Re-imagining of an undergraduate, second-degree entry, accelerated nursing program's curriculum utilizing a postmodern, learner-centred lens and a concept-based framework.

INTRODUCTION: It is necessary to re-imagine nursing curriculums utilizing a postmodern approach, as outdated teacher-centred methods of nursing education with emphasis on memorization versus critical thinking no longer meet the needs of the contemporary learner and the current challenges of the healthcare environment. There is an explicit need to redesign nursing curriculums that are future-oriented, adaptive and flexible and serve the learners' best interests. BACKGROUND: Distilled from a decade of teaching experience in an undergraduate, second-degree entry, accelerated nursing program, this paper describes the construction of a learner-centred, postmodern, concept-based nursing curriculum that aims to foster learners' inquiry skills, critical thinking, problem-solving, and experiential learning-all which develop learners' autonomy, self-direction, and lifelong learning. The objective is to foster learners' transformational and emancipatory learning and metacognition. DISCUSSION: An extensive review of the current trends, contemporary nursing knowledge for the past decade (2013-2023), and seminal literature on theories and frameworks paralleled with the review of current and future trends in Canadian and global health care, including the socio-economic, politico and environmental contexts, led to the formulation of a concept-based curriculum. Grounded in the constructivist paradigm, the curriculum applies interperetivist, critical, feminist, and indigenous lenses. The Strength-Based Nursing framework was selected as the core guiding framework. The curriculum's four curricular themes and foundational pillars were adopted directly from the framework to provide a starting point for concept development. These initial themes were then juxtaposed with relevant nursing, and social theories, policies, and frameworks, ensuring a robust coverage of modern nursing knowledge and allowing for the core concepts of the curriculum to emerge. A total of 21 concepts and 192 sub-concepts were developed. CONCLUSION: Implications for future practice require nursing educators to receive support and professional development opportunities in developing skills and confidence in entering a classroom as co-learners and facilitators.

Preceptors' experiences of one to one preceptorship model for students undertaking an accelerated undergraduate nursing program: An interpretive descriptive qualitative study.

AIM: The aim of this research is to describe and interpret the experiences of preceptors' in supporting nursing students in a one-to-one model across all semesters of the nursing program. BACKGROUND: The one-to-one preceptorship model is widely used in Canada during the consolidation phase of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. The launch of an innovative two-year second-degree entry accelerated nursing program in partnership with several leading academically based health care delivery institutions in Ontario created a one-to-one preceptorship model that is offered within each semester of a two year nursing program. The literature on preceptorship models within baccalaureate programs suggest that the one-to-one preceptorship model can pose major challenges to nursing preceptors. Balancing the competing demands of providing excellent nursing care for complex patients in today's health care environment with the responsibilities of teaching nursing students were highlighted as major factors of the preceptor experience. Balancing the demands of care provision with the responsibilities of teaching nursing students is shown to be a shared experience among preceptors working with consolidating nursing students. However, a gap exists in understanding how these preceptor experiences unfold with nursing students who attend clinical practicum for nine weeks each semester of the program. DESIGN: This study employs an interpretive descriptive design. METHODS: Using a purposeful sampling technique, nine Registered Nurses from one affiliate organization, were invited to 30 - 60 min semi-structured, face to face interviews. Thematic and pattern analysis supported the data analysis. RESULTS: Four major themes emerged: acknowledging expectations to teach, recognizing preceptor needs, balancing the act of nursing and teaching and discovering self through the preceptorship experience. To make the new meaning more accessible, a conceptual interpretation of the themes were transformed into a metaphor that depicts the relationship across the meaning units. The image of a bamboo tree represents both the descriptive and interpretive insights. CONCLUSION: This study illuminates the role competency of preceptors involved in a one-to-one preceptored model in a second-degree accelerated nursing program. A continued use of a one to one preceptor model within each semester of a two-year program serves as a platform to foster cognitive companionship, clinical teaching and experiential learning opportunities.

Understanding How Nursing Students Experience Becoming Relational Practitioners: A Narrative Inquiry.

BACKGROUND: Teaching nursing students to become relational practitioners requires theoretical approaches and strategies that engender personal and aesthetic knowing. These qualities closely parallel those that define relational practice. The use of creative self-expression in supporting the development of student capacity for relational practice offers a viable approach. PURPOSE: To learn how nursing students' engagement in creative self-expression activities may impact the construction of their professional identity and capacity for relational practice as novice nurses. METHOD: Clandinin and Connelly's narrative inquiry approach was used to explore nursing students' experiences of learning how to become relational practitioners. Four new nurse graduates engaged in a follow-up focus group using Schwind's narrative reflective process to discuss the impact of a relational practice workshop series. FINDINGS: Bronwyn's story became the composite of the four participants. Two key narrative patterns emerged: being in service of others and being knowledgeable collaborative leaders. These entailed an intentional engagement in relationships with patients, which required attention to the co-constructed relational space. The creative approaches used to facilitate students' learning informed their awareness that led to their transformation. IMPLICATIONS: Educating future nurses who are relational, person-centered practitioners requires a holistic approach to teaching/learning which also includes creative self-expression.

Self-compassion in undergraduate nursing: an integrative review.

Objective To explore self-compassion and its role in supporting well-being, compassionate care, and the academic experience in undergraduate nursing students. Method Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) integrative review methodology was used to search articles published between 2007 and 2020, which resulted in 36 articles meeting the inclusion criteria: compassion for self and others, strategies to support self-compassion; and self-compassion and student learning. Result Findings indicate that self-compassion may promote compassionate care, personal well-being, resilience, and emotional intelligence while supporting indicators of academic success. Compassion literacy, mindfulness training, and experiential exercises are some of the strategies that could be integrated into nursing curricula to enhance compassion in nursing students for self and others. Conclusion Integrating mindfulness and self-compassion in undergraduate curricula requires innovative teaching and learning approaches within a supportive organizational environment. To this end, a Self-Compassion Curricular Model to guide nursing programs is proposed.

Practice readiness of new nursing graduates: A concept analysis.

Practice readiness is not well defined in the literature and its conceptualization fluctuates from one practice setting to the next. The lack of common perception of what it means to be "practice ready" across sectors (academia, practice, regulatory) creates difficulty in identifying the boundaries of the concept and promotes varying expectations. This paper reports a concept analysis on practice readiness using Rodgers' evolutionary method of concept analysis. Through searching CINAHL, PubMed, EBM Systematic Reviews, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, fifteen records were found and included in the analysis. Prominent surrogate terms included job readiness and readiness for practice while related terms included transition to practice and entry into the workplace. Attributes of practice readiness focused on cognitive, professional, and clinical capabilities, as well as self-efficacy. While antecedents comprised of maturity, clinical practice experience, and socialization to the discipline; consequences encompassed provision of safe care, performance confidence, and transitioning into the nursing role. This analysis highlights the technicalities of the nursing role pertaining to practice readiness, but overlooks the humanistic characteristics essential for providing quality care. There is a need for further development of the concept through intersectoral collaboration and exploration of humanistic characteristics as they relate to practice readiness.

Moving From Field Text to Research Text in Narrative Inquiry: A Study Exemplar.

Narrative Inquiry is a research methodology that enables a researcher to explore experience through a metaphorical analytic three-dimensional space where time, interaction of personal and social conditions, and place make up the dimensions for working with co-participant stories. This inquiry process, analysis, and interpretation involve a series of reflective cognitive movements that make possible the reformulations that take place in the research journey. In this article, I retell the process of my inquiry in moving from field texts (data sources) to research text (interpretation of experience) in Narrative Inquiry. I draw from an inquiry on how nurses experience living their values amidst organizational change to share how I as an inquirer/researcher, moved from field texts to narrative accounts; narrative resonant threads; composite letter as the narrative of experience; personal, practical, and social justifications to construct the research text and represent it another form as a poem. These phases in the inquiry involve considerations in the analytic and interpretive process that are essential in understanding how to conduct Narrative Inquiry. Lastly and unique to my inquiry, I share how a letter can be used as an analytic device in Narrative Inquiry.