Date of Award

2022

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Allergy prevention, Food allergies, Food allergy education, Nursing students, Shared responsibilities

Supervisor

D.Jackson

Supervisor

L. Buchnan

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

In community food allergy-related emergency situations, students from health, science and criminal justice-related programs are more willing and ready to act than those from other programs (Kagan, 2019). However, despite training in dietary needs and food allergies (FA), healthcare professionals such as physicians often request additional education and resources to assist patients (Carlisle et al., 2010; Kumar et al., 2006). An allergy-related magazine article by Gagné (2018), highlighted the experiences of patients whose hospital care was impacted by overlooked FA needs. Sources for hospital dietary mistakes included patient records not being followed and errors in recording patient allergy information (Wallace, 2015). Absent from literature is an understanding of how FA nursing instruction affects general care patients with FA receive. The goal of the present study was to address this lacuna as it relates to nursing students’ education and to understand how competency and knowledge interact with FA education. Nursing students in Years 1-4 at a university in Southern Ontario responded to an 18-item modified Willingness & Readiness to React in a Food Allergic Emergency in a community setting questionnaire (Kagan, 2018), and to open-ended questions about a patient care vignette involving a patient with FA in hospital. Conventional Content Analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) was used to develop themes from the vignette, that identified how student nurses anticipated providing care to the patient. Findings identify areas to supportnursing students regarding FA education and will add to current literature around FA education for health care workers.

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS