Clinical competency:perceptions of nursing interns and clinical mentors

Objective:To assess the clinical competency of nursing interns and the perception of clinical nurse mentors toward student nurses'clinical competency.Methods:A study was carried out among 104 nursing interns and 26 clinical nurse mentors using the purposive sampling technique.A self-repor ted perception scale was used to collect the data.Results:In general,most nursing interns perceived themselves as clinically competent during the internship.The clinical nurse mentors too repor ted that the current internship is helping the nursing interns in becoming competent.Conclusions:Frequent clinical evaluation,buddy system,provision of stipends,good leadership,and coordination between the academic institute and hospital are repor ted as the critical motivating factors for improving the clinical competency of student interns.

Nurse Mentor Training Program to Improve Quality of Maternal and Newborn Care at Primary Health Centres: Process Evaluation

Quality of maternal and newborn care could be improved if health care providers’ knowledge and competencies as well as system level constraints are addressed. However, due to several barriers staff nurses who form the frontline of health care workforce have limited access to enhancing their clinical knowledge and competencies. To address this gap, a new cadre of nurse mentors (NMs) for the public health system were trained by specialists from a teaching hospital in a special 5-week training course. This included 54 hours of theory and 110 hours of practical in clinical obstetric and newborn care, apart from mentoring, quality improvement and health systems issues. The nurse mentors were assigned to support staff nurses in the primary health care centres (PHCs) in eight northern Karnataka districts. Each NM covered 6-8 PHCs monthly for 2 - 3 days and thus a total of 385 PHCs were reached. They received support in the field through supportive supervision visits done by the specialists who had trained them, as well as by refresher training and clinical postings to the district hospitals. This paper presents impact of the training program on change in immediate and long term knowledge and competency scores of nurse mentors. Their baseline knowledge scores changed from 44.3 ± 12.7 to 72.1 ± 13.8 immediately after the training in obstetric and from 18.2 ± 19.1 to 66.4 ± 14.9 in newborn (p p p > 0.05). Skills score soon after training increased from 62.2 ± 13.2 to 69.6 ± 12.5 in obstetric after a 1 year period and from 52.6 ± 9.3;63.5 ± 14.4 in newborn (p < 0.001) content areas respectively. These findings have implications for those interested in improving quality of maternal and child care through nurse-dependent health delivery systems.

Application of Microteaching Combined with Problem-Based Learning(PBL)Teaching Model in Teaching Clinical Nursing Interns in Otorhinolaryngology Department

Objective:To explore the application effect of microteaching combined with problem-based learning(PBL)teaching mode in teaching clinical nursing interns in otorhinolaryngology department.Methods:A total of 72 nursing students who interned in our hospital from June 2022 to February 2023 were selected,and all of them were comprehensively trained in basic theoretical knowledge as well as practical skills before the beginning of their learning tasks.The students were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group,with 36 students in each group.The control group was taught using the traditional clinical nursing teaching mode,and the experimental group was taught using microteaching combined with the PBL teaching mode,subsequently comparing the differences between the two groups of interns in the degree of mastery of theoretical knowledge,hands-on skills,teamwork ability,patient satisfaction,and other aspects.Results:In terms of mastery of theoretical knowledge,the interns in the experimental group(97.22%)were significantly better than that of the control group(75.00%)(P<0.05);the interns in the experimental group had significantly better practical skills(77.78%)than that of the control group(55.56%)(P<0.05);the interns in the experimental group had significantly better teamwork ability than the control group(P<0.05);through the questionnaire survey,it was found that students’satisfaction with teaching in the experimental group(97.22%)was also significantly higher than that in the control group(75.00%)(P<0.05).Conclusion:The application of microteaching combined with PBL teaching mode in the teaching of clinical nursing interns in otorhinolaryngology department achieved significant results.It can not only improve the professional knowledge and application ability of nursing students,but also cultivate their independent thinking,problem-solving skill,as well as teamwork ability.It can also improve the teaching quality and patient satisfaction,and contribute positively to the development of medical education.

The Importance of Mentoring in Nursing Academia

Mentoring in academia promotes the retention of students and future faculty. Presently, it is general knowledge that we have a shortage of nurses in our profession. However, we also have a shortage of experientially qualified educators and mentors. In general, the problem is there is a lack of mentors in healthcare as a whole that have the ability or willingness to mentor future generations of faculty. Mentors are needed to pass on knowledge and promote retention of students and faculty in academia. The example we present to the students in healthcare professions will also impact the retention of healthcare faculty as a whole. It is logical to think that if we retain our students in academia, we also retain future experientially qualified faculty in academia. How we mentor one another as a novice and seasoned faculty can impact what students see and learn as well from us. A literature review of 46 articles was completed and 19 of the articles were used as references in this article, along with a few more relevant references. The articles from the literature review showed evidence of positive mentoring experiences lead to the retention of students, future mentees, and mentors in nursing academia.