Variables Predicting Academic Success of Nursing Students: a Longitudinal Study in a Nursing Bachelor's Degree Program.

Background: Academic failure can negatively impact on the student, the university and the nursing workforce in the short term. The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics and predictors of academic success in two cohorts of students of a Nursing Bachelor's Degree program. Methods: This longitudinal study enrolled students who attended the Nursing Bachelor's Degree program. The Tor Vergata University includes 21 Nursing Bachelor's Degree programs at several Sanitary Institutions of the Rome area, with a mean annual recruitment of 800 students. We considered two cohorts of students beginning the program in the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years, respectively. The follow-up of these two cohorts ended in the 2017-2018 academic year. We considered socio-demographic and academic variables in the nursing field (pre-admission test grade, training exam grade in the first, second and third year and professional license exam grade). The outcome variable is academic success defined as gradua-tion on time; academic failure is defined as changing degree, delay in completion of the course, attrition and dismissal (failure to complete the studies). Data were collected at baseline (T0), at the end of the first year (T1), at the end of the second year (T2) and at the end of the third year (T3) of the course. A logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of academic success. Results: 2,041 students were enrolled, with an average age of 22.0 years (± 4.6, 18-50); 67.4% were female. Regarding academic success, 30.6% of students graduated on time and so achieved academic success, while 69.4% failed to complete the course within the established time: 5.4% (110/2,041) changed the course, the attrition rate was 7.3%, 0.3% (6/2,041) overdue from the course for expiring of the terms, 18.0% (368/2,041) is attending the course and 38.4% (784/2,041) graduated after more than three years. Pre-admission test grade (OR: 10.0, 95% CI: 10.020-10.054) and training exam grade at the second and third years (OR: 10.0 95% CI: 10.027-10.139; OR: 10.2 95% CI: 10.171-10.294) predicted academic success. Discussion and Conclusions: Some nursing students changed course during the last year of the program, while the training exam grade of the second and third years had predicted academic success; this is a brand new information derived from this study. In addition, we confirmed the association of age, gender, secondary school type and grade and preadmission test with academic success. For these reasons, clinical training should be improved and the quality of internship wards, as learning environments, should be monitored. Italian universities should undertake establishing the ideal cut-off in pre-admission tests to determine which students have a high probability of academic success.

The relationship between nurse managers' leadership style and patients' perception of the quality of the care provided by nurses: Cross sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: In healthcare systems, human resources play a strategic role that has a significant impact on the whole caring process. When the wellbeing of professionals is low their performance decreases, counterproductive work behaviours may became more likely, and as a result the quality of care is compromised. Studies have shown that leadership style is particularly relevant in relation to the quality of work environments in healthcare organizations. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this study is to test a model that investigates the relationships between nurse managers' leadership style and patients' perception of the quality of the care provided by the nurses, through the mediation of the quality of the working environment (in terms of burnout, interpersonal strain and counterproductive work behaviour). DESIGN: A multi-centre cross-sectional study was conducted. SETTING: The study was conducted in five hospitals located two in the north, two in the centre and one in the south of Italy. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 479 registered nurses (working as staff nurses, while head nurses and nurse managers were excluded) and 829 patients aged 18 years or older, able to read and write Italian and hospitalized for at least 3 days. Severely ill or mentally disabled patients who were not able to fill in the questionnaire were excluded. METHODS: The data were collected through two different questionnaires, one for the nurses and one for the patients. A multilevel analysis was conducted to examine the hypothesized model. RESULTS: Results confirmed the hypothesis that, when nurses were satisfied with leadership, they felt less burned-out and strained in interpersonal relationships, they engaged less in misbehaviour, and, in turn, patients were more satisfied with the quality of the care provided by the nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed that the characteristics of the organizational context, the leadership, and the behaviours of nurses, influenced patients' perceptions of nurses' care. Therefore, managers of healthcare services should take these results into account seriously in order to improve the quality of care provided to patients.

[Construction and validation of a tool for the evaluation of environmental risks and limitations to the manual handling of loads: cross-sectional study].

INTRODUCTION: The manual handling of loads has a strong impact on many types of work. All health professionals, due to their job, are subjected to a high risk of disease from the manual handling of loads. TARGET: The purpose of our work has been therefore the construction and the validation of a specific tool for the evaluation of both environmental risks and individual limitations of the manual handling of loads / patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The questionnaire we created is composed of two main sections: the first section includes the registry card of the operator personal data while the second section, consisting of eleven items it is further organized into two sections/parts. The first part consists of four items about environmental risk factors, while the second part consists of seven items about generic limitations and the assessment of pain from manual handling of loads. RESULTS: The operators'health nurses, including those ones with a coordination responsibility, that are available in the structure are 704 while the response rate to the questionnaire was of 93.18%. The test-retest showed optimal values of the intra-class correlation coefficient (0.843) so demonstrating the absence of measurement errors in the two administrations. The values related to the internal consistency of the two sections of the questionnaire were greater than 0.80that also demonstrated the internal stability of the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: The tool we described therefore is to be intended as a means of assessment for environmental risks, restrictions on movement of loads and pain associated with the task.

Development and validation of the Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale.

AIM: This study describes the development and validation of the Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale. BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy can be useful in predicting performance, job satisfaction or well-being. In the nursing field, there is a shortage of studies on self-efficacy with regard to nurses' global confidence in coping ability across a range of everyday, challenging work situations. METHODS: To define the theoretical framework of nursing professional self-efficacy, two focus groups and a literature review were performed. An empirical study was then conducted to test validity and reliability. Face and content validity, construct validity, concurrent validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability were examined. The content validity index was evaluated by 12 experts who suggested deleting 11 redundant items. The final developed tool was tested for construct analysis using a cross-validation approach, randomly splitting the overall sample of 917 nurses in two sub-groups. FINDINGS: The construct validity indicated two dimensions. The face and content validity were adequate. Test-retest reliability displayed a good stability, and internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was acceptable. Moreover, concurrent validity using the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale was in line with the theoretical framework. CONCLUSION: The scale showed evidence of validity and reliability. The major limitation is the strong influence of the Italian context in the tool development. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: The Nursing Profession Self-Efficacy Scale could be a fruitful tool that facilitates the application of theories (i.e. social-cognitive theory) in the nursing field and even development of interventions. Furthermore, a measurement of self-efficacy could be used to predict nursing clinical performance.

[Nurses and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: contribution to the Italian validation of the Podsakoff et al. scale]. / Gli infermieri e il "Comportamento di Cittadinanza Organizzatva": contributo alla validazione italiana della scala di Podsakoff et al.

BACKGROUND: Workers engaging in Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) can benefit colleagues, organization and stakeholders. Such behavior is vital to the efficacy of health care organizations as they can have a positive effect on the quality of care and users' satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to assess such behaviour with a valid and reliable instrument. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to test, from a confirmatory perspective, the dimensionality of the Italian version of the Podsakoff et al. OCB scale in a large sample of nurses, and at the same time to evaluate the differences in nurses' OCB considering socio-demographic and job characteristics. METHODS: The study included 886 nurses from different health organizations in Italy. The psychometric characteristics of the Italian OCB scale were tested through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The differences in nurses' OCB, according to several socio-demographic and job characteristics, were evaluated through a series of correlations and analysis of variance. RESULTS: The CFA of the Italian OCB scale confirmed the hypothesized factor structure, consisting of three dimensions: altruism, civic virtue and conscientiousness. Nurses' gender and professional training were positively correlated with OCB, while the amount of extra work was negatively correlated. In regard to clinical work settings, palliative care nurses engaged in OCB more than nurses working in other areas. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian OCB scale is a valid and reliable instrument. Its use can support all individuals involved in the promotion of workers' organizational well-being in implementing processes aimed at fostering nurses' OCB.

Organizational health and quality of life: survey among ambulance nurses in prehospital emergency care.

BACKGROUND: The workplace plays a central role in causing stress and different kinds of syndromes and diseases. More generally, organizational procedures and practices could have an impact on nurses' quality of life. Although several studies have investigated this link, none of them considered nurses working in prehospital emergency care. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of organizational health factors that affect the quality of life and psychosomatic complaints of ambulance nurses. METHOD: Our sample included 411 ambulance nurses. Workers were administered two questionnaires to assess organizational health and quality of life. Descriptive and correlational analyses were used to test our assumptions. CONCLUSION: Several organizational health dimensions provided an explanation for the complaints reported by nurses working in prehospital emergency care in terms of quality of life and psychosomatic disorders. The results allowed identification of possible interventions focusing on specific duties and organizational aspects that would improve the quality of nurses' health.

[Operating theatre and medical ward nurses: two different ways of perceiving one's organizational health]. / Infermieri di camera operatoria e infermieri di medicina generale: la diversa percezione della propria salute organizzativa.

BACKGROUND: It is widely recognized that the working environment is crucial in the genesis of stress and other disorders that may affect nurses' health. The specific job context and the tasks performed by nurses in different clinical settings can be positive or negative predictors of organizational health. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to describe and compare organizational health among nurses working in operating theaters and medical wards. METHODS: For the study 670 nurses from six university hospitals in Italy were asked to participate and a total of 542 nurses constituted the final sample. The Nursing Organizational Health Questionnaire was used to collect the data and was administered from January to March 2010. A descriptive/comparative design was used. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that nurses assigned to medical wards perceived their working environment as healthy and were significantly more satisfied and had less psychosomatic complaints than their colleagues working in operating theaters.

Rapid diagnosis of avian infectious bronchitis virus by the polymerase chain reaction.

A simple, sensitive and specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedure was developed in order to detect infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) directly in tissue samples. Viral RNA was extracted from allantoic fluids and cell cultures infected experimentally with different strains of IBV and from tissues of naturally infected birds. Viral RNA was then amplified and identified by a nested RT-PCR assay using two sets of primers flanking a well-conserved region of the nucleocapsid gene. The selected IBV nucleocapsid sequence was detected successfully by simple direct electrophoresis of amplified material.