Graduating Student Nurses' Preparedness for Nursing Practice amid COVID-19
African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery
; 24(3), 2022.
Article
in English
| Web of Science | ID: covidwho-20230918
ABSTRACT
Student nurses must be prepared professionally to provide nursing care, especially during a critical time such as COVID-19. Regardless of undergraduate nursing programmes focusing on preparedness for practice, the concept of preparedness for nursing practice is not well understood. In this descriptive quantitative study, we determined the extent of the nursing practice preparedness of graduating student nurses amid COVID-19 as perceived by these nurses and nurse educators and the possible interventions to enhance the preparedness for practice of these nurses. In the study, we used an adapted Nursing Practice Readiness Tool, employed the complete enumeration survey method and analysed through frequency, percentages and weighted means. A total of 118 student nurses and 51 nurse educators from a selected university completed the questionnaire. The data were analysed through SPSS version 25. The findings revealed that the scales, which ranked from greatest to lowest preparedness for practice, were professionalism (4.83), communication (4.65), management of responsibilities (4.61), critical thinking (4.36), clinical knowledge (4.26), and technical skills (4.02). We concluded that the students' performance in the nursing competency items under clinical knowledge, critical thinking, and especially technical skills, demand increased attention to be better equipped as they transition into nursing practice. Specifically, of the 36 competency items, they were least prepared in using clinical and information technologies, and performing clinical procedures. Finally, as the top intervention, we proposed the development of contingency plans for unusual situations such as a pandemic (75.74%) to enhance the student nurses' preparedness for practice.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Web of Science
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
African Journal of Nursing and Midwifery
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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