Getting off to a good start? A multi-site study of orienting student nurses during aged care clinical placements
Section snippets
Background
Studies continue to show that undergraduate nursing students in a number of countries view aged care, particularly residential aged care, as the least or one of the least desirable career destinations for registered nurses (RNs) (Fagerberg and Ekman, 1997, Pearson et al., 2001, Happell and Brooker, 2001, Dekeyser Ganz and Kahana, 2006). At present, as ageing population profiles increase demand for services, and staff shortages become widespread, it is doubly important to discover and address
Method
This part of the Modelling Connections project utilised a comparative, descriptive research design, obtaining survey data to describe the frequency with which key orientation activities took place from the perspective of both the staff in participating facilities and the students undergoing clinical placements in these settings. Comparisons were made between staff and student survey responses.
Academics from four universities located in four of the six Australian States collaborated in the
Results
There were 12 RACFs involved in this study and 67 staff and 53 students provided responses to the orientation questionnaire (Table 1). The 67 staff comprised directors of nursing (n = 12, 17.9%), registered nurses (n = 21, 31.3%), enrolled nurses (n = 9, 13.4%) and personal care assistants (n = 25, 37.3%). With the exception of two questions, response rates for both staff and students for each item never fell below 95%.
The first thirty (slightly abbreviated) questions and any responses other than
Discussion
There are a number of important findings from our study. This remains the case despite the fact that the OES is a somewhat immature tool, as is reflected by low internal consistency reliability estimates for some clusters of items. The coefficient for the total OES was 0.82, meeting the acceptable criterion of greater than or equal to 0.70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). Also, most findings result from comparisons of individual items scores, making the clustering of items somewhat irrelevant.
Conclusion
Our focus in this paper has been on the quality of the orientation experience in aged care clinical placements as gauged by the knowledge and understanding of their new context shared by the undergraduate students and the participating site staff. We conclude that the orientation experience of student nurses attending clinical placements in Australian residential aged care facilities is highly likely to need review to ensure that student knowledge relevant to the clinical setting is
Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge funding provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing which made this project possible. We would also like to thank the student nurses and aged care staff involved in the project for their time and considerable input.
References (16)
- et al.
Attracting students to aged care: the impact of a supportive orientation
Nurse Education Today
(2008) - et al.
Clinical placements in residential aged care facilities: the impact on nursing students’ perception of aged care and the effect on career plans
Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing
(2006) - Abbey, J., Parker, D., Abbey, B., Jones, J., Robinson, A., Toye, C., Barnes, L., 2006b. Modelling connections in aged...
- et al.
Perceptions of Israeli student nurses regarding clinical specialties and factors that influence these perceptions
Journal of Advanced Nursing
(2006) - et al.
First-year Swedish nursing students’ experiences with elderly patients
Western Journal of Nursing Research
(1997) - et al.
Influencing aspects in nursing education on Swedish nursing students’ choices of first work area as graduated nurses
Journal of Nursing Education
(2000) - et al.
The qualities of an effective mentor from the student nurse’s perspective: findings from a longitudinal qualitative study
Journal of Advanced Nursing
(2000) - et al.
Does nursing education promote ageism?
Journal of Advanced Nursing
(1994)
Cited by (13)
Learning from nursing students' experiences and perceptions of their clinical placements in nursing homes: An integrative literature review
2021, Nurse Education TodayCitation Excerpt :This programme demonstrated that minor amendments, such as changing starting times and providing information booklets made a positive difference to student placement satisfaction. Robinson et al. (2009) supported these findings with a survey, asking 66 nursing home staff and 53 student nurses attending placement in nursing homes to answer 30 questions about their orientation experience. The results demonstrated that 52% of students felt excluded and doubted their practice assessors were expecting them.
Improving clinical experiences for nursing students in nursing homes: An integrative literature review
2021, Nurse Education in PracticeCitation Excerpt :Such preparation can encourage students by boosting their motivation and confidence (Brynildsen et al., 2014; Husebø et al., 2018). Robinson et al. (2009) examined student and staff perceptions of student clinical orientation in nursing homes in Australia using a quantitative cross-sectional design. A total of 12 nursing home facilities, 67 staff, and 53 students participated in this study.
The influence of theory and practice on perceptions about caring for ill older people - A literature review
2016, Nurse Education in PracticeCitation Excerpt :Absence of this dialogue meant that students often reported feeling ‘totally invisible’ and ‘worthless’, where there were little opportunities to discuss and reflect upon care given to older people (Skaalvik et al., 2012, p. 414). The importance of providing students with a ‘comprehensive orientation’ to the PLE within older person care has been emphasised (Robinson et al., 2009; Schrader, 2009). Interestingly, the authors of these studies point out that much attention is given to induct newly qualified nurses into their first employed position, and that similar attention perhaps ought to be paid to nursing students starting a placement in a new PLE in older person care.
Improving the quality of nursing students' clinical placements in nursing homes: An evaluation study
2014, Nurse Education in PracticeCitation Excerpt :Students need to feel safe and included to see and take advantage of the learning potentials in the learning environment (Levett-Jones et al., 2009). Appropriate preparation, student orientation and structured educational support is important for the student's learning during clinical placements and may also affect their interest in working in the aged care setting in the future (Rogan and Wyllie, 2003; Robinson et al., 2009; Koh, 2012). The frequently portrayed challenges related to supervision of students in nursing homes (Abbey et al., 2006; Skaalvik et al., 2011; Lane and Hirst, 2012) are also reflected in our results.
Development and psychometric testing of the Ascent to Competence Scale
2013, Nurse Education Today