Nursing Students' Experience of a Poverty Simulation and Its Impact on Empathy and Social Justice Awareness: A Descriptive Qualitative Study.

Holistic nursing practice requires an understanding of the constraints of poverty as one of the social determinants of health. Future nurses need to be change agents for social justice. A descriptive, qualitative study was conducted to explore students' experience of the Missouri Association for Community Action Poverty Simulation© (CAPS) and its impact on empathy and social justice awareness among a purposive sample of 56 sophomore baccalaureate nursing students at a public university in the Northeastern United States. Inductive thematic analysis was applied to data collected from a postparticipation reflection paper. Five themes emerged: (a) emotions, (b) personal history of poverty, (c) empathy, (d) rising advocacy, and (e) lessons learned. The results support that the CAPS simulation provides an experiential opportunity which impacts empathy and foundational attitudes to be a change agent for social justice. Recommendations include structured education about social determinants of health prior to the CAPS simulation, continued education throughout nursing curricula, and experiential opportunities to apply social justice skills before graduation.

Evaluation of a Wellness Clinic in Assessing Knowledge Synthesis Among Bachelor of Science in Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND: To enrich students' clinical learning experience and facilitate their ability to meet the baccalaureate outcomes, students rotate through a faculty-developed nursing wellness clinic. This unique setting was thought to promote knowledge synthesis of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum, yet it had not been formally evaluated. METHOD: A qualitative study was designed to examine the experiences of senior BSN students who rotated through the wellness clinic setting. Focus groups were held for students who volunteered to participate. RESULTS: Analysis identified three themes: Competence and Confidence Issues, Rewards and Frustrations of Delivering Care in the Community, and Using What We Know. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that nursing wellness clinics can provide a rich learning experience and enable students to synthesize the BSN and liberal arts curriculum in order to deliver care. The study is limited due to the small sample size. Future research on the effectiveness of this clinical placement is warranted. [J Nurs Educ. 2020; 59(1):26-29.].

Nursing Faculty Coaches: Uncovering a Hidden Resource for NCLEX-RN Success.

This article presents a nursing faculty department's strategy to empower nursing students identified as being at risk for not passing the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) on the first attempt while significantly increasing the nursing program's overall first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate. These students were identified as being at risk because of their low scores on standardized assessments with national norms predicting the likelihood of passing the NCLEX on the first attempt. This account details the NCLEX-RN Coaching Partnership as an exemplar to support nursing students' success through caring relationships with nursing faculty. Faculty coaches offered support, fostered confidence, and maintained accountability with the identified nursing students. The students provided positive feedback regarding the NCLEX-RN Coaching Partnership and ultimately attributed their passing to the coaching relationships. Seven of the eight identified students passed the examination on the first attempt; the overall program's first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate increased significantly from 78% to 90%.