Competency and capability: imperative for nurse practitioner education (original) (raw)
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Nurse practitioner education: a research-based curriculum structure
Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2004
Background. The process and content of nurse practitioner educational preparation has received scant research attention, despite increasing interest in and investigations into nurse practitioner services in Australia and internationally. Aims. The aim of this paper is to report a study investigating the educational process and content required for nurse practitioner preparation. Methods. A trial of practice was conducted with four nurse practitioner candidates over a 12-month period. The candidates practised in different specialities, giving rise to four models of the nurse practitioner role. The trial had multiple aims related to the role and scope of practice of the nurse practitioner. An action learning model was used, in which participating nurse practitioner candidates 'worked-into-the-role' of extended practice and learned from experience through clinical mentoring, reflection and action. Data collection methods centred on transcripts from group work activities related to a collaborative engagement with and reflections on clinical practice. This resulted in the collaborative production of data to inform a research-based nurse practitioner curriculum structure. Findings. The findings relate to the content and learning process required for nurse practitioner education and are described in terms of three broad areas of study: clinical practice, clinical sciences and nursing studies. Conclusions. A curriculum structure that describes content and process for nurse practitioner education was developed from the findings. A further outcome of this trial was confirmation of importance of the clinical environment for nurse practitioner education. Inherent in this aspect of clinical learning is the role of a committed clinical mentor who can facilitate purposeful learning.
Preparing nurses for primary health care futures: how well do Australian nursing courses perform?
Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2010
Health reform is increasingly targeted towards strengthening and expansion of primary health systems as care is shifted from hospitals to communities. The renewed emphasis on prevention and health promotion is intended to curb the tide of chronic disease and sustain effective chronic disease management, as well as address health inequities and increase affordable access to services. Given the scope of nurses' practice, the success of Australia's health system reforms are dependent on a nursing workforce that is appropriately educated and prepared for practice in community settings. This article reports on the results of an Australian national audit of all undergraduate nursing curricula to examine the extent of professional socialisation and educational preparation of nurses for primary health care. The results of the audit are compared with Australian nursing standards associated with competency in primary health care. The findings indicate that Australian nursing competencies are general in their approach to skills and knowledge, not specitying any particular competencies for primary health care, while undergraduate student preparation for practice in primary health and community settings is patchy and not keeping pace with reform agendas that promote expanded roles for nurses in primary health care, prevention and health promotion. The implication for nursing curriculum reform is that attention to achieving nursing graduate capacity for primary health care and health promotion is a priority.
An audit of skills taught in registered nursing preparation programmes in Australia
Background: A competitive Carrick Institute Competitive Grant (CG7-523) was obtained to explore what skills were taught and what assessment of practice approaches were used in nursing programmes in Australia. The intention was twofold; firstly to identify what skills were being taught which would contribute to the development of an assessment of practice toolkit for eligibility to practice programmes in Australia. This paper specifically reports on the skills taught in nursing programmes in Australia. Methods: A qualitative research methodology was used through a documentary analysis of university curriculum documents. This was undertaken independently by two researchers; the data was then reviewed by an expert group. The skills taught were explored, listed and categorised using a conceptual framework, then refined and reported. Results: Over 1300 skills were initially identified within nursing programmes across Australia; these were 'clustered' using a framework into 30 skills areas. These included psychomotor skills to skills areas that relate to human factors such as communication, team work, leadership and supervision. Conclusions: A wide range of skills were referred to in university nursing programme curriculae in Australia. There were some significant variations; some universities taught their student nurses how to manage a client/patient requiring external invasive ventilator support. There were however a number of similar skills areas identified; such as acute care assessment skills (monitoring vital signs) and mental health assessment skills. The range of skills taught within nursing curriculum is challenging as there is only limited time to expose students to those skills and afford the student the opportunity to practice those skills in order to achieve competence prior to registration.
Curricula and learning objectives in nurse practitioner programmes: a scoping review protocol
BMJ Open, 2019
IntroductionGlobally, nurse practitioner (NP) has become an important nursing role in the pursuit of a more efficient healthcare, possessing the necessary expert skills to work as autonomous practitioners. Nevertheless, there are barriers in the implementation of this role. One barrier concerns the different levels of education required for NPs. Previous studies demonstrate the importance of acting for a uniform international education. The aim of the scoping review was to compile research about education to become an NP, focusing on the content of curricula and learning objectives.Methods and analysisThe six-stage methodological framework by Arksey and O’Malley will guide the scoping review through the following stages: identifying the research questions; identifying relevant studies; study selection; charting the data; collating, summarising and reporting the results; and consultation. The research questions are as follows: What is the content of curricula in NP programmes? What a...
Validating the Nurse Professional Competence Scale with Australian baccalaureate nursing students
Collegian, 2021
Background: Professional competence is necessary to enhance patients' quality of care and safety, however not much is known about nursing students' perceptions of their professional competence at the point of graduation, particularly in the Australian context. Aim: To validate the Nurse Professional Competence (NPC) Scale in the Australian context and explore graduating nursing students' perceptions of their own competence and their suggestions to improve their learning experience. Method: A cross sectional survey incorporating the NPC Scale was conducted with student nurses at the point of graduation at one large Australian University. Results: Fifty-six graduating nursing students completed the NPC Scale. Scale reliability measured via Cronbach's alpha was 0.96. Almost 80% of nursing students felt confident with their nursing skills and felt that the nursing program had prepared them for a graduate position as a registered nurse. Students reported their highest competence was in Value-based Nursing Care (m=89.4) and Documentation & Administration of Nursing Care (m=86.7), and the lowest were Development, Leadership & Organisation of Nursing Care (m=80.9) and Care Pedagogy (m=83.0). Students' most common suggestion to improve the learning experience was to provide additional clinical workplace experience. Discussion: The NPC Scale demonstrated excellent reliability in the Australian context. The areas that scored highest and lowest on the NPC were congruent with findings using this instrument in other countries. Conclusion: Further validation of the NPC Scale should include a larger sample that includes both graduating nursing students from multiple universities as well as registered nurses and incorporates confirmatory factor analysis.
Beyond competencies in Australian Nursing
Steve Goldsmith has recently returned to clinical nursing practice after a three year stint as a lecturer at Deakin University. His interest in nursing competencies was fired by his work with nurses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and the gap he observed between aca demia and clinical reality. Steve is currently working on a research project for his Master of Education, employing discourse analysis in exploring epistemological and cultural issues in nursing curricula.
2018
Rising numbers of students are required to address the forecast nursing shortage. Health services are challenged to release experienced nursing staff to become supervisors in clinical supervision models and preceptorship models require significant investment in registered nurse education for effectiveness. One health service in southeast Queensland, Australia, developed an innovative clinical education model that draws upon the strengths of supervision and preceptor models, and is consistent with the Dedicated Education Unit model, without the dedicated university and prescribed attendance requirements. Using an iterative qualitative approach and learning circle methods, the aim was to determine feasibility of the model, using information gathered from clinical facilitators, who were the key implementers. Model feasibility was found to be dependent upon three key activities undertaken by the facilitators: align stakeholder expectations with the new model, clarify roles and responsibilities within clusters, and develop strategies for collecting information about student performance. The experience of implementing the model has raised further questions about how students, newly qualified nurses and registered nurses learn in localised work units and what practice pedagogies can be developed to support learning from, as well as improve practice.