Abstract
The aged healthcare sector internationally is facing a crisis in attracting and retaining a nurse workforce. Alongside the global rise in longevity, the sector is experiencing an increasing demand on their services. Yet undergraduate nursing students are often reluctant to consider aged residential care (ARC) with perceptions that a lack of opportunities, compared to hospital positions, will mean that their education and high-tech skills are underutilised. This paper describes our institution’s atypical response of offering ARC practicums in both the first and third years of study and our desire to discover students’ perceptions of their learning and experience. Where the first-year experience allows students to undertake fundamental care, the final, month-long year 3 placement, focuses on managing complex care, enhancing nursing leadership and management practices and quality improvement. This mixed method study collected questionnaire data from 72 of 96 (75%) year three Bachelor of Nursing students and facilitated four focus groups involving 38 students. Findings included both congruent and disparate themes from contemporary literature on this subject. Whilst students reported some mixed experiences, they noted improved confidence in applying a range of knowledge and skills in response to encountered needs. Thirty percent said that they were more likely to choose the ARC sector as a career specialty. The biggest factor to which they attributed this positive shift was their interaction with registered nurses and managers. This paper shares our reflections on implications for how we can better prepare our students and educators for placement roles, skills and responsibilities and support the sector.
Author Information
Judith Honeyfield, Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga, New Zealand
Deborah Sims, Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga, New Zealand
Pam Foster, Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga, New Zealand
Adam Proverbs, Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga, New Zealand
Muhammad Akhtaruzzaman, Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga, New Zealand
Paper Information
Conference: ACEID2023
Stream: Teaching Experiences
This paper is part of the ACEID2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Honeyfield J., Sims D., Foster P., Proverbs A., & Akhtaruzzaman M. (2023) The Dichotomy Between Final Year Undergraduate New Zealand Nursing Students’ Reports of Learning and Their Practice Intentions in Aged Residential Care: Challenges and Surprises ISSN: 2189-101X – The Asian Conference on Education & International Development 2023 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 9-25) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2023.2
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-101X.2023.2
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