Student nurses' educational experiences during COVID-19: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many unexpected changes occurred in healthcare. With the abrupt change to online education in 2020, nursing students experienced challenges with virtual learning which impacted their perception of preparedness to practice. There were few qualitative studies completed in the U.S. that investigated the nursing students' experiences. The aim of this study was to explore pre-licensure nursing students' experiences with the transition to virtual learning and their perception of nursing amidst a pandemic. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated nursing students' experiences and perceptions of the nursing profession amidst a pandemic and explored whether students would continue pursuing a career in nursing. DESIGN: A descriptive exploratory qualitative study utilizing focus group interviews and questions using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. SETTING: A university in Northern Illinois educating baccalaureate degree pre-licensure nursing students. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four pre-licensure nursing students first through fifth semesters. Ten focus groups were established and consisted of two to three students. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative study design using the Theory of Planned Behavior to construct 9 semi-structured questions. These questions were utilized in the focus groups (n = 24) and Framework Analysis was utilized to analyze data. RESULTS: Five themes and three sub-themes emerged from the study. Themes included: inspiration to become nurses with sub-themes-students' own inspiration and inspired by family; relationship strain with friend/family due to poor adherence to isolation guidelines; transition to online learning with sub-theme mental health strain; unprepared to begin nursing practice; and ambiguity regarding how to impact government health policy. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the students' perceptions of the nursing profession did not waiver, and their desire to pursue a nursing career was resolute. This study demonstrated the challenges students experienced with a transition to virtual learning. Students expressed having insufficient in-person experiences and felt unprepared to begin practice.

Effectiveness of an interprofessional ambulatory care model on diabetes: evaluating clinical markers in a low-income patient population.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a new ambulatory care model, interprofessional collaborative care-coordinated team model (interprofessional model), based on the Wagner Care Model improved clinical indicators in a low-income population. This study was a retrospective 12-month pre-post (n = 204) and propensity matched (n = 171) comparative study of the interprofessional model in a primary clinic for patients with type 2 diabetes. Secondary data were collected from June 2014to February 2017 in an academic medical centre in a large Midwestern city. Findings demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvement in A1C in both the pre/post arm of the study (↓ 0.8%) and the intervention/propensity matched arm (↓ 0.53%). Within the intervention group, there was a significant decrease in weight in the pre/post arm with 55% of cases losing weight, whereas 45% did not lose weight (p = .02). Diastolic blood pressure less than 90 also significantly improved in the pre/post arm of the study (10.1% n = 18, versus 3.9%, n = 7, p = .04). The interprofessional model showed that an ambulatory healthcare redesign incorporating an interprofessional team approach to optimise the health of this type 2 diabetes patient population can be effective. This study demonstrates the importance of using interprofessional collaborative practice teams to guide healthcare and improve patient outcomes.