Current issues with the identification of threshold concepts in nursing.

While there has been some growth in the body of literature on threshold concepts in health science disciplines, the nature of this discourse and which approaches have proved successful remains unclear. This paper illustrates one of the primary issues facing the development of threshold concepts in nursing education literature specifically - a lack of transparent and rigorous processes for their identification. The paper briefly examines the methods that have been utilised to identify threshold concepts in the nursing education literature, and what issues using these approaches raise.

Signature pedagogies: An integrative review of an emerging concept in nursing education.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to provide an integrative review of the literature associated with signature pedagogies and to discover what lessons have been learned about unearthing, articulating and applying signature pedagogies across a variety of disciplines, but particularly with respect to nursing.

Design: A systematic search of databases using key terms was utilised with a particular focus to papers emerging from nursing disciplines.

Data Sources: The databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Google Scholar were searched for literature from 2005 to 2018 inclusive.

What level of competency do experienced nurses expect from a newly graduated registered nurse? Results of an Australian modified Delphi study.

Background: Individuals who have recently completed accredited courses and are eligible to register as a nurse in Australia are often referred to as not being 'work-ready' by clinically based colleagues. This project identified the level of competence that can be reasonably expected of a newly registered nurse (RN) graduating in Australia. The research was undertaken using the necessary skills identified by Crookes and Brown in 2010.

What are the 'necessary' skills for a newly graduating RN? Results of an Australian survey.

Background: There appears to be a sense of disappointment with the product of contemporary nursing programs in Australia in that new graduate RNs are often referred to as not possessing appropriate skills by clinical colleagues. This work identifies the skills that the profession believes that newly graduating RN's should possess at the point of registration.

Methods: A qualitative consensus methodology was used in the form of a modified Delphi survey.

An audit of skills taught in registered nursing preparation programmes in Australia.

Background: A competitive Carrick Institute Competitive Grant (CG7-523) was obtained to explore what skills were taught and what assessment of practice approaches were used in nursing programmes in Australia. The intention was twofold; firstly to identify what skills were being taught which would contribute to the development of an assessment of practice toolkit for eligibility to practice programmes in Australia. This paper specifically reports on the skills taught in nursing programmes in Australia.

History as reflective practice: A model for integrating historical studies into nurse education.

The role of history in developing professional identity in nursing is well known, and the discipline of nursing history research continues to flourish. Yet this work often struggles to find its way into undergraduate university nurse education courses. We put forward a model for "history as reflective practice" in which we suggest that historical studies can be used as a form of evidence to develop critical thinking and clinical reasoning, as well as situate nursing practice within its social and political context.

Meaningful and engaging teaching techniques for student nurses: a literature review.

Helping undergraduate nursing students to contextualise theory learnt in the classroom to their professional practice can be challenging for nurse educators. This article provides a critical review of contemporary literature that explores strategies and techniques that nurse educators within university settings have adopted to address this challenge. This review was conducted as part of a broader research project that involved interviewing nurse educators to explore how they attempt to make their teaching meaningful and engaging for student nurses.

Clinical simulation in Australia and New Zealand: through the lens of an advisory group.

Across Australia, innovations in simulation to enhance learning in nursing have been occurring for three decades and nursing is, and needs to be, a leading player in simulation knowledge diffusion. However, expertise is unevenly distributed across health services and education providers. Rather than build on the expertise and achievements of others, there is a tendency for resource duplication and for trial and error problem solving, in part related to a failure to communicate achievements for the benefits of the professional collective.

The Study of Nursing Care project: back to the future for contemporary nursing research?

Aims:   To discuss the Study of Nursing Care project, an initiative from the late 1970s in the UK. The article explores the impact of the Study of Nursing Care on nursing research, and considers to what extent it presents a useful model for contemporary nursing research.

Background:   It is acknowledged internationally that the nursing academic workforce is ageing and dwindling.

Scholarship reconsidered: implications for reward and recognition of academic staff in schools of nursing and beyond.

Aims: This paper discusses the issues facing the nursing academic workforce and the development of a project at the University of Wollongong in Australia which attempts to address this problem.

Background: The project draws on Boyer's work around 'scholarship reconsidered' to enable new ways of thinking about the nature of 'research' and how the work of a diversifying workforce can be recognized and rewarded within institutions.

Methods: We conducted a series of interviews with senior university staff to identify key issues around academic promotion processes.

Teaching critical appraisal skills for nursing research.

Background: Evidence-based practice is a major focus in nursing, yet the literature continues to document a research-practice gap. Reasons for this gap stem partly from a lack of skills to critique and synthesize the literature, a lack of search skills and difficulty in understanding research articles, and limited knowledge of research by nursing professionals.

Method: An innovative and quality driven subject to improve critical appraisal and critical thinking skills was developed for the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health at the University of Wollongong, based on formative research with postgraduate students and supervisors.

Multidisciplinary Team Care Arrangements in the management of patients with chronic disease in Australian general practice.

Objective: To explore factors associated with the frequency of multidisciplinary Team Care Arrangements (TCAs) and the impact of TCAs on patient-assessed quality of care in Australian general practice.

Design And Setting: Data were collected as part of a cluster randomised controlled trial conducted in 60 general practices in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria between July 2006 and June 2008. Multilevel logistic regression analysis evaluated factors associated with the frequency of TCAs recorded in the 12 months after baseline, and multilevel multivariable analysis examined the association between TCAs and patient-assessed quality of chronic illness care, adjusted for patient and practice characteristics.

The development of a ranking tool for refereed journals in which nursing and midwifery researchers publish their work.

Publication in quality journals has long been a yardstick for measuring academic performance, although there is a divergence of opinions as to how to define and measure "journal quality". For some time the primary tools for assessing journal quality have been the ISI Journal Citation Reports and the Journal Impact Factors (JIFs), although it has been argued that these are less appropriate for practical disciplines such as nursing midwifery. In order to accurately reflect the nature of nursing and midwifery as a discipline, given the inherent flaws of using just one indicator of journal quality to assess performance overall, this project was designed to develop a tool which combined both objective and subjective methods to produce a ranking system which is specifically relevant to the disciplines of nursing and midwifery.

Developing scholarship in nursing - steps within a strategy.

This paper seeks to share with the reader some of the mechanisms currently being used to generate scholarship in academic nursing, both at the institutional and individual levels. It then goes on to explore other ways in which educational managers might encourage scholarly activity. Finally, it presents the crystallization of ideas generated during discussions conducted with lecturers focusing on their selection of a workable path towards a future of scholarship, for them as an academic.