Primary care clinical placements: The views of Australian registered nurse mentors and pre-registration nursing students (part 2)

Abstract

An increased burden of chronic and complex conditions treated in the community and an aging population have exacerbated the primary care workload. Predicted nursing shortages will place further stressors on this workforce. High quality clinical placements may provide a strategic pathway to introduce and recruit new nurses to this speciality. This paper is Part 2 of a two part series reporting the findings of a mixed methods project. Part 1 reported on the qualitative study and Part 2 reports on the quantitative study. Forty-five preregistration nursing students from a single Australian tertiary institution and 22 primary care Registered Nurse (RN) mentors who supervised student learning completed an online survey. Students largely regarded their primary care placement positively and felt this to be an appropriate learning opportunity. Most RNs were satisfied with mentoring pre-registration nursing students in their setting. Furthermore, the RNs desire to mentor students and the support of general practitioners (GPs) and consumers were seen as key enablers of pre-registration nursing placements. Findings from this study provide a preliminary impression of primary care clinical placements from the perspective of pre-registration nursing students and registered nurse mentors. Further research should examine whether a broader scope of non-traditional health settings such as non-government organisations, charities, pharmacies, welfare and social services can also provide appropriate learning environments for pre-registration nursing students. examine whether a broader scope of non-traditional health settings such as nongovernment organisations, charities, pharmacies, welfare and social services can also provide appropriate learning environments for pre-registration nursing students. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentors' self‐assessed competence in mentoring nursing students in clinical practice: A systematic review of quantitative studies

“…In the studies, mentors' competence was self‐assessed with instruments including: unnamed instruments developed by the authors (Borch et al, ; Hall‐Lord et al, ; Heffernan et al, ; Helminen et al, ; McInnes et al, ; Meden et al, ; Omer et al, ; Skela‐Savič & Kiger, ; Smith et al, ); the Involvement, Motivation, Satisfaction, Obstacles and Commitment Instrument (Cervera‐Gasch et al, ); Mentor´s Competence Instrument (MCI) (Kälkäjä et al, ; Karjalainen et al, ; Oikarainen et al, ; Ruuskanen et al, ; Tuomikoski et al, ) and Nursing Students' Contributions to Clinical Agencies (NSCCA) instrument (Morrison & Brennaman, ). Validated instruments are categorised in terms of competence areas covered in Table .…”

“…Pedagogical practices of mentors with respect to both students and the students' host universities were as rated satisfactory in studies by Kälkäjä et al () and Tuomikoski et al (). McInnes et al () found that only a third of mentors (32%) regarded themselves as enablers of students' clinical placements.…”

Clinical placements in Australian general practice: (Part 1) the experiences of pre-registration nursing students

“…It was considered that the volume of data extrapolated from this mixed methods project was excessive for one publication. Therefore, Part 1 describes the qualitative study of this mixed methods project and a separate paper (Part 2) reports on the quantitative study (McInnes et al, 2015).…”

GP/GPN partner* perspectives on clinical placements for student nurses in general practice: can a community of practice help to change the prevailing culture within general practice?

“…This GP noted ruefully:

" … They all seem to think that working in a hospital is sexier (sic) than working in a GP surgery …"

This then became a self-fulfilling prophesy in which GPs did not actively seek to recruit new graduate nurses, and new graduate nurses did not apply for GPN posts. However, the findings from another component of this evaluation [20] indicated that the students with general practice placements were beginning to appreciate the role of the GPN and the opportunities that it provided. The prospect of working in general practice upon graduation was now seen as attractive to many of them.…”

“…The authors found that primary care was not regarded seriously as a viable career option by the majority of the students that were surveyed. In addition, there have been a number of studies from Australia that have looked specifically at students’ experiences of general practice placements [19, 20]. The findings from these studies reported a generally positive student experience, and although the placements did provide some impetus for consideration of a career in general practice, little is currently known regarding the true impact of primary care placements upon students’ career intentions or on the GPs themselves.…”