Abstract

Session presented on Monday, November 9, 2015 and Tuesday, November 10, 2015:

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of nursing presence during a medical-surgical clinical rotation.

Significance/Rationale: Nursing presence is defined as the physical and emotional availability of the registered nurse to the patient. Technological advancements coupled with an emerging nursing workforce comprised of a technology-dependent millennial generation could potentially threaten the emotional connection between nurse and patient. Few studies have explored nursing presence from a student perspective.

Methods and Analysis: The phenomenon of nursing presence was presented during an undergraduate junior level medical-surgical nursing theory course. Thirty-two students enrolled in this course participated in the study. On the last day of the semester, students responded in writing to 4 open-ended questions asking about their observations of nursing presence during their clinical rotation. Data were coded by two nurse researchers, first separately, then collaboratively. The 12 items from the Presence of Nursing Scale-RN "Being With" subscale, representing the emotional connection between nurse and patient, served as the codebook to guide the analysis.

Results: Narrative comments by students represented all 12 items on the "Being With" subscale. Some elements of "being with" the patient were described frequently, while other elements were expressed less frequently.

Conclusions: Junior-level undergraduate nursing students are able to recognize and recount their experiences of nursing presence during a medical-surgical clinical rotation. Implications: Teaching undergraduate nursing students to recognize nursing presence can serve as the foundation for teaching patient-centered nursing care delivery. Other methodologies for introducing this phenomenon to students, including simulation, should be explored.

Description

43rd Biennial Convention 2015 Theme: Serve Locally, Transform Regionally, Lead Globally.`

Author Details

Jeanne Van Denack, RN; Carol Toliuszis Kostovich, PhD, RN

Sigma Membership

Alpha Omicron

Lead Author Affiliation

Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Type

Poster

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Undergraduate Nursing, Clinical Course, Nursing Presence

Conference Name

43rd Biennial Convention

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Conference Year

2015

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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Being there: Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of nursing presence

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Session presented on Monday, November 9, 2015 and Tuesday, November 10, 2015:

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of nursing presence during a medical-surgical clinical rotation.

Significance/Rationale: Nursing presence is defined as the physical and emotional availability of the registered nurse to the patient. Technological advancements coupled with an emerging nursing workforce comprised of a technology-dependent millennial generation could potentially threaten the emotional connection between nurse and patient. Few studies have explored nursing presence from a student perspective.

Methods and Analysis: The phenomenon of nursing presence was presented during an undergraduate junior level medical-surgical nursing theory course. Thirty-two students enrolled in this course participated in the study. On the last day of the semester, students responded in writing to 4 open-ended questions asking about their observations of nursing presence during their clinical rotation. Data were coded by two nurse researchers, first separately, then collaboratively. The 12 items from the Presence of Nursing Scale-RN "Being With" subscale, representing the emotional connection between nurse and patient, served as the codebook to guide the analysis.

Results: Narrative comments by students represented all 12 items on the "Being With" subscale. Some elements of "being with" the patient were described frequently, while other elements were expressed less frequently.

Conclusions: Junior-level undergraduate nursing students are able to recognize and recount their experiences of nursing presence during a medical-surgical clinical rotation. Implications: Teaching undergraduate nursing students to recognize nursing presence can serve as the foundation for teaching patient-centered nursing care delivery. Other methodologies for introducing this phenomenon to students, including simulation, should be explored.