Jefferson interprofessional clinical rounding project: an innovative approach to patient care.

BACKGROUND: Bedside rounding is an historical clinical model that brings together care providers and the patient to discuss the plan of care. Interprofessional clinical rounding is an approach that uses this historical model to involve multiple health professions. This study was conducted to determine if a model of interprofessional clinical rounding could be implemented successfully in an acute care setting. METHODS: Teams consisting of medical, nursing, and pharmacy students were assigned to work with the attending physician (AP) in the colorectal surgery service. Prior to the rounding experience, students met to review and discuss patients' data from their discipline-specific perspective and then made a presentation of the case to the AP, who used these presentations as an educational opportunity, asking probing questions. A structured observation form was used to assess the team members' interaction during this process, and a debriefing was held at the conclusion of each experience. FINDINGS: Results of the observations suggested that most students were very engaged in the process, while summaries of the debriefing revealed a high level of satisfaction among participants. All groups suggested that they had a better understanding of the roles of other professions as a result of the increased communication and claimed that the process resulted in a more patient-centered approach. They also claimed that the additional information provided through the team approach resulted in a more integrated plan of care because input is provided from these different perspectives. CONCLUSION: Interprofessional bedside rounding can be implemented successfully, resulting in a more effective experience for health professions students.

The lived experience of NCLEX failure.

Educators help coach, focus, and prepare students for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), but often fall short in providing support when graduates are not successful. Most research to date has focused solely on predicting failure, with little to no attention given to interventions after failure. This study presents the voices of unsuccessful candidates, their responses to failure, their perspectives of the factors that contributed to their failure, and the changes they made that led to subsequent success. The results demonstrate common themes related to the failure experience, successful remediation strategies for retesting, and recommendations for faculty interventions during this vulnerable period. Nurse educators have a responsibility to identify, inform, and intervene with students who are at high risk of failing the NCLEX, and this responsibility is executed capably. However, the role extends beyond graduation. The responsibility to help nursing graduates transition from failure to licensure is the final step of successful undergraduate nursing education.

Teaching baccalaureate nursing students to prevent medication errors using a problem-based learning approach.

An objective of the baccalaureate nursing curriculum at Thomas Jefferson University, Jefferson College of Health Professions is to facilitate nursing students' transfer of medication error knowledge into preventive action in the clinical unit. Using a problem-based learning approach, first-semester students are exposed to situations that reflect the real-world scope and complexity of medication administration and errors. Using the frameworks of Failure Mode Analysis and Human Error Mode and Effects Analysis, student groups identify hypotheses, devise solutions, and develop continuous quality improvement processes to prevent errors and facilitate error reporting. Problem-based learning is used in subsequent clinical experiences throughout the curriculum. This reinforcement, combined with a focus on increasingly complex pharmacological agents and medication calculations, enables students to employ critical thinking skills and develop the confidence necessary for safe, professional practice.