Pre-assessment judgement framework for judging nursing students' performance in clinical placements: A qualitative case study.

AIM: This study aims to better understand and articulate the pre-assessment judgement processes commonly used by experienced clinical facilitators when assessing nursing students undertaking clinical placement. BACKGROUND: In the Australian context, clinical facilitators are registered nurses who primarily educate, monitor, support and assess groups of nursing students on clinical placements without carrying a patient load. The duties and scope of clinical facilitators may differ across international and institutional contexts. However, the core concepts of this paper will be relevant despite these differences as the importance of facilitators' confidence in making pre-assessment judgements of individual nursing student performance while on placement is universally acknowledged. Nursing students are often assessed on their provision of safe practice, patient task-orientated outcomes and professional behaviour. Clearly articulating performance judgements prior to formal assessment is vital to ensure progressive learning of students. Literature reports that many clinical facilitators lack confidence in the art of making performance judgements and call for targeted professional training and support in the clinical assessment of nursing students. To better understand and address this problem, clinical facilitators need a shared understanding of how individual nursing students' pre-assessment performance judgements are reached during placement experiences. DESIGN: A qualitative case study was used, with data collected via semi-structured interviews. Fifteen Australian clinical facilitators participated, each with over six months of experience. METHODS: Interview transcripts were analysed through an interpretive-constructivist paradigm. Thematic analysis revealed themes that were then deductively described through the application of the Cognitive Continuum Theory. RESULTS: Six modes of pre-assessment judgement emerged from the data synthesis process: 1) Recognising patterns, 2) Acknowledging uncertainty, 3) Understanding key players, 4) Verifying or refuting the information, 5) Benchmarking performance and 6) Contextualising information. Each mode is validated through the deductive application of the Cognitive Continuum theory. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how experienced clinical facilitators make pre-assessment performance judgements has the potential to increase confidence in performance judgement decisions. In turn, confidence in judgements will increase clinical facilitator's capacity to give nursing students feedback that can be explained and justified. The pre-assessment judgement framework also provides a preliminary model for teaching the art of reaching accurate performance judgements to clinical educators in disciplines beyond nursing.

Rituals, ghosts and glorified babysitters: A narrative analysis of stories nurses shared about working the night shift.

Working the night shift can be fraught and experienced as demanding and, yet, is often dismissed as babysitting. Few researchers have explored the social and cultural meanings of night nursing, including storytelling rituals. In 2019, a narrative study was undertaken. The aim was to explore the stories recalled by nurses about working night shifts. Thirteen Australian nurses participated. Data were gathered using the Biographical Narrative Interview Method, and narrative analysis produced forty stories and three themes: strange and challenging experiences; colleagues can be mentors (or not); and textbook knowledge is only part of what is needed on night shift. Nursing students who engage with these stories may come to understand the challenges of the night shift, and the valuable work that nurses engage in throughout a 24-hr period, work that involves adept psychosocial and interpersonal skills alongside technical and physical competence.

Moving nurse educators towards transcendence in simulation comfort.

Expensive simulation equipment continues to sit idle in nursing learning and teaching environments. To identify factors that influence nursing educator comfort in the use of simulation at an Australian university an explorative qualitative research project was undertaken using an interpretative constructivist methodology. The Goodwin et al. (2007) adapted Comfort Theory for nursing education has been used. The aim of the study was to identify factors that influence nurse educator's comfort in the use of simulation. Research question asked was: What are the barriers and enhancers to using simulation as a learning and teaching modality. Thematic analysis of data from focus groups on four different campus sites was undertaken. Four themes identified that affected participants' comfort in this study were: 1) Personal barriers; 2) Human resource barriers; 3) Structural barriers and 4) Suggestions to address barriers. Further understanding of the themes and how they relate to educator comfort with simulation are shared with the reader. The paper also outlines emerging recommendations to improve educator comfort.

Incorporating peer-to-peer facilitation with a mid-level fidelity student led simulation experience for undergraduate nurses.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate peer-to-peer facilitated student led mid-level fidelity simulation experiences. METHODS: Second and third year nursing students (N = 637) were invited to complete a 16-item 6-point Likert scale questionnaire after the simulation experience. RESULTS: Students reported high self-confidence in their nursing skills (M = 4.14, SD = 0.92) and a high level of satisfaction in the learning they received during the peer-to-peer facilitated student led simulation experience (M = 4.42, SD = 0.93). CONCLUSION: Using peer-to-peer teaching strategies during student led simulation experience is an effective approach for ensuring active engagement of all learners during midlevel fidelity group-based simulations and has the potential for broad applicability.