Nurses as educators: creating teachable moments in practice

Effective workplace teaching is increasingly important in healthcare, with all staff being potential educators. The introduction of new roles and the need to create capacity for increased numbers of students can make it difficult to create a good learning experience. Despite the richness of clinical practice as a learning environment, creating capacity for teaching can be challenging. This article explores the possibilities for identifying and creating teachable moments in busy clinical environments and suggests a developmental model for incorporating these learning opportunities. Teachable moments linked directly to optimal patient care can potentially influence and shape a positive learning culture in clinical environments

Developing clinical skill competency of undergraduate nursing students utilising a simulated psychomotor skill laboratory and model of self-directed learning : an evaluation research study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Nursing at Massey University

Nursing education today emphasises higher-level thought processes than in the past. The requirement for Bachelor of Nursing students to also demonstrate competence in the core clinical skills is critical for safe professional practice. Balancing curricular emphases on technical knowledge, clinical and interpersonal skills, ethical decision-making, and other critical thinking skills is becoming increasingly difficult for nurse educators. Changes in the health sector have resulted in increased complexity of care, reduced numbers of venues for clinical practicum experiences, and increased financial costs associated with student practicum. The commitment to ensure that students have requisite clinical skills appropriate to each stage of their programme, prior to their clinical practicum involves curricular, pedagogical and financial considerations. Drawing on international literature and a Faculty committed to the development of nursing knowledge and skill, discovery, reflection and self-directed learning, the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) implemented the use of the Clinical Arts and Technology Centre and a cooperative model of self-directed learning into the Bachelor of Nursing curriculum in January 2000. The Clinical Arts and Technology Centre is an "enhanced" clinical simulation laboratory that provides students with the facilities and resources to support and enhance their knowledge and skills in preparation for clinical practicum. This Evaluation Research study explores and determines the effectiveness of the Clinical Arts and Technology Centre and the cooperative model of self-directed learning in terms of student clinical competency outcomes, and student satisfaction with the facility and model of self-directed learning. An extensive review of literature was undertaken in relation to the development and use of clinical simulation laboratories, clinical simulation, and models of self-directed learning in nursing education. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used including a pre piloted research questionnaire and a collation of student competency assessment outcomes. One hundred and fifty-six EIT Bachelor of Nursing students participated in the study. Statistical research findings and themes that emerged demonstrated a high level of overall student satisfaction with the facility resources and model of learning and provide direction for future facility and resource development, and ongoing quality improvement initiatives

Effectiveness of mobile learning across various settings

This paper reviews three ‘mobile learning’ projects to understand the nature of and extent to which learning is enhanced and facilitated by the inclusion of mobile technologies in the different teaching/learning activities that were carried out. Reviews will be taken from a number of projects; Mobile Learning in Informal Science Settings (MELISSA),Mobile Clinical Learning and Out There in Here (OTIH) projects. Melissa was a European project dealing with a range of learning systems. The Mobile Clinical Learning project investigated the potential of learning resources provided in Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and the ways in which clinical learning within two comparative health care institutions can be supported by using small handheld computers. OTIH is seeking to support collaborative remote experimentation where learners work together in different contexts. Within these projects a range of mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, laptops, ipads) were used to allow a broader understanding of a changing mobile device landscape. The research literature suggests that learning opportunities are more likely to arise in environments where interaction is facilitated. By reviewing these projects we are able to identify elements that are facilitated by mobile technologies and explore ways that learning is supported

Effect of Sequence of Simulated and Clinical Practicum Learning Experiences on Clinical Competency of Nursing Students

Two different sequences of blocks of simulated and clinical practicum learning experiences compared the clinical competency development of nursing students using a randomized crossover design. Competency was measured 3 times: after each block of simulated and clinical experiences and after a final simulated experience. No significant differences in competency scores between the 2 groups across the 3 time points were found. Using alternative models of clinical and simulation learning may help address barriers to the delivery of clinical education faced by schools of nursin

Cultural Norms of Clinical Simulation in Undergraduate Nursing Education

Simulated practice of clinical skills has occurred in skills laboratories for generations, and there is strong evidence to support high-fidelity clinical simulation as an effective tool for learning performance-based skills. What are less known are the processes within clinical simulation environments that facilitate the learning of socially bound and integrated components of nursing practice. Our purpose in this study was to ethnographically describe the situated learning within a simulation laboratory for baccalaureate nursing students within the western United States. We gathered and analyzed data from observations of simulation sessions as well as interviews with students and faculty to produce a rich contextualization of the relationships, beliefs, practices, environmental factors, and theoretical underpinnings encoded in cultural norms of the students’ situated practice within simulation. Our findings add to the evidence linking learning in simulation to the development of broad practice-based skills and clinical reasoning for undergraduate nursing students

A pilot study of operating department practitioners undertaking high-risk learning: a comparison of experiential, part-task and hi-fidelity simulation teaching methods

Health care learners commonly rely on opportunistic experiential learning in clinical placements in order to develop cognitive and psychomotor clinical skills. In recent years there has been an increasing effort to develop effective alternative, non-opportunistic methods of learning, in an attempt to bypass the questionable tradition of relying on patients to practice on. As part of such efforts, there is an increased utilisation of simulation-based education. However, the effectiveness of simulation in health care education arguably varies between professions (Liaw, Chan, Scherpbier, Rethans, & Pua, 2012; Oberleitner, Broussard, & Bourque, 2011; Ross, 2012). This pilot study compares the effectiveness of three educational (or ‘teaching’) methods in the development of clinical knowledge and skills during Rapid Sequence Induction (RSI) of anaesthesia, a potentially life-threatening clinical situation. Students of Operating Department Practice (ODP) undertook either a) traditional classroom based and experiential learning, b) part-task training, or c) fully submersive scenario-based simulated learning

Development of a game-based learning tool for applied team science communication in a virtual clinical trial.

Educational tools for application of team science competencies in clinical research are needed. Our interdisciplinary group developed and evaluated acceptability of a virtual world game-based learning tool simulating a multisite clinical trial; performance hinges on effective intrateam communication. Initial implementation with clinical research trainees (n=40) indicates high satisfaction and perceived relevance to team science and research career goals. Game-based learning may play an important role in team science training

From extinction learning to anxiety treatment: mind the gap

Laboratory models of extinction learning in animals and humans have the potential to illuminate methods for improving clinical treatment of fear-based clinical disorders. However, such translational research often neglects important differences between threat responses in animals and fear learning in humans, particularly as it relates to the treatment of clinical disorders. Specifically, the conscious experience of fear and anxiety, along with the capacity to deliberately engage top-down cognitive processes to modulate that experience, involves distinct brain circuitry and is measured and manipulated using different methods than typically used in laboratory research. This paper will identify how translational research that investigates methods of enhancing extinction learning can more effectively model such elements of human fear learning, and how doing so will enhance the relevance of this research to the treatment of fear-based psychological disorders.Published versio