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Statistical evidence shows that nursing students prefer a professional career in hospital settings, leading to a lack of career interest in non-hospital settings such as community and residential aged care facilities. The lack of preference for non-hospital settings has persisted over several decades and presents a need for different approaches that may reveal new information to better understand the individual factors that influence specialty choices and preferences from the students' viewpoints. The aims of this study were to (1) explore individual factors that impact the nursing specialty choices of final-year nursing students and (2) explore how these factors influence the final-year nursing students' career decision-making process. A narrative inquiry approach using semi-structured interviews was carried out with purposively sampled nursing students (n = 12) who had undertaken a final-year clinical placement(s). Data was analysed using two main steps. First, the interviews were restoried and then analysed using the three-dimensional framework. Subsequently, thematic analysis was applied to generate themes. Data analysis generated three main themes: demographic factors, social factors, and career goals. Participants' characteristics and interactions with other individuals and systems influenced their nursing specialty preferences and professional career plans. Nursing students' career interests are influenced by individual factors external to their nursing education, such as their age, gender, and life experiences. These student characteristics and experiences facilitated or inhibited a career in some nursing specialties, with the students gauging their ability to practice in a specialty during their CPs. Nursing education should expose and inform students about the core skills, career opportunities, and how to advance their careers in the different nursing specialties. Most importantly, final-year students may need formal career guidance to encourage nursing students' positive attitudes and career interests in different nursing specialties and make realistic career decisions. • Nursing students' characteristics incline them to some specialties over others. • Personal qualities facilitated the students' perceived abilities to adapt to professional duties in a nursing specialty. • Personal and clinical experiences impacted the students' career choices. • Hospital settings are the most preferred areas for professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The content of midwifery courses is very similar across universities. The teaching approach is not, with universities adopting a variety of pedagogical methods. To explore views of midwifery students, midwifery academics and senior academic managers comparing a continuity approach where one main academic provides the majority of midwifery content plus pastoral care compared with a team-teaching approach of midwifery education where lecturers change throughout the course. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to discover thoughts, benefits and disadvantages of two teaching approaches. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Midwifery students and academics valued relationship building, consistency of advice and assessment expectations of the continuity approach but also appreciated a variety of teaching styles and content found in the team-teaching approach. Senior academic managers favoured a team-teaching approach due to workload concerns. Continuity and team-teaching pedagogical approaches offer different advantages. Continuity in midwifery education may provide students with a meaningful trusting relationship with their teacher and consistency of information, which could aid learning. A team-teaching approach provides students with diversity of teaching styles and midwifery 'stories'. A combination of both pedagogies offering both a mix of teachers and a named 'go-to' mentor might help meet student requirements for both continuity and variety. Relationship building, consistency and trust, were all evident in the continuity approach whereas the team-teaching approach was considered to be a more sustainable workload model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The simulation intervention facilitated the development of essential skills in wound care. • Students enjoyed collaborating with SPs, recognizing the value they bring to the simulation experience. • The simulation experience aligns with six out of the eight standards outlined by Wounds Australia. High-fidelity simulation is an effective tool in nursing education, but a research gap exists in its application to wound care training. This study explored the acceptability of working with simulated patients (SPs) with moulaged wounds to improve students' wound care skills. This descriptive qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with 14 student nurses who competed a high-fidelity wound simulation. Data were analysed using a deductive thematic approach. Findings are presented with reference to the Australian Standards of Wound Prevention and Management guidelines. Four main themes (and six subthemes) were identified: realism (moulage and SPs), situational awareness (decision making and task focus), reflective practice (learning from others and self-reflection), and consolidation of practice. The standards-based simulation proved effective and acceptable to students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One in four newly graduated registered nurses leave their employment positions within the first year. To reduce this attrition, nursing stakeholders could focus on the final year of nursing education because students at this stage make professional career plans, including their practice destination for the graduate year and their commitment to the profession. Previous studies provide evidence of nursing students' career preferences and specialty choices. However, there is a dearth of data that focuses on the students' career decision-making process. This study examined the self-efficacy or confidence of final-year nursing students in making career decisions and the factors that influence their career decision-making process. Final year pre-registration nursing students (N = 222) at two public universities in Western Australia. An online survey was used to collect cross-sectional data. The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form was used to investigate nursing students' confidence in making career decisions. Career decision-making self-efficacy refers to the confidence to successfully complete career decision-making tasks. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the participants' characteristics. The chi-square test was used to assess the significance of the difference between categorical data, and binary logistic regression was used to determine the odds of the factors that predict career decision self-efficacy. Forty-seven percent of participants who answered all Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form questions had good confidence in making career decisions. Factors such as the setting of the final clinical placement, the intention to be employed in the specialisation or organisation of their final placement and the students' assessment of their clinical experience were associated with career decision-making confidence. Most participants had low confidence in making career decisions. This study provides ideas for nursing stakeholders to implement measures to improve students' confidence to make informed career decisions. • Most participants had low career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE). • Hospital settings and elective placements improved students' CDMSE. • Formal career guidance could must be embedded in nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Experienced registered nurses who are employed as nurse navigators provide effective co-ordinated care to people living with multiple chronic conditions. • Nurse navigators effectively use value-based care to help reconnect patients who have lost trust in the health service, to reconnect with their interdisciplinary teams. • Nurse navigators provide individualized, authentic care, which is more than the sum of hospital avoidance. Nurse navigators are an emerging workforce providing care to people with multiple chronic conditions. The role of the navigators is to identify patients requiring support in negotiating their health care. A critical discourse analysis was used to examine qualitative data collected from nurse navigators and consenting navigated patients to identify key indicators of how nurse navigators do their work and where the success of their work is most evident. Nurse navigators help patients who have lost trust in the health system to re-engage with their interdisciplinary health care team. This re-engagement is the final step in a journey of addressing unmet needs, essential to hospital avoidance. Nurse navigators provide a continuum of authentic and holistic care. To acknowledge the true value of nurse navigators, their performance indicators need to embrace the value-added care they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation-based education is a valuable learning approach for nursing students, yet there is limited focus or reports on graduate entry master's programs. This study explores the effect of simulation on graduate entry master's students' confidence to provide safe patient care. This study includes a longitudinal, single-site, cohort design that uses the Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey to measure nursing students' (n = 32) confidence before and after simulation and after clinical practice. Overall confidence increased after simulation but was not always sustained after clinical practice. Simulation-based education can build students' patient safety confidence; however, the dynamic nature of the clinical setting challenges student confidence. • Repeated SBE has a positive overall impact on nursing students' patient safety confidence. • The clinical setting impacts students' confidence differently to SBE activities. • Student confidence decreases after their first acute clinical placement but recovers and increases with continued exposure to practice-based learning opportunities in the form of skills labs, SBE, and clinical placements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study had three objectives: 1) to determine final-year nursing students' career preferences and long-term career plans; 2) to investigate factors influencing nursing students' specialty choices following their final-year clinical placement(s); and 3) to understand how final-year clinical placements can be used to develop the career interests of nursing students to different nursing specialties. Clinical placement provides an insightful experience that may influence students to feel inclined to work in certain specialties. Therefore, each clinical placement should promote students' learning and enhance positive experiences that could develop their career interests and encourage them to seek employment in the specialty on graduation. A cross-sectional online survey. The survey was structured using the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form. The questionnaire was distributed to final-year nursing students (N = 222) at two public universities in Western Australia. This study specifically reports on the Goal selection and Planning domains of the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale – Short Form, which were explored through additional questions prompting participants to explain their career preferences and reasons for their nursing specialty choices. Most participants, fifty-three percent, had low confidence in making career decisions. The Goal Selection and Planning questions measured the students' confidence in choosing a suitable practice destination and preparing for their professional careers. Overall, participants prefer employment in hospital settings both in the short- and long-term aspects of their nursing career. The factors influencing the students' career decisions were classified into three main categories: the clinical environment, educational factors and individual factors. The nursing curriculum may encourage nursing students to work in some specialties over others. This study provides insight into factors that may promote or inhibit students' career choices and how students may be motivated to pursue the less preferred nursing specialties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To co-design an intervention to reduce the burden of clinical documentation for nurses and midwives. A clinician-researcher collaboration used an action research approach to co-design an intervention to reduce clinical documentation. The study consisted of three phases: 1) Analysis of pre-intervention data, 2) Evaluation of existing documentation, 3) Intervention co-design and implementation. A total of 116 documents were reviewed using a three-stage evaluation process, identifying 28 documents that could be discontinued and 33 documents to be modified for the intervention. This resulted in an average of 7 documents for women who had a vaginal birth (decreased from 13), 9 documents for women who had a caesarean (decreased from 18), and 7 documents for newborns (previously 7–10). The minimum number of documents for a mother and baby reduced from 20 pre-intervention to 14 post-intervention. The collaboration successfully co-designed and implemented an intervention to address the burden of clinical documentation that can be replicated in other healthcare settings. • The clinician-researcher action research project identified documentation issues. • An intervention was co-designed to address the burden of clinical documentation. • Clinicians are well placed to co-design relevant solutions to clinical issues. • Action research can be used to reduce the burden of documentation in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 global pandemic was declared in March 2020. By June 2022, the total deaths worldwide attributed to COVID-19 numbered over 6.3 million. Health professionals have been significantly impacted worldwide primarily those working on the frontline but also those working in other areas including nursing, midwifery, and paramedic higher education. Studies of occupational stress have focused on the clinical health professional roles but scant attention has been drawn to the pressures on university-based academic staff supporting and preparing professionals for frontline health work. This qualitative study sought to explore the challenges experienced by health academics (nurses, midwives and paramedics), during COVID-19 and identify strategies enlisted. Six Australian and two United Kingdom universities collaborated, from which 34 health academics were individually interviewed via video or teleconference, using six broad questions. Ethical approval was obtained from the lead site and each participating University. Thematic analysis of the data was employed collaboratively across institutions, using Braun and Clarke's method. Data analysis generated four major themes describing academics': Experiences of change; perceptions of organisational responses; professional and personal impacts; and strategies to support wellbeing. Stress, anxiety and uncertainty of working from home and teaching in a different way were reported. Strategies included setting workday routine, establishing physical boundaries for home-working and regular online contact with colleagues. The ability of nursing, midwifery and, paramedic academic staff to adapt to a sudden increase in workload, change in teaching practices and technology, while being removed from their work environment, and collegial, academic and technological supports is highlighted. It was recognised that these changes will continue post-COVID and that the way academics deliver education is forever altered. • The pandemic impacted on academic ways of working, workload, and well-being. • Online teaching imposed a distance between academic and student. • Working from home resulted in a sense of isolation from colleagues. • Academics stayed connected, saw the big picture, used experience and exercised. • Flexibility and personal contact reassured students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The role of the clinical teacher is poorly understood, particularly the role they play in supporting the professional socialisation of student nurses. In part this lack of understanding is due to the inadequacy of existing tools to measure the phenomenon. This paper reports on the development and trial of a tool that attempts to illuminate the effects this role has on the development of the newest members of the profession. Selected results of the trial with Australian undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing students and their Clinical Teachers demonstrate that Clinical Teachers are important adjunct socialising agents particularly for mature students and students who enter the profession for altruistic reasons. Further, female Clinical Teachers indicate that they are more involved in certain aspects of student professionalisation than their male counterparts. The development of the tool followed interviews with Clinical Teachers and graduates from 2 universities. The tool trial then used a multi-site cohort study design, with N=196 students (from 3 universities) and N=58 Clinical Teachers (from 2 universities). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper reports on the analysis of data from undergraduate nursing students who participated in the Primary Health Care Intensive Programme (PHCIP) in far west New South Wales between 2006 and 2008. This analysis looks specifically at pre/post confidence levels of participants in relation to their grasp of underlying principles associated with primary health care practice and Indigenous health care delivery. Bachelor of nursing curricula remains heavily weighted towards acute care in large metropolitan facilities however; universities actively seek clinical fieldwork experiences in rural/remote and Indigenous communities for their students. The PHCIP was developed and delivered through the Broken Hill University Department of Rural Health, University of Sydney, and sought to address the disparity in student preparedness for practice in these settings through the provision of a structured and educational rural and remote clinical placement experience. Pre/post questionnaires, focus groups and three month post-placement phone interviews provided data on levels of participant confidence in the areas of primary health care delivery and culturally knowledgeable practice. This study indicates that structured preparation for practice, underpinned by authentic learning experiences and aligned with comprehensive education programmes can have a positive impact in the areas of skills, knowledge and attitudes and enhance the confidence of undergraduate nurses undertaking clinical placements in these settings. These findings are relevant to contemporary nursing education and evolving models of health care delivery for rural and remote communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper reports aspects of the findings from the qualitative component of a mixed methods research study that investigated the role of the Clinical Teacher in student nurse professional socialisation. Graduates and Clinical Teachers were interviewed to identify the domains where the support of a Clinical Teacher was crucial in the students'' development of a professional identity. Emergent themes were clustered into seven (7) domains as follows: Professional role concept; Acculturation; Acquisition of Knowledge; Acquisition of Skill; Acquisition of Professional Values; Assimilation into the Organisation; and a seventh domain encompassing the role model attributes of Clinical Teachers. The domains are presented alongside exemplars from the interviews, in order to illustrate the importance of the support of a Clinical Teacher. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Domestic violence is a global health concern. Nurses and midwives must respond to those who experience domestic violence, although many are not prepared to do this. The World Health Organization recommend that domestic violence content be included in all pre-registration training as a matter of urgency. To examine self-reported undergraduate student perceptions of domestic violence content in their programs of study and student attitudes and beliefs about domestic violence. A cross-sectional research design with online survey was employed from June to October 2017. Using convenience sampling, 1076 students were recruited to the study from a total population sample of just over 6000 undergraduate nursing and midwifery students; a response rate of 17.9%. Survey data reported the nature and frequency of teaching and learning along with student attitudes and beliefs about domestic violence. Open ended responses were examined via thematic analysis. Nine Australian universities offering undergraduate nursing and midwifery degrees. Undergraduate university nursing and midwifery students. Over half of students surveyed (53.7%, n = 578) reported that domestic violence was not addressed in their program of study. A direct correlation was found between students' perceived preparedness to assess and respond to domestic violence, and the amount of taught content in their program of study. This major gap in curricula has significant implications for professional practice preparedness. Further research should focus on examining the reasons why quality domestic violence content is lacking in undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs and how prioritisation of domestic violence content can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses and midwives have a professional responsibility to identify and provide effective care to those experiencing domestic violence. Pre-registration preparation may develop this capability. In order to inform curriculum development, this study explored Australian nursing and midwifery students' attitudes and beliefs about domestic violence. Data were collected between June and October 2017. Descriptive statistics were calculated and comparative analysis performed on independent variables. Thematic analysis was performed on open-ended qualitative responses. Participants included 1076 students from nine Australian universities. The majority were enrolled in nursing programs (88.4%), followed by midwifery (8.6%), and combined nursing/midwifery (2.4%) programs. There was no statistically significant difference in scores by year level across all subscales, suggesting there was no developmental change in beliefs and attitudes toward domestic violence over the course of study. Nursing students held views that were more violence-tolerant than midwifery students. Australian and Chinese-born males were more likely to refute that domestic violence is more common against women. Students had a limited understanding of domestic violence suggesting a critical need to address undergraduate nursing and midwifery curricula. • Students are poorly prepared to recognise and respond to domestic violence. • Nursing and midwifery students hold similar misperceptions about domestic violence. • Nursing students appear more violent tolerant than midwifery students. • Attitudes about domestic violence change little over the course of study. • Attention toward curriculum and capability development is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim The aim of this study was to assess student nurses’ knowledge of and attitudes towards pressure injury prevention evidence-based guidelines. Background Pressure injuries are a substantial problem in many healthcare settings causing major harm to patients, and generating major economic costs for health service providers. Nurses have a crucial role in the prevention of pressure injuries across all health care settings. Design A multi-centered, cross-sectional study was conducted using a paper-based questionnaire with undergraduate nursing students enrolled in seven universities with campuses across five Australian states (Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania). Methods Data were collected from nursing students using two validated instruments (Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Assessment Instrument and Attitude Toward Pressure Ulcer Prevention Instrument), to measure students’ pressure injury prevention knowledge and attitudes. Results Students reported relatively low pressure injury prevention knowledge scores (51%), and high attitude scores (78%). Critical issues in this study were nursing students’ lack of knowledge about preventative strategies to reduce the amount and duration of pressure/shear, and lower confidence in their capability to prevent pressure injury. Level of education and exposure to working in a greater number of different clinical units were significantly related to pressure injury prevention knowledge and attitude scores. Conclusion The study findings highlight the need to implement a comprehensive approach to increasing Australian nursing students’ pressure injury prevention and management knowledge, as well as ensuring that these students have adequate experiences in clinical units, with a high focus on pressure injury prevention to raise their personal capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]