ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Handover is considered a basic nursing practice in which a patient's care information is moved to another nurse. Handover of patients after surgery is critical due to a number of care transitions, the presence of a surgical procedure, and the influence of anesthesia. High-quality postoperative handover is essential to safe patient care. Few studies have been conducted to evaluate the quality of current postoperative handover practices and the factors contributing to the quality of such processes, especially in Saudi Arabia. AIM: The present research aimed at evaluating nurses' perceptions of postoperative handover quality and assessing factors impacting this process. This cross-sectional study targeted registered nurses with at least one year of professional experience who were actively involved in the conduction of postoperative handovers across various surgical departments. A total sample of 143 nurses was selected via a convenient sampling technique. Study instruments included Handover Quality Rating Form, patient status, and nurses' background characteristics. RESULTS: Overall, postoperative handover quality was perceived as high by handing over and receiving nurses. Generally, 55.2% of nurses agreed on the different items supporting the positive circumstance for handover, and 92.3% agreed on the good conduct of handover compared to only 7.69% disagreement (pË0.001). Significant agreements were observed for teamworking (pË0.001), as well as four indicators (out of five) measuring the overall handover quality (p<0.001). The type of involved departments impacted significantly the handover quality perception (p=0.004). The respondents' age had a significant effect on quality (p=0.036), as well as circumstances of postoperative handover (p=0.046). Moreover, significant statistical differences were found for the circumstance of handover (p=0.031), as well as teamwork (p=0.019) according to the nurses' roles. Finally, the patient's blood circulation and respiration had a significant effect (p=0.023, p=0.033, respectively), as did the patient's level of consciousness (p=0.006) in the nurses' perception of the overall postoperative handover quality. CONCLUSION: Postoperative handover quality was highly perceived by nurses. This research explored a multitude of factors such as patient health status and nurses' socio-demographic variables and their impact on nurses' perception of handover quality. Several nurse and patient-related factors were found to impact the handover process. This current research provided findings that could direct future improvements in nursing handover practice to ensure high-quality patient care.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Learning engagement, motivation and academic achievement are vital growing areas in academic research. Evidence suggests that students' engagement and motivation are positively linked to improved quality of learning. However, limited number of research studies have been conducted within this scope. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship of learning engagement, motivation and academic performance among university nursing students. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A descriptive design, with a comparative correlational approach for data analysis, was used to describe and compare study outcomes. Data was collected from 425 students at King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences campuses in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alhasa. Study instruments included background data sheet, students' engagement in schools (SESQ-ENG), engagement facilitators (SEI), academic motivation (AMS), and academic achievement as measured by cumulative and last semester grade point average (cGPA, sGPA). RESULTS: Overall, level of engagement was moderate (mean = 3.70±0.63) with significant differences among campuses (F = 18.88, p≤001). Students' perceptions of engagement facilitators and academic motivation were high (mean= 2.98 ±0.49, 4.89 ±1.03, respectively), and both varied by campus (F=6.35, p=0.002, F=9.85, p≤.001, respectively). Engagement, motivation, and academic achievement showed medium to large correlations (i.e., between 0.20 and 0.63). Multiple regression equation including age, academic progress, academic engagement, motivation and engagement facilitators significantly explained 24% of variance in cGPA (F (5, 226) =14.209, p < 0.001) and 22% of the variance in sGPA (F (5, 214) = 12.202, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study showed significant associations of students' engagement, facilitating conditions (e.g., engagement-fostering aspects), and students' motivation with significant effect on academic achievement. It is hoped that findings of this study could be used as quality indicators to direct school efforts towards achieving excellence in nursing education.
ABSTRACT
As the acuity of patients increases, so does the requirement for nurses who are capable of making proper clinical judgment for safe and quality patients' care. Assessment of students' clinical judgment at different stages of their nursing program is thus required. This descriptive cross-sectional study assessed the clinical judgment of 55 junior nursing students using a questionnaire that required participants to rate the severity and perceived risk and identify factors leading to errors described in four vignettes. Participants' perceptions of the impact of the errors described in the four vignettes differed. However, satisfactory agreement on error risk was evident (the highest rating ranged from 36% to 53.6%). Lack of clinical knowledge and experience and excessive workload were the most commonly identified contributory factors. Many of the junior nursing students in the study showed capability for critical analysis and classifications of error, risks, and associated factors. Based on current study results on error classification, associated risk and potential contributors the overall agreement of the students was moderate. Therefore, there is a need to increase efforts to impart higher clinical judgment skills to students enrolled in nursing education, for which regular longitudinal assessment is required.
