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To report how mentorship influences the educational experiences and training of doctoral nursing students.
Integrative literature review.
Peer-reviewed journal articles, theoretical works and editorials published in English that focused on doctoral nursing education were included. Papers reporting on mentorship for undergraduate nursing students, nursing faculty, educators, academics or clinical placements were excluded. Data were synthesised into an integrative review, with findings presented as a narrative summary.
Relevant papers published between January 2015 and January 2025 were identified using CINAHL, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC and Embase electronic databases. Search date March 10, 2025.
The review included 16 articles, mostly from the United States of America (USA), examining mentoring in doctoral nursing education. Key findings highlighted valued mentor attributes, such as role modelling and expertise, along with benefits like enhanced research skills, academic performance and personal development. Mentoring also positively impacted mentors' creative performance. Barriers included limited mentor access and compatibility issues.
This review highlights essential attributes of effective mentors, balancing relational skills with expertise. Mentorship enhances student research skills, performance and personal development, also benefiting mentors' creativity. Limited access and compatibility issues pose barriers for nurse scholars. Doctoral programmes should prioritise mentor training, culturally responsive practices and equitable opportunities. Investing in mentorship can cultivate confident nurse leaders and scholars.
This review underscores the necessity of structured mentorship within doctoral nursing education. Effective mentorship directly influences student development, enhancing their research capabilities, academic achievements and readiness for professional roles. Prioritising mentor training and implementing culturally responsive mentorship frameworks can foster inclusive environments that better support diverse doctoral students, ultimately strengthening the nursing profession's academic and clinical leadership.
This integrative review was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
Patient falls in hospitals lead to patient harm, staff distress and economic burden on health systems. There are few strategies with robust evidence demonstrating benefit for the prevention of falls, especially in acute hospital settings. Education and multicomponent fall prevention approaches are promising. Rigorous systematic measurement of implementation has been lacking in most hospital fall prevention trials. This paper describes the protocol for a trial that will evaluate the impact of supported implementation of tailored multicomponent fall prevention interventions on patient falls in hospital.
A stepped-wedge hybrid type I effectiveness implementation cluster randomised trial will be conducted. Twelve inpatient wards across four metropolitan hospitals will be enrolled in the trial, clustered into groups of four and randomised to commence the intervention at one of three time periods. Patients and ward staff will be recruited to complete pre-implementation surveys, which, combined with analysis of routinely collected local falls data and staff brainstorming, will inform tailored multicomponent fall prevention interventions for each ward. Wards will receive quality improvement training, clinical facilitation and staff education for at least 4 months to support implementation of their fall prevention interventions. The primary outcome—rate of falls—will be measured using routinely collected hospital falls data from the incident management system and medical records. Pre-implementation and post-implementation patient and staff surveys, qualitative interviews and bedside audits will measure secondary effectiveness and implementation outcomes. Healthcare utilisation from hospital data will inform the cost-effectiveness analysis.
The Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (RPAH Zone) approved this trial (protocol number X24-0087 and 2024/ETH00583). The trial is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12624000896572). Data collection commenced in October 2024, due for completion in May 2026. Results will be published in reputable international journals and presented at relevant conferences.
Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12624000896572).
To identify the available records surrounding the deployment of perioperative nurses into differing clinical settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Integrative review methodology.
Quality appraisal of each record was conducted using a modified Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Data were extracted and presented based on outlined research objectives.
Six electronic databases (CINAHL Plus, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched, with relevant peer-reviewed records published after 2019 until February 2025 included to differentiate from other respiratory pandemics.
Ten records were included in the review. Opposing discourse exists between perioperative decision makers and those perioperative nurses who underwent deployment to differing clinical areas surrounding perceptions and experiences of deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Few studies exist exploring experiences of perioperative nurse deployment to a different clinical area during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is vital to develop strategies that enhance the deployment process and ensure effective patient care across various clinical settings when cared for by deployed perioperative nurses.
Further research exploring transferable perioperative nursing skills and its subsequent influence on safe patient care may enhance and inform nurse deployment practices, enriching future staffing protocols in the event of a future pandemic.
PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews guided this review.
This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
In this final editorial of our group of four, we take up the challenge of thinking about radical reform of doctoral education. We contend that without decisive action, nursing risks losing its capacity to shape the future of healthcare. Therefore we suggest there is a need for radical reform of doctoral education, focusing on three key areas.
The extent to which the analysis of the state of play of doctoral education and suggested ways forward are seen as being radical is of course dependent on the context within which nursing research programs currently exist. We are aware that no one size fits all contexts, but we are also aware of a critical need to challenge dominant perspectives and practices and work toward a radical repositioning of the nursing PhD. At a time when the narrative of nursing shortages is pervasive, we need to be positioning nursing research and researchers at the heart of the solution. Without a radical reconsideration of how we build sustainable research teams, the opportunity will bypass us. The special issue on doctoral education deliberately set out to be disruptive, to surface critical questions and trigger a conversation that needs to be had. We are open to continuing this conversation.
Surgery and its resulting hospitalisation are associated with subsequent cognitive and functional decline. Interventions to reduce this decline have exhibited limited success. Prehabilitation is the process of enhancing capacity and reserve before an acute stressor to improve tolerance of the acute physiologic insult. Older adults requiring major surgery are an ideal population for prehabilitation. Prehabilitation exercise studies have mostly focused on physical training to improve physical outcomes after specific surgery types, and data on cognitive outcomes and in broader surgical populations are needed. Computerised cognitive training (CCT) has been shown to enhance memory, processing speed, attention and multitasking. Combining CCT with a physical exercise may be most effective in reducing cognitive and functional decline in older patients undergoing major surgery, but has yet to be evaluated.
The COgnitive and Physical Exercise to improve Outcomes after Surgery (COPE-iOS) study is a randomised, controlled, participant and assessor blinded clinical trial testing the hypothesis that a pragmatic programme combining CCT and physical exercise throughout the perioperative (ie, preoperative and postoperative) period will improve long-term cognitive and disability outcomes in older surgical patients at high risk for decline. The trial aims to randomise 250 patients who undergo major surgery for a treatment period of approximately 1 month prior to surgery and 3 months after surgery, with a follow-up period of 12 months after surgery. The primary outcome is global cognition at 3 months after surgery. Key secondary outcomes include global cognition at 12 months after surgery and disability in activities of daily living and depression at 3 and 12 months after surgery.
Trial protocol has been approved by Vanderbilt Human Research Protections Programme (#202496) and an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board. Results will be presented at scientific conferences and submitted for publication.
ClinicalTrials.gov Registry NCT04889417.
To evaluate the feasibility of conducting a full-scale randomised controlled trial to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the MAINTAIN intervention, designed to support recovery and independence following a fall among people living with dementia.
Pilot cluster randomised controlled trial (c-RCT).
Community-based healthcare services across six UK sites representing primary and secondary care settings.
31 participant-carer dyads were recruited. Eligibility criteria included a diagnosis of dementia and a recent fall. Exclusion criteria included severe comorbidity precluding participation. The consent rate was 84%, and retention at follow-up was 81%.
The MAINTAIN intervention comprised tailored, home-based therapy sessions delivered by trained professionals, focusing on functional recovery, confidence and re-engagement in daily activities, compared with usual care. The intervention was delivered over 12 weeks with booster sessions up to week 24, with the full trial period lasting 28 weeks.
Feasibility outcomes included recruitment and retention rates, intervention adherence and data completeness for outcome and economic measures. Exploratory outcomes assessed functional performance and quality of life. Feasibility outcomes were assessed at baseline, 12 weeks and 28 weeks.
Recruitment occurred over an 8-month period (September 2023–April 2024) across six UK sites. Most intervention participants (89%) attended at least 60% of planned sessions. Completion rates for outcome and economic data were high, indicating strong acceptability and feasibility of both the intervention and trial procedures.
The pilot c-RCT demonstrated that recruitment, retention and intervention delivery were feasible and well accepted. Findings support progression to a definitive trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the MAINTAIN intervention.
ISRCTN16413728 (International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry).
Qualitative research offers unparalleled insights into complex human experiences. The rigour of qualitative data analysis is critical to ensuring credible and actionable findings.
Different qualitative methodologies offer unique lenses to explore human experiences. However, challenges such as context dependency and potential biases necessitate alignment between research aims, analytical strategies and ethical practices to preserve participant voices and ensure methodological rigour.
This narrative review synthesises foundational qualitative methodologies and recent research, offering practical strategies to address challenges in data analysis within nursing and health-related research.
Robust qualitative analysis requires clear analytical aims, reflexivity and ethical integrity. We explore common pitfalls, such as superficial analyses and a lack of transparency, while emphasising the role of rigorous methodologies in ensuring validity, reliability and meaningful findings.
Rigour in qualitative analysis transforms research into actionable insights, informing culturally sensitive care, evidence-based interventions and nursing education. High-quality analysis strengthens the discipline and improves patient outcomes.
Qualitative research demands meticulous and ethical analysis to unlock its full potential. Nurse researchers can deliver findings that drive impactful change in healthcare practice and policy by prioritising analytical rigour and transparency.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
by Zvika Orr, Levi Jackson, Evan Avraham Alpert, Mark D. Fleming
The emergency department (ED) often serves as the first point of care for those with mental health conditions. Mental health-related visits to the ED tend to increase during and after public health crises. In Israel, the war that started in 2023 has had substantial adverse effects on the population’s mental health, increasing the need for emergency services for people with mental health conditions. This article examines the perceptions and experiences of Israeli staff providing care to patients with mental health conditions in an ED of a tertiary-care hospital in Jerusalem. Based on an inductive thematic analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews with staff members, this study sheds new light on the staff’s challenges in treating these patients. The study found that providers navigated a high level of stigma towards people with mental illness. Many providers were aware that negative perceptions of these patients were potentially harmful and may lead to diagnostic overshadowing, and in some cases, they tried to mitigate the effects of stigma. Staff often viewed patients with mental illness as inappropriate users of the ED, assuming limited responsibility for these patients. The findings also illuminate the providers’ inadequate training and skills for treating and managing mental health, as well as organizational and structural constraints. The article recommends ways to improve the treatment of mental health in EDs, such as educational workshops, more support of mental health specialists in EDs, providing calm environments, working alongside experts by experience, and conducting person-centered risk assessments. EDs should strengthen collaboration and referral pathways to community-based mental health services. Moreover, the healthcare system must provide patients with alternative sources of care, such as community crisis centers. These steps can mitigate the expected post-war mental health crisis in Israeli EDs and are relevant to many other countries.Returning research results that indicate risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia—a disease for which no meaningful treatments or cure exist—to cognitively normal participants is controversial. AD is thought to begin many years before clinical signs and symptoms begin. During this time, individuals are cognitively normal but have biomarkers that indicate pathophysiological changes in the brain. With this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of returning research results on cognitively normal participants recruited from a longitudinal observational cohort on ageing at the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Centre (Knight ADRC) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Our study uses a 2-year, delayed-start randomised clinical trial design. Participants are randomised to receive their research results either 2 weeks or 1 year after informed consent. This study was approved to recruit up to 450 participants with existing genetic and biomarker testing results from the Knight ADRC. During the study period, 260 individuals were eligible and approached for entry into the study. The primary cognitive outcomes are 1-year change in subjective cognitive score on the clinical dementia rating sum of box scores and the objective cognitive score on cognitive composite score. The primary psychosocial outcome is change in geriatric depression scale score 1 year after return of research results. The study was powered to answer primary outcomes with 140 participants (70 per study arm).
This study has been approved by the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) Institutional Review Board and the Human Research Protection Office. Results from these trials are shared through conferences and publications.
FreshRSS 