An Australian mixed methods pilot study exploring students performing patient risk screening

Abstract

Clinical placement shortages and rising costs have created demand to provide low-resource, high value student learning opportunities. Malnutrition screening provides a vehicle for achieving this. A mixed methods explanatory sequential intervention study investigated time costs, and students' perceptions of preparedness after performing routine patient screening tasks, as well as students' overall views on their feelings of confidence and preparedness when commencing their first clinical placements. Pre-clinical student dietitians commencing initial placements participated (n=58), with 16 of these forming a subgroup who performed malnutrition screening tasks while the others attended usual placement orientation. The time saved when students undertook screening tasks usually assigned to nurses was substantial. Questionnaires revealed that student perceived confidence increased in the screening group when compared with controls. Focus group themes included "anxiety and confidence," "learning in the clinical learning environment," "communication skill development," and "the pre-placement screening experience." Students performing routine patient-screening tasks prior to initial clinical placement has potential cost savings for healthcare organizations and was perceived to be valuable for learning.

Dietetics workforce preparation and preparedness in Australia: A systematic mapping review to inform future dietetics education research

“…A total of 68 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review . Fifty‐seven studies were identified from the search of 3779 records (Figure ) with an additional 11 studies identified through hand searching.…”

Simulation-Based Learning Experiences in Dietetics Programs: A Systematic Review

“…8,10−12 Such SBLEs allow student practice without risk to patient safety 1,13,14 while promoting the development of student professionalism and resilience. 15 Within university-based education of health professionals, SBLEs are applied to increase student preparedness 2,16 and perceived confidence to perform on clinical placement 3,4 and as an assessment tool. 5,6 Simulation-based learning experiences can offer on-demand scenarios and purpose-developed cases to provide learners with experiences they may not otherwise encounter because of the limitations of clinical placement.…”

Patient Involvement in Education of Nutrition and Dietetics Students: A Systematic Review

“…Of 7436 studies identified through database searching (Figure 2) and one additional study located through hand-searching of the reference lists, the final library consisted of 13 studies (Table 1). Nine [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33] were quantitative studies, one [34] was a mixed methods study, and three [35,36,37] were qualitative studies.…”

“…Table 1 reports the key study characteristics of included studies. Literature was identified from the United States (US) and Canada, Australia, United Kingdom (UK), and Japan [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]. Students usually were identified as being in the later years of nutrition and dietetics programmes.…”