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Biomedical subjects

S V Dunn

Publications and source records attributed to S V Dunn.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

The roles of Australian chairs in clinical nursing.

Australian chairs in clinical nursing have been established in order to achieve more effective partnerships between academia and the health care sector in education, research and quality of nursing care. The aim of this study was to describe the goals, obstacles, supports and outcomes of such appointments. The study explored the perceptions of a purposive sample of Australian professors holding clinical chairs, stratified to ensure representation of both the geographical and clinical specialty diversity of the population. Eight professors were interviewed using semi-structured telephone interviews. The interviews covered three phases: role establishment, current foci and future developments. Qualitative analysis for common themes and areas of divergence was conducted with concurrent analysis providing the opportunity to seek confirmation for emerging themes. The participants highlighted the diversity of arrangements between university and health sector partners in establishing their respective roles. Clear communication was crucial to successful partnership arrangements. All roles included components of education, research and politics but the relative contribution of each of these areas depended to a large extent on the priorities of the employing partners. The participants felt the need to secure sustainable income sources and consolidate outcomes to ensure the continued viability of their positions. Clinical professorial nursing appointments provide one means of addressing perceived gaps in the links between the university and health care sectors, academia and clinicians, thus enhancing nursing education, research and politics. Through emphasizing common purpose and mutual respect, these positions can illuminate the crucial role nursing plays in Australian health care delivery.

Australia↗
PubMed2000

The development of competency standards for specialist critical care nurses.

In defining the contemporary role of the specialist nurse it is necessary to challenge the concept of nursing as merely a combination of skills and knowledge. Nursing must be demonstrated and defined in the context of client care and include the broader notions of professional development and competence. This qualitative study sought to identify the competency standards for nurse specialists in critical care and to articulate the differences between entry-to-practice standards and the advanced practice of specialist nurses. Over 800 hours of specialist critical care nursing practice were observed and grouped into 'domains' or major themes of specialist practice using a constant comparison qualitative technique. These domains were further refined to describe attributes of the registered nurses which resulted in effective and/or superior performance (competency standards) and to provide examples of performance (performance criteria) which met the defined standard. Constant comparison of the emerging domains, competency standards and performance criteria to observations of specialist critical care practice, ensured the results provided a true reflection of the specialist nursing role. Data analysis resulted in 20 competency standards grouped into six domains: professional practice, reflective practice, enabling, clinical problem solving, teamwork, and leadership. Each of these domains is comprised of between two and seven competency standards. Each standard is further divided into component parts or 'elements' and the elements are illustrated with performance criteria. The competency standards are currently being used in several Australian critical care educational programmes and are the foundation for an emerging critical care credentialling process. They have been viewed with interest by a variety of non-critical care specialty groups and may form a common precursor from which further specialist nursing practice assessment will evolve.

Australia↗
PubMed2000

Developing specialty knowledge: the case of Australian critical care nursing.

The generation of new knowledge is important to the evolution of the nursing profession and its specialties and is a fundamental requirement for the development of the discipline. This study documents the growth of empirical knowledge in Australian critical care nursing by examining the research published in one critical care specialty journal and a second generalized nursing research journal between 1994 and 1998. The proportion of research published in the specialty journal increased from 25 to 69%, with almost one-half focusing on patient therapies and treatments. The proportion of research in the general journal was consistently high, approximately 80 to 90%, with one to two critical care research articles per year. Nurses were first authors on the vast majority of these research articles. Approximately half of the critical care research focused on patient care. The results support the claim that Australian critical care nurses are conducting research to promote best practice in patient care and are thus contributing to the development of the discipline of nursing.

Australia↗
PubMed1997

Leadership.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Critical Care↗
PubMed1997

Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment.

The clinical learning environment (CLE) is an interactive network of forces influencing student learning outcomes in the clinical setting. This study used mixed methods to identify factors characterizing students' perceptions of the CLE. The sample consisted of 229 undergraduate students in the second or third year of their biophysical nursing strand. The five subscales of the Clinical Learning Environment Scale, 'staff-student relationships', 'nurse manager commitment', 'patient relationships', 'student satisfaction' and 'hierarchy and ritual', were supported by qualitative data obtained from student interviews. Interpersonal relationships between the participants in the CLE were crucial to the development of a positive learning environment. Student satisfaction with the CLE was both a result of, and influential in creating, a positive learning environment. Nurse educators, clinical venues, and all others participating in the undergraduate nursing students' clinical education, must collaborate in order to create a CLE which promotes the development of well-educated registered nurses capable of providing safe, cost-effective patient care.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

The development of a clinical learning environment scale.

Within nursing, there is a strong demand for high-quality, cost-effective clinical education experiences that facilitate student learning in the clinical setting. The clinical learning environment (CLE) is the interactive network of forces within the clinical setting that influence the students' clinical learning outcomes. The identification of factors that characterize CLE could lead to strategies that foster the factors most predictive of desirable student learning outcomes and ameliorate those which may have a negative impact on student outcomes. The CLE scale is a 23-item instrument with five subscales: staff-student relationships, nurse manager commitment, patient relationships, interpersonal relationships, and student satisfaction. These factors have strong substantive face validity and construct validity, as determined by confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability coefficients range from high (0.85) to marginal (0.63). The CLE scale provides the educator with a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate affectively relevant factors in the CLE, direct resources to areas where improvement may be required, and nurture those areas functioning well. It will assist in the application of resources in a cost-effective, efficient, productive manner, and will ensure that the clinical learning experience offers the nursing student the best possible learning outcomes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Clinical decision making: a primer for preceptors.

The ability to apply the critical care nurses' knowledge, skills and attitudes to patient care requires clinical decision making at all phases of the patient-nurse interaction. As a novice critical care nurse, the patient care environment is often so complex as to overwhelm the orientee and prevent effective clinical decision making. This article includes a review of current strategies for teaching clinical decision making with special reference to critical care nursing. Relevant theoretical concepts in clinical decision making are applied to the clinical setting, particularly the orientation of novice critical care nurses. The approach is practical, with suggestions for the preceptor involved in the orientation process. As critical care nurses, we spend a major portion of our professional lives making decisions which will, to a greater or lesser extent, influence the hearts, the minds, and often the very survival of others. The process by which we make these decisions is sometimes mysterious even to the person making them. In order to improve our own decision making ability, and to enable us to teach new critical care nurses the skills needed in the critical care setting, we must explore and "demystify" this process.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Patient satisfaction with an outpatient endoscopic service.

The competitive health care market, increasing demand for patient involvement in establishing directions for health care and implementation of hospital accreditation have all driven hospitals toward evaluation of patient satisfaction with the service they receive from the health care venue. Although the concept of patient involvement in health care evaluation and quality assurance is not new, relatively little literature exists on patient satisfaction with outpatient endoscopic services. This study was designed to explore patient satisfaction with endoscopic services and factors influencing their perceptions. The sample (N = 151) included patients undergoing outpatient endoscopic examination over a 1-month period. The 14-item questionnaire included demographics and patients' perceptions of their experiences pre, interim, and postprocedure. Patients' age, referral source, procedure characteristics, perception of the quality of preprocedure information all influenced perceptions of the service provided by the endoscopic unit. Overall, service satisfaction was good. The results of this study have provided the multidisciplinary team with direction for planning improvements in care, and they may be relevant to other outpatient endoscopic services.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Novice critical care nurses' affective responses to orientation.

To provide the best possible learning experience for orientees, staff development educators must be aware of the affective responses of orientees to the orientation period. In this article, the authors use an adult education framework to describe a research study of these responses, and they make suggestions for the application of the results.

Affect↗