The extent, variability, and attitudes towards volunteering among undergraduate nursing students: Implications for pedagogy in nurse education

Abstract

Please cite this article as: Dyson, S.E., Liu, L., van den Akker, O., O'Driscoll, M., The extent, variability, and attitudes towards volunteering among undergradute nursing students: Implications for pedagogy in nursing and midifery education, Nurse Education in Practice (2017Practice ( ), doi: 10.1016Practice ( /j.nepr.2017 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT INTRODUCTIONNurses working within the National Health Service (NHS) require critical thinking skills in order to cope with severely ill patients with complex care needs, to deal with rapidly changing situations, and to do so with care with compassion. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) expect undergraduate nursing programmes to prepare nurses to think critically, while at the same time offering limited strategies for the educational development of such skills (Banning, 2006). A lack of consensus around a definition of, and ways of teaching critical thinking has resulted in a proliferation of strategies for the development of critical thinking skills in nursing programmes, for example case studies (Popil, 2011), reflective practice (Caldwell and Grobbel, 2013), and critical reading and writing (Heaslip, 2008). A less well understood strategy for the development of critical thinking in nursing is student volunteering, despite the view that volunteering is thought to promote students' selfesteem and to enhance the development of critical thinking (Moore and Parker, 2008). While self-esteem and critical thinking skills are synonymous with nursing and with volunteering, literature concerned with volunteering in nursing programmes appears limited. The paucity of literature may be due in part to programme requirements determined by the standards for preregistration nursing education (NMC, 2010), which leave limited time for the inclusion of extracurricular activities. In light of this, our study aimed to understand the extent, variability and attitudes towards volunteering among nursing students at our University. Our primary research question was to establish the extent of volunteering in a subsection of the student nurse population. Our secondary research question was to understand the attitudes of our nursing students towards volunteering, in order that we might make recommendations for the nursing curriculum. M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2 BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE Student VolunteeringVolunteering, in and of itself is considered a mutually beneficial relationship or exchange rather than a gift, with considerable evidence of health and wellbeing ben...

VER-SUS project: Influences on the training and performance of nurses

“…In a study carried out with nursing students at a university in the United Kingdom, she pointed out that activities of this kind have a positive impact on the nursing curriculum. However, the search for these activities is still low among students (12)(13) .…”

“…From the data of this research, it is evident the distance between the one proposed by Curriculum and Content Standards of the Undergraduate Nursing Course and what is being implemented by the Brazilian universities. Thus, it is necessary to revise the Nursing Course Pedagogical Projects as a way for a training based on professional preparation with competent, transformative, reflexive and reflection-in-action drivers, with SUS as interlocutor of this reformulation (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) .…”

“…This training, which limits the understanding of the SUS, generates a lack of knowledge about the system, which joins a negative view of a health system with no future. In addition, many use the system for their technical-scientific learning, however, they are not trained to act on it in a critical and reflective way (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) . Thus, it is possible to affirm the premise that the training of human resources for the SUS is one of the great challenges of this system (4) .…”

“…Thus, during the reformulation of the CPP (Course Pedagogical Plan), it is necessary to have in view that the nursing professional is one of the great foundations for a quality SUS (4)(5) . This reformulation needs to focus on the possibility of building articulated training processes in the world of work and practices that use active teaching-learning methodologies, contributing to active subject training in their own life course and work (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) .…”

“…The training in Nursing requires the articulation between theory and practice, considering that the development of care is a sum that involves theoretical knowledge, contact with the other and relationships between people (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) . Because of this, it is indispensable to combine scientific knowledge, acquired in the classroom, with the exercise, obtained in practical classes in the field of practical class or stage, so that the student develops actions that can approach him with the reality and their future professional life in order to reflect in a beneficial way as a nurse (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19) .…”