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Although service improvement projects have been incorporated into some postregistration nurse education modules in the UK, they have not been generally available to pre-registration students. This paper reports on the implementation and evaluation of a pilot project in pre-registration nurse education at one university in eastern England. It concludes that the nursing students found the project to be a useful addition to their course. Supportive reactions were obtained from nurse managers, mentors and academics. A need to improve communication with clinical areas through the use of web-based materials was highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives. To determine the feasibility and acceptability of using trained volunteers as mealtime assistants for older hospital inpatients. Background. Poor nutrition among hospitalised older patients is common in many countries and associated with poor outcomes. Competing time pressures on nursing staff may make it difficult to prioritise mealtime assistance especially on wards where many patients need help. Design. Mixed methods evaluation of the introduction of trained volunteer mealtime assistants on an acute female medicine for older people ward in a teaching hospital in England. Methods. A training programme was developed for volunteers who assisted female inpatients aged 70 years and over on weekday lunchtimes. The feasibility of using volunteers was determined by the proportion recruited, trained, and their activity and retention over one year. The acceptability of the training and of the volunteers' role was obtained through interviews and focus groups with 12 volunteers, nine patients and 17 nursing staff. Results. Fifty-nine potential volunteers were identified: 38 attended a training session, of whom 29 delivered mealtime assistance, including feeding, to 3911 (76%) ward patients during the year (mean duration of assistance 5-5 months). The volunteers were positive about the practical aspects of training and ongoing support provided. They were highly valued by patients and ward staff and have continued to volunteer. Conclusions. Volunteers can be recruited and trained to help acutely unwell older female inpatients at mealtimes, including feeding. This assistance is sustainable and is valued. Relevance to clinical practice. This paper describes a successful method for recruitment, training and retention of volunteer mealtime assistants. It includes a profile of those volunteers who provided the most assistance, details of the training programme and role of the volunteers and could be replicated by nursing staff in other healthcare units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Aim and objective: To explore the accuracy with which nursing students can identify the fundamentals of care. Background: A challenge facing nursing is ensuring the fundamentals of care are provided with compassion and in a timely manner. How students perceive the importance of the fundamentals of care may be influenced by the content and delivery of their nursing curriculum. As the fundamentals of care play a vital role in ensuring patient safety and quality care, it is important to examine how nursing students identify these care needs. Design: Cross‐sectional descriptive design. Methods: A total of 398 nursing students (pre‐ and postregistration) from universities in Sweden, England, Japan, Canada and Australia participated. The Fundamentals of Care Framework guided this study. A questionnaire containing three care scenarios was developed and validated. Study participants identified the fundamentals of care for each of the scenarios. All responses were rated and analysed using ANOVA. Results: The data illustrate certain fundamentals of care were identified more frequently, including communication and education; comfort and elimination, whilst respecting choice, privacy and dignity were less frequently identified. The ability to identify all the correct care needs was low overall across the pre‐ and postregistration nursing programmes in the five universities. Significant differences in the number of correctly identified care needs between some of the groups were identified. Conclusions: Nursing students are not correctly identifying all a patient's fundamental care needs when presented with different care scenarios. Students more frequently identifying physical care needs and less frequently psychosocial and relational needs. The findings suggest educators may need to emphasise and integrate all three dimensions. Relevance to clinical practice: To promote students' ability to identify the integrated nature of the fundamentals of care, practising clinicians and nurse educators need to role model and incorporate all the fundamental care needs for their patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]