An exploration of undergraduate nursing assistant employment in aged care and its value to undergraduate nursing education.

AIMS: To explore the types of nursing skills that are learnt through work as nursing assistants in aged care; and determine how these skills help to prepare novice nurses for new graduate practice as a Registered Nurse.

BACKGROUND

Issues surrounding patient care currently plague the aged care sector in Australia. Undergraduate Assistants in Nursing are undergraduate nursing students who work in a variety of clinical settings, including aged care facilities. The employment of nursing students in aged care is not well explored.

DESIGN

This paper presents the findings from an open-response question in the Preparation for Clinical Practice survey. The survey represented the first stage of a larger sequential mixed-methods study that explored how undergraduate Assistant in Nursing employment in aged care contributed to the preparation of new graduate Registered Nurses for clinical practice.

SETTING

Data were predominantly collected online via an online survey platform. Social media and snowball sampling methods were utilised to distribute the survey nation-wide.

PARTICIPANTS

New graduate nurses (n = 108) who were previously employed as undergraduate Assistants in Nursing in an aged care facility during their Bachelor of Nursing program.

METHODS

Thematic analysis was used to analyse data from the open-response question in the survey.

FINDINGS: Three main themes were created: developing communication skills, prioritising patient care, and professional growth through immersion.

CONCLUSIONS

Undergraduate Assistant in Nursing employment in aged care prepared novice nurses for new graduate practice, developing higher-order nursing skills in communication, time management, understanding various aspects of care from the patient's unique experiences, and understanding the structure of the healthcare organisation.