Nursing students' perceived stress, self-efficacy, control and evaluation of a course in systematic clinical observation, physical assessment and decision-making: An observational study in Norway.

AIM: Simulation-based nursing education interventions have a strong educational effect on psychomotoric skills, but students may experience physiological stress and anxiety during simulation. The aims of this study were to explore (1) nursing students' perceived stress, self-efficacy, control and evaluation before and after simulation as part a structured course in physical assessment, (2) whether factors such as gender, age or previous work experience were associated with perceived stress during simulation and (3) nursing students evaluation of the course. DESIGN: An observational, cross-sectional study before and after simulation and a course in physical assessment. METHODS: We utilized "the Self-Assessment Manikin for measuring emotion" before and after simulation, a questionnaire to identify symptoms of stress after simulation, and a questionnaire to evaluate the physical assessment course. RESULTS: A total of 59 students participated. Students perceived stress before simulation but reported a lower degree of activation, a more positive mood, increased feeling of control and self-efficacy after the simulation. They also felt more secure about their assessments. Even though students reported of several symptoms of stress before simluation, the course increased students' self-reported competence and feeling of security.

Supervising students in a complex nursing practice- a focus group study in Norway.

BACKGROUND: The supervisory role of registered nurses and intellectual disability nurses will be even more essential in the future, to support the education of competent newly graduated candidates. To our knowledge few studies have explored nursing student supervisors' perspectives on supervision across primary- and hospital healthcare services and also across nurse educational programs. The aim of the current study was to investigate supervisors' perspectives on supervising from different clinical settings, and across registered nurses' and intellectual disability nurses' clinical practice. METHODS: The study had an exploratory and descriptive design. The study was conducted within one university college catchment area in Southeastern-Norway. Eight focous group interviews were conducted in primary healthcare (n = 4) and hospital (n = 4) wards. A total of 31 registered nurses and three intellectual disability nurses participated. Hsieh and Shannon's conventional content analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Participants across primary- and hospital healthcare agreed that clinical practice was complex, and required that students gained competence in both technical and non-technical skills. Moreover, needed skills were described both as general and arena specific, and as both basic and advanced. Participants perceived that technical and non-technical skills together, ideally should lead to students being able to «see the person¼ behind the patient. CONCLUSIONS: Supervisors emphasized the challenges of supervising students in a complex nursing practice. Students should gain both procedural competence and an ability to provide person-centred care, and this challenged the supervisors' own competence. Our findings indicate a need to support supervisors, to enable them to meet these challenges.

Nursing supervisors' perspectives on student preparedness before clinical placements- a focus group study.

METHODS: The study was conducted in a county in Southeastern-Norway, with 317.000 inhabitants, and within one hospital and one university college catchment area. Focus group interviews were conducted in the periode August to December 2018. Data were analyzed using Hsieh and Shannon's conventional content analysis. RESULTS: 34 nursing supervisors participated, three intellectual disability nurses and 31 registered nurses, working in four different primary healthcare wards and four different hospital wards. Participants' age ranged from 23 to 58 years, one male only. Through the analysis we derived the category 'Shared responsibility for preparation' with subcategories a) Individual initiative, and b) University college facilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that there is a gap between nursing supervisors' expectations and reality regarding students' preparedness for clinical placements. Moreover, nursing supervisors did not seem to focus on their own role in student preparedness.

Nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements in primary and tertiary healthcare services.

Aim: To explore nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements in primary and tertiary healthcare services and their perspectives on where students should learn these skills. Design: The study was conducted in Norway and had a cross-sectional, multicentre, descriptive design. Methods: We used a questionnaire to explore registered nurses and intellectual disability nurses' perspectives on technical skill requirements and learning (N = 437). Results: All the skills included in the university college curricula were reported to be required, and most skills should from the respondents' perspective be learned in the university college. There were significant differences between registered nurses and intellectual disability nurses about their perspectives on skill learning, but no significant differences between respondents in the interface between hospital and municipality wards. Conclusions: Results from this study indicate that nurses need extensive technical skills in both primary and tertiary health care. Findings also indicate a need to modify the university college curricula.