Jeanne Allen

Self-efficacy in clinical performance reflects nursing students’ confidence in their ability to perform clinical activities and is an important contributor to competence and confidence at graduation. Understanding and evaluating this construct requires valid and reliable instruments that can be used across different stages of a nursing degree. Using a cross-sectional design, Year 1, 2 and 3 students enrolled in a three-year undergraduate nursing programme completed a Modified Self-Efficacy in Clinical Performance Scale. Content validity was investigated through nurse education expert review, construct validity through known-group comparisons and confirmatory factor analysis, and convergent validity and internal consistency using correlation measures, Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega. An analysis of 512 surveys demonstrated expected differences between known groups, including students with and without clinical placement experience. A revised four-factor model demonstrated acceptable but not unequivocally strong structural validity (CMIN/df = 4.84). Scores were strongly correlated with visual analogue self-efficacy ratings (r = 0.77, p < 0.001). Internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.98, McDonald’s omega = 0.98). The Modified Self-Efficacy in Clinical Performance Scale demonstrated promising validity and strong internal consistency for assessing clinical performance self-efficacy among nursing students in this sample and may facilitate the evaluation of curricular initiatives. Further cross-institutional, cross-cultural and longitudinal research should be conducted to test its performance.

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to perform a task effectively despite difficulties and predicts future willingness to undertake similar tasks. The study’s aim was to determine the extent to which undergraduate nursing students develop their clinical performance self-efficacy beliefs throughout their degree. Using a cross-sectional survey design, Year 1, 2 and 3 students from a three-year undergraduate nursing program completed a clinical performance self-efficacy scale, comprising the domains of assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. Welch’s one-way ANOVA and Games–Howell post hoc analyses compared self-efficacy scores across year levels. Self-efficacy predictors were identified with multiple linear regression. Descriptive statistics determined students’ confidence with clinical activities. Participants’ self-efficacy scores increased significantly from Year 1 to 2 and Year 2 to 3. Year level of study was the only unique positive predictor of scores. Over the years, participants were most confident implementing care and least confident planning and evaluating care. Given that clinical placement frequency was not a unique significant predictor of self-efficacy, but rather weakly correlated, future studies should examine if other learning activities such as high-fidelity simulation may play a greater role in its development. The lower confidence with planning and evaluation underscores the need for curricula that scaffold higher-order skills like critical thinking and reflection.

Background: Effective clinical teaching by nurses supports the transfer of knowledge, skills and values amongst nursing students, nurses and health professionals, contributing to safe quality healthcare. Worldwide, professional nursing bodies include clinical teaching as a requirement for nursing registration. Despite this, graduating nursing students judge their clinical teaching capabilities to be less developed than other competencies. To enhance nursing students’ clinical teaching capabilities, research suggests they should first strengthen their self-efficacy related to clinical teaching; however, little, if anything, is known about the development of nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy. This study aimed to examine the development of undergraduate nursing students’ self-efficacy in clinical teaching during their degree program. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Year 2 and final year (Year 3) nursing students in an Australian Bachelor of Nursing program completed the Modified Self-Efficacy in Clinical Teaching Scale. Multiple linear regression identified the predictors of clinical teaching self-efficacy and t -tests determined year-level differences. Item response frequencies and means were used to identify the clinical teaching tasks with which participants were most and least confident. Results: For the total sample ( n = 319), participants’ year level of study ( p = .002) and peer teaching experience ( p < .001) were significant positive predictors of clinical teaching self-efficacy. Year 3 participants’ clinical teaching self-efficacy was higher than that of Year 2 participants ( p < .001). Year 2 and 3 participants were most confident they could teach with prowess and least confident they could impact a learner’s development. More than half of Year 3 students rated their confidence with clinical teaching tasks as moderate or low and Year 2 participants were less confident across all clinical teaching tasks compared to Year 3 participants. Conclusions: This study examined nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy – an underreported topic. Results suggest that nursing students can develop their clinical teaching self-efficacy throughout their degree program. To enhance nursing students’ clinical teaching self-efficacy, university educators should consider integrating peer teaching experiences and best practice clinical teaching principles into curricula. This research supports future benchmarking of nursing students’ self-efficacy outcomes with those of other disciplines and degree programs.

With projections from the Australian federal government indicating an impending exacerbation of the teacher shortage by 2025, it is timely to explore potential approaches that could help mitigate this imminent national crisis. In teaching, there is an historical tendency for the teaching profession to attract more women than men and this study therefore aims to analyse trends in female completion rates of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees. The study objective was to identify the specific teaching degree levels (undergraduate and postgraduate) and modes of attendance that are most likely to continue attracting women to pursue careers in teaching. This research relies on non-identifiable open access data obtained from Australian ITE providers between 2001 and 2021, which have been collected by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment. The study findings reveal an upward trend in female completions of ITE programs offered through external and multimodal study modes, while the internal mode of attendance show a decline. These findings hold significant implications for policy and practice, suggesting the need to enhance the accessibility of external and multimodal ITE degrees for women.

(2020). Editorial: editorial team transition. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 335-337.

(2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 48, No. 3, pp. 233-236.