Needing to belong : first practice placement experiences of children's nursing students

<p>This study examines first year children’s nursing students’ anxieties before their first practice placement and their support needs during that time. Strategies to address needs are highlighted. A questionnaire was completed by children’s nursing students (<i>n</i> = 21) before their initial practice placement to establish their expectations and concerns. A subgroup (<i>n</i> = 5) took part in a focus group following placement to establish consensus around the support that helped and what could help future students prepare for first placement. The resultant data indicated the importance of students having a sense of belonging to their practice placement, trusting website information, induction days, and the involvement of a more senior student in their preparation, in addition to facilitative mentors. Using similar methodology to that used with students, a subgroup of professional staff took part in two focus groups (FG1 <i>n</i> = 5, FG2 <i>n</i> = 4) to establish consensus around support initiatives using areas identified by students as priorities that could better facilitate this initial practice placement. Although commonalities existed within both students and professionals, some differences were highlighted. A student’s first practice placement is of utmost importance in affirming their choice to study nursing. Academic and clinical staff play a crucial part in this decision-making.</p

An exploration of the texture of student midwives' non-formal learning in professional practice

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An exploration of the texture of student midwives' non-formal learning in professional practice.

This thesis explores the transmission of craft knowledge in midwifery, examining the mediation of practice learning within mentor/student pairs. It is an in-depth exploration of non-formal learning as perceived by a sample of student midwives at various stages of their preparation programmes across England. The theoretical underpinning stems from literature on non-formal learning, incorporating Eraut's analysis of non-formal learning and Polanyi's philosophy of tacit knowledge. A sample of fourteen student midwives recorded their experiences of learning and support in clinical practice for ten days in audio-diary format. The diaries were analysed within a narrative analysis framework to capture the 'voice' of the learners, who described the challenges inherent in learning and acquiring the craft of midwifery. Discourse analysis was used to interrogate the data. This method enabled discovery of pattern and order in everyday language-in-use. Unique information emerged within students' individual interpretive repertoires. The lengthy audio-diaries illuminated contexts and linguistic expressions which conveyed the socio-cultural positioning of the student midwives. The method was found to be compatible with non-formal learning and the epistemological perspective selected because of the organic nature of craft knowledge. Student midwives' reflexive accounts identified a range of 'tools' used by mentors, which influenced acquisition of practical competence and cognition. These tools included not only physical teaching aids, but also signs, modelling and other means of semiotic mediation. This thesis reveals the power of formative learning and situated support in midwifery practice. An argument is developed for mobilising hidden, tacit knowledge which often exists on the borders of the formal curriculum

Practical coaching by mentors: student midwives' perceptions

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper was to explore some of the specific strategies used by midwife mentors to mediate practice learning from the perspective of a sample of student midwives. DESIGN: Audio-diaries were completed by student midwives over ten days in practice and were transcribed using discourse analysis. A sub-sample from 19 students' learning diaries from a national midwifery education study conducted by Pope et al. (2003) has been selected as the diaries informed a separate study. PARTICIPANTS: The sample of student midwives were studying on degree and diploma programmes at five case study sites in England. MAIN FINDINGS: Students described how their mentors apparently successfully tailored their teaching to the students' needs. However, there was perceived disparity in techniques used by individual mentors to pass on their practice know-how. The findings demonstrate the pivotal role of the mentor for 'scaffolding' learning and also using 'fading' techniques within a cognitive apprenticeship model. KEY CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Mentors need assistance to adapt their mentoring styles and to use a wider range of instruction strategies for student midwives. This has practical implications for mentor preparation programmes and mentorship models

Charting the history of midwifery education

Despite the recent popularity of exploring the history of midwifery practice, there has been minimal attention paid to the history of midwifery education. The purpose of this paper is to display a visual map and timeline of midwifery education from the eighteenth century, when formal midwifery programmes were introduced, to the present day. The paper will be inclusive of the history of midwifery teaching through the use of the High Coombe College archives (Lorentzon et al 2008). Prior to the eighteenth century, processes for learning midwifery were informal and unregulated. Traditional apprenticeships were gradually replaced by formal, regulated educational midwifery programmes, which were assessed. Midwifery teacher training finally became established in the twentieth century

Impact of Covid-19 on mental health and associated losses

Key points • Reflection on the learning through the lens of publications, research, newspaper articles and social media. • Explore how mental health is misbalanced in people’s lives • Preventing loss of life due to COVID-19 lead to poor mental health outcomes, such as isolation, anxiety, depression, job loss and suicidal ideation. • Providing policy recommendation and amendments to meet the needs, exacerbated by the pandemic for the people with mental illness