Measuring the Impact of an Educational Intervention on Evidence-Based Practice.

Background With an increasingly complex health care system, there are greater demands for nurses to have a strong foundation in evidence-based practice (EBP) competencies because of their relationship to improved patient and organizational outcomes. Attributes such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes contribute to the development of EBP competencies. Method A quasi-experimental study with a pretest/posttest design was conducted to evaluate the outcomes for 30 RNs in an acute care setting who attended a 3-hour EBP educational intervention using the Healthcare EBP Assessment Tool questionnaire. Results The nurses demonstrated a significant improvement in their perceived understanding of EBP after the intervention (p = .005). Statistically significant improvements were also noted on the subscales of frequency, ability, desire, and barriers. Conclusion Advances in the perception of EBP competencies made by the participants of this intervention may enhance their feeling of contributing to the organization and result in improved patient outcomes and work environment. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of other interventions, including opportunities to be involved in quality improvement projects and research studies. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2022;53(3):109-114.].

Exploring job satisfaction and workplace engagement in millennial nurses.

AIM: To examine job satisfaction and workplace engagement of millennial nurses. BACKGROUND: Millennial nurses are a rapidly growing segment of the workforce. They are significantly less satisfied in their jobs compared with nurses of other generations and are more likely to have perceptions that may negatively impact job satisfaction and engagement. It is important for nurse leaders to understand and value the perspective of these nurses to improve job satisfaction and engagement. METHOD: Exploratory-descriptive qualitative approach with 33 millennial nurses interviewed in nine focus groups. RESULTS: Five themes revealed areas that both enhance and hinder job satisfaction and engagement. Themes include the following: (1) professional relationships; (2) rewards; (3) communication; (4) professional development; and (5) workload/staffing. CONCLUSION: Concerns identified by millennial nurses provide direction for nurse leaders who are charged with fostering a workplace setting that nurtures empathy and respect for nurses of all generations. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Strategies to address preferences of millennials include employee rounding to ask about their needs, offer assistance and provide positive feedback. Ongoing mentoring regarding opportunities to support millennials' professional development includes offering participation in activities to advance evidence-based practice, preceptor training, financial assistance with national certification examinations and tuition reimbursement.

Determining the effectiveness of an interprofessional educational intervention for teamwork competencies among nursing, physical therapy, and pharmacy students.

Interprofessional education is recognized widely as an essential component to improving patient outcomes but little progress has been made toward understanding the impact of specific educational interventions on interprofessional competencies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a case study exercise aimed at improving students' teamwork competencies. A pre and posttest design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of two approaches to an educational intervention. The treatment group combined nursing, physical therapy, and pharmacy students; the control group involved only nursing students. The Team Skills Scale (TSS) was used to measure interprofessional teamwork competencies and open-ended questions were used to elicit students' views. Mean pretest scores were similar for both the treatment and control groups. Following the intervention, posttest TSS scores were significantly higher for both the treatment group and control groups. However, posttest scores for the treatment group were significantly higher than the control group (mean score change 19.2 for treatment group versus 10.0 for control group), indicating that the face-to-face interaction between students of different professions had a greater impact. Themes that emerged from the open-ended questions support the quantitative findings, indicating that the intervention was useful for improving teamwork competencies.