Lina Shahwan-Akl

The evaluation of a successful collaborative education model to expand student clinical placements.

Worldwide, universities have been encouraged to increase the number of students enrolled in nursing courses as a way to bolster the domestic supply of graduates and address workforce shortages. This places pressure on clinical agencies to accommodate greater numbers of students for clinical experience who, in Australia, may often come from different educational institutions. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a collaborative model of clinical education that would increase the capacity of a health care agency to accommodate student placements and improve workplace readiness. The project was undertaken in a medium sized regional hospital in rural Australia where most nurses worked part time. Through an iterative process, a new supported preceptorship model was developed by academics from three institutions and staff from the hospital. Focus group discussions and interviews were conducted with key stakeholders and clinical placement data analysed for the years 2004 (baseline) to 2007. The model was associated with a 58% increase in the number of students and a 45% increase in the number of student placement weeks over the four year period. Students reported positively on their experience and key stakeholders believed that the new model would better prepare students for the realities of nursing work.

Expanding the clinical placement capacity of rural hospitals in Australia: Displacing Peta to place Paul?

In order to identify opportunities to build capacity for clinical placements, we mapped and described the organisation of student placements at three hospitals, each with multiple education providers, in rural Victoria, Australia. Using a cross-sectional, mixed method design, data were collected by survey, interviews and discussion with student placement coordinators representing 16 clinical health disciplines. Teaching and supporting students was regarded as an important part of the service each hospital provided and a useful staff recruitment strategy. There were peaks and troughs in student load over the year, though this was less marked for medicine and dentistry than for nursing and allied health disciplines. Whilst placements were managed largely on a discipline basis, each hospital had taken steps to communicate information about student placements across disciplines and to identify opportunities for interprofessional education (IPE). Placement capacity could be increased by sharing placement data within hospitals, smoothing the utilisation patterns across the year, capitalising on opportunities for IPE when there is concurrent placement of students from different disciplines, and through better employment of underutilised clinical areas.

Palliative care education - does it influence future practice?

Abstract A group of year 3 undergraduate nursing students enrolled in an Oncology and Palliative Care Course took part in a study designed to uncover if their subsequent learning had a positive impact upon their capacity to practise palliative care. All the participants reported that the course assisted them in the clinical provision of palliative care.

Job satisfaction of Saudi nurses working in Saudi Arabian public hospitals

For decades, Saudi Arabia has relied exclusively on expatriate nurses to service its hospitals. Due to the global shortage of nurses, Saudi Arabia is now facing difficulties recruiting and retaining an expatriate nursing workforce. Using Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory as a theoretical framework, paired with a descriptive, explorative mixed-method design, this study identified the factors that most affected the job satisfaction levels of Saudi national nurses working in three main public hospitals of the Makkah Region, Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted in two phases: in the first phase, 272 nurses were surveyed to identify what factors they believed lead to job satisfaction. The second phase consisted of face-to-face interviews with 17 Saudi nurses and sought to identify in greater depth the factors they perceived were most important to providing them with positive feelings and job satisfaction. Hopefully, these findings will provide insights that may influence recruiting and retaining Saudi nationals to study nursing, subsequently alleviating the shortage and bringing stability to the Saudi nursing workforce.