Nurse education today
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Nurse education today · Jul 2008
Comparative StudyA comparison of problem-based and traditional education on nursing students' critical thinking dispositions.
Determining the critical thinking (CT) levels of students in undergraduate nursing schools is important in terms of establishing the methods of education that should be used. Although there is some evidence that active learning approaches like problem-based learning are effective in developing CT, the findings are inconclusive. This descriptive analytic study compared levels of critical thinking among senior nursing students (N=147) in two educational programs, one of which used a problem-based learning (PBL) model while the other used a traditional model. ⋯ There was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the critical thinking disposition scores of the seniors in the PBL school and those in the school implementing the traditional model. Analysis of sub-scale scores showed significant differences in truth-seeking and open-mindedness. These findings add to the evidence that the active and self-directed nature of PBL encourages students' ability to think critically, be tolerant of the ideas of others and evaluate conflicting information before reaching a conclusion.
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This paper reports a questionnaire-based investigation into the knowledge sources used by nurses in two Turkish university hospitals, and whether these knowledge sources were related to sociodemographic variables. 78.5% of the nurses said that practice should be based on evidence and 75.9% stated that this evidence should come from research. 80.7% stated that evidence-based practice was useful. However, evidence that was not based on research constituted the first three most frequently used sources of knowledge. Sources of evidence-based on research were detected as being in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 10th positions regarding the frequency of use. The nurses expressed a belief that nursing practices should be based on evidence, but did not reflect this belief in their behavior.
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This article reports on a theme emerging from a focused ethnography examining the professional socialization of undergraduate fourth year nursing students during a rural hospital preceptored clinical experience. Nursing students and preceptors geographically dispersed over a 640,000 square kilometer rural area participated in this study. ⋯ Having a positive rural-based experience also has the potential for recruiting new staff. These preliminary findings suggest that student preparation for the rural hospital preceptorship includes cognitive and psychological preparation, as well as the acquisition of common advanced clinical skills.
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Nurse education today · Jul 2008
Exploring clinical nursing experiences: listening to student nurses.
Student nurses spend one half of their educational programme in the clinical area. The success of an educationally sound clinical placement is crucial to forming a professional nursing identity that will encompass the seen and 'unseen' aspects of the nurses' role. The aim of this study was to explore the clinical nursing environment through the perceptions of first year student nurses. ⋯ Results suggest that these student nurses were disillusioned with the reality of clinical nursing and that their expectations of nursing were not realised. They perceived that paperwork, completing tasks and meeting targets were dominant features of nursing work at the expense of patient contact and communication. A majority indicated that nursing was not as caring as they expected and vowed to hold on to their personal values of caring about patients and forming communicative, interpersonal relationships with them.