Another Piece of the Practice Environment Puzzle: Development and Validation of a Team Virtuousness Instrument.

The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, a widely used practice environment instrument, does not measure vital coworker interrelations. Team virtuousness measures coworker interrelations, yet the literature lacks a comprehensive instrument built from a theoretical foundation that captures the structure. This study sought to develop a comprehensive measure of team virtuousness built from Aquinas' Virtue Ethics Theory that captures the underlying structure. Subjects included nursing unit staff and master of business administration (MBA) students. A total of 114 items were generated and administered to MBA students. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were run on randomly split halves. Based on analyses, 33 items were subsequently administered to nursing unit staff. EFA and CFA were repeated on randomly split halves; CFA item loadings replicated EFA. Three components emerged from the MBA student data: integrity, α = .96; group benevolence, α = .70; and excellence, α = .91. Two components emerged from the nursing unit data: wisdom, α = .97; and excellence, α = .94. Team virtuousness varied significantly among units and correlated significantly with engagement. The two component instrument, named the Perceived Trustworthiness Indicator, is a comprehensive measure of team virtuousness built from a theoretical framework that captures the underlying structure, demonstrates adequate reliability and validity, and measures coworker interrelations on nursing units. Forgiveness and relational and inner harmony emerged as elements of team virtuousness, broadening understanding.

Virtue ethics in health care teams; its time has come: Review of the nursing virtue ethics literature.

AIM: To summarize and evaluate the nursing virtue ethics literature, examine how virtue ethics has been applied to health care teams, offer a new framework to guide understanding and development of virtuous health care teams and offer recommendations to nurse leaders. BACKGROUND: With the unprecedented levels of incivility and turnover in the post-COVID-19 world, virtue ethics may provide an innovative approach for nursing leaders working to rebuild healthy practice environments. EVALUATION: An integrative review yielded articles from eight databases using PRISMA guidelines. Level of evidence and quality were assessed using the Johns Hopkins tools. KEY ISSUES: Virtue ethics has been of interest to the health care community predominantly as a concept. Most articles focused on debating whether virtue ethics belongs in nursing. Virtue ethics offers a creative strategy for leaders to attract and retain nurses. CONCLUSION: There is a dearth of research on virtue ethics and nursing. One study empirically uncovered and validated a framework for virtue ethics in health care teams. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To rebuild strong health care teams, nurse leaders can model virtue ethics using an empirically derived framework while coaching their teams to do the same. Doing so holds the promise of reengaging staff and rebuilding healthy practice environments.

Weekly Email Reminders Increase Nursing Students' Use of Empathic Communication: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Empathic communication has numerous patient benefits, yet many nurses do not possess or utilize empathic communication skills. PURPOSE: This study compared the efficacy of 2 low-cost, low-resource-intensive interventions to increase nursing students' use of empathic communication. METHODS: The study was a randomized controlled trial with a pretest, posttest, and 3-month follow-up test. Participants were assigned to 1 of 4 groups: weekly empathic communication email reminders, an empathic communication quick reference guide, both, or neither. RESULTS: All groups showed a significant increase in empathic communication between the pretest and posttest. The group that received emails only showed a significant increase above and beyond the control group. None of the groups significantly increased or decreased their empathic communication between the posttest and 3-month follow-up test. CONCLUSIONS: Weekly empathic communication email reminders can increase nursing students' use of empathic communication above and beyond traditional lectures and class activities.

Effect of Experiential Competency-Based Interprofessional Education on Pre-Professional Undergraduate Students: A Pilot Study.

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary faculty team-led competency-based interprofessional undergraduate course for health and human services pre-professional students. Today's complex health and social problems require inter-professional knowledge and skills. Most interprofessional education occurs in graduate-level healthcare programs. Students graduating from health and allied health professions at the undergraduate level are ill prepared to work on interprofessional teams. Using a quasi-experimental design, this study examined the impact of an innovative experiential course on interprofessional competencies. Eleven undergraduate students in human services, public health, and nursing participated in the course. Students and faculty completed a modified Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competency Survey after each simulation and results were compared. At the end of the semester, each student also responded to open-ended prompts describing their reflections pertaining to team experiences. The results of this study indicate that an undergraduate course can increase students' interprofessional competencies, and that group dynamics influence how students view their skill levels. Consistent with other studies on this topic, students' self-ratings on the survey were mostly higher than those completed by faculty members. Educators need to process group dynamics (e.g., storming, norming) and individual styles of work regularly throughout the semester in order to maximize students' development of interprofessional competencies. Pre-professional students should be provided interprofessional learning opportunities to improve their competencies for addressing complex health and social challenges.

Nursing students' perceptions of faculty trustworthiness: Thematic analysis of a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Although trust and perceived trustworthiness have been studied for decades, few studies have examined nursing students' perceptions of faculty trustworthiness. OBJECTIVES: To uncover the characteristics and behaviors of faculty members that lead nursing students to trust them. DESIGN: A longitudinal, qualitative study using focus group data. SETTING: A baccalaureate nursing school at a state university in the southeastern United States. PARTICIPANTS: Two cohorts of nursing students (starting in the Fall of 2015 or Spring of 2016) during the beginning, middle, and end of their advancement through the nursing school curriculum. METHODS: Eleven focus groups were held with a total of 77 participants from a purposeful sample of two cohorts. Thematic analysis was conducted on the focus group data. RESULTS: Three core themes emerged regarding the characteristics and behaviors of faculty members that lead nursing students to trust them: Giving of Oneself, Being Competent, and Having Integrity. The study findings provide guidance to nursing faculty regarding how to be perceived as trustworthy by students and how to avoid being perceived as untrustworthy. CONCLUSIONS: Upon examining their personal traits, words and behaviors, nursing educators may choose to change aspects of their demeanor to foster a student-faculty relationship built on trust.