Nursing Education and Preparing Faculty Teaching, Students for Patient Care & Assignments In Clinical Teaching Environment
Preparing Faculty for Clinical Teaching In Nursing Education, Preparing Students for Patient Care In Nursing Education, Patient Care Assignments In Nursing Education.
Preparing Faculty for Clinical Teaching In Nursing Education
The preparation and development of faculty for clinical teaching are not as widely discussed and documented as the preparation of students for clinical learning. Studies indicate that the exposure of faculty to evidence-based teaching strategies and learning theory is minimal (Dahlke et al., 2012; McNelis et al., 2014).
Krautscheid, Kaakinen, and Warner (2008) directed efforts to facilitate a reversal in this trend. A clinical faculty development program, developed to help faculty practice teaching by analogy and reflect on clinical teaching, was implemented. With this program, clinical teaching simulations were used to allow faculty to practice, teach, and receive immediate feedback. Scenarios were used to facilitate the process.
As a result of the clinical teaching simulations, faculty reported being more reflective as teachers and practitioners and identified the importance of facilitating a safe learning environment in the clinical practice setting. Expert clinicians often have a desire to teach in the practicum area. Providing the faculty development needs of expert clinicians can be challenging.
It can be very difficult to equip clinicians with teaching skills required to be an effective clinical teacher for those faculty who also maintain full-time clinical practices. Some have been preceptors and to fully attain the skills needed to make the transition to a new role as clinical teachers, further instruction, coaching, and guidance is required.
These individuals should be encouraged and provided with information about where and how they can engage in activities that will facilitate their acquisition of the knowledge and skills required for the clinical teaching role. Some schools have developed modules for that purpose.
One method for meeting the challenge of educating clinical teachers is to use an online course to orient clinicians who are making the transition from the role of expert clinician to that of clinical teacher (Reid, Hinderer, Jarosinski, Mister, & Seldomridge, 2013). Essential topics include teaching–learning theory, critical thinking, how to deal with challenging students, and making patient assignments.
Because being an excellent clinical nurse does not mean that the nurse will be an excellent teacher, Cangelosi, Crocker, and Sorrell (2009) developed a Clinical Nurse Educator Academy to prepare clinicians for clinical teaching.
After analyzing reflective papers at the end of the academy, the authors found that the nurses were enthusiastic about the educator role, but that the frustration from lack of mentoring indicates a need for ongoing development of the educator role.
In summary, effective clinical teachers are knowledgeable and know how to convey concepts to students in effective ways, are clinically competent, coach students to develop clinical reasoning and judgment, exhibit interpersonal skills that positively influence students’ learning, and establish collegial relationships that often last well beyond a specific course or program. Clinical faculty also need to be oriented to and developed for the role. Research is likely to continue in this area.
Preparing Students for Patient Care In Nursing Education
Teaching for patient care should involve orderly and logical actions taken to accomplish particular educational goals. The actual selection and use of a particular strategy should be based on expected outcomes, principles of learning, and learner needs.
This section focuses on several strategies commonly used in clinical teaching: patient care assignments, clinical conferences, nursing rounds, and written assignments. Students come to the health care environment not really understanding the culture of confidentiality.
It is imperative that students know and understand the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy and security regulations. It is the role of faculty to instruct students on the need to implement the HIPAA rules and regulations in all patient encounters.
They are designed to protect the patient’s right to privacy. Students should be informed of what they can and cannot do in relation to confidentiality, and these instructions must be enforced.
Patient Care Assignments In Nursing Education
Patient care provides students with opportunities to integrate, synthesize, and use previously learned knowledge and skills. Some nursing courses require students to prepare in advance for their clinical experience.
Advance preparation commences with making clinical assignments, which may be the responsibility of the clinical teacher, the teacher and student together (especially useful for beginning students), the student alone, the student with guidance from the teacher, or the nursing and health care staff or preceptors.
Allowing students some input into selecting clinical assignments encourages them to be self-directed as well as to choose experience on the basis of their personal learning needs. Refer to Box 17-3 for other suggestions for making assignments. The selection of clinical assignments by students in collaboration with others has several benefits.
It provides opportunities for students to select experiences that are based on personal learning needs, to experience a degree of control over their education, and to interact with practicing professionals during the process of selecting experiences.
The extent to which students are permitted to self-select experiences depends on the goals or expected outcomes of the program, the philosophy of the specific clinical teacher, and the availability of resources in the clinical environment to assist students (i.e., to answer questions and provide guidance in patient selection).
Involvement of the clinical faculty is important when students select their experiences. For example, faculty serve as resource advisers and sources of emotional support, communicate goals and intended outcomes, assist students in assessing the congruency between personal learning needs and course objectives, facilitate planning the experiences, collaborate with students as they strive to meet goals, and evaluate accomplishments.
Making clinical assignments can be a challenge for clinical faculty. Novice faculty are often at a loss in terms of knowing where to begin. This is where mentoring by senior level or expert faculty is helpful.