Nursing students not always ID'ing fundamental care needs

(HealthDay)—When presented with different care scenarios, nursing students are not correctly identifying all the fundamental care needs of patients, according to a study published online March 11 in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Eva Jangland, R.N., Ph.D., from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues surveyed 398 nursing students from universities in Sweden, England, Japan, Canada, and Australia regarding the fundamentals of care for each of three scenarios.

The researchers found that certain fundamentals of care were identified more frequently, including communication and education and comfort and elimination. On the other hand, respecting choice and privacy and dignity were less frequently identified. Across nursing programs, the ability to identify all the correct care needs was low overall, although there were significant differences in the number of correctly identified care needs between some of the groups.

"Nursing students are not correctly identifying all a patient's fundamental care needs when presented with different care scenarios. Students more frequently identifying physical care needs and less frequently psychosocial and relational needs," the authors write. "To promote students' ability to identify the integrated nature of the fundamentals of care, practicing clinicians and nurse educators need to role model and incorporate all the fundamental care needs for their patients."