The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nursing Education Programs.

BACKGROUND: The U.S. Boards of Nursing (BONs) collect annual report data from their nursing programs as part of their approval process. This paper highlights the 2020 and 2021 annual report data on the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on all nursing programs in 17 BONs in 2020 and 19 in 2021. METHOD: Nursing programs answered 16 questions on the effect of COVID-19 on their programs. Because BONs require annual report data, all programs in the participating states answered the questions, which included 798 programs in 2020 and 929 in 2021. RESULTS: Major disruptions in nursing education occurred during the pandemic. Clinical experiences and didactic classes were greatly affected, though alternative strategies were used. Student and faculty attrition rates were particularly high in 2021. CONCLUSION: The authors call for a national forum where nurse leaders analyze what happened and make recommendations for future crisis events. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(5):312-319.].

Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nursing Education: A National Study of Prelicensure RN Programs.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on prelicensure nursing education, leading to widespread disruptions that may have implications for nursing students' learning and engagement outcomes. Understanding how the rapid shift to online and simulation-based teaching methods has affected new graduates' clinical preparedness is critical to ensure patient safety moving forward. Purpose: To assess the impact of institutional, academic, and demographic characteristics on prelicensure nursing students' academic, initial postgraduation, and early career outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods longitudinal study focused on prelicensure registered nurse (RN) students entering the core of their didactic and clinical nursing coursework during the pandemic. This study uses a combination of real-time student and faculty self-report data, including externally validated instruments, within and end-of-program standardized test scores, and focus group findings. Various statistical methods, ranging from simpler descriptive and non-parametric methods to Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) models and detailed textual analysis, are applied to assess student, faculty, and institution-level data. Results: The final sample includes more than 1,100 student and faculty participants affiliated with 51 prelicensure RN programs located across 27 states. Leveraging more than 4,000 course observations collected from fall 2020 to spring 2022 and supplemented by the rich personal narratives of over 60 focus group participants, this study illuminates the breadth, scale, and ever-evolving nature of prelicensure RN programs' efforts to maintain the continuity of nursing students' education during the public health crisis. In doing so, it captures the many ways in which nursing administrators, faculty, and students sought to address the unparalleled challenges they confronted on a day-to-day basis. In particular, the findings provide critical insights into the efficacy of the changes nursing programs made to their course delivery formats to adjust to the confluence of rapidly evolving federal, state, and private restrictions to stem the spread of COVID-19. Conclusion: This study stands as the most comprehensive assessment of prelicensure nursing education in the United States since the onset of COVID-19. It extends knowledge by linking potential deficiencies in students' didactic and clinical education during the pandemic and their early career preparedness, clinical competence, and the patient safety implications therein.

Nursing Student Errors and Near Misses: Three Years of Data.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the magnitude of errors and near misses in all health care situations is crucial to preventing them from occurring in the future. However, little research is available on the type or extent of nursing student errors in the United States. METHOD: Nursing student error and near miss data were submitted by more than 200 participating prelicensure nursing programs via a secured online repository. RESULTS: Medication errors represented more than half (58.8%, n = 613) of the total error and near-miss data (n = 1,042) submitted. Errors and near misses were attributed to students not adhering to three major patient safety procedures: checking the patient's identification, checking the patient's allergy status, and following the rights of medication administration. CONCLUSION: Results indicate collecting data on nursing students' errors and near misses can help nursing programs identify system issues, promote transparency, and make quality improvements. [J Nurs Educ. 2023;62(1):12-19.].

Preceptor Support in Hospital Transition to Practice Programs.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to describe newly licensed RN (NLRN) preceptorships and the effects on competency and retention. BACKGROUND: Preceptors are widely used, but little is known about the benefit from the perspective of the NLRN or about the models of the relationships. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing added questions about the preceptor experience in a study of transition-to-practice programs. METHODS: Hospitals were coded as having high or low preceptor support in regard to scheduling NLRN on the same shifts as their preceptors, assignment sharing, and preceptor release time and a low number of preceptors per preceptee. RESULTS: Half of the 82 hospitals were classified as high, and half as low preceptor support. NLRNs and their preceptors in high-support hospitals evaluated the preceptor experience and NLRN competence higher. In addition, NLRN retention was higher in the high-support hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: To improve NLRN competence and retention, preceptors should have adequate time with each NLRN, share shift and patient assignments, and have few preceptees assigned to each preceptor concurrently.

Adjuvant chemotherapy in lymph node positive bladder cancer.

OBJECTIVES: Lymph node-positive bladder cancer is a systemic disease in the majority of patients. Adjuvant chemotherapy given shortly after surgery, when tumor burden is low, seems reasonable, yet there is no proof that it improves survival. In this retrospective study, we compare the outcomes of patients with microscopic lymph node positive bladder cancer (pN1 or pN2) treated with radical cystectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and those who declined chemotherapy. METHODS: Sixty-seven patients with lymph node positive bladder cancer (26 pN1 and 41 pN2) who underwent radical cystectomy between April 1995 and April 2005 were reviewed. Combined adjuvant chemotherapy (gemcitabine and cisplatin in most patients) was given to 35 patients (52%), but declined by 32 (48%). The two groups were similar in performance status, postoperative complication rate, and N stage but deferring patients were on average 5 years older and had a more advanced T stage. Study primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Adjuvant chemotherapy was well tolerated and 28/35 patients (80%) completed all 4 cycles. Median OS of patients given adjuvant chemotherapy was 48 months compared with 8 months for declining patients (hazard ratio 0.13, 95% CI 0.04-0.4, P < 0.0001). Multivariate age adjusted analysis showed that adjuvant chemotherapy was an independent factor affecting OS (hazard ratio 0.2, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: This study supports the use of adjuvant chemotherapy after radical cystectomy in patients with node positive bladder cancer. Study design and patient imbalances make it impossible to draw definitive conclusions.

The predictive value of multi-targeted fluorescent in-situ hybridization in patients with history of bladder cancer.

OBJECTIVES: UroVysion (Abbott Molecular Inc., Des Plaines, IL) is a multi-target fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) assay that detects aneuploidy of chromosomes 3, 7, and 17, and loss of the 9p21 locus in exfoliated cells in urine. In this study, we evaluated if UroVysion can predict tumor recurrence in patients with negative cystoscopy and urinary cytology at the time of (FISH) assay. METHODS: The study population included patients with history of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer treated by transurethral resection. Follow-up included cystoscopy, barbotage, urinary cytology, and UroVysion testing. Patients were followed for at least 6 months after their initial UroVysion testing. RESULTS: A total of 64 patients (37 males) were enrolled into the study. Mean patient age was 62 years (S.D. 13.2 years). Initial highest tumor stage was Ta in 42 patients (65.6%), T1 in 21 patients (33%), and isolated Tis in a single patient. Abnormal UroVysion results were observed in 40 patients (62.5%). After a median follow-up of 13.5 months, 21 patients (33%) developed tumor recurrence (Ta in 13 patients, T1 in 5, and Tis in 3). Recurrent tumors developed in 45% of the patients with abnormal UroVysion test compared with 12.5% of the patients with normal assay (P = 0.01). An abnormal UroVysion result preceded the diagnosis of tumor recurrence in 18/21 cases (86%), including all high-grade recurrences. CONCLUSIONS: This data suggest that UroVysion may be a useful tool for predicting tumor recurrence. Cystoscopy may be spared and surveillance intervals widened in patients with history of low grade tumors and a normal UroVysion test.