The art of Clinical Supervision Program for registered nurses

Nursing students’ clinical placements should provide an environment in which they can apply their nursing education in the fast-paced world of health care and develop a framework for practice. Students rely on effective teaching and supportive clinical supervisors to provide a placement in which they are not only encouraged to practice, but also to learn from this practice. This is achieved through welcoming students into the health care team by valuing their input and contributions, and consolidating their clinical practice through activities such as critical thinking and reflection. The role of the clinical supervisor is therefore complex and often constrained by time because of the need to prioritise patient care. The role is also distant to that of providing clinical care; therefore, staff require specific education and guidance to understand and implement the role’s requirements. This research aimed to develop, implement and evaluate a new education program for nursing staff. This process was guided by the current literature in relation to the role of the clinical supervisor, the theories and principles of adult learning, and the theories of attitude and attitude change. The effect of the program was determined using a descriptive methodology involving the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data using a triangulation approach. This involved the use of pre- and post-program attendance (on the day and after eight weeks) knowledge and attitude surveys, online reflective statements for up to eight weeks after attending the program, and individual interviews. Analysis of the data determined that participants improved both their knowledge and attitude towards students and clinical supervision. Participants viewed the program as a positive strategy for improving their attitude towards students and student clinical supervision, while also being supported with realistic strategies for promoting a welcoming environment conducive to student learning. Participants also articulated their concerns related to perceived organisational barriers to providing effective clinical supervision. There are multiple implications of this research. The Clinical Supervision Program (CSP) for Registered Nurses is confirmed as a strategy for providing effective education for nurses involved in the role of clinical supervision. The study also articulates the importance of health care facilities and education providers in ensuring ongoing support and recognition of the role, as well as facilitating a workplace that is supportive of student placements

The art of clinical supervision: Strategies to assist with the delivery of student feedback

Objective: The Art of Clinical Supervision (ACS) seminar was developed to provide health professionals with the essential knowledge, skill and attitude to support student clinical learning. This paper provides an outline of the strategies provided to participants to support the delivery of feedback to students on clinical placement. Setting: Western Australian health services Primary argument: The provision of timely and descriptive feedback to students on clinical placement is essential for learning and achievement of competence. Health professionals working with students in the delivery of patient care, termed clinical supervisors, require effective strategies to support this communication technique. Conclusion: ACS participant feedback supports the use of both strategies to formulate the delivery of feedback. This ensures that the student and supervising health professional have discussed the required learning needs, strategies for learning and evaluation

The art of clinical supervision program: Its impact on nurses attitudes towards nursing students

Background: Increasing health professional student numbers in Australia, in response to looming predicted workforce shortages, resulted in a Federal Government call for action to provide clinical supervision education to health professionals. Objectives: This research aimed to develop, implement and evaluate the programme, ‘The Art of Clinical Supervision’ (ACS), designed to support nurses facilitate a positive learning environment for student nurses. Method: The ACS programme was presented (n = 199) across Western Australia as a doctoral study, with participants from both the public and private healthcare sector working in a variety of specialties. A triangulation approach of surveys, reflective entries and interviews was utilised to determine its impact. Results: The data indicated that participants improved their understanding of supervision and attitude towards students and supervision after attending the ACS. Conclusions: Health service managers are encouraged to evaluate their staffs’ knowledge and attitude towards students with findings used to facilitate a positive learning culture. Impact Statement: The Art of Clinical Supervision The purpose of the research was to develop, implement and review a new education programme that could support the development of clinical supervision knowledge and attitude to support student nurse learning. This occurred in an environment of increased student numbers as a strategy to correct a predicted looming workforce shortage. The study findings determined that the programme improved both participant knowledge about how to provide effective clinical supervision (teaching) in the clinical environment, and improved staff attitudes towards students and their place as a learner in the clinical areas. The type of impact was therefore within the domain of quality by improving student learning through effective education strategy. As a result of the doctoral research, involving 200 participants, a Federal Government grant of approx. $500,000 was received to facilitate the training of additional educators to provide the programme across the state of Western Australia. This grant was a partnership between the programme author (researcher) and the Western Australian Government Department of Health. This involved four educators presenting the programme to over 3,000 health professionals in a 3-year period. Despite the cessation of funds with the closure of HWA the programme continues to be delivered through The University of Notre Dame Australia School of Nursing and Midwifery, with only a cost recovery charge

The essence of helping: Significant others and nurses in action draw men into nursing

Background: Nurses are ageing placing nursing workforce sustainability under threat. An untapped potential resource of men in nursing exists within Australia. Objective: The aim of the first phase of this longitudinal study was to investigate why men choose nursing. Design: Qualitative methodological approach used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Research question: “What are the experiences of male graduate nurses regarding their career choice?” Method: The IPA method focused on personal subjective experience where the participants’ own sense-making is important. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a format relevant to IPA. Participants: Purposeful snowball sampling recruited nine nurses. Findings: The “essence of helping” permeated the key theme through significant others and career choice triggers impacting on their decision to enter nursing. Conclusion: Exposure to nurses in action is purported to enhance the awareness of nursing as a career option for men that may contribute to increased recruitment of men into nursing

\u27Ice in the Family\u27: Exploring the experiences of close family members when another family member is using methamphetamine: A longitudinal qualitative study

Objective: To explore the experiences of close family members when another family member is using methamphetamine and how the family member responds over time. Background: Methamphetamine use has widespread implications and harms for both people who use the drug and those that live with them. While there is a significant representation in the literature relating to family members of people who use drugs or alcohol, there are limited studies specifically considering family members experiences of methamphetamine use. Families have been shown to have both positive and negative impacts on people using drugs, but less is known on the impact on the family members themselves. Study design and methods: Multiple semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 families (17 individual participants) from regional and metropolitan Western Australia over a 12-month period. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used in data collection and analysis. Results: Four main themes were identified: 1. The New Lifeguard describes family members’ unplanned insertion into a new role and their rapidly changing experience of the person using methamphetamine. 2. Hit by the Wave demonstrates participants’ experience of repeated and unpredictable impacts on their lives. 3. Life in the Ocean describes the groundlessness associated with changes to goals and family structure. 4. Learning to Surf illuminates the changing strategies employed over time, moving away from trying to fix the person, to participants managing their own wellbeing. Discussion: This study identified common aspects within the lived experience of close family members of people using methamphetamine and ascertained a commonality in the process of this experience. Significant impacts to all areas of life were reported, and distress was fluctuating and unpredictable in line with the cyclical nature of the drug use. Participant responses to these changes varied over time between resentment and trying to fix things, and acceptance and resilience, while gaining or maintaining like-minded supports. Conclusion: Understanding the issues faced by families around this unique drug is vital in providing informed interventions for this group. Family members experience a broad range of financial, social and health impacts and harms over a protracted length of time. They are often not the focus of available support and in adapting to these issues, will themselves seek support away from treatment services for the person using methamphetamine. Implications for practice: Understanding the complex journey of families has a broad range of implications (and opportunities) for a variety of areas such as criminal justice, family support and child protection. There is an opportunity for these areas to consider broader and more specific supports and approaches, and to develop more appropriate, bespoke, and inclusive treatment for families of people using methamphetamine. What is already known about the topic? Methamphetamine is recognised worldwide as a harmful drug with few effective treatments for methamphetamine dependence. Few studies exist exploring the specific impact of methamphetamine on family members. Fewer studies explore the experiences over time. What this paper adds: Family members with a relative who is using methamphetamine experience a range of harms in many areas of their lives. The impact of methamphetamine use is unpredictable and takes place over long periods of time, affecting both individual family members and impacting on the overall structure of the family unit. Families and family members adapt their approach over time, from attempting to fix the situation, to stepping back and seeking support from others who they perceive to be in similar circumstances

Buying in: Analyzing the First Fan Adopters of a New National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Program

Establishing a strong fan base within the inaugural year of a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Program presents many challenges. Tracking consumers and their behavior becomes imperative as sport marketers seek to better understand the first fan adopters of a new program. With new NCAA football programs being established every year, sport marketers of a new program are challenged to not only find a loyal fan-base who will continue to support the program despite win or lose, but find new and innovative ways to grow their fan base. The purpose of this study was to examine attendance demographics and consumer behavior for the inaugural football season at a NCAA Division 1 program. Data were collected (n = 914) from a relatively equal distribution of fan groups (students- 34.8%, alumni- 32.9%, and other- 32.3%) via an in-person survey completed on a tablet interface. Results demonstrate that the level of fandom (temporary, devoted, or fanatic) impacts certain consumer behaviors, including; overall support of the program, media consumption, and game day behaviors

Using a clinical deterioration scenario (video) as an approach for interprofessional learning

For effective management of clinical deterioration, health professionals must work together to recognise and respond to the patients changing health status. This paper provides an overview of the clinical deterioration video, used as a learning tool to engage medical, nursing and physiotherapy students and junior clinicians for the purpose of identifying the deteriorating patient and to support the development of interprofessional teamwork skills. This paper describes the perspectives of educators who have used this resource, a description of the resource, its evaluation, and access to the resource. The educators felt that the clinical deterioration video provides a learning environment in which learners develop an insight into the essential knowledge and skills required to support interprofessional practice and good patient outcomes

Does an incremental approach to implementing programmatic assessment work? Reflections on the change process

In 2017, the School of Medicine (Fremantle) of the University of Notre Dame Australia began moving towards programmatic assessment. Programmatic assessment seeks to achieve robust assessment validity through the assessment of a large number of low-stakes activities or data points. These data points exemplify assessment as learning by valuing feedback, discussion and reflection, ultimately leading to deeper student engagement without compromising credible decision-making on student progress. The School adopted an incremental approach to implementing programmatic assessment that included first establishing data-informed mentoring, and then activating a continuous assessment program that contributed simultaneously to student learning and School decision-making. Action research helped understand the impact of the initiative. Re-engineering continuous assessment as an incremental step towards programmatic assessment proved to be problematic. Some ideas are proposed to draw the strands of programmatic assessment together that may be useful for others to chart a more fruitful path

“I lied a little bit.” A qualitative study exploring the perspectives of elite Australian athletes on self-reported data

Objectives: Explore the perceptions and experiences of elite Australian athletes’ engagement with reporting data in surveillance systems. Design: Qualitative Descriptive. Setting: Semi-structured interviews conducted using Zoom. Participants: We recruited 13 elite Australian athletes competing at a national or international level for semi-structured interviews. Main outcome measures: Audio recordings were transcribed using DeScript, checked for errors and imported into QSR NVIVO. Thematic analysis using QSR NVIVO was used to determine key themes from transcripts. Results: Thematic analysis uncovered four key themes: ‘the paradox of reporting’, ‘data for data\u27s sake’, ‘eyes on reporting’ and ‘athlete friendly reporting’. Conclusion: Athletes perceived reporting as a burden and the athlete management system presented numerous technological difficulties which led to athletes to backfill data entries and compromise data accuracy. Athletes had little knowledge on how their data was used and managed and often received minimal feedback from staff accessing the data. Athletes were unaware of who has access to their data, which is of concern as sensitive information may be collected and athletes may be underage. As a result, many athletes chose to report dishonest data to avoid their performance being questioned

Deployment and Analysis of Instance Segmentation Algorithm for In-field Grade Estimation of Sweetpotatoes

Shape estimation of sweetpotato (SP) storage roots is inherently challenging due to their varied size and shape characteristics. Even measuring "simple" metrics, such as length and width, requires significant time investments either directly in-field or afterward using automated graders. In this paper, we present the results of a model that can perform grading and provide yield estimates directly in the field quicker than manual measurements. Detectron2, a library consisting of deep-learning object detection algorithms, was used to implement Mask R-CNN, an instance segmentation model. This model was deployed for in-field grade estimation of SPs and evaluated against an optical sorter. Storage roots from various clones imaged with a cellphone during trials between 2019 and 2020, were used in the model's training and validation to fine-tune a model to detect SPs. Our results showed that the model could distinguish individual SPs in various environmental conditions including variations in lighting and soil characteristics. RMSE for length, width, and weight, from the model compared to a commercial optical sorter, were 0.66 cm, 1.22 cm, and 74.73 g, respectively, while the RMSE of root counts per plot was 5.27 roots, with r^2 = 0.8. This phenotyping strategy has the potential enable rapid yield estimates in the field without the need for sophisticated and costly optical sorters and may be more readily deployed in environments with limited access to these kinds of resources or facilities.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure