Cutmore Ellie, Henderson Amanda
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Sciences, Central Queensland University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Int J Older People Nurs. 2025 Jan;20(1):e70011. doi: 10.1111/opn.70011.
Enduring shortages in the gerontology nursing workforce are projected to increase as demand for services for older persons grows. Recruitment of Registered Nurses in gerontology is further hindered by negative perceptions held by students towards nursing older people.
To determine whether a professional development activity designed to assist clinical supervisors to build the mentorship capacity of care staff in residential aged care facilities could positively improve their clinical learning environment and improve student attitudes towards working with older adults.
A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design.
Clinical settings in which participants were undertaking an older person-focused clinical placement.
A purposive sample of 466 first-year undergraduate nursing students. Forty-seven students responded to both the pre- and post-placement surveys.
The intervention comprised four professional development sessions delivered to clinical supervisors supervising nursing students during clinical placement across three residential aged care facilities. Pre- and post-placement surveys measured Student Perceptions of Working with Older People (SPWOP). The modified Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) was included in the post-placement survey to measure student perceptions of the clinical placement learning environment.
Control group participants reported higher pre-placement SPWOP scores yet showed no significant improvement in score post-placement; however, the intervention group reported a statistically significant increase in SPWOP score post-placement. Modified CLEI results revealed the control group reported higher levels of engagement in the learning environment, yet the intervention group reported greater motivation to learn.
An intervention designed to build staff mentorship capacity in gerontology care settings can positively influence student perceptions of working in gerontology. Despite these positive gains, results indicated that students who undertook placement at the intervention sites were less engaged. This disparity illuminates the need for continued efforts to build staff mentorship capacity in older person-focused clinical learning environments to improve student experiences and perceptions of gerontology nursing.
Further research that engages directly with unregulated healthcare workers in geronotological care settings could provide new insights into what this cohort need to become effective mentors and shift student nurse attitudes towards caring for older adults.
随着对老年人服务需求的增长，老年护理劳动力的长期短缺预计会加剧。老年护理领域注册护士的招募进一步受到学生对护理老年人的负面看法的阻碍。
确定一项旨在帮助临床督导人员培养老年护理机构护理人员指导能力的专业发展活动是否能积极改善临床学习环境，并提高学生对与老年人共事的态度。
准实验性、非等效的前测-后测对照组设计。
参与者进行以老年人为重点的临床实习的临床环境。
466名本科一年级护理专业学生的目的抽样。47名学生对实习前和实习后的调查都做出了回应。
干预措施包括为在三个老年护理机构进行临床实习期间指导护理专业学生的临床督导人员提供四次专业发展培训课程。实习前和实习后的调查测量了学生对与老年人共事的看法（SPWOP）。实习后的调查中纳入了改良的临床学习环境量表（CLEI），以测量学生对临床实习学习环境的看法。
对照组参与者在实习前的SPWOP得分较高，但实习后的得分没有显著提高；然而，干预组在实习后的SPWOP得分有统计学意义的显著提高。改良后的CLEI结果显示，对照组报告在学习环境中的参与度较高，但干预组报告有更强的学习动力。
一项旨在培养老年护理环境中员工指导能力的干预措施可以对学生对老年护理工作的看法产生积极影响。尽管取得了这些积极成果，但结果表明，在干预地点进行实习的学生参与度较低。这种差异表明，需要继续努力在以老年人为重点的临床学习环境中培养员工的指导能力，以改善学生对老年护理的体验和看法。
直接与老年护理环境中未受监管的医护人员合作的进一步研究，可能会为这一群体成为有效指导者所需的条件以及改变学生护士对护理老年人的态度提供新的见解。
