How Nursing Students can apply Care Principles in Essays/Dissertation | Study Coach UK

Whether you have face-to-face teaching in the next academic year, or lessons are delivered online or via a blended system, Study Coach is here to help.  Learning via Zoom with a minimum of direct contact with lecturers can be challenging for all students, we therefore suggest that you reach out to Study Coach. We take a relaxed approach to learning, coaching and mentoring students but at the same time we are very focused on learners. Morel Benard at Study Coach has many years experience working at higher and further education, coaching adult learners to be the best that they can be. Morel and team at Study Coach is here to guide University and College students, to achieve high grades.  

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The primary business of Study Coach is education, we are passionate about supporting adult students with their learning and achieving high grades for essays and other assignments. We know from experience that non-traditional learners returning to education will usually find studies at further or higher education to be challenging, and with changes taking place due to the pandemic, we recognise that students could be experiencing greater stress and therefore require more support. In previous blogs we have focused on bringing our services to students attention and have offered University nursing students content on getting help with Essays, Reflective assignments, preparing for a Research Project or Dissertation and how best to tackle essays on COPD and Evidence Based Practice. Most of our university students are writing at Level 7.  In this blog we will talk about Care Principles because college students and first year University nursing students will certainly need knowledge in order to write an essay on issues surrounding Care Principles. 

Further Education/Care Principles 

Access Diploma College students, at Further Education, should hopefully find the following on Care Principles to be useful, since the Access curriculum usually have a marked assignment on this said topic. We believe that an awareness of the principles will also be helpful to learners who are employed as carers working in care homes. In considering the Nursing and Midwifery Care Principles, we will also consider the assessment mode of presentation, since it is likely that students studying for a Diploma will be tested on their knowledge of the principles via a presentation. 

Public Speaking/Presentations 

Learners are usually great at talking, they will all talk at the same time, however when the word presentation is mentioned, there is usually a deathly silence or behaviours change to a state of panic. “I can’t talk in front of the whole class, I’m just not good at it. I’m going to have a heart attack, look and feel my sweaty palms, I swear I’m having angina”. Delivering a presentation therefore seems to be associated with panic attacks, so Study Coach is here to provide support and to encourage students to spend some time developing speaking skills in preparation for delivering academic presentations. 

Okay, let’s imagine that you have to deliver a short powerpoint presentation on Care Principles. The first step is to research what you need to cover according to the assessment criteria; you will need to show a general awareness of why care professionals should observe and adhere to the Care Principles. You might be instructed to discuss the following themes: Prioritise People, Preserve Safety, Effective Communication. You could choose to discuss the topic of Diversity in order to satisfy the Prioritise People theme. In this case you could say that nurses and midwives and other professionals should not make assumptions about patients and service users, professionals should recognise diversity and individual choice. 

Effective Communication 

In creating a powerpoint slide for Preserve Safety you could focus on principle 17, in respect of Safeguarding. This principle highlight the importance of why health care professionals should raise concerns immediately if a vulnerable person is at risk and need extra support and protection. Nurses and care associates should take all reasonable steps to protect the vulnerable from harm, neglect and abuse. You need to know about safeguarding policies and laws. When addressing the code of Practise Effectively, you could consider focusing on Effective Communication. In this case you could explain that professionals should communicate effectively in writing and when speaking to patients, clients and the general public, ensuring that there is understanding. 

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Nursing students and Dissertation Writing/Research  

Doing research is an important part of a nursing degree, it is therefore not surprising that nurses in training need to engage with evidence based practice. Nursing students will need to critique research articles, draft research proposals, conduct their own research and consider the implications for their own present and future practice. Evidencing academic nursing assignments with relevant research studies is one of the first rule that nursing students will need to understand; low evidence is likely to result in low marks.  

A Nursing journal article suggests that research is about to become even more fundamental to the world of nursing and that qualified nurses will be required to become more involved in doing research during their career. The suggestion is that nurses at all levels should be involved with conducting research, and that the requirement for nurses to conduct research should be enshrined in nurses employment contract. Now, from my experience at Study Coach working with student nurses I’m not of the opinion that nurses will be full of glee at the prospects of undertaking research throughout their career. Critiquing literature and drafting a research proposal usually create great anxiety for the majority of nursing students. Getting to grips with terms such as qualitative and quantitative, employing Caldwell critiquing tool and other research tools and engaging with research principles and language can be a stressor for many nursing students. If all qualified nurses are required to engage with research then this could impact on the numbers of people choosing to enter the nursing profession. I’m also concerned how all nurses will find the time to conduct research when they already have a heavy workload caring for patients and carrying out nursing administrative duties.  

We wait to see what the future holds for nurses in training,  it is worth noting that Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has build a requirement into the job description for nurses in all bands to get more involved in doing research. The work at Moorfields is specialised and there is a need for more clinical audits and for more research to be published, this perhaps provides justification for the requirement for nurses at all bands to be involved in research. It is however questionable whether all qualified nurses in Adult nursing and other related areas of nursing, should be required to conduct research. It is argued that if it becomes compulsory for all nurses to conduct research then this will create greater stress for nurses; there is also a danger that time allocated to research will have a negative impact on the practicality of caring and providing patient centred care on wards. Continuous professional development programmes are clearly important in health care and nurses should be encouraged to improve their skills and engage with evidence based practice. It is however questionable whether all nurses in all bands are best placed to conduct research.  

Study Coach can help you to improve your grades, to be the best that you can be. We act as a critical friend and will guide you to understand the assessment criteria and for you to develop your academic skills. We provide both an Essay and Dissertation Online service. Study Coach provides online tutoring at its best, and you can access the service at any time and submit your work overnight. To find out more about our academic support and other services, call Morel Benard for a chat on 07944 849271 or info@studycoachuk.com Website: www.studycoachuk.com