Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 103, August 2021, 104959
Nurse Education Today

Student nurse perceptions of an innovative role to support clinical practices during a pandemic: A qualitative study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104959Get rights and content

Highlights

  • During COVID-19, staff were needed to provide symptom screening and observations.

  • Pre-licensure nursing students were held from clinical due to the pandemic.

  • These nursing students were able to fill this non-clinical role.

  • Students' confidence and non-technical skills improved as a result of this role.

  • Academic-practice partnerships can foster innovative mutually beneficial roles.

Abstract

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems needed to quickly identify personnel to provide symptom screening and PPE observations. Through an established academic-practice partnership, pre-licensure nursing students were able to fill this new Patient Services Aid role. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the students' experiences in this mutually beneficial innovative role.

Methods

Electronic surveys and qualitative focus groups were used to evaluate the students' experiences.

Results

A total of 34 students were employed at the health system as PSAs. Focus groups (n = 16) analysis showed that, while the role was not a substitute for academic clinical experiences, they did improve the students' confidence in the clinical setting and helped teach necessary non-technical skills. Students appreciated the ability to network with multiple disciplines while working as PSAs.

Conclusions

This role was developed to assist with immediate COVID-19 needs; however, this model of using pre-licensure students in non-clinical roles can improve students' non-technical skills and confidence in the clinical setting. The success of the activity was due to the strong relationships between the School of Nursing and health system. Other schools of nursing could benefit from developing collaborative partnerships with local healthcare systems.

Keywords

Academic-practice partnership
Pre-licensure students
Nursing
Student experience

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