Abstract
Our aim was to identify the perceived educational needs of nurses working in acute medicine to enable development of a training curriculum specifically for this staff group.
Methods: Post-graduate nurses from North Wales were invited to list 20 conditions and 10 skills for which they felt under prepared for their work in acute medicine. A workshop was then organized, attended by acute medicine nurses,medical colleagues and educationalists from two local universities to discuss initial data.
Results: Nurses identified particular needs for education around presenting symptoms with perceived deficits in knowledge or training. We found a heavy emphasis on respiratory and cardiac conditions. There was considerable overlap with frequent diagnostic categories from non-surgical hospital discharges and with priorities for training of junior doctors. Skills were often those traditionally associated with medical staff or care of patients with critical illnesses.
Conclusion: The 20:10 project represents the first attempt to map educational needs of nursing staff on the Acute Medical Units of a large University Health Board using self-reported needs. The identified needs will support professional development, create incentives for recruitment and guide University postgraduate developments and commissioning.
[download-attachments container="div" style="list" display_icon="1" display_count="1" display__size="0"]
References
- Acute medical care: The right person, in the right setting – first time. Report of the Acute Medicine Task Force Royal College of Physicians, London 2007.
- Lees L, Hughes T. Implementing a patient assessment framework in acute care. Nurs Stand. 2009; 24: 35–43.
- Sturgess I. Planning for predictable flows of patients into unscheduled care pathways beyond the Emergency Department: Meeting Demand and Delivering Quality. IMAS 2010.
- Gillespie M, Melby V. Burnout among nursing staff in accident and emergency and acute medicine: a comparative study. J Clin Nurs. 2003 Nov; 12(6): 842–51.
- West MA, Borril CS, Dawson JF, et al. The link between the management of employees and patient mortality in acute hospitals. International Journal of Human Resource Management 2002; 13:1299–1310.
- Rambur B, McIntosh B, Palumbo MV, Reinier K. Education as a determinant of career retention and job satisfaction among registered nurses. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2005; 37: 185–92.
- Lees L, Myers L. A profile of Nurses working in acute medicine units: What is the future? Acute Med. 2010; 9: 91–6.
- Subbe CP, Bottle RA, Bell D. Acute Medicine: Triage, timing and teaching in the context of medical emergency admissions. Eur J Intern Med. 2011; 22: 339–43.
- Specialty Training Curriculum for Acute Internal Medicine. Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board. London 2009.
- McGaughey J. Acute care teaching in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. Nurs Crit Care. 2009; 14: 11–6.
- Lewis R. Learning the 'SMART' way... results from a pilot study evaluating an interprofessional acute care study day. Nurse Educ Today 2011; 31: 88–93.
- Department of Health. 150 years of the annual report of the chief medical officer: safer medical practice, machines, manikins and polo mints. Crown. London 2009.
- General Medical Council. Tomorrows Doctors. London 2009.
- Nursing & Midwifery Council. Standards for Pre-registration Nursing Education. London 2010.
- Jones MC, Lees L. How is multi-professional training optimized in the acute environment? Br J Hosp Med 2009; 70: S19–25.
- Copper H, Carlisle C, Gibbs T, Watkins C . Developing an evidence base for interdisciplinary learning: a systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2001; 35: 228–237
- Royal College of Nursing. Advanced Nurse practitioners. London 2010.
- Borneuf AA. The who and where of clinical skills teaching: a review from the UK perspective. Nurse Education Today 2008: 197–201.
- Akhtar-Danesh BP. Nurse faculty perceptions of simulation use in nursing education. Western Journal of Nursing Research 2009: 1–67.
- http://www.e-lfh.org.uk/projects/acumen/index.html
Request Permissions
To request copyright permission to republish or share portions of our works, please visit Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC) Marketplace website by clicking the button below:
