Lisa Beccaria

Nursing student's perceptions and understanding of intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant health issue in the Australian population and nurses have a role in assessment, intervention and support of families. World Health Organization Statistics indicate that as many as 61% of women, under the age of 50 have been physically abused by their partners. As nurses are in a unique position to identify, assist and support women living with IPV a greater understanding of student nurses knowledge and attitudes may assist undergraduate programs to ensure better preparation of nurses for this role. A nurses readiness to manage IPV may be influenced by their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, largely related to their self-efficacy in identifying these women (i.e. via screening procedures) and providing effective interventions. Students from all levels of the undergraduate program of an Australian regional university were invited to participate in focus groups and a subsequent survey that explored their perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of IPV. The results showed students had limited and stereotypical beliefs regarding what constitutes IPV and who perpetrates it. They indicated that they were under prepared to deal with IPV situations in clinical practice but did identify communication as a core skill required. Nursing students may not understand the significance of the issues of IPV nor fully understand the social, economic and health impacts at an individual and societal level. This may result in further under detection of the problem. The results of this study indicate a number of important implications for undergraduate nursing education curricula.

A confirmatory factor analysis of the student evidence-based practice questionnaire (s-ebpq) in an Australian sample

BACKGROUND It is crucial that nursing students develop skills and confidence in using Evidence-Based Practice principles early in their education. This should be assessed with valid tools however, to date, few measures have been developed and applied to the student population. OBJECTIVE To examine the structural validity of the Student Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (S-EBPQ), with an Australian online nursing student cohort. DESIGN A cross-sectional study for constructing validity. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD Three hundred and forty-five undergraduate nursing students from an Australian regional university were recruited across two semesters. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to examine the structural validity. RESULTS Confirmatory Factor Analysis was applied which resulted in a good fitting model, based on a revised 20-item tool. CONCLUSIONS The S-EBPQ tool remains a psychometrically robust measure of evidence-based practice use, attitudes, and knowledge and skills and can be applied in an online Australian student context. The findings of this study provided further evidence of the reliability and four factor structure of the S-EBPQ. Opportunities for further refinement of the tool may result in improvements in structural validity.

Exploring nursing educators' use of theory and methods in search for evidence based credibility in nursing education

OBJECTIVES In this paper, a review of nursing education literature is employed to ascertain the extent to which nursing educators apply theory to their research, as well as the types of theory they employ. In addition, the use of research methodologies in the nursing education literature is explored. DESIGN An integrative review. METHODS A systematic search was conducted for English-language, peer reviewed publications of any research design via Academic Search Complete, Science Direct, CINAHL, and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition databases from 2001 to 2016, of which 140 were reviewed. FINDINGS The findings suggest that within current nursing education literature the scholarship of discovery, and the exploration of epistemologies other than nursing, in particular as they relate to teaching and learning, shows significant potential for expansion and diversification. CONCLUSIONS The analysis highlights opportunities for nursing educators to incorporate broader theoretical, pedagogical, methodological and philosophical perspectives within teaching and the scholarship of teaching.

Role of Health-Promoting Behaviours for On-Campus and Distance Education Students.

Abstract University students are likely to experience high rates of stress, which has the potential to negatively affect academic performance and their experience of study. Research with on-campus students has found positive benefits of health-promoting behaviours such as stress reduction and academic achievement; yet no research has examined these relationships with distance education students (and in comparison with on-campus students). Distance education students are a growing cohort in Australia higher education and elsewhere. This paper aims to redress this imbalance by comparing the relationships between stress, strain and coping, academic outcomes, and health-promoting behaviours in tertiary students (on-campus and distance education students). The study involved 242 on-campus and 399 distance education students at a regional Australian university. A path model was developed comparing both cohorts, and relationships were found to be similar, indicating no significant difference. Online interventions for distance education students which could be used to enhance coping are discussed.