The Undergraduate Education of Nurses: Looking to the Future

Abstract

Societal change historically has presented many challenges for nursing. The challenge to nurse educators is to ensure that professional education remains relevant and keeps abreast of both societal and healthcare changes. These challenges include globalization, changing patient characteristics, science and information technology advancements, the increasing complexities of healthcare, and recent policy and economic developments. The aim of this paper is to consider possible future societal and healthcare changes and how these may impact the preparation of future graduates in general nursing. A clear understanding of these factors is essential if nursing is to meet the challenges presented by tomorrow's healthcare environment within a global context.

Development and Evaluation of Korean Nurses’ Core Competency Scale (KNCCS)

“…This is because nurses face challenges adapting to and keeping abreast of both societal and healthcare changes [20]. Nursing education must be constantly reviewed and developed to remain relevant so that nurses are prepared to the effects of globalization, changing patient characteristics, technological developments, progression of healthcare, and developments in policies and in the economy.…”

“…Nursing education must be constantly reviewed and developed to remain relevant so that nurses are prepared to the effects of globalization, changing patient characteristics, technological developments, progression of healthcare, and developments in policies and in the economy. Specifically, Hegarty et al proposed that nursing education should address areas of transcultural nursing, patient-orientated care, chronic disease self-management, evidencebased nursing, leadership development, ethical and legal issues pertaining to patient healthcare, and international nursing standards [20]. Accordingly, as the instrument measuring the readiness of nurses to meet these challenges, the KNCCS should cover areas of multi-and trans-cultural society, complexities in healthcare, and technological advancement in a manner appropriate to the Korean context and should be continually reviewed and refined to reflect the changing healthcare environment.…”

New graduates’ readiness for practice in Swaziland: An exploration of stakeholders’ perspectives

“…Although the definition of this concept remains elusive [1,2] , being work ready has generally been defined according to the competencies that new graduates must attain upon completion of training. While the tenets of what constitutes competence or competency also remain debatable [3] , the attributes of a competent nurse graduate generally involve the ability to apply evidence to practice, work collaboratively with other health care professionals, and have critical decision-making and problem solving skills and mindfulness of professional ethics and value of patients [4] . In Swaziland, this expectation seems to remain unmet, with the public and nursing stakeholders questioning nursing education institutions about the perceived decline in the quality of nursing care that is being provided by the new graduates.…”

Effect of peer teaching on the performance of undergraduate nursing students enrolled in nursing administration course

“…Therefore, peer teaching is a way of communication of information between two parties of equal or different educational levels who are each engaged in learning the same subject [10] , with someone acting as tutor and the other(s) as tutee(s) [7] . The process may be formal such as one-to-one tutoring and mentoring [11] , or informal such as students helping each other outside the formal teaching environment [12] . It may involve short periods of lecturing with more emphasis on discussions and interactions [13] .…”