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Background: Nurse Practitioners work independently and collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams to fill unmet service delivery needs. Despite strong evidence of the benefits of the nurse practitioner service model, organisational support for nurse practitioners varies in terms of resources and support from leadership and other healthcare professionals. Aims: The study aimed to explore healthcare practitioners' experiences of implementation of a NP service in a rural setting. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten healthcare practitioners to investigate their perspectives of a recently implemented NP service. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. Findings: Themes emerged related to facilitating collaborative practice, person-centred continuity of care and positive health outcomes for the community. Challenges and limitations related to operational role clarity, scopes of practice and leadership. Conclusion: Healthcare practitioners were mostly satisfied with the service however challenges caused tension. Change management principles provide a framework to strengthen the effective clinical alignment of the service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several times each year the teaching performance of academics at higher education institutions are evaluated through anonymous, online student evaluation of teaching (SET) surveys. Universities use SETs to inform decisions about staff promotion and tenure, but low student participation levels make the surveys impractical for this use. This scoping review aims to explore student motivations, perceptions and opinions of SET survey completion. Five EBSCO® databases were searched using key words. Thematic analysis of a meta-synthesis of qualitative findings derived from 21 papers identified five themes: (i) the value students' place on SET, (ii) the knowledge that SET responses are acted upon to improve teaching, (iii) assurance of survey confidentiality and anonymity, (iv) incentives for completing SET, and (v) survey design and timing of survey release. Perceptions, knowledge and attitudes about the value of SET are essential factors in motivating students to engage and complete SETs, particularly if surveys are easy to interpret, time for completion is incentivised and responses are valued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of this work is to identify factors that impact on early career nurses' intentions to remain in their current position and compare with what impacts on intention to remain in the profession. Background: Early exits of nurses from a position and the profession are a result of evolving factors. A lack of longitudinal follow‐up impedes knowledge about these factors or what proportion of temporary exits become permanent. Method: The study used prospective cohort survey design. The sample was obtained from non‐probability convenience sampling of graduating nursing students from two universities. Data was collected across three time points over 12 months, commencing in November 2016. Results: The professional turnover rate was 6.7% in total. Higher Work Environment, Support and Encouragement scores and Stress in personal life were the only predictors of intending to remain in the profession. Statistical modelling could not predict intention to remain in current position. Conclusion: There were differences identified when comparing intention to remain in a position and the profession. Nurses are satisfied with their career choice and intend to remain in the profession, although many are intending to move positions. Implications for Nursing Management: To effectively retain the nursing workforce, stakeholders must focus on the work environment, appropriate support and remuneration, and facilitate career progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses play a vital role in health promotion, and there may be a link between a nurse's own lifestyle practices and how they educate others. Supporting health and well-being in student nurses is critical given they will be educating others once registered and practicing. To explore the health and health behaviours of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students considering the demands of their profession, their public health role and their ability to be role models. Multi-methods study. Undergraduate nursing students in the second and third years of their programme were invited to self-complete a health and health behaviour questionnaire in a Scottish and Australian Higher Education Institution. Qualitative data were collected from a convenience sample of 20 third-year nursing and midwifery students. Two hundred and thirty-five Scottish students and 113 Australian students, 175 (85%) and 84 (74%), respectively, completed the questionnaire. Some differences and similarities were noted across groups, in particular, perceived physical health, the prevalence of binge drinking, smoking and being overweight/obese and some dietary measures were found to be less favourable among Scottish students. There were worryingly high levels of poor mental well-being at both higher education institutions, with scores on a mental well-being scale suggesting that (82) 34.7% of Scottish students and 33 (29.6%) of Australian students were at risk of depression. Nine Scottish students and 11 Australian students were interviewed. Key contributors and barriers to healthy behaviours were noted across both groups of students in relation to lifestyle. Students perceived that certain elements of their curriculum had implications on their ability or motivation to make healthy lifestyle choices. The poor health and health behaviours of future nurses need to be addressed in their higher education to shape resilient role models for future nursing practice. Priority should be given to supportive learning environments for student nurses that foster emotional support and encourage healthy lifestyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Producing and sustaining a competent nursing workforce is imperative to protect the public. Identifying current issues and trends in nursing competence can strengthen insights and provide direction for the future nursing workforce. A summative content analysis was performed; PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus were searched for content from the last ten years. A total of 3225 titles and abstracts regarding nursing competence were identified and analysed using the big-data analysis software Leximancer. Five themes were discovered from the analysis: (1) standardisation of nursing competencies with emerging competencies, (2) assessment competency levels, (3) graduates' expectations and achievement, (4) safe and quality practice with teamwork, and (5) competency curriculum development. This found standardised nursing competencies, which suggests prioritising which core competencies should be focused on during education to produce competent generalist professional nurses, and employers could help nursing graduates improve their competence in specialised areas. This review also suggests that further education strategies should be developed to better prepare graduates for culturally safe practice to meet the needs of diverse minority populations and for informatics competency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Competence assessment methods must be extensively investigated to measure nursing competencies both longitudinally and cross-sectionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To identify the factors influencing employment outcomes and settings for early career nurses. Background: A shortage of nurses attracted to work in out‐of‐hospital settings exists. Despite this, not all nursing graduates can secure work as a nurse. Information on the factors that impact wider graduate employment is available. However, a nursing perspective is missing, especially for hard to recruit to areas. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were 293 final‐year undergraduate nursing students, recruited from two universities. Data were collected over 12 months, commencing November 2016. Results: English as a first language was the greatest predictor of employment for graduates. Previous health care experience and workplace preferences predicted employment in the out‐of‐hospital setting. Conclusions: Misalignment between English language requirements and industry expectations about language may lead to bias in recruitment of graduate nurses with English as their second language. Recruitment to out‐of‐hospital settings may be promoted by having health care experience and targeting those with a preference. Implications for Nursing Management: Reviewing current employment policies to ensure they reflect the need for cultural diversity in the nursing workforce is critical. Additionally, research that aims to understand how preferences for out‐of‐hospital settings are developed will help target graduate employment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student-led interprofessional health clinics offer valuable opportunities for student learning and meeting the health care needs of the community. This case study describes the operation of a new interprofessional student-led community health service over its initial 13-month period of operation. This case study also presents an overview of the service provision, student placement opportunities and focuses on the challenges associated with the service and the impact on future planning. What is known about the topic?: Interprofessional student-led clinics offer an opportunity to meet clinical placement demands and interprofessional training needs while also providing a community service. What does this paper add?: This case study adds to the limited literature around knowledge of service delivery and challenges in the operation of community-based student-led interprofessional health services; future planning to streamline processes is also addressed. What are the implications?: There may be relevance to other university–industry partnerships that intend to explore student-led interprofessional service operations designed to address placement shortages, student training and community needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore the expected and achieved competency levels of new graduate nurses. Background: There are global concerns about a perceived disconnect between the educational preparation of new graduates and the expectations of employers about their work readiness. It is important to understand competency levels expected and achieved of new graduate nurses. Method(s): The study was conducted in three phases: the identification of competencies, development of a survey instrument and exploration of levels of competency from the perspectives of key stakeholders. Results: New graduates were well prepared for demonstrating respect to patients, but needed to be closely supported when providing emergency care. Results highlighted that new graduates felt less competent than graduating students in those competencies related to legal and ethical practice. Importantly, expectations about new graduates' competency varied between educators and managers. Conclusion(s): The findings provide important information about new graduates' competency levels, revealing a mismatch in the perception of key stakeholders about competency levels. This has important implications for building new graduates readiness for practice and highlights the importance of collaboration between key stakeholders to address competency gaps. Implications for Nursing Management: Supportive opportunities should be provided to new graduate nurses to fill gaps in beginner competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: To investigate final‐year nursing students' use of situation awareness when making clinical decisions about patients' progress postsurgery. Background: Making clinical decisions about patient care is a generic nursing competence, developed in preregistration nursing programmes and critical to providing safe patient care. Situation awareness is an important precursor to making decisions and is linked to improved clinical outcomes. However, there is evidence to suggest that nursing students feel inadequately prepared to make clinical decisions. Design: Endsley's (Situation awareness analysis and measurement. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000) 3‐level situation awareness framework was used to guide the study. Level 1 situation awareness is perception of information required to make a decision. Level 2 relates to comprehending the information. Level 3 situation awareness is projecting how this information will inform the future. Twelve final‐year nursing students were recruited to participate. Think‐aloud research method was used to capture students' decision‐making, followed by semi‐structured interviews. Data were analysed using an adapted protocol analysis and were encoded inductively. The COREQ checklist has been used in reporting the study. Results: Students demonstrated level 1, 2 and 3 situation awareness when making clinical decisions. However, it was not demonstrated consistently and at times subsequent decision‐making was inappropriate. Three themes emerged: "systems approach to assessment of postoperative patients"; "policy drives practice"; and "deferring decisions to registered nurses". Within the themes, students demonstrated differing levels of situation awareness. Conclusion: Making safe clinical decisions is a paramount skill for nurses; however, student nurses are ill‐equipped to undertake this skill. Situation awareness is important in informing safe decision‐making, but students' use of situation awareness is variable. Cognitive apprenticeship, applied to supporting development of situation awareness, affords the opportunity to develop students' decision‐making. Relevance to clinical practice: Clinical decision‐making is a generic competence for all registered nurses and imperative for safe practice. However, student nurses are unprepared to undertake this skill once registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe the Nominal Group Technique and its application as a consensus-generating approach in nursing research. The approach incorporates face-to-face meetings to explore opinions, generate ideas, and determine priorities. The nominal group technique process, which is based on a study designed to develop a nursing student clinical placement (clinical practicum) evaluation tool, is described. Advantages of the approach include creative face-to-face discussions with minimal resource demands. The nominal group technique is beneficial and can be used to achieve consensus in nursing research, but a lack of anonymity may preclude the process in some investigations. The purpose of this article is to describe the Nominal Group Technique and its application as a consensus-generating approach in nursing research. The approach incorporates face-to-face meetings to explore opinions, generate ideas, and determine priorities. The nominal group technique process, which is based on a study designed to develop a nursing student clinical placement (clinical practicum) evaluation tool, is described. Advantages of the approach include creative face-to-face discussions with minimal resource demands. The nominal group technique is beneficial and can be used to achieve consensus in nursing research, but a lack of anonymity may preclude the process in some investigations. [[J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(2):65–67.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student attrition from nursing programs impacts on sustainability of the profession. Factors associated with attrition include: lack of academic capital, extracurricular responsibilities, first generation tertiary students, and low socio-economic or traditionally underrepresented cultural background. Successful Australian government reforms designed to advance equity in higher education have increased student population diversity, which is accompanied by a rise in the incidence of risk factors for attrition (Benson, Heagney, Hewitt, Crosling, & Devos, 2013). This prospective study examined commencing nursing students in their first semester to track critical risk markers associated with attrition, and implemented timely interventions to support subject completion or enrolment perseverance in the event of subject failure. Students who attended orientation, accessed blended learning, attended early tutorials, submitted and passed first assessment items, and studied part-time were significantly more likely to pass the subject overall. Interventions based on good practice principles for student engagement and support resulted in increased retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To demonstrate the methodological usefulness of interpretive interactionism by applying it to the example of a study investigating healthcare experiences of women affected by domestic violence. Background: Understanding patients' experiences of health, illness and health care is important to nurses. For many years, biomedical discourse has prevailed in healthcare language and research, and has influenced healthcare responses. Contemporary nursing scholarship can be developed by engaging with new ways of understanding therapeutic interactions with patients. Research that uses qualitative methods of inquiry is an important paradigm for nurses who seek to explain and understand or describe experiences rather than predict outcomes. Discussion: Interpretive interactionism is an interpretive form of inquiry for conducting studies of social or personal problems that have healthcare policy implications. It puts the patient at the centre of the research process and makes visible the experiences of patients as they interact with the healthcare and social systems that surround them. Interpretive interactionism draws on concepts of symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and hermeneutics. Conclusion: Interpretive interactionism is a patient-centred methodology that provides an alternative way of understanding patients' experiences. It can contribute to policy and practice development by drawing on the perspectives and experiences of patients, who are central to the research process. It also allows research findings to be situated in and linked to healthcare policy, professional ethics and organisational approaches to care. Implications for research/practice: Interpretive interactionism has methodological utility because it can contribute to policy and practice development by drawing on the perspectives and experiences of patients who are central to the research process. Interpretive interactionism allows research findings to be situated in and linked to health policy, professional ethics and organisational approaches to caring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic violence impacts on all aspects of affected women's lives and results in poor general, reproductive, and psychological health (World Health Organisation, 2010). Despite mounting evidence that current health care responses to women affected by domestic violence are problematic, policies have nevertheless been rolled out without addressing issues identified. Funding cuts, fragmentation of services, and failure to establish good practice has resulted in a discourse where women's needs are pushed to the outside and they are marginalized, lost in the language and discourse of policy, normalizing a discourse of incompletion at policy and bureaucracy levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the overwhelming acknowledgment by health professionals that intimate partner violence is a health issue for women, the present health care response is inadequate to meet women's needs, according to Stark, in the Source Book on Violence Against Women (2001). This article examines through a postmodern lens the health care response. The dominant discourses in the literature indicate that health professionals lack knowledge about intimate partner violence, have attitudes and values that inhibit an effective response, and have no time to respond to these women. To date, strategies to improve the health care response have been limited in effectiveness as structural constraints of the health service and models of practice employed have not been addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses work in complex health care systems, which today are based not only on medical treatment and cure, but also on enabling individuals and strengthening communities. This paper describes a curriculum approach to teaching nursing in an Australian university which seeks to prepare students for this environment. Underpinned by transformative education principles, and termed Solution Focused Nursing, specific teaching and learning strategies are discussed. A goal is to cultivate critical thinkers and knowledge workers, that is, nurses who are not only able to work skillfully, strategically, and respectfully with clients, but who also demonstrate discernment, optimism, and vision about nursing and health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe the Nominal Group Technique and its application as a consensus-generating approach in nursing research. The approach incorporates face-to-face meetings to explore opinions, generate ideas, and determine priorities. The nominal group technique process, which is based on a study designed to develop a nursing student clinical placement (clinical practicum) evaluation tool, is described. Advantages of the approach include creative face-to-face discussions with minimal resource demands. The nominal group technique is beneficial and can be used to achieve consensus in nursing research, but a lack of anonymity may preclude the process in some investigations. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(2):65-67.]., (Copyright 2020, SLACK Incorporated.)

The current health service response to women's domestic violence related health issues seeks to categorise their presenting symptoms into physical and psychological ailments This gives a narrow and somewhat simplistic focus to what is a complex phenomenon and may obscure women's experiences and limit the opportunities to provide proactive health care. The purpose of this study was to expand knowledge about the health issues of women who are subjected to domestic violence, by affording primacy to women's accounts of health, in order to problematise current services and establish a more woman-centered underpinning for healthcare. The study involved narrative analysis of nine interviews with women who spoke about their health and health issues while they lived with domestic violence. Findings revealed that health was complex, and that health issues were not adequately addressed by health services, in fact health care responses were implicated in further adversely affecting the health of participants. These findings illuminate patterns that underlie individual realities of health and give a foundation from which current services can be evaluated and further developed in ways that may be more sensitive to women's realities and needs.