"Today's highly demanding healthcare environment requires the effective use of clinical critical thinking and motor skills in complex care situations to achieve optimum patient outcomes. The purpose of the evidence-based practice (EBP) clinical project was to use the simulation laboratory to assess and document sophomore baccalaureate nursing students' competence in clinical skill acquisition. The function of nursing education is to develop knowledgeable nurses capable of providing safe, highly competent, and skilled patient care. The nursing literature supports utilizing the principles of deliberate practice in a simulation laboratory setting with the attendant assessment, feedback and guided repetition that led to improved student performance. Clinical skill acquisition requires nursing students to spend time in the simulation laboratory to practice clinical skills repetitively and receive immediate feedback from faculty. Feedback on student performance is an important aspect of deliberate practice and facilitates the development of clinical practice habits. Comparison of clinical competence using the Clinical Competency Questionnaire tool pre-intervention and post-intervention educational sessions was utilized. A 37.26% increase was noted from pre-intervention educational sessions to post-intervention educational sessions (Pre-test mean: 108.05; Post-test mean: 148.31). In turn, the process provided nursing students with close supervision, guidance and the ability to practice specific skills in the simulation laboratory numerous times through a method of deliberate practice before demonstrating competency and proficiency. The EBP clinical change project suggested that improvement in clinical competence was related to educational sessions, faculty demonstrations of clinical skills, nursing student's demonstration of skills, and documentation of clinical skills on a skills checklist. " -- Abstract.

This clinical manual is an ideal and standardized platform for preparing nursing students with the essential tools for documenting their nursing process. It teaches nursing students how to gather important data about each client in the clinical setting. Using this manual, the student nurse will be able to perform high quality documentation that is accurate and consistent in the client profile and laboratory and diagnostics, and their correlation and significance to the client’s diagnosis or diagnoses. This manual also covers the medication administration record, nursing interventions and rationales, and intake and output forms. The Situation Background Assessment Recommendation (SBAR) form and the use of a concept map complete the list of resources provided. Using this standardized documentation, the student will be able to: • Identify the primary patient data (past and present), diagnosis, and treatment plan. • Analyze patient data correlating and drawing conclusions relevant to patient outcome. • Document finding in a systematic manner. • Interpret diagnostic findings as relate to patient diagnosis This manual is intended for use in medical, surgical, and critical care clinical nursing courses.

"Background: Simulation is an alternative learning strategy that is becoming more prevalent in nursing schools across the country as a method to enhance clinical practice in a safe environment. Debriefing is the final phase of simulation which is a teaching strategy that provides focus and deliberate practice. Nursing faculty are challenged to create student centered simulation experiences. However, often faculty are inexperienced and struggle facilitating a debriefing learning experience. Problem: When student nurses graduate and enter the work force it is expected that they are able to problem solve and use clinical judgment skills. Students had limited clinical exposure due to the accelerated nature of the program and the unpredictability of their clinical experiences. The nursing faculty at this college had a simulation lab available, but many had not been formally trained to conduct simulations or debriefing. Setting: The setting for this project took place in a small college in the Northeastern United States. The students were in their third and fourth final semesters in an accelerated BSN program. The participants included two groups; nursing faculty and nursing students. Results: Two intended outcomes were measured for this project; faculty knowledge after the debriefing workshop and student perception of improved clinical judgment post simulation debriefing. Faculty knowledge and insight on debriefing was improved as measured by a pre/post-test. In addition, students perceived enhanced learning after the debriefing. Conclusions: Debriefing is a process that involves student participation and guided reflection by faculty whose intention is to identify the gaps in knowledge and skill. This evidence-based practice change project concentrated on the importance of faculty education on structured debriefing as well as the vital understanding of student-centered learning." -- Abstract.

This new title uses a fresh approach to clinical skills, reinforcing the concept of enquiry-based learning. It encourages practitioners to reflect on the way clinical skills are acquired and implemented. Designed to work alongside clinical manuals, Uncovering Skills for Practice compels students to think about the reasons behind certain procedures, the most appropriate time and method to carry them out and the impact they will have on the patient. This unique approach offers the only introduction to a way of thinking which will improve the delivery of clinical skills learned.

The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.

Problem-based learning (PBL) has excited interest among educators around the world for several decades. Among the most notable applications of PBL is the approach taken at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life sciences (FHML) at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Starting in 1974 as a medical school, the faculty embarked on the innovative pathway of problem-based learning, trying to establish a medical training program which applied recent insights of education which would be better adapted to the needs of the modem physician. The medical school, currently part of the FHML, can be considered as an 'established' school, where original innovations and educational changes have become part of a routine. The first book to bring this wealth of information together, Lessons from Problem-based Learning documents those findings and shares the experiences of those involved, to encourage further debate and refinement of problem-based learning in specific applications elsewhere and in general educational discussion and thought. Each chapter provides a description of why and what has been done in the Maastricht program, followed by reflection on the benefits and issues that have arisen for these developments. The final section of the book examines the application of PBL in the future, and how it is likely to develop further.