Senior-level Students Research Articles

Reliability and benefits of medical student peers in rating complex clinical skills

Background: Peers have been shown to be reliable raters in an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). While the literature supports the use of senior level students in rating basic clinical skills, little is known about the reliability of peers of the same level of training in assessing complex clinical skills.Aim: To investigate the reliability of student peers of the same level of training in rating complex clinical skills in a geriatric OSCE.Methods: Peer (n = 115) ratings were compared to faculty ratings using correlation and generalizability analysis. Paired Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used to establish peer learning benefits.Results: Reliability of the OSCE was moderately strong (G-coefficient = 0.70) with strong correlations between peer and faculty ratings for the overall OSCE (r = 0.78, p = 0.001) and for each case (r = 0.70–0.85, p = 0.001). Generalizability analysis indicated that raters contributed minimally to score variance. Peers reported gaining learning benefits from the rating process.Conclusion: Peer raters of the same level of training can provide accurate ratings of complex clinical tasks and can serve as an important resource in assessing student performance in an OSCE. The peer review process can also serve an important role in enhancing student learning.

Benefits and Challenges Encountered by Working Students

The purpose of this study was to determine both the positive and negative aspects of work experiences impacting hospitality students while completing their academic degrees. A nationwide sample of senior-level hospitality students and hospitality graduates from 31 leading programs participated in this survey research. The students and graduates identified their educational experiences and common types of work experiences, as well as the impact of these experiences on their academic performance, advancement expectations, and career preparation. Statistically significant differences were found between students and graduates, providing a foundation for understanding overall work experiences and the benefits and challenges faced by students.

Students’ Ability to Communicate a Critical Situation After Implementation of ISBARR in an Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum

Effective communication has been identified as a key factor in maintaining patient safety, promoting a professional attitude, and facilitating collaboration between health care professionals. This study evaluated whether the implementation of ISBARR (I=Identify Self, S=Situation, B=Background, R=Recommendations, R=Read Back Orders) into the curriculum improved nursing students’ ability to give a critical situation report. A sample of senior level students watched a videotaped critical situation and then gave an audiotaped ISBARR report. There were no significant differences in students’ ability to give an ISBARR report following implementation of ISBARR into the curriculum. There was a moderate correlation of ISBARR scores with grade point average (GPA). Students with higher GPAs did better in communicating a critical situation. As with any change, implementation of ISBARR into the curriculum will take time to be fully integrated. The true impact on student outcomes and performance may not be apparent for a number of years.

Peer-to-Peer Teaching: Improving Communication Techniques for Students in an Accelerated Nursing Program

For nurses, effective communication skills are essential components for the delivery of patient-centered care and the development of positive working relationships. Although communication is an essential skill in health care (McCabe, 2004; McGilton, Irwin-Robinson, Boscart, & Spanjevic, 2006), it has been suggested that schools of nursing do not properly address communication skills (Rosenzweig et al., 2008). Students require practice in therapeutic communication prior to entering the patient care setting (Zavermik, Huff, & Munro, 2010). Sprengel and Job (2004), acknowledging the anxiety of new nursing students, recommended peer mentoring as a way to help students socialize into the rigor of nursing school while developing skills and attitudes essential to nurses. In this accelerated baccalaureate program at an academic health center in the Southeast, therapeutic communication is taught to incoming juniors during the summer session, introducing a new language and a new set of skills. Despite weekly lab sessions designed to help students implement content taught in the classroom, faculty observed that junior students seemed overwhelmed as they transitioned into the nursing program and had difficulty organizing interviews and obtaining accurate health history information. A peer-to-peer communication exercise, led by more experienced senior students, was seen as a way to enhance learning and increase student confidence and perceived competence in interviewing and therapeutic communication. Senior-level students in the program begin their mental health nursing course during the summer semester. This course begins with a review of therapeutic communication techniques, providing an opportunity for a merged experience with juniors. McKenna and French (2011) indicated that students participating in a peer teaching project reported increased confidence in their knowledge and teaching abilities as well as greater perceived competence in interviewing and therapeutic communication skills. Bensfield, Solari-Twadell, and Sommer (2008) documented benefits for upper-level students, including increased confidence in the clinical nursing role and enhanced interpersonal skills. METHOD As part of their clinical requirement, 21 seniors in the mental health nursing course were assigned to participate with 109 juniors in three health assessment lab sessions on interviewing for a health history. The seniors were credited with four and one half clock hours for preparing and participating in the health history interview sessions. Their objectives were to: a) promote learning in a nonthreatening environment, b) foster peer-to-peer relationships to model professional behaviors, and c) enhance health history interview techniques of juniors, while developing confidence and perceived competence in communication techniques. The project was described in detail to the seniors, who met twice with the nursing laboratory director to review learning objectives for both levels and their own responsibilities. The senior-level nursing students prepared two demonstration health history interviews according to the stated guidelines, as well as questions to ask following the interviews. They were to use and identify open-ended, closed-ended, and directive questioning; communication enhancement and diminishment techniques; and strategies for managing awkward moments in an interview. They were to prompt junior students as needed and provide time management for the group process. Instructions for the project, as well as the assessment form to be used by the juniors for interviews, were placed on the e-learning course management system used by the school of nursing. Seniors began the lab sessions by presenting a role-play interview and explaining the techniques used throughout the interview. A large-group debriefing session, led by the faculty facilitators, allowed students to reflect on the interview process and what was learned. …

Integrated Learning Through Student Goal Development

New strategies are emerging to promote structure and increase learning in the clinical setting. Nursing faculty designed a mechanism by which integrative learning and situated coaching could occur more readily in the clinical setting. The Clinical Goals Initiative was implemented for sophomore-, junior-, and senior-level students in their clinical practicums. Students developed weekly goals reflecting three domains of professional nursing practice. Goals were shared with faculty and staff nurse mentors at the beginning of the clinical day to help guide students and mentors with planning for learning experiences. After 6 weeks, faculty and students were surveyed to evaluate project effectiveness. Faculty indicated that goal development facilitated clinical learning by providing more student engagement, direction, and focus. Students reported that goal development allowed them to optimize clinical learning opportunities and track their growth and progress. Faculty and students indicated the goals promoted student self-learning, autonomy, and student communication with nurse mentors and faculty.

Interprofessional Education: Fad or Imperative

Interprofessional Education: Fad or Imperative

Report on the impact of cultural diversity in simulation for nursing students engaged in immersion experiences in global settings

Nursing students in the US are under increasing pressure to be equipped with appropriate knowledge and skills to meet an increasingly diverse American population. In order to meet this challenge, The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has charged nursing educators to incorporate cultural competence into nursing curriculums. Simulation scenarios focusing on assessment, including communication with clients from diverse cultures is a method to help students begin to practice safe nursing in a controlled environment. Nursing students in a baccalaureate program in the Midwest participated in scenarios designed to heighten their awareness of clues in the environment in order to interact with clients from different cultural backgrounds. The scenarios provided artifacts such as items of clothing, prayer rug, and statues that were consistent with specific cultures and helped direct the students to identify the need for an interpreter. Eighteen senior level students in the BSN program enrolled in an elective as part of an immersion experience in countries outside of the US. These students gained a better appreciation of the importance of obtaining culturally appropriate assessments in order to provide culturally competent care as evidenced by comments in their reflective journals.

Precursors of Professionalism in Senior-Level Undergraduate Business Students and the Implications of These Precursors for Business Education and the Profession

Understanding the professional identity of senior-level undergraduate business students may shed light on the rampant unethical acts of business managers in industry. Business education is the largest segment of undergraduate majors, constituting more than 20% of students in four-year institutions, year after year. To explain the professional identity of business students, this study uses prior theoretical frameworks to model the precursors of professionalism — “autonomy of judgment,” “desire for expertise,” “self-concept,” and “social agency.” This study uses data from the College Senior Survey (CSS) collected by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA for two academic years 2006-2008.

Exploring Baccalaureate Social Work Students' Self-Efficacy: Did it Change over Time?

This study explored baccalaureate social work students' self-efficacy at a rural southern university. Bandura's concept of self-efficacy is used as a theoretical base for the study. Students (N = 43) in introductory social work courses and in the field practicum course completed the Foundation Practice Self Efficacy Scale. Following The Council on Social Work Educations 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, which recognizes field education as the signature pedagogy of social work education, field students were hypothesized to have higher levels of self-reported self-efficacy than entry-level students. Results suggest that senior level students were more confident in their abilities to practice social work than those students enrolled in an introductory social work course. Implications of this research for social work education are discussed, including the value of using self-efficacy scales in evaluating social work educational program outcomes.

InnovationCENTER: Nursing Students and End-of-Life Care:A Play

Care providers often do not know what to say or how to act with patients who are dying. They may cope with their uncertainties by avoiding patients and failing to provide adequate physical and emotional care (Ferrell, Virani, Grant, Coyne, & Uman, 2000). Many do not feel they have been adequately trained for end-of-life (EOL) situations (Cohen, 2001; Deeny, Johnson, Boore, Leyden & McGaughan, 2001; Main, 2002), and lack of experience in caring for clients who are dying intensifies the problem (Main; Weigel, Parker, Fanning, Reyna & Gasbarra, 2007). Of all the health care professions, nurses are most likely to spend the last hours of life with hospitalized individuals. However, few nursing students are prepared to care for dying patients (Al-Sabwah & Abdel-Khalek, 2005-2006). Wass (2004) reports that less than a fifth of students in the health professions are offered a full course on (p. 297). Data from an international sample of nursing students showed that caring for dying patients and watching patients suffer were among their top five stressors (Burnard et al., 2008). Some of that stress may be due to the fact that hospitals are not designed to facilitate a peaceful, comfortable dying experience. There may be no private spaces for family members to grieve; resources may not be expended to support family members during the dying process; and the nurse/patient ratio may be too high to allow nurses to spend time with dying patients and their families (Heaston, Beckstrand, Bond, & Palmer, 2006). To better prepare senior-level undergraduates for the complexities of EOL care, nurse faculty at the University of Kentucky developed a play that models best nursing practice for this specialty. Although a three-credit elective course on death and dying is offered at the university, few undergraduates take the course. Students have a one-day home hospice clinical visit and occasionally have the opportunity to care for a dying patient during clinical rotations. The project described in this article was developed to respond to the needs of senior nursing students whose journals, kept during their clinically focused capstone course, frequently reflect concerns about caring for dying patients and their families. Approximately 45 to 48 senior nursing students participate in this learning activity each semester as part of their course work in the Synthesis (clinical capstone) course. Background Social cognitive theorists believe that much of human behavior is learned by observing, retaining, and reproducing the modeled behaviors of others (Bandura, 1997). Role playing and theater techniques have been employed to teach genetics (Newcomb & Riddlesperger, 2007), improve interdisciplinary communication skills (Cartright, 2007), and review principles of oncology (Wilkinson, Leliopoulou, Gambles, & Roberts, 2003) to nursing and other health care professionals during career development. Drama is also a mechanism for modeling behavior. Deeny et al. (2001) describe drama as a mechanism that enables students to better understand the feelings of others and empathize with them, and develop new approaches to challenging situations. Given the potential for drama to educate nursing students about the emotional aspects of death and dying, faculty wrote a play, Dilemma, for implementation with senior-level students. Each semester, faculty and staff in the college of nursing are recruited to depict various roles in the play. (See Sidebar 1.) Terry's Dilemma In order to realistically portray a near-death scene, the production is performed in a nursing laboratory with access to monitors. While a formalized script has not been developed, descriptors of emotions and physical symptoms commonly experienced at the end of life are given to each volunteer. (See Sidebar 2.) Actors select the emotions and symptoms that fit with their personalities and experiences. …

Emerging entrepreneurship in Cuba

Subject area Entrepreneurship; tourism and hospitality. Study level/applicability Junior or senior-level business students as well as graduate-level (MBA and/or EMBA) classes in entrepreneurship, small business management, strategic management, international business or international economics. Case overview Cuban tour guides working for the communist Castro Government dream of working for themselves or leaving for the USA. Their story is contrasted by a visit to Cuba as told by a US business professor. Expected learning outcomes To compare entrepreneurship under capitalism that is slowly relaxing their communistic rules, to learn more about the island of Cuba and its potential for tourism and new venture creation, to understand the legal, social, political, historical and cultural barriers to entrepreneurship, to hypothesize or brainstorm potential new ventures for Cuba. Supplementary materials Teaching notes; photos also available upon request from the author.

Determinants of Pre-Service Students’ Choice to Teach Secondary Agricultural Education

The purpose of this study was to explain and predict the factors that influence senior-level agricultural education students’ choice to become a secondary agriculture teacher. The study focused on the extent to which beliefs and attitudes toward teaching influenced students’ intent to select teaching secondary agricultural education as a career. An adaptation of the FIT-Choice® Scale instrument was distributed to senior-level students enrolled at institutions with teacher development programs to certify secondary agriculture teachers within nine states. A total of 145 students completed the instrument. Overall, characteristics of sex, perceived agriculture experience compared to their peers, years enrolled in schoolbased agricultural education courses, years of FFA membership, participation in SAE, and years of 4-H membership were not significant predictors of intent to teach. However, two beliefs about teaching subconstructs (“teacher morale,” and “expert career”) were found to be significant predictors of students’ intent to teach. Similarly, four attitudinal sub-constructs (“fallback career,” “working with adolescents,” “intrinsic career value” and “job security”) were significant predictors of intent to teach. Eight percent of intent to teach can be accounted for by attitude when controlling for beliefs.

A Study In Relationship Orientation And Prioritization Of Alumni Association Preferences With College Seniors In Higher Education

Higher education institutions need to create a relationship with their alumni; however, often this outreach is done without adequate data on which to base decisions. To gain a better understanding of what activities future alumni may regard as both important and enjoyable for their participation as alumni, a survey of current senior-status undergraduate students of a medium-sized public southern university was conducted. The research consisted of an exploratory questionnaire with 108 senior-level students who participated in the survey. The survey consisted of information collected regarding their attitudes towards what the priorities of the university’s alumni association should be and personal recommendation of the university to their friends and relatives. The survey’s findings help identify the needs and preferences of those who are soon to be alumni, and point to a number of areas that can be pursued further in an attempt to improve the relationship between the university and its alumni.

Assess your business model strategy to sustain

Subject area This case study considers the supply chain redesign of a multinational company, with specific emphasis on production lot sizing, inventory policy and transportation decisions. Study level/applicability The material is intended for senior level students of business administration, logistics and similar departments. An intermediate knowledge of supply chain, purchasing and inventory concepts is required; therefore, the case is better suited for students who have taken one-semester courses on supply chain management and inventory management. This case can be used in graduate courses as part of discussions on physical distribution, supply chain design/redesign, risk pooling through process optimization. Case overview Within the global market, establishing the right business model where cost of operations is optimized has become key for competitiveness. This necessitates the simultaneous consideration and reevaluation of production, inventory and transportation interactivities within the integrated supply chain. We first discuss the business procurement model of a multinational company with emphasis on critical aspects of the current structure. An alternative model brought into consideration by the managers of the company considers consolidation of shipments through supply hubs and distribution to regional manufacturers. We present an analysis based on perspectives of company managers for and against this new business model. We finally provide numeric evidence on relevant costs of both models in order to enhance further discussion on redesign decisions. Expected learning outcomes The discussion regarding the case will provide a better understanding of key concepts of supply chain integration and coordination as well as the significance of the optimization of underlying processes. Supplementary materials Teaching notes.

An Examination of Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions about Cyberbullying

Today, in parallel with the increase of technology use, cyberbullying becomes one of the major issues in schools affecting students’ lives negatively similar to bullying. To minimize the negative effects of cyberbullying and to get preservice teachers ready for managing cyberbullying, it is necessary to examine preservice teachers’ perception about cyberbullying. For this mission, the present study was conducted. Data were collected using a web-based survey form from seven different state universities in Turkey. One hundred and sixty three preservice teachers, who are senior level students, participated in the study. The results indicate that a majority of the preservice teachers recognize cyberbullying as a problem and understand its negative effects on students, as well as the need for school commitment on preventing cyberbullying. Although a majority of the preservice students have a high level of awareness for cyberbullying, they indicate the need for cyberbullying training during university education.

The Shadow of the Bomb: A Study of Degree-Level Nuclear Physics Textbooks

The author presents a textual analysis of 57 nuclear physics textbooks for senior-level physics degree students. The work investigates how the textbooks relate to an aspect that is relevant and important but almost wholly avoided, namely nuclear weapons. Most of the books do, however, contain expositions of other applications, notably nuclear power reactors. These expositions are often enthusiastic and occasionally extravagant. When the existing apocalyptic arsenals are borne in mind, the textbooks' asymmetry is seen to be problematic. The publication dates of the textbooks range from 1950 to 2010, yet for the question addressed in this study remarkably little has changed. This study emphasises the culture in which we all live, rather than individual specialists. The author concludes that a response to our nuclear situation, based on a rational programme for long-term survival, rather than on psychological defences, has to come from all. Experts do have special responsibilities but the author maintains that it is unrealistic to expect specialist groups, such as those involved in producing textbooks, to act independently of the wider culture.

Vocational High School Female Students’ Opinions About Application Level of Skill Education

Vocational Education Law was put into practice in 1986 to make the execution of vocational education in accordance with the needs and demands of work life. Applications of this new skill education framework were developed quickly. However, examinations and evaluations on vocational education show that skill education practices running in enterprises were incomplete or incorrect. The purpose of this study is to analyze application level of the vocational education given in school/company and enterprises in accordance with Vocational Education Law. 138 senior level students from four different vocational high schools in Ankara were randomly selected and included in this study. Data were collected using survey and scanning methods. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data. Results show that participants were satisfied with the skill education given in enterprises. Data also suggested that an effective communication was needed between school and enterprises to be able to put new skill education requirements in order improving the quality of work force

Preparation of Nurses Who Precept Baccalaureate Nursing Students: A Descriptive Study

Clinical preceptorship is employed by baccalaureate nursing education programs as a capstone experience and a means of initiating the professional socialization of senior-level students who will shortly be new graduates. This quantitative, descriptive study explored the perceptions about preceptor preparation among nurses who precept baccalaureate nursing students. Mercer's Role Attainment Theory was the theoretical framework for this study, in which 75 participants from two hospitals in the Midwest completed a survey. Two key findings emerged from the data: All preceptors of senior-level nursing students want to know what their responsibilities are with regard to the student and the preceptorship experience, and nurses in critical care areas identified learning how to teach critical thinking to senior-level students as more essential than did nurses in other areas.

'the War-Prayer': Samuel Clemens and 9/11

Mark Twain Studies Vol. 2 “The War-Prayer”: Samuel Clemens and 9/11 Michael J. KISKIS During the summer of 2001 I agreed to prepare a lecture for the coming fall semester on the Enlightenment and its effect on the development of liberal thought. Since my spe- cialty is American literature, I decided that I would focus on various trends in American writing that contributed to a tradition of liberalism in its purest sense—an openness to ways of thinking and a break from fundamentalist religious or social faith. The talk would be a long sweep and take its motto from John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty: But the peculiar evil in silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation: those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benet, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. (Mill 20) The collision seemed most important, and I set about lining up writers and examples from their writings that helped to underscore the passage from fundamentalism to liberal- ism, a passage that would offer a look at John Winthrop, Mary Rowlandson, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. At the end, I would jump to the 20th century for Kurt Vonnegut’s commencement address to the graduating class of Bennington College. Vonnegut’s simple comment: “We don’t need more information. We don’t need bigger brains. All that is required is that we become less selsh than we are” (168). In the fall, I lectured to an audience of roughly 150 junior and senior level students at Elmira College who were then enrolled in COR 3000: The Evolution of Modern Times. I had given such a lecture before; however, the events of September 11, 2001, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, pushed me to revise my talk. I decided to end my formal presentation by discussing Samuel Clemens’ (Mark Twain’s) brief “As Re- gards Patriotism” and “Corn-pone Opinions,” and by reading the entire text of “The War- Prayer.” Two weeks after the attacks, a numb reality had set in on campus. The College had held a memorial service; students were closing themselves in the cocoon of studying and campus events. I hoped to use the opportunity to offer a lesson in reading both to

Promoting Career Development through Teamwork and Mastery Learning Course Requirements in Criminal Justice Research Methods Courses

An innovative semester long small group research project, that required collecting and analyzing original data, regular written reports, and an oral presentation, was included in a senior level criminal justice research methods course to promote career development for those close to graduation. Over five years approximately 446 students were surveyed at the end of their classes to assess their response to the group project. Results suggest senior level students are capable of sustained small group participation where they utilize strategies that reflect practitioner group processes, such as decision‐making autonomy, planning, and coordinated activities. Mastery learning techniques resulted in high quality project outcomes and associated competences.