Safe and Effective Nursing Care - Essay Example

After looking at the changes go to the REVIEW icon on the task-bar, click ACCEPT icon and then click ACCEPT ALL CHANGES IN THE DOCUMENT. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) states that registered nurses must deliver safe and effective care and must maintain professional competence by ensuring that their skills and knowledge remains current. The General Social care Council (2004) also states that registered social care workers are required to support students and facilitate effective development of their knowledge and skills base. This assignment will critically analyse a microteaching session I delivered in front of my peers and teacher in the university environment. The purpose of this assignment is to reflect on my preparation, planning, implementation, presentation and evaluation of the session I delivered (Parahoo 2006). The topic I chose for my teaching and presentation session was Direct Payments. The present essay will discuss the theories, process and teaching and presentation skills which I learnt to practice. I will use Gibbs reflective model to examine the preparation and delivery of the lesson I delivered using teaching and presentation skills. I have opted for Gibbs model of reflection because it integrates a number of logical steps including description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and an action plan (Gibbs 1988). I will facilitate critical thought and relate theory to practice in an effective manner using Gibbs model. I will evaluate and analyse my teaching practice using SWOT analysis in order to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of my teaching practice and to identify areas for future improvement (Wilkinson 2007). Reflective practice in nursing and social work is guided by models of reflection. A reflective practice model serves as a framework within which nursing or other management professions can work. Reflective practice model is also a structural framework or learning model that serves the purposes of a profession and is particularly applicable to health and social care professions (Smith & Jack 2005). Any portfolio of practice includes a model of reflection as reflection helps in determining what was positive or negative in a pedagogical experience. Reflective practice highlights the importance of learning from experiences through reflection. It relates the practical experiences to the theoretical learning approaches (Johns & Graham 1996). There are many different ways of learning and teaching. Sensory stimulation theory has its foundation in learning through the senses that is seeing, hearing, touch, smell and taste. (Petty 2004). Brockbank & McGill (1998) claim that adults learn 75% of the knowledge through seeing and 13% through hearing. Microteaching is a scaled-down, simulated teaching encounter designed for the training of either preserves or in-service teachers. It has been used worldwide since its introduction at Stanford University in the late 1950s by Dwight W. Allen, Robert Bush, and Kim Romney. Its purpose is to provide teachers with an opportunity for the safe practice of an enlarged cluster of teaching skills while learning how to develop simple, single-concept lessons in any teaching subject (McKnight 1980). It was first applied to teaching in laboratory science but later introduced to language teaching (Hek& Moule 2006). The first stage of Gibbs Model is description which requires me to describe the situation or event I dealt with. Here I will describe the account of my 10 minutes micro teaching session which I delivered on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. Twenty-two students (who were in fact my peers) and my lecturer attended the session while the session was video recorded. My chosen topic for the micro-teaching session I presented was dDirect Payment regards to choice, flexibility and control for people with learning disability. It was about people with learning disability buying their own service, promoting independence, choice and control (Somerville & Keeling 2004). In order to make my teaching suitable for my peers, I reckoned that it had to be flexible, keeping in mind the limited time I had for the presentation. Due to the nature of my teaching, it was extremely important for me to maintain a degree of control over the teaching process. In order to define different stages of the presentation I prepared a lesson plan which was also essential for seting up a positive learning environment; an environment that would facilitate students’ activity and learning together with my own learning (see appendix 1). Choosing the topic was strenuous for me. The rationale of choosing the topic Direct Payments was that the topic was directly relevant to the area of my current fifty-days-placement where I liaised mostly with health professionals including the assessor of my teaching session. The preparation and planning of my micro teaching presentation began soon after I received the unit guide for the assignment. According to Kiger (2004), planning is about thinking things, which requires imagination and lateral as well as logical thinking. The lesson I selected for this purpose was on the concept of Direct Payments. The aim of my lesson was to enable my peers to explore the idea of Direct Payments and to provide them a guideline about how payments are arranged and supported within social services. The experience of teaching was quite new to me yet I decided to work hard. To build up confidence for the task I studied extensively and prepared attractive teaching aids in light of the guidlines provided by various educational studies (Hek & Moule 2006). I studied all the important aspects of Direct Payments and prepared my notes for the lesson. Using these notes I made some colourful slides containing all the important points of the lesson and some diagrams showing the direct payments procedures. Kiger (2004) states that a in order to make their teacing effective, teachers must know about what they intend to teach and what the students expect to learn as an outcome of the joint effort, .I also prepared the case study notes and handouts. The handouts were short, concise and interesting in order to enable my peers to recall the information from their cognitive domains in future and to satisfy their desire for acquisition of knowledge (Snowman & Biehler 2000). The idea of using interesting teaching aids is aslo supported by Kiger (2004) who asserts that handouts provide organisation, enable students to listen rather than taking notes and serve as a reminder of what the students have heard in the classroom or lecture. During the preparation of my teaching presentation I researched my chosen subject using as resources like journal articles on intellectual disability, British Nursing Index (BNI), community care website on Direct Payments and Personal budgets. I also studied the journals recommended by Hek and Moule (2006) who contend that using evidence-based practice can help to ensure that the subject is fully researched and will provide support practice. The cognitive approach was used as a tool to ensure that my colleagues have the underpinning knowledge about the topic I was going to present (Quinn 2000). Feelings: I feel that I presented well to my peers, but I in the beginning of my presentation I was very nervous due to the stage fright. The first two minutes of the presentation were really hard since I was feeling great anxiety. I was conscious about the facial expressions of my students who were in reality my peers. However, to hide my nervousness I kept my voice a bit loud and held my hands on the projector keyboard in order to appear calm and confident. Before my practice session, I had a chance to be an observer of my peers’ teaching practice as I sat and watch. I did observe my peers’ performance from teachers’ point of view because didthen my role was of an observer. This provided me a good chance of observing my peers’ performance. This helped me a lot, specifically, because histhis observation made me focus more on my own teaching competences. This experience also enabled me to compare my own competences with theirs. I was not quite sure about how the students and my evaluator felt about my lesson but with the passage of time I became more confident and delivered the whole lesson within the prescribed time. The response of my peers was quite encouraging which was evident from their high level of interest and good class participation. Their positive response made me feel more confident and self-assured. Planning caused a lot of anxiety because I knew how important this stage was. I was not really sure of how well I would do in delivering and presenting my topic to my peers. Another important aspect of the presentation and cause for anxiety was my delivery. Again, I realized the importance of this stage while I was actually presenting. I knew that regardless of how good the planning would be, if I would not deliver it clearly, my peers would not have benefit from or understand the content. Reflecting upon the strengths and weaknesses of my presentation always provides me an opportunity of learning more about teaching skills. Starting with the strengths, I had planned the lesson very well. The time management was good too because I finished each part of my presentation in time. Throughout the presentation I used communication and interpersonal skills quite effectively. I maintained a good eye contact with the listeners and used colourful and informative slides which, as I learnt from Wilkinson’s (2007) writing, enabled me to keep the concentration level of my peers reasonably high Wilkinson. My teachers thought my presentation was well researched. They also pointed out that I used too much colours in some of the slides. The use of nonverbal language also helped me keep the audience alert and attentive. Keeping in mind Wallace’s (2001) ideas, I used hand gestures and kept changing my facial expressions according to the demand of the situationWallace, S, 2001). The weaknesses of my lesson as mentioned in the evaluation forms, filled in by my peers and the evaluators, included nervousness (especially in the beginning of my session), signs of anxiety and self-consciousness (see appendix 2). Most of the evaluators also remarked that the pace of my lesson delivery was quite fast. Though my presentation was overall a good presentation yet I felt multiple threats during the presentation and the evaluation process. I felt threatened about the feedback that was to be given by my peers and my teacher. Another threat was related to the level of difficulty of the questions I was expecting from the audience. In the end, I would say that the experience provided me a great opportunity to explore and learn teaching and presentation skills. I practically learnt a good deal about group dynamics, evidence based practice and the pedagogical process which I had theoretically learnt from McNulty’s (2006) work. Evaluation: The third stage in Gibbs (1988) model of reflection is evaluation in which I am required to reflect upon the positive and negative points of my experience. Evaluation can be seen as a process of making personalised judgments and decisions about achievements, expectations, the effectiveness and evaluation of what we are doing. It is emphasised that if you do not self evaluate there is a tendency to carry on as usual (Reid 2005). Analysis: The next stage in Gibbs (1988) Model of reflection is analysis in which we are required to make sense of the situation. The best thing about the experience was peer tutoring. Fantuzzo (1989) believes that peer tutoring has a very positive impact on learners because it facilitates learning. My peers acted both as my students and my evaluators. The feedback given by my peers was extremely valuable for me since there was a great amount of empathy involved in their evaluation. The experience helped me apply the theoretical knowledge about teaching and presentation skills in a practical situation Which I had learnt theoretically during my studies (Mohanna, K., et al, 2004). This allowed me to know my strengths and weaknesses. The practical application of the educational theory (Armintage et al, 2003) has made me more aware of the pedagogical process together with my own potentials as a teacher and presenter. (Armintage et al, 2003). Action Plan The SWOT analysis of my teaching experience provided me the knowledge of my strengths and weaknesses. Based on the analysis I reckon that my next teaching experience will be much better than this one. I will try to keep my teaching pace moderate and will try to engage the audience by involving them in interesting individual and group activities. I will also use better techniques of avoiding nervousness and anxiety. I will endeavour to make my slides adequately colourful and more interesting in order to keep the students involved and attentive. Lastly, I will feel less threatened from my peers and their evaluation and will feel less self-conscious then the way I felt during the delivery of my first lesson. Conclusion: To conclude I would say that microteaching has helped me to better understand the processes of teaching and learning. It provided me with ample opportunities to explore and reflect on my own and others’ teaching styles and to acquire new teaching techniques. It also made me more conscious of developing my own skills and strategies in order to understand my own and my peers’ teaching. Through the microteaching experience I am now able to pursue self-initiated, self-directed, and self-observed growth (Hatton Smith 2006). The lesson plan encouraged the delivery of a logical session; Not only did planning help to reduce my immediate personal anxieties and uncertainties it gave me a guiding framework that focused the way in which immediate learning outcomes progressively related to my objectives. From the evaluation feedback, I feel that my peers did achieve their learning outcomes and the sessions aim was also achieved. I learned that as a teacher I should draw out more examples. Also, I would say that the teaching experience I had was extremely valuable for my personal and professional development. It not only improved my skills as a presenter but also made me more aware about my own potential to become a nursing and social work professional. The use of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection has enabled me to organize my thoughts and feelings in an appropriate manner. I have established my ability to link theory to practice during the process of reflection, which has contributed towards my personal and professional development. My awareness about how to translate theory into practice has increased to a great degree and I have become more competent in the use of presentation skills (Hammersley-Fletcher & Orsmond 2005). As a result, I feel more confident about any such teaching practice in the future and hope that my evaluators will rate my future teaching sessions much higher. Read More