Evaluation of resource allocation for undergraduate nursing professional experience placements coordination in Australian Higher Education; A cross-sectional study with descriptive qualitative thematic analysis.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: To assess the implementation of standards by Australian Nursing higher education providers as set by accrediting and regulating bodies and to identify any barriers or enablers to optimizing Professional Experience Placement. To recommend strategies for safeguarding and improving any identified enablers as well as mitigating factors for any identified barriers. BACKGROUND: Professional Experience Placement is an essential element of all accredited Nursing Programs in Australia. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council is responsible for developing accreditation standards and mandates minimum of 800 h of Professional Experience Placement scaffolded across curriculum which some Higher Education Providers set as their exact baseline for clinical placement duration. DESIGN: Descriptive study using; questionnaire survey with qualitative thematic analysis and CROSS checklist. METHOD: Quantitative method with descriptive qualitative thematic analysis and purposive sampling was used to target 37 higher education institutions that offer BN and BN/BM programs, 33 of these institutions were randomly selected for inclusion. Data was collected over a six-week period from 24th May to 4th July 2022 using Qualtrics online survey. RESULTS: Out of the 33 Higher Education providers who were invited to participate, 51.5 % (n = 17) responded. The respondent's demographics were: 94 % Bachelor of Nursing only placements coordinators while one respondent reported covering both Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwifery; Most of the respondents (65 %) were in 40-55 years age group. The respondents reported to have overall responsibility across one to 6 campuses (Mean = 2.2) and having support/administrative staffs ranging from 0 to 15 (Mean = 4.11). Student population among the institutions ranged from 500 to 7500 with a mean of 2365.38. The number of campuses covered had statistically significant relationship with the student population (p < 0.001; 0.392-0.929 confidence interval) however no statistically significant relationship with the number of administrative staff allocated (p = 0.319; -0.297 to 0.704 confidence interval). CONCLUSIONS: While great processes are in place across higher education sector in formalizing nursing professional experience placement, important challenges still exist across the nation that need to be addressed. The quantitative findings should be interpreted with caution given the low questionnaire response rate.