Nursing Students’ Self-Efficacy in Cardiac Critical Care: A Novel Pre-Internship Educational Package

Abstract

Clinical teaching is the core of nursing education and together with the decrease in clinical learning opportunities should be top priority for research attention. This study aimed to determine the effects of an educational pre-internship package on nursing students’ self-efficacy to deliver critical care. This controlled experimental study was conducted among 37 nursing students selected by using the census sampling method. The educational intervention was performed for three days in a case group, before beginning the internship. The data were collected using a demographic information questionnaire, the self-efficacy-in-clinical-performance questionnaire, and 10 clinical scenarios. The self-efficacy of the test group was examined at baseline and after the intervention, and then compared with the control group. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24, through an independent t-test and paired t-test. The results showed that the intervention resulted in a significant difference (p < 0.001) in the total score of self-efficacy between the case (161.26 ± 6.07) and control (119.72 ± 10.13) groups .In addition, the correlation between self-efficacy and score of the students’ performance was significantly positive (89%, p < 0.001). Also, there was a series of significant differences (p < 0.001) in the mean scores of examining the patient, the nursing diagnosis, care planning, implementing the care plan, and assessing the care plan between cases and controls. The results of this study indicated that the educational pre-internship package for cardiac critical care has a positive effect on promoting nursing students’ self-efficacy. These findings can be used as a strategy to enhance students’ competency before entering the internship and graduation.

Self‐efficacy in the context of nursing education and transition to practice as a registered practitioner: A systematic review

“…Two studies among RCTs had intervention effects on self‐efficacy that were less than r = 0.20. Only seven of the studies reported positive changes in self‐efficacy with a large effect size r ≥ 0.5; (RCT = 4), (Ataee et al, 2019 ; Iannuzzi et al, 2019 ; Moeini et al, 2019 ; Phuangngoenmak et al, 2019 ); (non‐RCT = 3) (Baek et al, 2019 ; Chu et al, 2019 ; Sharour, 2019 ) (Table 5 ). All two‐group studies included in this review did not report effect size values.…”

“…Within the reviewed literature, face-to-face approaches positively impacted self-efficacy in a larger number of included stud- (Alfes, 2015;Ataee et al, 2019;Daglar, 2018;Rambod et al, 2018;Topbaş et al, 2019). Other authors have commented on the need for researchers to consider the psychometric properties of self-administered instruments to ensure consistency in measurement and the highest quality of measurement (Hwang & Kim, 2020;Saxton, 2012).…”

“…Measuring a nurse's self‐efficacy can be difficult, and comparison across studies is problematic due to variation in tools (37 tools sourced); and the focus on task/domain‐specific self‐efficacy (such as interprofessional self‐efficacy, mental health nursing self‐efficacy, and transcultural self‐efficacy ( n = 37 studies) in contrast to general self‐efficacy ( n = 10 studies)). Five of the included studies provided validity and reliability data on the self‐efficacy tool (Alfes, 2015 ; Ataee et al, 2019 ; Daglar, 2018 ; Rambod et al, 2018 ; Topbaş et al, 2019 ). Other authors have commented on the need for researchers to consider the psychometric properties of self‐administered instruments to ensure consistency in measurement and the highest quality of measurement (Hwang & Kim, 2020 ; Saxton,  2012 ).…”