Embracing a culture in conducting research requires more than nurses' enthusiasm

Aims This study explored the perceptions of clinical nurses about their research knowledge and experiences to highlight any gaps in nurse education in supporting research activities in healthcare organisations. Background Nurses' research activities have been encouraged by moving hospital-based nurse education into higher education institutions whereby there is a stronger emphasis on teaching and developing nursing research at both undergraduate and post graduate levels. They were further encouraged by the introduction of advanced nurse practitioner roles, in the hope to increase opportunities for research participation. Whilst nurses' research activities have been explored in many countries, nurses in Singapore where there is a strong emphasis on evidence-based practice have not been investigated. Methods A mixed-methods exploratory descriptive design, using a questionnaire based on open and closed questions was employed to obtain the views of clinical nurses about their capacity and organisational support in conducting research. The questionnaires were distributed to convenient samples who attended one of the 4 research seminars held on separate occasions between July and August 2011 in Singapore. Results A total of 146 nurses were recruited. Whilst nurses demonstrated strong enthusiasm in conducting research, this characteristic feature was not adequate for them to embrace a research culture in organisations. Active participation as co-investigators was not possible in healthcare organisations where skewed distribution of resources towards medical and nurse researchers was perceived. Conclusions The results suggest a need for a significant shift in focus on educational training from imparting research contents to providing opportunities to experience the research process. Organisational support in terms of protected time and financial support ought to be in place for nursing research experience. The findings also demonstrated that in places where organisational support was available, awareness of research opportunities such as educational and organisational support needed to be strengthened. This in turn would enable more nurses particularly those who provide direct patient care to conduct research within the context of the competing nursing practice demands

Caring attributes and preparedness to care: effects of a pre-enrolled nursing certificate programme in Singapore

Background: Caring is a highly complex and abstract concept, and nurturing a caring attribute among individuals for a nursing career is believed to be best introduced at the start of student journey in preparatory courses specifically designed for nursing. However, because of the need to professionalise nursing, pre-enrolled nursing programmes have been discontinued and replaced by generic healthcare programmes in many parts of the world. Aim: This study aims to evaluate the impact of pre-enrolled certificate nursing education on students’ caring attributes and their preparedness to care. Methodology: A mixed methods approach using unstructured questions and the Caring Behaviour Inventory was employed to determine student caring attributes and their preparedness to care. The participants were final year pre-enrolled nursing students in Singapore. Findings: Students demonstrated attributes of caring based on an average CBI score of 4.55 (SD 0.32). Expressions of professional nurse caring were explicit in students’ entire learning journey and these took various forms of approach embedded in both curricular and extracurricular activites. The study also found that nurturing caring attributes was associated with a high expectation of student social behaviour and closely linked to the increasingly good reputation of nursing as a profession in that region. Conclusions: This study indicates the high potential value of pre-enrolled nursing education for developing the caring attributes of individuals. A nursing-oriented programme title and its high status associated with nursing were critical elements for nurturing the caring attributes. The implications for developments in nurse education and research are discussed

Critical discourse analysis of interprofessional online learning in health care education

This book demonstrates how information about the student inter-professional online learning experience which may not have been captured in existing approaches, may be observed using CDA. This book exemplifies the importance of research work which sets out to determine the effectiveness of inter-professional online learning from a student's perspective to start focusing on culture and social relations. In addition, this book focuses on researchers with an alternative research approach, which establishes the student learning experience of inter-professional online learning from a student perspective, and crucially, through a critical lens within an authentic learning environment. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved

Analysing healthcare professionals' interprofessional learning experiences in an asynchronous text-based environment

Information on student online learning experiences from a student perspective is considered by many educational researchers as invaluable indicators of the effectiveness of online modules or programmes. Methods to gather the information are commonly based on either a phenomenological or an ethnographic approach. For research studies which focus on the healthcare professionals' interprofessional online learning experiences in an asynchronous text-based learning environment, Fairclough's version of critical discourse analysis (CDA) may offer researchers a more insightful account of the student online learning experiences. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how some pertinent information about students' interprofessional online learning experiences which are likely to be missed in existing approaches can be recovered via CDA. The main aim of this chapter is to exemplify the importance of research work which sets out to determine the effectiveness of interprofessional online learning from a student's perspective to start focusing on culture and social relations. While this chapter aims at providing researchers an alternative research approach which can establish the student learning experiences of interprofessional online learning from a student perspective, more crucially, it does so within an authentic learning environment. By using some data of an ongoing research project, the messages created by a group of healthcare professionals in their course of online interprofessional learning are picked apart to demonstrate how CDA can offer researchers further insights to the student online learning experiences than those offered by existing qualitative approaches. © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved