conclusions: Professional education for paramedics is granted more college credit that the professional ed-ucation for associate degree registered nurses.

Escola de Enfermagem da Universidade de São Paulo: vestígios da história da profissionalização da Enfermagem no Brasil

his paper aims to describe and analyze the contributions of the School of Nursing, University of Sao Paulo (EEUSP) in the construction and consolidation of professional nursing in Brazil, since its inception in the early 1940s. This is a socio-historical study on the legacy of the pioneering leaders of Brazilian nursing (Edith de Magalhaes Fraenkel and Maria Rosa Sousa Pinheiro) and the examination of the latest contributions from other directors of EEUSP, with emphasis on the following themes: building of professional nursing, consolidation and strengthening of professional nursing education and nursing practices in Brazil. It sas outlined an itinerary of Brazilian nursing through the history of the professional life of Edith de Magalhaes Fraenkel and Maria Rosa Sousa Pinheiro, first and second directors of EEUSP. The contributions of EEUSP for the professionalization of Brazilian nursing were numerous, especially in nursing education at the undergraduate and graduate levels and to strengthening of nursing as a socially and politically relevant practice in the national and international scenes through research and academic production.

Length of professional education of paramedics and nurses at community colleges in the Northeast United States

Aim To determine if the professional bodies of knowledge of paramedics and nurses are roughly equivalent for each discipline at the point of primary licensure. Methods A list was compiled of all paramedic education programmes in the Northeast US states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Each programme was then surveyed to identify those institutions that offered college credit for their paramedic education programme and also had an associate's degree nursing programme. Northeast paramedic education programmes that were not accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs were then identified that offered college credit for their paramedic education programme and also had an associate's degree nursing programme. Results In total, 23 colleges in the Northeast United States had both paramedic and registered nursing education programmes offered for college credit. Paramedic education required a mean of 41 credits compared to a mean of 37 credits for nursing education. Conclusions While paramedics are less likely to have a college degree than registered nurses, their specific professional education programmes are equivalent. Further research is required to establish if the paramedic body of knowledge is both deep and complex enough that it is unsafe for non-paramedic registered nurses to be functioning in the pre-hospital environment.

Length of professional education of paramedics and nurses at community colleges in the Northeast United States

Aim: To determine if the professional bodies of knowledge of paramedics and nurses are roughly equivalent for each discipline at the point of primary licensure. Methods: A list was compiled of all paramedic education programmes in the Northeast US states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Each programme was then surveyed to identify those institutions that offered college credit for their paramedic education programme and also had an associate's degree nursing programme. Northeast paramedic education programmes that were not accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs were then identified that offered college credit for their paramedic education programme and also had an associate's degree nursing programme. Results: In total, 23 colleges in the Northeast United States had both paramedic and registered nursing education programmes offered for college credit. Paramedic education required a mean of 41 credits compared to a mean of 37 credits for nursing education. Conclusions: While paramedics are less likely to have a college degree than registered nurses, their specific professional education programmes are equivalent. Further research is required to establish if the paramedic body of knowledge is both deep and complex enough that it is unsafe for non-paramedic registered nurses to be functioning in the pre-hospital environment.

Model of Caring Behavior Improvement to Achieve the Competence in Critical Care Nursing

Introduction: Nursing students need to build their capacity to understand and learn the form of caring of a professional nurse from a different point of view and apply the acquired knowledge into nursing practice. The purpose of the present study was to develop a model of caring behavior improvement in students of professional nursing education program in order to achieve students’ nursing care competence. Method: The present study used the explanatory survey and pre-experimental research design. Samples were students practicing in the ICU. Independent variables were attitude, personality, motivation and job design. Dependent variables were students’ caring behaviors and competence. Instruments used were a questionnaire for the independent variables and an observation sheet for the dependent variables. Data were analyzed using the Partial Least Square method. Result: Results showed that the loading factor of attitudes, personality, motivation, and job design against students’ caring behavior was > 1.96. The loading factor of students’ caring behaviors against the achievement of students’ competence was > 1.96. There were effects of attitude, personality, motivation and job design on students’ caring behaviors. Additionally, there was a signifi cant effect of caring behaviors on the achievement of student competence. Discussion: students’ attitudes, personality, motivation and job design would affect the shaping of students’ caring behaviors. Students’ caring behaviors would affect the achievement of student competence.Keywords: Caring behaviors, competence, ICU

Model of Caring Behavior Improvement to Achieve the Competence in Critical Care Nursing

Introduction: Nursing students need to build their capacity to understand and learn the form of caring of a professional nurse from a different point of view and apply the acquired knowledge into nursing practice. The purpose of the present study was to develop a model of caring behavior improvement in students of professional nursing education program in order to achieve students’ nursing care competence.Methods: The present study used the explanatory survey and pre-experimental research design. Samples were students practicing in the ICU. Independent variables were attitude, personality, motivation and job design. Dependent variables were students’ caring behaviors and competence. Instruments used were a questionnaire for the independent variables and an observation sheet for the dependent variables. Data were analyzed using the Partial Least Square method.Results: Results showed that the loading factor of attitudes, personality, motivation, and job design against students’ caring behavior was > 1.96. The loading factor of students’ caring behaviors against the achievement of students’ competence was > 1.96. There were effects of attitude, personality, motivation and job design on students’ caring behaviors. Additionally, there was a signifi cant effect of caring behaviors on the achievement of student competence.Conclusion: students’ attitudes, personality, motivation and job design would affect the shaping of students’ caring behaviors. Students’ caring behaviors would affect the achievement of student competence.

Becoming a mental health nurse; A three year longitudinal study

This longitudinal case series study explores how students’ conceptions of ‘mental health nursing’ changed whilst on a three-year pre-registration Mental Health Nursing programme. The study was carried out in two university nursing schools in the South East of England and this paper reports a detailed analysis of 6 individual case studies. The researchers utilised Novak’s approach to concept mapping to elicit students’ personal knowledge structures, which were explored further using semi-structured individual qualitative interviews. The maps were analysed by looking at their gross morphology to interpret changes over time into types of learning achieved and the associated interview data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Results from analysis of the map structures suggest that whilst four of the selected students learned deeply, one participant learned superficially and one appeared not to learn at all. The associated interview data provides an interesting insight into the students’ reflective narratives on the process of learning. The findings also demonstrate further evidence of the practicability of using Novakian concept maps to self-prompt qualitative research interviews. Implications for the professional education of Mental Health Nurses are discussed.

A core curriculum for the continuing professional development of nurses: Developed by the Education Committee on behalf of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions of the ESC.

The European Society of Cardiology and the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions share a vision; to decrease the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe. Nurses represent the largest sector of the health professional workforce and have a significant contribution to make, which has not yet been fully realised. Recent evidence highlights an association between the level of nurse education and inpatient mortality making this an important topic, particularly as the provision of nurse education in Europe is variable. To develop a core curriculum to inform the education of nurses following initial qualification for work in cardiovascular settings. A syllabus was developed using published literature, policy documents and existing curricula with expert input from service users, specialist nurses, cardiologists, educationalists and academics. The syllabus formed the framework for the development of the core curriculum. Eight key themes characterise the core curriculum which are presented together with an account of the development process. While the curriculum is not intended to cover all aspects of the highly complex role of the cardiovascular nurse, the themes do exemplify the science and art of nursing and are transferable across different levels of clinical practice and settings. The curriculum functions both as a 'map', which identifies key themes to include in nurse education, and as a 'tool' to inform educational provision that bridges' the gap between initial nurse education and advanced specialist practice. Content can be adapted for use to fit the national context and reflects the specific needs, health priorities, legislative and regulatory standards that govern safe nursing practice across different countries. The core curriculum can be used as a learning framework to guide nurse education, in particular the continuing professional education of post-qualifying nurses working in cardiovascular settings. This represents a significant step towards streamlining cardiovascular nurse education in Europe.

Актуальные вопросы дополнительного профессионального образования по косметологии

The article highlights the current state and problems of vocational health professional education of physicians and nurses in the specialty «cosmetology». Legal documents: orders, instructions, regulations on the activities of medical practitioners and nurses in the specialty «cosmetology» are described. The authors noted that
 availability of qualified staff, regularly and systematically improving their professional skills, not only the student´s individual technologies, largely determines the quality and safety of services provided on cosmetology. The authors believe that cosmetologist must have higher professional education in one of the specialties: «General medicine», «Pediatrics», he should complete his residency training on the specialty «Cosmetology» or to complete a professional retraining on specialization «Cosmetology» in the presence of higher education on the specialty «Dermatovenereology». During labour activity a doctor is obliged to obtain additional professional education at least once in five years, what determines the quality of his activities.The authors note, there are the need for greater involvement in the training
 of private health organizations, which have modern material and technical base and highly qualified personnel.

Tecnologias educacionais digitais para educação profissional de nível médio em enfermagem

The current study identifies what has been produced in literature regarding the use of digital educational technology for professional nursing education at the high-school level. An integrative literature review was carried out using the descriptors “Computer Assisted Instruction,” “Software,” “Educational Technology,” “Professional Education” and “Nursing,” published between 2000 and 2013. We found 99 publications, out of which 08 were analyzed. We observed that technological development has also been incorporated into nursing education, predominantly in contents regarding technical care and the use of simulations. However these were examined out of the context of their application. We also observed a gap in research about reflective education, despite the fact that a large contingent of nursing professionals is made up of assistants/technicians. The development of digital educational technology is considered a contributing factor towards professional nursing education at the high-school level, according to pedagogical principles of Brazilian curriculum guidelines and health policies.doi: 10.5216/ree.v16i2.21587.

Perspectives on good preceptorship

Background: Clinical education is an essential part of the Bachelor’s program in Nursing and a keystone of professional nursing education. Through clinical experiences, the student nurses acquire nursing knowledge and essential skills for professional practice. The preceptor plays a vital role in the development of student nurses becoming professional nurses. Aim: The aim of this Nordic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of good preceptorship in relation to undergraduate student nurses in clinical education from the perspective of the preceptors themselves. Method: Data were collected by narrative interviews with 27 preceptors in Finland and Sweden and analyzed using a hermeneutical approach. Findings: A caring relationship, based on caring ethics, is seen as the foundation for learning and development. Moreover, a mutual respect is a prerequisite for fellowship and a good atmosphere. As such, encounters are characterized by reciprocity and mutuality. The preceptors have a deep sense of responsibility toward the students and the profession. Furthermore, the preceptors have an inner responsibility to guide the students into working life and to share their knowledge by acting as role models. Conclusion: The findings suggest that preceptorship should be examined through new lenses. Moreover, preceptorship is an ethical issue that should be recognized by all stakeholders.

Communities of practice, a phenomenon to explain student development in community nursing

To explore practice teachers understanding of the process of professional education experienced by community nursing students. This paper analyses the concepts of situated learning and communities of practice as an underpinning theoretical framework to understand the professional education of community nurses in practice settings. The paper also highlights the strengths and limitations of the community of practice theory as applied to professional education. A qualitative grounded theory study was undertaken involving interviews with 30 community nurse practice teachers. Emerging from the data were the central components of Lave and Wenger's theory of communities of practice. The practice teachers appeared to use these components including legitimate peripheral participation, sponsorship and journeying to good effect in facilitating the development of community nurse students. The paper extends Lave and Wenger's community of practice phenomenon and identifies how communities are (re)produced over time. The development of professional practitioners over a lengthy period of time within supportive communities of practice where one person with expertise in professional education sponsors the student and takes responsibility for their journey was perceived by practice teachers to be an important and appropriate approach. An approach that was found by practice teachers to transform the student's professional identity, enabling them to undertake a complex multifaceted role using a holistic, problem solving and participative style with clients and communities. It is also an approach that was hypothesised to allow the profession itself to (re)produce in a way that supports continuity but also promotes changes in practice.

History of bioethics in professional nursing education: a spanish view

La ensenanza y la profesion de enfermeria deben ir de la mano para enfatizar la mejora del conocimiento en deontologia y la toma de decisiones eticas y profesionales. La profesion de enfermeria en Espana ha luchado por tener su propia legislacion profesional, asi como un codigo etico. Para la practica de enfermeria, es evidente que la educacion en etica debe tener una gran importancia y debe ser un componente integral de la educacion en enfermeria universitaria. Las escuelas de enfermeria deben tratar de establecer programas que integren de forma efectiva las humanidades con los aspectos biotecnologicos propios de la profesion, y definir estrategias de seguimiento y formacion continua para los profesionales egresados.

A Global Service-Learning Experience for Nursing Students in Tanzania: A Model for Collaboration

This article addresses a model for creating a short-term global service-learning program. The Global Standards for the Initial Education of Professional Nurses and Midwives guided the development of a collaborative program involving a school of nursing in the Midwestern United States and one in Tanzania. Evaluation of the school of nursing and subsequent collaborative planning led to development and implementation of a 3-week global service-learning experience for nursing students. International academic partnerships, developed in accordance with WHO standards, will enhance educational experiences for nursing students both in the United States and abroad.

Challenges for nursing education in Angola: the perception of nurse leaders affiliated with professional education institutions

BackgroundAngola is one of the African countries with the highest morbidity and mortality rates and a devastating lack of human resources for health, including nursing. The World Health Organization stimulates and takes technical cooperation initiatives for human resource education and training in health and education, with a view to the development of countries in the region. The aim in this study was to identify how nurses affiliated with nursing education institutions perceive the challenges nursing education is facing in Angola.MethodsAfter consulting the National Directory of Human Resources in Angola, the nurse leaders affiliated with professional nursing education institutions in Angola were invited to participate in the study by email. Data were collected in February 2009 through the focus group technique. The group of participants was focused on the central question: what are the challenges faced for nursing education in your country? To register and understand the information, besides the use of a recorder, the reporters elaborated an interpretative report. Data were coded using content analysis.ResultsFourteen nurses participated in the meeting, most of whom were affiliated with technical nursing education institutions. It was verified that the nurse leaders at technical and higher nursing education institutions in Angola face many challenges, mainly related to the lack of infrastructure, absence of trained human resources, bureaucratic problems to regularize the schools and lack of material resources. On the opposite, the solutions they present are predominantly centered on the valuation of nursing professionals, which implies cultural and attitude changes.ConclusionsPublic health education policies need to be established in Angola, including action guidelines that permit effective nursing activities. Professional education institutions need further regularizations and nurses need to be acknowledged as key elements for the qualitative enhancement of health services in the country.

Study on nurses' will to perform living nursing against the background of quality nursing service

Objective To investigate nurses' will to perform living nursing against quality nursing service background and relevant factors,so as to provide references for better implementing of living nursing.Methods Totals of 520 clinical nurses were selected by convenience sampling from 2 Grade Ⅲ-A hospitals and 2 Grade Ⅱ-A hospitals and investigated with questionnaire on their will to perform living nursing and their cognition of living nursing in quality nursing service,and the influencing factors were also analyzed.Results 89.04％ of the nurses agreed that living nursing was the most basic physiological needs of the patients,86.53％ nurses believed that there was not enough time for better implementation of living nursing because of arduous treatment and manpower shortage,and 60.58％ nurses felt degrading while performing living nursing.Nurses'.will to perform living nursing was affected by the level of the hospital,their educational level,gender,employment type and length of service,and the differences were all statistically significant (t/F =3.16,2.83,3.73,2.99,3.63,respectively;P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Hospitals should strengthen professional education for nurses and help them to overcome traditional prejudices.Meanwhile pay for equal work as well as reasonable incentive mechanism should be applied to fully stimulate enthusiasm of employed nurses. Key words: Nurse ; Data collection; Quality nursing service ; Living nursing; Will

Educational Strategies to Promote Professional Nursing in Long-Term Care: An Integrative Review

This integrative review investigates various strategies in professional nursing education that facilitate positive attitudes toward working with older adults in long-term care (LTC) environments, including nursing homes. Nine studies contained strategies that increased positive attitudes of nurses towards older adults. The barrier most frequently identified is lack of gerontological knowledge by faculty and students, suggesting increased knowledge in faculty may ensure that older adults receive quality care. Early introduction of students to people who are aging successfully may dispel bias against older adults. Lack of current nursing role models in LTC settings may reinforce negative stereotypes.

Reforming Nurses: Historicizing the Carnegie Foundation’s Report on Educating Nurses

Certainly no form of education can make for thoroughness or can fully fit for business of life that does not recognize an equal training in this trinity-mind, body, and soul.-Isabel Hampton Robb, 19031In 2009, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published the long awaited Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation. In keeping with several other recent studies of the education of lawyers, clergy, engineers, and physicians, also funded by the Carnegie Foundation, Educating Nurses surveys existing systems of professional nursing education and identifies areas for development.2Educating Nurses calls for a complete restructuring of nurse education in the United States. The study's author and lead researcher, Patricia Benner, found current nursing education practices inadequate to meet the growing demands of clinical practice.3 Nurses now work with increasingly complex patient scenarios, rapidly changing technology, and in environments pressed by external changes.4 Multiple educational routes into professional nursing practice complicate the problem. Nurses prepared at the diploma, associate, and bachelor levels are all eligible for Registered Nurse licensure. The study calls for nurses to be educated at the bachelor level, recommending that many practicing nurses return to school and pursue a bachelor's degree through well- designed and supported articulation programs.However, Benner argues, before the current nursing educational system can be restructured, educators must understand the goal of nursing education. Drawing heavily on the foundation's own A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice, Benner concurs that future professionals need to meet practical and professional challenges with what the foundation identifies as insight, technical and discerning moral comportment.5 Benner transforms these concepts into the three domains that should characterize professional nursing education and practice: knowledge, skill know-how, and ethical comportment.6 Nursing educators who embrace these conceptual domains, or and challenge their students to integrate all three in practice, Benner argues, will adequately prepare their students for professional life after graduation.But Benner and her colleagues are not the first to theorize about transforming nurse education. From the time the first formal training schools appeared on the health care landscape in the late 1800s, nursing educators have grappled with the challenge of creating a uniformly educated workforce. In fact, more than a century before the Carnegie Foundation formulated its three apprenticeships, nursing educators and contributors to the earliest issues of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) acknowledged a similar educational triad essential to successful nursing education and practice. The language was different: Early 20th-century educators used words such as dexterity, and character. But the intent was similar. As Isabel Hampton Robb wrote in 1903, the great trinity-the mind, the body, and the soul-remains of central concern to nursing education and practice.7Despite decades of external change and transformation, the central domains of nursing education that nursing leaders envisioned at the turn of the 20th century remain impressively salient. There does seem to be a stable core of values and attributes that contribute to the development of a professional nurse, although how these might be expressed changes with the times, technology, and context. The similarities between Benner's apprenticeships and the objectives of nursing educators in the early 1900s give rise to several questions. In what ways did nursing educators establish the concepts of theory, manual skill, and moral character in nursing school curriculum? How did the curriculum in early training schools reflect their dedication to the domains of nursing practice and the elevation of the nursing profession? …

Professional values, self-esteem, and ethical confidence of baccalaureate nursing students

Professional identity and competent ethical behaviors of nursing students are commonly developed through curricular inclusion of professional nursing values education. Despite the enactment of this approach, nursing students continue to express difficulty in managing ethical conflicts encountered in their practice. This descriptive correlational study explores the relationships between professional nursing values, self-esteem, and ethical decision making among senior baccalaureate nursing students. A convenience sample of 47 senior nursing students from the United States were surveyed for their level of internalized professional nursing values (Revised Professional Nursing Values Scale), level of self-esteem (Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale), and perceived level of confidence in ethical decision making. A significant positive relationship (p < 0.05) was found between nursing students' professional nursing values and levels of self-esteem. The results of this study can be useful to nursing educators whose efforts are focused on promoting professional identity development and competent ethical behaviors of future nurses.

Nursing Role Implications for Family Caregiving

To describe the clinical, education, and research roles of professional nurses caring for family caregivers. DATA SCORES: Review of literature and Websites on the professional nursing role and family caregivers. The growing number of family caregivers of cancer patients will need education and support. The professional oncology nurse is best suited to assess, teach, and support these family caregivers, as well as contribute to the evidence base of these areas of practice. Professional nurses caring for oncology patients need to expand their role to include additional support and education of family caregivers.