This study uncovers the experience of being ethical from the perspective of pre-registration nursing students. Using the qualitative methodology of phenomenology, specifically that outlined by van Manen, it seeks to show how students act ethically within everyday practice.Ethics is vital to any health related profession and the growing complexity of New Zealand's health care system requires more responsibility for ethical decision making in nursing care. Providing nursing care is an ethically charged undertaking and despite ethics taking an increasingly important place in nursing education few studies show the contextual nature of ethical practice from the perspective of students. This study aims to partly redress this situation.In this study I have interpreted the experiences of twelve pre-registration students. Using seventeen stories shared by the student participants, my personal understandings and literature, the meaning of being ethical has been illuminated. Three themes emerged from the interpretation. These include 'keeping things 'nice'', 'being true to yourself' and 'being present'. This thesis asserts that the overarching theme within these themes is that of 'being constrained and enabled'. Being constrained shows the experiences of students as they live through the tensions of being and doing as they strive to be ethical. Being enabled shows the experience of self-determination. Finally the study maintains that the shaping of ethical practice for undergraduate students may be enhanced when their reality is positioned and valued within educational processes.

This research explores the transition from student to registered nurse from the perspective of the new graduate. This interpretive study uses narrative analysis as the methodology. Individual stories were collected and processed using the method of core story creation and emplotment (Emden 1998). Four newly registered nurses were invited to share stories related to how they were experiencing their role. Participants were encouraged to tell their stories in response to the open question 'what is it like to be a registered nurse?' In the final step of the analysis one honest and critical story has been crafted (Barone 1992) using a process termed emplotment thus disclosing the themes that allow the stories to be grasped together as a single story (Polkinghorne 1988, Emden 1998). The final story of 'Fable' gives insight into the ways in which newly registered nurses experience their role. Becoming a registered nurse is not easy however, Fable finds that nursing is more than just a job and describes many rewarding experiences. It is hoped that the outcomes of this research will be valuable to students, graduates, nurse academics and the profession of nursing generally by enhancing understandings of the relationship between the graduate and the actual employment experience.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Restricted until November 2001. "September, 2000." Bibliography: leaves 156-177.

Thesis--Boston College. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-107).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 98 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-88).

Bakgrund: Sjuksköterskeutbildningen är treårig. I den ingår teoretisk och verksamhetsförlagd utbildning inom psykiatrisk vård. Studenter behöver förberedas med att träna för att få förmågan att möta och hantera patienter med psykisk ohälsa. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur sjuksköterskestudenter uppfattar akuta omhändertaganden av patienter på psykiatriska akuta vårdavdelningar. Metod: En kvalitativ induktiv metod valdes. Tio intervjuer med semistrukturerade intervjufrågor genomfördes med studenter under termin tre på sjuksköterskeprogram i Mellansverige. Datamaterialet analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim och Lundman (2004). Resultat: Ur analysen framkom två kategorier: sjuksköterskans arbetssituation och studentens reflektion över patientens situation. Vidare framkom fem subkategorier: speciellt att sätta gränser och vårda inom akut psykiatrisk vård, anpassa stöd och samtal, använda sig själv som ett redskap, etiska reflektioner och olika perspektiv. Konklusion: Studien visar att studenterna inte har tillräcklig teoretisk eller erfarenhetsmässig kompetens i rollen som sjuksköterskestudent på en psykaitrisk akutavdelning när de ska utföra VFU. Med  anledning av avdelningsinriktning, kort placering och akuta situationer de möts av inom psykiatrisk verksamhet, finns behov för studenterna att få mer psykiatrikunskap innan den kliniska praktiken utförs. Akuta omhändertaganden i psykiatriska situationer uppfattas därför mer sensitivt, svårförstådda och svåra att hantera av studenterna. / Background: Training to become a nurse is three years and includes theoretical and clinical training in psychiatric care. Students need to be prepared to practice to get the ability to meet and manage patients with mental illness. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine how nursing students perceive the emergency care order of patients in acute psychiatric wards. Method: A qualitative inductive method was chosen and ten interviews with semi-structured interview questions were conducted with students during the third semester in nursing programs in central Sweden. The data were analyzed by content analysis according Graneheim and Lundman (2004). Results: From the analysis revealed two categories: Nurses work situation and student reflection on the patient's situation. It was also found five subcategories: especially to set limits and take care in emergency psychiatric care, customize support and conversation, using her own as a tool, students' ethical reflections and different perspectives. Conclusion: The study shows that students do not have sufficient theoretical or experiential expertise in the role of a nursing student, in a psychiatric emergency department. The study shows that students do not have sufficient theoretical or experiential expertise in the role of a nurse, in a psychiatric emergency department. Because of the departments focus, where students are located and emergency situations they encounter in psychiatry, there is a need for students to gain more knowledge before psychiatry clinical practice is carried out. Acute psychiatric nursing care in situations perceived therefore more sensitive, difficult to understand and difficult to manage by the students.

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing in Advanced Practice

The clinical experience prepares nursing students to become competent and professional practitioners. Therefore, it is important to identify the key characteristics of a positive and constructive clinical learning environment. This cross-sectional study assessed undergraduate nursing students. (n=61; response rate of 38%) perceptions of their clinical learning environment and their suggestions to enhance it. The participants were fourth year nursing students enrolled in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba who were doing their senior practicum (NURS 4290). Participants were invited to complete anonymously the actual and preferred versions of the Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) (Chan, 2001). It was found that there were significant differences between students. perceptions of the actual and the preferred CLEI they desired. Participants also responded to two open-ended questions related to obstacles or things that would enhance their learning experience. Nine categories were identified that added to an understanding of the quantitative findings. The study indicated that there is still work to be done to provide a healthy clinical learning environment for nursing students and this task belongs to nursing researchers, educators, and health care organization preceptors and leaders.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore students’ perceptions and experiences of feeling confident in some clinical areas and not in others and to explore how clinical teachers may increase students’ feelings of self-efficacy during clinical practice. Using Bandura’s (1997) theory of Self-efficacy as a framework three major themes and several subthemes emerged from the data as important influences to student learning. Clinical Education facilitator (CEF) was the term used in this study for clinical teacher (CT)and was considered by students to be the most important influence to clinical learning.The CEF was the most developed theme followed by the theme of the environment and the theme of the student. The findings of this research were found to be consistent with the literature related to self-efficacy and student learning in the clinical setting. Implications for nursing education and recommendations for further research were discussed.

Effective communication is just one of the many skill sets nursing students must master to be effective in their field. A nurse’s role goes far beyond that of medical care. In addition, Today’s nurses should be equipped with a working knowledge of medical management, communication skills, ethical/legal issues, end-of-life care, and team collaboration, among others (e.g., Ferrell, Dahlin, Campbell, Paice, Malloy, & Virani, 2007).Wittenberg-Lyles, Goldsmith, Sanchez-Reilly, and Ragan (2010) contend nurses need to have specialized training protocols focused on developing effective communication skills . The current study employed one such protocol, the COMFORT curriculum, as a tool to teach nursing students how to break bad news (BBN) using a social cognitive theory approach. To clarify, when individuals feel confident about their abilities (self-efficacy), they are more likely to reach their goals (Bandura, 1986). Hence, this study posited that nursing students would become more confident about their communication knowledge and skills through the modeling and interactive adaptive learning exercises taught in the COMFORT curriculum. Although no significant increase was reported by students with regard to perceived self-efficacy or attitude about communication skills training, students did demonstrate sufficient to excellent cognitive understanding of the communication skills taught in the lesson.