Heidi Steger and Lauren Picarelli POSTS: Heidi Steger MondayNov 8 at 7:06am Hell

Heidi Steger and Lauren Picarelli POSTS:
Heidi Steger
MondayNov 8 at 7:06am
Hello classmates,
My practice issue selected entails nursing students being unprepared to provide quality end-of-life (EOL) care and my intervention is to provide EOL care simulation.
Quantitative research may pose valuable as it can produce variables that prove what aspects of EOL care nursing students feel inadequately prepared in. This evidence may come in the form of Likert scale scores including specific scales relating to death and dying such as Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) and Frommelt Attitudes Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD). These scales can give numerical evidence on how many participants have a fear of death, avoid situations involving death, and how many have a positive or negative attitude towards the dying process (Petrongolo & Toothaker, 2021). Additionally, quantitative research findings may show the numerical statistics of how often nursing students have the opportunities to care for dying patients in clinical settings.
Quantitative research findings can shape efforts to improve levels of preparedness as nurse educators can decide where to focus the most attention on when updating palliative and EOL care curricula. These findings can further provide evidence that EOL care simulation is a valuable and wanted experience by nursing students that allows for positive role modeling and mentoring by nurse educators (Heise et al., 2018). Moreover, having nurse educators nearby to discuss the death of a patient assists nursing students to build confidence in finding ways to adequately support a patient and their family during the dying process (Heise et al., 2018).
Petrongolo & Toothaker (2021) completed a study using DAP-R and FATCOD scales to determine if the level of education completed by nursing students correlated to more positive attitudes towards death. This study resulted in showing that clinical experience and academic levels do make a difference in the nursing students’ attitudes towards caring for dying patients (Petrongolo & Toothaker, 2021). These results give valuable evidence because first-year nursing students will need more opportunities for discussion and practice in EOL care compared to senior nursing students. Petrongolo & Toothaker’s research shows that the amount of time given in clinical experiences does correlate to levels of fear of death and death avoidance (2021). These results are also valuable to nurse educators as simulation opportunities may need added if clinical experiences surrounding the dying process are not available.
Heidi
References:
Heise, B. A., Wing, D. K., & Hullinger, A. H. R. (2018). My patient died: A national study of nursing students’ perceptions after experiencing a patient death. Nursing Education Perspectives, 39(6), 355–359. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000335 (Links to an external site.)
Petrongolo, M., & Toothaker, R. (2021). Nursing students perceptions of death and dying: A descriptive quantitative study. Nurse Education Today, 104, 104993–104993. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104993
Collapse SubdiscussionLauren Picarelli
Lauren Picarelli
MondayNov 8 at 8:28am
Week Three
Regarding the decrease in central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) within the hospital setting, a majority of data that would prove to be beneficial would be conducted through quantitative research. When utilizing quantitative research, one focuses on numbers and data sets compared to qualitative research that is more verbalized, emotional data within the study of the human population. Within the practice issue selected, quantitative research would prove to be beneficial because one can collect data on the occurrences of CLABSIs with and without the use of an added intervention; in this case the integration of daily central line audits. When examining the occurrences of CLABSIs to those individuals who did not utilize the daily audits compared to those that did, I can see if my proposed intervention was effective in the decrease of CLABSIs throughout the hospital setting.
These quantitative research findings can shape and improve the issue of CLABSIs because if the integration of daily audits proves to be beneficial within the patient population, this can be a standardized practice change. Having daily audits completed by either administration, or within nurse to nurse handoff, this can prove to be very beneficial in the reduction of these infections. This integration would take time and effort from nurse educators and those involved in shared governance, but this integration, if proven effective throughout the quantitative research can help save lives and reduce infection rates.
One form of quantitative study that can be utilized within this proposed practice change would be the use of surveys. Although they will not show the effect of the daily audits on the occurrence of CLABSIs, it can provide information regarding the nurse and administrative points of view on the intervention. The survey can provide information such as if the nurses believe this intervention and integration of a practice change can be plausible and done daily either during nurse to nurse hand off or at a designated time during their shift. These surveys can also allow the researchers to tailor the audits based on how the nurses, in this case the people who would be performing the daily audits after research is completed felt about the design and questions included in the proposed audits. These surveys can help researchers tailor the audits to better the patient population, and allow for these to be completed daily, to decrease the occurrences of CLABSIs.
-Lauren Picarelli