Digital Commons Network^™

Lived Experiences Of New Nurse Graduates In Critical Access Hospitals, Lesa Ann Hoppe

Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive, phenomenological study was to explore and uncover the phenomenon of the lived experiences of new nurse graduates in the first year of employment in critical access hospitals. One-on-one interviews were completed with 13 participants working in critical access hospitals in three Midwestern states. The nurses had between 1 and 12 months’ experience in their registered nurse position. Six themes were identified in the study using Colaizzi’s (1978) seven-step process for analysis: (a) Always a Professional, (b) Personal Connections, (c) Pride in Work and Community, (d) Always on Your Toes, (e) Everyone Works as a Team, …

The Lived Experience Of Nurse Practitioner Role Transition: A Phenomenology Study, Anthony Michael Angelow

Dissertations

This qualitative, descriptive phenomenology study sought to answer the following question: What experiences do nurse practitioners identify as being associated with their transition to the nurse practitioner (NP) role? Using purposive sampling and snowball techniques, eight nurse practitioners participated in this study. The study included participants from across the United States. Data from this study were developed from unstructured interviews with participants using audio-recorded open-ended questions, which were then transcribed by the principal investigator. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s (cited in Creswell, 2013) method for qualitative data analysis to identify common themes. Four central themes were generated from these …

Expressions Of Emancipatory Knowing In Undergraduate Nursing Service- Learning, Heather Corinn Voss

Dissertations

Emancipatory nurses recognize social and political problems of injustice or inequity and participate in social and political change to improve people’s lives. The recent spotlight on relationships among health, health inequity, social determinants of health, and structural institutional barriers, has led to demands that nurse educators integrate innovative curricular and pedagogical strategies to analyze and address social justice issues in today’s healthcare system. A mixed-method, qualitative study was conducted to elicit expressions of emancipatory knowing during and after a service- learning experience. Interpretive description was used to analyze data from 15 written reflections and eight semi-structured interviews. Nine expressions of …

Implementing A Caps Simulation To Increase Nursing Education Practice Students’ Self-Awareness Of Attitudes And Beliefs About Poverty, Melissa Ehmke

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this project is to determine if college students who are currently in nursing school, will benefit from the addition of a poverty simulation to positively influence their self-awareness and individual-level beliefs and attitudes towards poverty, therefore being able to serve those in poverty fully and guide them to appropriate resources.

Methods. Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Doctoral Nursing Practice (DNP) students participated in a three-hour Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS). A twenty-one item Attitude Toward Poverty Scale short form (ATPS) survey was completed pre and post-simulation participation.

Results. Significant improvements resulted in three of …

Reflective Journaling To Decrease Anxiety Among Undergraduate Nursing Students In The Clinical Setting, Joely Tara Goodman

Dissertations

Many nursing students experience anxiety in the clinical setting. Increased anxiety impairs students’ ability to learn and can have a negative effect on patient safety. To promote student learning and patient safety, it is imperative that nurse educators identify and implement strategies to decrease nursing students’ anxiety. The purpose of this embedded mixed methods study was to determine if reflective journals are an effective strategy to address the problem of student anxiety. Participants were randomly assigned by their clinical group to either write guided reflective journals, non-guided reflective journals, or no reflective journals during their first clinical rotation where they …

The Impact Of Debriefing For Meaningful Learning On Knowledge Development, Knowledge Retention, And Knowledge Application Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Ann Louise Loomis

Dissertations

Debriefing offers an opportunity to ensure that students can master critical components of nursing that they might not otherwise learn and to remove epistemological roadblocks to knowledge acquisition. Within this study, Debriefing for Meaningful Learning (DML), a theoretically-derived, evidence based and structured debriefing method, was used to explore student’s knowledge acquisition, knowledge retention, and application of knowledge from one patient situation to a different, yet parallel, situation. This quasi-experimental pretest, posttest study explored the impact of the type of debriefing method on the development of knowledge, knowledge retention, and knowledge application. Eighty-two prelicensure baccalaureate nursing students, enrolled in an adult …