ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: First Nations peoples in colonised countries often feel culturally unsafe in hospitals, leading to high self-discharge rates, psychological distress and premature death. To address racism in healthcare, institutions have promised to deliver cultural safety training but there is limited evidence on how to teach cultural safety. To that end, we created Ask the Specialist Plus: a training program that focuses on improving healthcare providers intercultural communication skills to improve cultural safety. Our aim is to describe training implementation and to evaluate the training according to participants. METHODS: Inspired by cultural safety, Critical Race Theory and Freirean pedagogy, Ask the Specialist Plus was piloted at Royal Darwin Hospital in Australia's Northern Territory in 2021. The format combined listening to an episode of a podcast called Ask the Specialist with weekly, one-hour face-to-face discussions with First Nations Specialists outside the clinical environment over 7 to 8 weeks. Weekly surveys evaluated teaching domains using five-point Likert scales and via free text comments. Quantitative data were collated in Excel and comments were collated in NVivo12. Results were presented following Kirkpatrick's evaluation model. RESULTS: Fifteen sessions of Ask the Specialist Plus training were delivered. 90% of participants found the training valuable. Attendees enjoyed the unique format including use of the podcast as a catalyst for discussions. Delivery over two months allowed for flexibility to accommodate clinical demands and shift work. Students through to senior staff learnt new skills, discussed institutionally racist systems and committed to behaviour change. Considering racism is commonly denied in healthcare, the receptiveness of staff to discussing racism was noteworthy. The pilot also contributed to evidence that cultural safety should be co-taught by educators who represent racial and gender differences. CONCLUSION: The Ask the Specialist Plus training program provides an effective model for cultural safety training with high potential to achieve behaviour change among diverse healthcare providers. The training provided practical information on how to improve communication and fostered critical consciousness among healthcare providers. The program demonstrated that training delivered weekly over two months to clinical departments can lead to positive changes through cycles of learning, action, and reflection.
Subject(s)
Health Facilities , Hospitals , Humans , Communication , Learning , StudentsABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Graduate nursing programs must provide end-of-life (EOL) content to prepare nurse practitioners to manage the holistic needs of patients. This project aimed to measure the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum's impact on student self-confidence and anxiety levels. A pretest/posttest study design was implemented using an EOL simulation and the Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence With Clinical Decision-Making Scale (NASC-CDM©) to compare baseline self-confidence and anxiety levels related to clinical decision-making. Results showed that the simulation increased student self-confidence, but anxiety level remained unchanged. Nurse educators should consider incorporating EOL simulation into graduate curricula to improve student confidence with clinical decision-making.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: High rates of attrition are problematic for nursing programs in meeting program graduation expectations and the nursing workforce demand. PURPOSE: In an effort to address declining program completion rates over the past 3 years and to assist with student retention, the authors explored the benefits of using The Exam Analysis (TEA) procedure with first-semester nursing students in an associate of science in nursing program. METHODS: This descriptive pilot study used TEA Worksheet and surveys to collect data with 50 first-semester students. Retention, exam performance, and student experiences were explored. RESULTS: Use of TEA procedure benefitted students, with results revealing a retention rate of 90% (n = 45) of first-semester students and a positive rate of change between the exam average score and the final exam score. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support improved retention for first-semester associate degree nursing students, better exam performance, and positive experiences with using TEA procedure.
