Linda Malone

Student participation in clinical handover–an integrative review

AIM AND OBJECTIVES To examine the literature exploring the current understanding of student nurse participation in clinical handover whilst they are enrolled in an undergraduate preregistration course. BACKGROUND The importance of handing over the care of a patient to ensure continuity and safety of care is well-recognised. Effective preparation of student nurses to competently perform this critical task requires the use of appropriate teaching strategies to support this learning, within undergraduate preregistration nursing programs. DESIGN An integrative literature review. METHOD An integrative literature review was conducted to establish what is known about student nurse participation in relation to clinical handover. This resulted in 18 articles for inclusion in the literature review. An analysis was then undertaken of these 18 articles to extract key themes. RESULTS Learning and teaching strategies need to address a variety of methods of the clinical handover process including verbal and written handovers. Participating in clinical handover prior to being given the responsibility of patient care prepares students for the workplace. Key themes identified within the literature included: learning strategies, limitations and challenges involved in putting theory into practice, handover structure and issues regarding confidentiality. CONCLUSION Simulation and clinical practice are commonly used to prepare students for this role during their undergraduate education. The use of simulation and structured handover techniques prior to clinical placement increases student confidence to engage in clinical handovers during their clinical placements. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This article raises the awareness of both clinical staff and educators as to the need for student nurses to develop their skills in clinical handover practice and suggests strategies to prepare student nurses to conduct clinical handover competently in the clinical setting.

Chronic care undergraduate nursing education in Australia

The Chronic Care Model developed by Wagner is recognised to provide a systematic approach to managing chronic care. It has been adapted by the World Health Organization to become the Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions Framework. Together these have been demonstrated to provide an effective framework for chronic care management in a variety of settings. In order to prepare Australian nursing graduates for a changing health system it is important to recognise global issues and to prepare them to work within well recognised models. This paper examines the publically available documentation of pre-registration nursing degrees in Australia for their alignment with the Chronic Care Model and the Innovative Care for Chronic Conditions Framework. Those aspects of each which are well addressed are identified along with those which could be improved.

Are newly graduated nurses ready to deal with death and dying?: a literature review

Objectives: This article examines the literature currently available to explore the readiness of students and new graduate nurses when faced with death and dying within the workplace. Design: This study was a systematic literature review on research articles from peer reviewed journals using the PRISMA framework. Data sources: Databases utilised in the search included EBSCOHost, Primo Search and Google Scholar. Review methods: Key search terms included new graduate nurses, life limiting illness, nursing undergraduate, nursing students, palliative care. Abstracts of these articles were reviewed to ensure that they related to new graduate and undergraduate nurse experiences with death and dying. Further interrogation of the reference lists located another 39 articles for possible inclusion. Duplicates were removed. Articles for inclusion were to be full text articles available in English and within the date range of 2009 to 2015. This left a total of 31 articles for the review. Results: From the review four key themes emerged. These were; the importance of palliative care in undergraduate nursing curricula, readiness for dealing with death and dying, the death experience for different patient populations and education strategies. Conclusions: There is an increasing emphasis on education strategies to assist with the end of life care knowledge and skills for nursing students. Simulation is seen to be a positive way to provide undergraduate education in end of life care as simulated exposure to dying patients is recognised as an effective means alleviating anxiety regarding death and the care of dying patients. While palliative care is viewed as an important aspect of undergraduate nursing education it is recognised as an area of practice that undergraduate nurses feel they are not adequately prepared for. Undergraduate education needs to incorporate skills such as having conversations and communicating effectively with patients and families experiencing end of life issues. Correspondence to: Linda Deravin Malone, RN, MHM, BN, FACHSM, Lecturer in Nursing, Charles Sturt University, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Panorama Ave, Bathurst, NSW, 2795, Australia; E-mail: lmalone@csu.edu.au