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Student clinical practice is a significant and essential part of nursing education. Accordingly, clinical placements need to be positive and valuable. The purpose of this study was to describe newly-graduated nurses' perceptions of their student clinical intersession placements and how these placements impacted their functioning as graduate nurses. Inductive semantic analysis of the data revealed four themes: developing nursing skills and knowledge; preparing for future employment; experiencing supportive relationships; and experiencing realities of work-life. Educators must ensure that clinical placements are in an environment that is conducive to learning and promotes the personal and professional development of nursing students. Positive clinical experiences are more likely related to how valued and supported students feel than the physical aspects of a placement; thus, it is imperative educators assess and focus on providing placements that offer a supportive learning environment.

Objective:To determine whether school connectedness demonstrated an independent protective association with risk of depression in students in grades 10 to 12 attending a high school in a rural community in southwestern Nova Scotia.Methods: Students at a high school in rural Nova Scotia participated in a self-completion survey in May 2009. Students were asked about a wide range of health-related factors to determine their needs for health services and promotion. Examining girls and boys separately, we used logistic regression to examine associations of an established measure of school connectedness with risk of depression as measured by the 12-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale, while including numerous potential confounding variables in our models. Results:The response rate was 95.2% among registered students present in class during the survey. Four hundred eight students (216 girls and 192 boys) completed both the CES-D12 and the School Connectedness Scale. Higher school connectedness was independently protective of risk of depression in girls (OR 0.85; 95% CI 0.78 to 0.93, P < 0.01) and in boys (OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.71 to 0.91, P < 0.01).Conclusions: Among adolescents in rural Nova Scotia, higher school connectedness has protective associations with risk of depression in both girls and boys, independent of a wide range of factors known to be associated with depression in adolescents. School may be a key place for helping adolescents to develop positive mental health. W W WObjectif : Déterminer si le sentiment d'appartenance à l'école a démontré une association protectrice indépendante avec le risque de dépression chez les élèves de la 10e à la 12e année fréquentant une école secondaire dans une communauté rurale du sud-ouest de la Nouvelle-Écosse. Méthodes :Les élèves d'une école secondaire d'un secteur rural de la Nouvelle-Écosse ont participé à un sondage auto-déclaré en mai 2009. Les élèves ont répondu à des questions sur une vaste série de facteurs liés à la santé afin de déterminer leurs besoins en matière de services de santé et de promotion de la santé. Examinant séparément les réponses des filles et des garçons, nous avons utilisé la régression logistique pour examiner les associations d'une mesure établie du sentiment d'appartenance à l'école avec le risque de dépression tel qu'il est mesuré par l'échelle de dépression en 12 items du centre d'études épidémiologiques (CES-D), en incluant dans nos modèles de nombreuses variables potentielles de confusion.

AbstractObjectivesThe purpose of this project was to implement and evaluate the integration of a computer-based virtual simulation program into a community clinical course as an alternative or complement to conventional clinical with agencies or neighbourhoods. Securing quality community health clinical opportunities for undergraduate nursing students remains challenging. In addition, evidence of a theory-practice gap in community clinical education, particularly in non-traditional settings, suggests that nurse educators need to adopt different pedagogies to ensure that students will gain competencies necessary to practice community/population health nursing. In response, we piloted the use of Sentinel City®3.0, a virtual reality simulation program.MethodA 5-point Likert-style questionnaire was administered to students randomly assigned to different clinical placements.ResultsResults indicated that there were no learning outcomes in which students in Sentinel City®3.0 reported percentages lower than students in agencies or geographical neighbourhoods. When there were statistically significant differences, students engaged in Sentinel City®3.0 performed better than students in other experiences.ConclusionWe recommend further exploration of multi-contextual pedagogies for community clinical.

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