Health-promoting behaviors and self-efficacy among nursing students in times of uncertainty.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students are often faced with academic and personal stressors that threaten their Health-Promoting Behaviors (HPB) and well-being. Research on how living in a context of high political uncertainty can impact nursing students' HPB is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between HPB and self-efficacy among nursing students in a context of high political uncertainty. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study that included 120 undergraduate nursing students from Lebanon who completed an electronic self-reported questionnaire. RESULTS: The results indicated that HPB measured by HPLP-II scores were negatively correlated with overall uncertainty scores (r = -.29, p < .01) and positively correlated with the General Self-Efficacy (GSE) scale scores (r = .41, p < .001). Results from the multiple linear regression model indicated that physical activity frequency and GSE were independent predictors of the total health-promoting lifestyle profile and the model explained 30.28% of the variance in the total HPLP-II scale. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: This study further emphasizes the importance of regular physical activity (at least 3 h a week) as a strategy to improve HPB among nursing students. Culturally sensitive strategies that aim to enhance HPB should be embedded in undergraduate nursing curricula. Public health nurses and university counselors should join efforts to develop strategies to maintain or enhance self-efficacy and to promote regular physical activity among nursing students. Future research should further study the association between self-efficacy, resilience, and uncertainty in contexts of ongoing conflicts.

Implementing an interprofessional education programme in Lebanon: overcoming challenges.

BACKGROUND: The Lebanese American University has a well-functioning inter-professional education (IPE) programme; this is a fundamental pedagogical approach in healthcare education in which students from different professions learn together, ultimately leading to improving the skills of the health care workforce and thus improving patient outcomes. The programme includes nursing, nutrition, medicine, pharmacy and social work students, and has now been running for 6 years. AIMS: This paper aims at describing the implementation of an IPE programme in Lebanon by focusing on how to overcome the main challenges. METHODS: We describe our experience using the categories of challenges developed by Sunguya et al. (2014), where they analysed published reports of IPE programmes in developed countries. We identified three additional challenges that might be relevant throughout the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region or in countries with similar socioeconomic characteristics. RESULTS: The challenges encountered in designing and implementing the IPE programme were similar to other programmes: curriculum, leadership, resources, stereotypes and attitudes, variety of students, IPE concept, teaching, enthusiasm, professional jargon and accreditation as well as assessment of learning, security and logistics. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides data and successful strategies that can be used by planned or implemented programmes in similar socioeconomic contexts in the MENA region.

Student perceptions towards interprofessional education: Findings from a longitudinal study based in a Middle Eastern university.

The Lebanese American University Interprofessional Education (LAU IPE) Steps Framework consists of a five-step workshop-based series that is offered throughout the curriculum of health and social care students at an American university in Lebanon. The aim of the present study was to report students' perceptions of their readiness for interprofessional learning before and after completing the IPE steps, their evaluations of interprofessional learning outcomes, as well as their satisfaction with the learning experience as a whole. A longitudinal survey design was used: questionnaires were completed by students before IPE exposure and after each step. The results showed that before IPE exposure, students' perceptions of their readiness for interprofessional learning were generally favourable, with differences across genders (stronger professional identity in females compared to males) and across professions (higher teamwork and collaboration in pharmacy and nutrition students compared to other professions and lower patient centredness in nursing students compared to others). After participation in the IPE steps, students showed enhanced readiness for interprofessional learning and differences between genders and professions decreased. Participants were satisfied with the learning experience and assessment scores showed that all IPE learning outcomes were met. The LAU IPE Steps Framework may be of value to other interprofessional education course developers.