Evaluating the clinical performance of nursing students effectively and fairly is a challenge which continues to confront nurse education and there is evidence of both faculty and student concerns. This paper reports ...Evaluating the clinical performance of nursing students effectively and fairly is a challenge which continues to confront nurse education and there is evidence of both faculty and student concerns. This paper reports part findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study which explored the clinical learning experience of Malawian undergraduate student nurses. The study took place at a University Nursing College in Malawi, using a purposive sample of thirty student nurse participants. Conversational interviews were conducted to obtain participants’ accounts of their clinical learning experience and a framework developed by modifying Colaizzi’s procedural steps guided the phenomenological analysis. Several issues emerged from this study, but for this paper the assessment issues which the study revealed were discussed. It revealed concerns of unfairness and lack of objectivity during the evaluation of the clinical performance of nursing students. It also revealed that interpersonal relationships significantly influenced the evaluation process. Consequently, nursing students become preoccupied with building relationships with qualified nurses knowing the impact of such relationships on the clinical grade. The findings reveal that students employ various strategies in order to obtain good grades and this illustrates students’ overall preoccupation with “making the grade”. It is argued that the evaluation of the clinical performance of nursing students is a vital component of nursing education and it must be conducted in a manner that enables nurse educators to effectively determine the clinical proficiency of nursing students.展开更多
Background: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) for patients with type 2 diabetes requires efficient teaching methods that make patients want to change lifestyle in terms of their diabetes. The study looks at wh...Background: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) for patients with type 2 diabetes requires efficient teaching methods that make patients want to change lifestyle in terms of their diabetes. The study looks at what may be the active ingredient in this DSME. Objective: To explore how participants in DSME, with an interactive learning method, experienced changes in relation to diet and physical activity. Method: We studied possible changes in diet and physical activity by semi-structured individual interviews of 16 participants attending DSME. Results: Before the DSME, the participants felt insecure about what to eat, and they expressed little interest in changing their physical activity. Just after the DSME, they were more optimistic about diet because they had learned how to interpret food labels and compose their meals. Furthermore, they had experienced the benefit of physical activity in relation to their blood glucose levels. Behavior changes appeared to persist the following half year. We discuss the findings in light of the principles of interactive learning. The participants experienced an effect of their behavior changes, and blood glucose measurement was used as a tool to gain control and reach a state of well-being. Conclusion: From being insecure about what to eat, the patients acquired knowledge to handle their diet through the DSME. They learned how to compose their meals and use physical activity to regulate their blood glucose. We suggest that the interactive learning used in the DSME was an active ingredient that led to changes in behavior and should be considered as an educational method in DSME for patient with type 2 diabetes.展开更多
文摘Evaluating the clinical performance of nursing students effectively and fairly is a challenge which continues to confront nurse education and there is evidence of both faculty and student concerns. This paper reports part findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological study which explored the clinical learning experience of Malawian undergraduate student nurses. The study took place at a University Nursing College in Malawi, using a purposive sample of thirty student nurse participants. Conversational interviews were conducted to obtain participants’ accounts of their clinical learning experience and a framework developed by modifying Colaizzi’s procedural steps guided the phenomenological analysis. Several issues emerged from this study, but for this paper the assessment issues which the study revealed were discussed. It revealed concerns of unfairness and lack of objectivity during the evaluation of the clinical performance of nursing students. It also revealed that interpersonal relationships significantly influenced the evaluation process. Consequently, nursing students become preoccupied with building relationships with qualified nurses knowing the impact of such relationships on the clinical grade. The findings reveal that students employ various strategies in order to obtain good grades and this illustrates students’ overall preoccupation with “making the grade”. It is argued that the evaluation of the clinical performance of nursing students is a vital component of nursing education and it must be conducted in a manner that enables nurse educators to effectively determine the clinical proficiency of nursing students.
文摘Background: Diabetes self-management education (DSME) for patients with type 2 diabetes requires efficient teaching methods that make patients want to change lifestyle in terms of their diabetes. The study looks at what may be the active ingredient in this DSME. Objective: To explore how participants in DSME, with an interactive learning method, experienced changes in relation to diet and physical activity. Method: We studied possible changes in diet and physical activity by semi-structured individual interviews of 16 participants attending DSME. Results: Before the DSME, the participants felt insecure about what to eat, and they expressed little interest in changing their physical activity. Just after the DSME, they were more optimistic about diet because they had learned how to interpret food labels and compose their meals. Furthermore, they had experienced the benefit of physical activity in relation to their blood glucose levels. Behavior changes appeared to persist the following half year. We discuss the findings in light of the principles of interactive learning. The participants experienced an effect of their behavior changes, and blood glucose measurement was used as a tool to gain control and reach a state of well-being. Conclusion: From being insecure about what to eat, the patients acquired knowledge to handle their diet through the DSME. They learned how to compose their meals and use physical activity to regulate their blood glucose. We suggest that the interactive learning used in the DSME was an active ingredient that led to changes in behavior and should be considered as an educational method in DSME for patient with type 2 diabetes.