Identifying Research Topics Within Your Practice: Part One

Identifying Research Topics within Your Practice: Part One

11/2/2006

Renee F. Frank

Walden University

Abstract

Becoming a nursing instructor has been a very big challenge for me. There is so much to learn and so much that is so important to the success of our program. This assignment has helped me communicate with the other instructors on a professional level and learn valuable tools that are very effective to the program and the students.

Review of our education system:
My main reflection was on the education system and how effective some of the currently used techniques were used and how effective they were in the end result. In our current curriculum we use what is called reflective journaling. One of my questions relates specifically to this process. How is Reflective journaling impacting the students and practitioners and their ability to use critical care thinking skills? Another area that was of interest to me was the student teacher relationship. My second question is: How do student-teacher relationships affect the overall outcome of the learning experience? Questioning is very common in all situations and sometimes is a difficult concept for new students. My third questions relates to this: How valuable is the concept of The Importance of Questioning as a Teaching-Learning Strategy? Critical thinking has been a huge part of the learning process in nursing schools for as long as I can remember and my fourth questions is based on two important components of the nursing process.What is the relationship between effective critical thinking and effective social skills students learn to be prepared to manage real-world situations? Time management is something that everyone should incorporate in their programs and my last questions is related to time management. The Importance of Considering Time in Developing Teaching-Learning Experiences is related to what subject matter and what proficiencies should be required of a certain degree in nursing?

My interviews with my colleagues.

During my research there were several nurse educators I interviewed for advice and guidance with my desire to learn more about my practice and its effectiveness in the end result. Speaking with Ms. Joann Rivers, RN BSN MSN, ADN Instructor and Gloria McCullin, RN, MSN, MSE, ADN Instructor as well as Ms. Polly Millet, RN BSN MSNed, ADN Instructor, I was able to learn valuable information and enhance my knowledge of our current program. Having the time to speak with each one of these instructors was very rewarding to me because I am new to the process and program. Each instructor had a different outlook on why we use certain process and how they affect the students and the teachers. Take for instance the reflective journaling that is requested of the students during every clinical day. These journals are continued throughout the entire program and are read by several different instructors. Ms. Rivers feels they are helpful in learning what the students are thinking about while they are in a certain setting and if they are thinking about things they should be thinking of. Ms. McCullin felt they helped her determine areas of fear or comfort. Ms. Millet believed that they were a useful to tool to keep track of certain skills performed and how well they learned from it. Basically this information was very resourceful for all the instructors and has become very valuable for me as well. I use this tool to find out what the students feel they are having trouble with, if they need more guidance in certain areas and if they are troubled about anything. So this tool has had a tremendous impact on the students and the practitioners. The students find it very rewarding to help express themselves and help them communicate with their instructors. The general opinion on how student-teacher relationships affect the overall outcome of the learning experiences was that it was a very important component to the program and that it had a huge impact on how well the student performed in the program and once out on their own. Since I have become an instructor, I have notice the importance of having a great student-teacher relationship that must be based on trust and support. Most of the students have never been in situations with patients and it is very difficult for them to put themselves there without having the support and backing of their instructors. This sometimes is not an easy thing to do and some students are harder to form relationships with than others. But the over all opinion by all of us is that is a very important element for success.

Questioning is something that all instructors seem to take great pride in. Most everyone I talked to told me that this aspect was important to everyone in the group. Each time a question is ask, everyone benefits from it and learns something from it. Our students are taught to do extensive research on their patients and their diagnosis as well as their mediations and treatments. The concept of questioning as a teaching-learning strategy is very effect in getting the students to be more prepared in their role as nurse student and more capable of care for their client. All the instructors were on the same page with this concept and were very insistent on the students answering all questions relating to their clients and if unable to we told to return to the drawing board and look it up and return with the answer. This has helped the students understand the importance of their research and application of it to the nursing setting.

Critical thinking and socialization skills

We all know how important it is for the students to have excellent critical thinking and effective social skills. These areas are extensively covered and understood by all instructors. Just the mention of crucial thinking inspires all of the instructors to reflect on how important they believe this is and how it impacts on the students overall performance. Socialization is a course that is taught at our college and stresses the importance of how the student's role in the public eye is viewed and judged. One instructor stated that the public sees a nurse and a student nurse in a very different light that they see anyone else. We are supposed to be made of a certain molding and there are certain expectations from the public. This is something that we as instructors take very seriously when we take our students into a public setting. The last area I wanted to gain knowledge about that we use in our clinical settings is time management. Most instructors have the students give them one time management sheet for their first week on their new clinical rotation. In this time management they must plan out their entire day and write down the steps they will take to proceed to accomplish their goals. Other instructors have them do this time management form for every week of clinical. I feel that this tool should be used in every week of clin8ical because the student must learn good time management skills and just writing this down one time is not sufficient enough to learn good skills. This is something that takes a long time to master and the students are already faced with a lot of responsibility that has them very out of sorts. Most new nursing students do not realize how to prioritize and need to be taught what they need to do first and what can wait until last. In our college some levels are very dedicated to time management and other levels are more concerned with the skills they learn than how they manage their time. I am currently with nursing one and we focus more on learning skills than what time everything should be done,. They are so new at this and they are afraid, so I don't feel prioritizing at this level is as effective as if they already mastered the skills and now they had to care for 2 or more patients. At this point I believe time management is very important. Speaking with the instructors was very resourceful for me as a new member of the team and new to their way of teaching. They were all very helpful with my research and leaning of the facilities curriculum. How it works for each level and how effective the methods we use to teach the students really are. I am glad I had this assignment to help me lean more about my job and how I can be more of an asset to my students.

References

Bunkers,, Sandra (July 2006,).A Mother and Daughter's Reflections. Nursing Science Quarterly,. Vol. 19 No. 3,, 211-217.

Polit, Beck, D. F, C. T (2004). Nursing research: Principles and methods. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams &