NURS03 - The Registered Nurses’ Health Education Role in the provision of Clinical Care: A Scoping Review of Perceptions, Preparation, and Professional Development.

Overview

Health education provided by the Australian registered nurse to the people in their care must be person-centred with a collaborative approach to practice that embodies culturally safe and equitable practices. This educational role is as broad as patient care itself, with the health care context and individual patient needs directing the nurses' educational responsibilities. It has been noted however that nurse to patient health education is undervalued (Bergh et al 2015) and overshadowed by the educational role of nurse educators teaching other nurses in the clinical sectors and in universities (Wells-Beede et al 2023).  Others claim that nurses do not have the necessary theoretical underpinning of patient education to meet the educational needs of the Australian people (Thompson et al. 2021). This project aims to explore the literature that relates to nurse-to-patient health education practices of RN's in Australia, considering clinically practicing nurses' perception of, preparation for and professional development of the role of nurse-patient health educator, with a view to collecting data to inform nursing practice.

The project is not attached to an existing funded project.

References.
Bergh, A., Friberg, F., Persson, E., & Dahlborg-Lckhage, E. (2015). Registered Nurses' Patient Education in Everyday Primary Care Practice; Managers' Discourses . Gobal Qualitative Nursing Research. Vol 2, January-December 2015.  https://doi.org/10.1177/2333393615599168

Thompson,  d., May, E., Leach, M., Smith, C., and Fereday, J. (2021). The invisible nature of learning: Patient education in nursing.Collegian. Vol 28(3), pp. 341-345. https://doi:10.1016/j/colegn.2020.08.002

Wells-Beede, E., Sharpnack P., Gruben, D., Klenke-Borgmann, L., Goliat, L., & Yeager, C.  (2023).  A scoping review of Nursing Educator Competencies: Mind the Gap.  Nurse Educator. Vol 48 (5), p. 234-239. https://doi: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000001376

Research engagement

Scoping literature Review and ethics proposal.

Research activities

Student will be involved in both the literature review and writing ethics proposal.

Research skills

Literacture searches, critical analysis of the literature, writing from within a methodology, using the knowledge gained to work towards a researhc project and applying for ethics approval.

Outcomes

Expecting an overview of the literature pertinent to the topic area and also to be working towards collecting data that will inform .

Skills and experience

Undertaken a research unit of study to understand the fundamentals of the project

Start date

2 November, 2026

End date

19 February, 2027

Location

QUT School of Nursing, N-Block, Kelvin Grove Campus

Additional information

Weekly meetings with the supervisor, assistance from librarians and library resources, dedicated desk for work on campus and hours/days will be flexible to meet student needs.

Keywords

• health education
• patient facing
• registered nurse

Contact

Helen Donovan

31383719

h.donovan@qut.edu.au