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A self-assessment questionnaire has been developed to evaluate on-the-job training progress

Shadowing a senior nurse

Learning on the job for new nurses often means modeling a senior nurse to quickly pick up advanced medical practices and soft skills.

Credit:  mentarako

First-year nurses often have difficulties while bridging the gap between educational theory and required workplace practice. In the fast-paced medical field, sufficient guidance is hard to come by, so new nurses must actively learn on their feet through modeling senior nurses’ actions and techniques. There are several studies on learning from role models, but no specific tools that focus on new nurses’ learning progress through this practice.

A new tool, called the Modeling Scale for Novice Nurses, has been developed by Dr. Yayoi Nagano and Professor Yasuko Hosoda at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Nursing. They conducted a questionnaire on modeling among new nurses in Japan and analyzed the responses of 337 people to create the self-assessment tool made up of four subscales and 21 Likert scale questions.

The subscales (Observation, Imitation, Motivation, Inquiry) and questions focused on the nurses’ behavior and growth while learning on the job. Using this tool can help senior nurses understand where to provide more in-depth support for junior nurses.

“If new nurses can use this tool to understand where improvement is necessary, they will be able to learn more efficiently,” stated Dr. Nagano. “As a result, new nurses will be able to work with more confidence and less stress, which should lead to a reduction in staff turnover and an improvement in the quality and safety of patient care.”

The findings were published in the BMC Nursing.

Funding

This research was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, Grant Number: 20K19016.

Paper information

Journal: BMC Nursing
Title: Development and psychometric testing of the modeling scale for novice nurses: a cross-sectional survey design
DOI: 10.1186/s12912-024-02579-4
Authors: Yayoi Nagano, Yasuko Hosoda
Published: 18 December 2024
URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02579-4

Contact

Yayoi Nagano
Graduate School of Nursing
Email: nagano-y[at] omu.ac.jp

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