Using an innovative journal club strategy to teach civility to nursing students: Lessons learned

Abstract

Background: Civility is foundational to nursing practice, crucial for nurse retention and productivity, and contributes to positive patient outcomes. Incivility in nursing begins in academia; nurse faculty have described uncivil behavior as a widespread problem among students. The purpose of this article is to describe an educational strategy to promote civility among nursing students in an academic setting.

Educational Innovation: We used a journal club intervention with seventy-nine senior nursing students. The intervention combined class discussions, speaker presentations, and active learning strategies to raise student awareness and effect positive behavioral change in senior students enrolled in a nursing leadership course during their final semester in the program. Six fifty-minute sessions were incorporated into course content. Each session included faculty-led discussion based on assigned journal articles and a variety of active learning strategies.

Lessons Learned: This article provides a description of each session and describes approaches we found helpful in implementing the journal club. We offer suggestions for tailoring a journal club strategy for use in a variety of ways in order to help nursing students make the transition from civility in school to civility in the workplace.