Substantive Response 1
It is the right point of view that training materials should be communicated to the staff nurses using clear and simple language. It will ensure that they will absorb information as quickly as possible and will be able to implement it in practice. Combining various styles of learning is also important as it will allow all learners to grasp new knowledge regardless of their preferable way of perception of educating materials.
Considering the idea of teaching individual nurses to become a trainer for the other staff, one should take into account that it may be complicated for a worker to perform two professional roles. As Summers (2017) rightly stated, “expertise in nursing does not automatically equate to expertise in educating nurses because it requires a different skill and knowledge set” (p. 4). Having a nurse as a trainer might be an efficient way of informing the staff nurses and advanced practice nurses of innovation in the medical field, but human capabilities should be taken into consideration. Thus, it would be more rational to allocate the roles of a nurse and a trainer to different employees.
Substantive Response 2
The second student decided to place emphasis on cost-effective ways of communicating educational materials rather than the most efficient ones. However, it is doubtful that reducing expenses on staff training is more important than teaching nurses to apply new techniques as quickly as possible. Considering posters, they may be an economically feasible way of disseminating research and evidence-based practice (EBP), but their effectiveness is less than that of other types of education. To absorb the information from the poster, workers should read it in full at least once. Then, the organization should make sure that each person in the target audience became familiar with the material; for example, by conducting a test. Besides, it cannot be accepted that posters affect audio type learners, as they include only visual information.
Research and EPB projects should be communicated by more effective means than broadsheets. Xu (2016) suggests ten strategies of educating nursing staff, the most efficient of which seem to be a high-fidelity simulation and problem-based learning. These ways of teaching nurses involve practice and bear a resemblance to real clinical situations, which makes employees more prepared to implement new knowledge in their work.
Substantive Response 3
The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) is known to describe a person’s shift from detrimental behavior to a healthy lifestyle. However, it is an interesting idea to apply this model to clinical teaching. The core principle of TTM is an individual’s awareness of the necessity to alter his or her behavior. Thus, before starting training, the nursing staff should be informed of the upcoming change and persuaded of its significance. This way, they will accept new information and implement it in practice more readily.
It is also important for the organization to create favorable conditions so that its employees could learn effectively. According to Mueller (2015), trainers should be reputable workers, and it is desirable for them to be a part of nursing leadership. The researcher also points out that the education of the staff nurses should involve not only the transmission of knowledge and practice but also reflections on complicated cases that they may face in their work (Mueller, 2015). Thus, the organization should select the right candidate for conducting the nursing education, and make up a training program that will include theory, practice, as well as thinking activities.
References
- Mueller, P. S. (2015). Teaching and assessing professionalism in medical learners and practicing physicians. Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal, 6(2), 1-13.
- Summers, J. A. (2017). Developing competencies in the novice nurse educator: An integrative review. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 12(4), 263–276.
- Xu, J. (2016). Toolbox of teaching strategies in nurse education. Chinese Nursing Research, 3(2), 54-57.