Novice nurses currently feel unprepared for the social dynamics of the workplace, due to a lack of assertiveness. Although clinical placements in nursing curricula should prepare student nurses for the demanding work environment, they do not seem to meet these expectations. Our study looked into Dutch students’ experiences of clinical placements as a learning environment for assertiveness. Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted and thematically analyzed, revealing three themes and four subthemes. Clinical placements varied greatly in their capability to stimulate assertiveness development. The team's supportiveness toward students and the didactical skill of the coach mainly influenced this capability. In general, students lacked a clear professional role with regards to their colleagues, stifling assertive behavior with the fear of failing the clinical placement. Our findings indicate that future-proof nursing curricula should support the development of assertive interprofessional conduct in students both before and during clinical placement.
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One challenge novice nurses face at the start of their career is coming to grips with the tumultuous working environment and its social dynamics. Assertive behavior and interprofessional communication play a key role in maintaining one’s health throughout this process: skills which novice nurses feel they lacked in their education. Within their education, clinical placements providea true-to-life working environment to train these skills. However, studies show that assertive behavior and interprofessional communication skills are not structurally addressed within this learning environment. To alleviate this theory-practice gap, our study focused on developing a digital tool together with nursing students that helps them structurally reflect upon and monitor these skills. Our main question was: How do students want to reflect upon their assertive behavior and interprofessional communication during their clinical placement using a digital tool?
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Aims. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the level of emotional intelligence of mental health nurses in the Netherlands. Background. The focus in research on emotional intelligence to date has been on a variety of professionals. However, little is known about emotional intelligence in mental health nurses. Method. The emotional intelligence of 98 Dutch nurses caring for psychiatric patients is reported. Data were collected with the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory within a cross-sectional research design. Results. The mean level of emotional intelligence of this sample of professionals is statistically significant higher than the emotional intelligence of the general population. Female nurses score significantly higher than men on the subscales Empathy, Social Responsibility, Interpersonal Relationship, Emotional Self-awareness, Self-Actualisation and Assertiveness. No correlations are found between years of experience and age on the one hand and emotional intelligence on the other hand. Conclusions. The results of this study show that nurses in psychiatric care indeed score above average in the emotional intelligence required to cope with the amount of emotional labour involved in daily mental health practice. Relevance to clinical practice. The ascertained large range in emotional intelligence scores among the mental health nurses challenges us to investigate possible implications which higher or lower emotional intelligence levels may have on the quality of care. For instance, a possible relation between the level of emotional intelligence and the quality of the therapeutic nurse–patient relationship or the relation between the level of emotional intelligence and the manner of coping with situations characterised by a great amount of emotional labour (such as caring for patients who self-harm or are suicidal).
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