Evaluation of the Clinical Education and Training of Nurse Practitioner Students and its Implication for Teaching, Management and Politics

Background The Bern University of Applied Sciences (BUAS), Department of Health, master’s pro-gram in Nursing, introduced the Nurse Practitioner (NP) specialization in 2019, which is char-acterized by 400 hours of clinical training with practice partners (so-called supervisors). Until now, this clinical teaching has been predominantly conducted by physicians, largely implemented individually, and the final competencies have not been clarified.PurposeThe aim of this DNP project was to evaluate the current clinical education of students in the master's program in nursing with the specialization NP at the BUAS, to examine the con-tents and the number of hours of clinical education and to derive recommendations for teaching, management, and politics in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.MethodsIn August and September 2022, all (former) students of the NP specialization (N=29) who had completed the clinical modules received two questionnaires (APNCAI with 44 items and NPC-SF with 35 items) to assess their professional competencies. The main purpose of this quantitative part was to obtain an initial baseline on this topic. In a further step, 10 interviews each with supervisors and with (former) NP-students were conducted between August and November 2022. The interviews were processed by means of thematic analysis and subsequently content analysis. Results The (former) NP-students experienced an increase in competence during/after their stud-ies, acted increasingly holistically in the care of patients and experienced themselves as a re-source in the interdisciplinary teams. All (former) NP-students as well as supervisors see the purpose and possible fields of application for NPs. They perceived the on-site clinical teaching as unclear, unstructured, without precise learning content and learning objectives. However, this is not so much because of the clinical setting, but rather because the final competencies are not clearly regulated.Recommendations & ConclusionThis study is an important step in obtaining an initial analysis and preliminary conclusions about NPs' clinical teaching. Furthermore, the study provides insights into the difficulties regarding the non-regulation and financing of the NPs on the part of the supervisors. Further analysis and studies on the topic are recommended

Anwendung und Optimierung des Schweizer Interprofessionalitäts-Evaluations-Instrumentariums SIPEI

Das Schweizer Interprofessionalitäts-Evaluations-Instrumentarium SIPEI wurde entwickelt, um die in der Praxis umgesetzte interprofessionelle Zusammenarbeit (IPZ) an Institutionen des Gesundheitswesens zu evaluieren. Das Instrumentarium wurde als Teil des Förderprogramms «Interprofessionalität» des Bundesamts für Gesundheit erarbeitet und sollte im Rahmen dieses Projekts erstmalig eingesetzt werden. Ziel des Projekts war es, das Instrumentarium SIPEI durch den Einsatz in verschiedenen Settings auf Validität und Reliabilität zu prüfen. Ferner sollten Möglichkeiten zur Optimierung des Instrumentariums aufgezeigt werden

The Psychometric Properties of the Abdominal Surgery Impact Scale

Background: Assessment of quality of life immediately after abdominal surgery is critical; however, potent tools that provide timely information about patient health are required in order to assess and improve postoperative quality of care. Interestingly, such assessment scales for early postoperative quality of life do not exist in German. The aim of this pilot study was to translate the English version of the "Abdominal Surgery Impact Scale" (ASIS) into German and to empirically test the German version. Methods: After the standardized translation, 30 German-speaking patients who had undergone visceral surgery (laparotomy) were recruited at the ward of the Bern University Hospital Visceral Surgery and Medicine. The internal consistency of the translated instrument (ASIS-D) was assessed on the third postoperative day; reliability, retest-reliability and construct validity were also assessed on the fifth postoperative day. Results: ASIS-D faithfully represented the content of the original version. Cronbach's α overall was 0.85 and for the 6 subscales 0.45-0.88. The overall score of retest-reliability was 0.57** and the construct validity was confirmed. Conclusion: The ASIS-D was shown to be reliable and valid even if other investigations are necessary. It provides specific insights into special postoperative symptoms such as wound pain and postoperative quality of sleep. After further tests, it might be suitable not only for capturing the short-term postal-surgical quality of life, but possibly also for evaluating nursing interventions