Fiona C Smith

Online video in clinical skills education of oral medication administration for undergraduate student nurses: A mixed methods, prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Improvements in the safety of the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines are identified as a priority across international healthcare systems. It is therefore essential that higher education institutions play their part in helping to meet this patient safety objective. New developments in clinical skills education which are aligned to emerging educational theory are available, but evaluations and supportive evidence are limited. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the use of an online best practice exemplar as an adjunct to the clinical skills teaching of oral medication administration to undergraduate student nurses. DESIGN Mixed-methods prospective cohort design. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS Two intakes of undergraduate nursing students (n=168, n=154) undertaking a first year clinical skills based module at a British university. METHODS The Control group received standard teaching using lectures and skills classes facilitated by experienced clinical skills lecturers. The Intervention group received the standard teaching and unlimited access to an online video clip of medication administration. Performance and satisfaction were measured using module assessment results and a satisfaction questionnaire. Qualitative data were gathered using focus groups (n=16, n=20). RESULTS The Intervention group was significantly (p=0.021) more likely to pass the assessment and rate their satisfaction with the teaching significantly higher (p<0.05) on more than half of the items from the Student Satisfaction Survey. Two Categories were identified from focus group data; Classroom Learning and Transfer to Practice. Classroom Learning included four themes of Peers, Self, Teaching and Time and when Classroom Learning was positive, the Transfer to Practice of the clinical skill was enhanced. CONCLUSIONS An online video of a best practice exemplar as an adjunct to taught clinical skills sessions improves student assessment results and satisfaction ratings. The video was also reported to positively influence all themes identified in Classroom Learning and was perceived to promote the Transfer to Practice of teaching input.

The children's national service framework: from policy to practice.

National service frameworks (NSFs) set national standards and define service models for specific clinical services or groups, put in place programmes to support their implementation and establish performance measures against which progress can be tracked. The children’s NSFs in England and Wales set standards for health and social services for children and young people, and for maternity services. There is as yet, however, little published empirical evidence regarding factors that enhance or hinder NSF implementation. The Department of Health commissioned a project, undertaken by the RCN’s Political Leadership Programme, to review initiatives in England intended to support the implementation of previous NSFs and identify which of them are most likely to assist turning policy into practice. The study involved individuals who had helped to implement previous NSFs in a wide range of health and social care organisations and agencies. They included staff from the DoH, trust executive and non-executive directors, clinical champions, and representatives from relevant patient or user groups and voluntary organisations. Some recommendations for further action as a result of this work are outlined in this article. The project focused on the English health service context but there are general lessons for implementation of children’s service standards across the UK.

Carbon dioxide detection for testing nasogastric tube placement in adults.

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of capnometry and capnography for detecting correct NGT placement in adults compared to the reference standard