Bachelor-prepared nurses are expected to be competent in moral deliberation and decision-making (MDD) in clinical practice. It is unclear, however, how this competence develops in nursing students. This study explores the development of nursing students’ competence for participating in organized forms of MDD in clinical practice, with an eye to improve nursing education. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted by a questionnaire among first and fourth year bachelor nursing students and two cohorts of novice nurses of one bachelor program in nursing. Items included the variables knowledge, attitude and skills in relation to the nurse as professional, to the nursing process, and to the organization. Data collection took place in March 2009. Across 179 respondents, scores in MDD knowledge and skills are significantly higher for students later in nursing education, especially with regard to the variable ‘nursing process’. Attitudes towards MDD score significantly higher after completing nursing training, but lower scores appeared for MDD knowledge and skills, particularly in relation to the organization. Results suggest nursing education should reinforce students’ attitudes to structural forms of MDD, and clinical practice should reinforce nurses’ MDD knowledge and skills. Both education and practice should reinforce nurses’ MDD competence in relation to the organization.
Competent practice in sport psychology is of utmost importance for the professional status of the field, and hence proper assessment of competence for sport psychology practice is needed. We describe three cycles of action research to improve the assessment of competence in a sport psychology education program. The cycles were directed at (a) empowering supervisors in their assessing role, (b) improving the assessment checklist, and (c) investigating an alternative assessment method. Although challenges remain (e.g., improve the still low interrater reliability), the action research has contributed to an improved quality and higher acceptability of the assessment in the education program.
Background: The aim of this study is to validate a newly developed nurses' self-efficacy sources inventory. We test the validity of a five-dimensional model of sources of self-efficacy, which we contrast with the traditional four-dimensional model based on Bandura's theoretical concepts. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis was used in the development of the newly developed self-efficacy measure. Model fit was evaluated based upon commonly recommended goodness-of-fit indices, including the χ2 of the model fit, the Root Mean Square Error of approximation (RMSEA), the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR), and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). Results: All 22 items of the newly developed five-factor sources of self-efficacy have high factor loadings (range .40-.80). Structural equation modeling showed that a five-factor model is favoured over the four-factor model. Conclusions and implications: Results of this study show that differentiation of the vicarious experience source into a peer- and expert based source reflects better how nursing students develop self-efficacy beliefs. This has implications for clinical learning environments: a better and differentiated use of self-efficacy sources can stimulate the professional development of nursing students.
