Nursing students' preparedness and practice in critical care settings: A scoping review

Abstract Background Due to the demanding nature of critical care settings, students are prone to experience stress and lack of confidence, which hinders their learning and affects patient care. Educators should be knowledgeable about students' roles, stressors, and challenges as well as strategies to enhance students' competence and confidence to efficiently practice in critical care. Purpose To map and analyze the literature about nursing students' placement, preparedness, and practice in critical care settings and identified areas for future research and practice. Methods A scoping review using PRISMA guidelines. The literature was searched within eight databases using indexed terms. In total, 32 sources were selected for review. Literature summary tables, thematic synthesis, narrative summaries were used for data extraction and synthesis. Findings Three themes and 12 sub-themes were generated. The themes included students' experiences and perspectives about critical care placements, strategies to enhance student learning, and the impact of clinical placements and teaching strategies on students. Conclusions Critical care placements allow students to understanding the care of complex patients, enhancing their observational skills, and improving their interpersonal relationships in critical care teams. To enhance student preparedness for effective practice, high fidelity simulations and course-based teaching have been demonstrated to be effective.