Innovative Teaching Strategies in Nursing and Related Health Professions - Essay Example

Supporting and assessing learning in practice settings Insert Checking emergency equipment is an area of learning where more than one method of assessment can be used to assess a learner. Observation is one of the methods of assessment that can be used in this case. In this instance, the purpose of observation is to assess a learner’s competence including cognitive skills like knowledge, synthesis and comprehension. Through observation, a learner can be assessed on attentiveness, retention of details and motor reproduction of skills. For practical subjects, this is the most obvious form of assessment as it gives direct results (Atherton, 2011). This method is found to be very effective as it provides feedback on what and how much a student has learnt, and on how effective the teaching methods are. A learner can be observed when presenting a certain procedure on a cadaver or volunteer and in this way, the tutor or assessor can grade the student on the basis of real life presentation. This enables in providing two way feedback the on effectiveness of teaching methods while at the same time, the learner gets to know his or her prowess on reproduction of skills. Learners can also be assessed by observation when checking proficiency of emergency equipment like cardiopulmonary machines. Interviewing is another way of assessing the learner in the same area. It can be done orally with previously prepared questions or orally where a learner explains a concept orally for assessment. Both methods are very effective as they allow direct assessment of specific knowledge and skills. They are also important in measuring application and synthesis cognitive skills. Unlike interviews, observation provides the opportunity to observe real practice for instance presentation on endo-tracheal suction on a dummy. Observations also provide less chance for cheating as random questions can be asked while the task is being performed. Interviews with pre-test questions allow a student to be more comfortable unlike observing a student, which can sometimes seem like prying on private space. Feedback Positive feedbacks were given during preparation and assistance in emergencies training sessions. Feedback is not to be considered as a single event the concept is more than that of an expert correcting a learner’s error. Formally, a learner is allowed to construct their own understanding of the task and formulating corresponding goals and strategies for achieving them (Nicole and Macfarlane 2006, p.303). In this way, positive feedback enables the learner identify problematic areas and direct all energy to achieve the goal. Feedback comes from the tutor, peers and self. Informally, immediate feedback was provided when working together, social class interactions and during observation of learners. Positive feedback was based on the learner’s strengths to reinforce good attitudes. For instance, during endo-tracheal suctioning I once told a student that I liked the fact that she explained the procedure to the patient in the process the patient felt reassured. Competency model of supervision was used to provide feedback (Hill 2007) a learner can have; Unconscious incompetence in which a learner is unaware of failings. Unconscious incompetence where a learner has not internalized routine. Low level conscious competence where they are aware of failings, but lack skills to correct them. High level conscious competence where a learners skills are not fully internalized. Feedback is advantageous as it helps in reinforcing good performance. This is especially effective in training sessions on endo-tracheal suctioning and in informal situations where a learner was assisting in emergencies. It also enabled learners in assessment of self performance. It helps in encouraging dialogue between the tutor and learner and in the process; the tutor can assess the effectiveness of his or her teaching methods. Opportunities are therefore, very important in obtaining feedback as they are nothing more than substantial modification to the learning environment (Sadler, 1998). Feedback performs double duty and this may lead to mismatch in learner-tutor perception on comments (Gibbs and Simpson, 2007). In informal situations, feedback is provided without grades and this may be more damaging (Gibbs & Simpson, 2007). Overall performance as a mentor One of the qualities of a mentor is that they should be able to encourage learning. Mentors are especially useful as inspirations and refining the capabilities of a mentee at the beginning of a career. First, I became a model by having attitudes that promote learning by talking about my own learning experience and by having supervised strategies that encourage completion of assignments. For example, making sure I tell my mentees stories of how I became a nurse. Teamwork was another way I used to encourage learning; this will enable learning from the mistakes of others to avoid repetitions. I would refer to social animals like locusts or lions to stress the need of learning from others. For example, I would give assignments to be done in groups of five and in the process of assessment make sure even students with unconscious competence played part making them feel competent. I would also encourage learning by providing and asking for both positive and negative feedback. For example, asking open-ended questions like “what did you think of the assignment...? What would you advice a patient in cases of …?” Encouraging goal setting is also another way of encouraging learning, goals or aims help in directing energy in a certain direction, It is known that if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. I helped my mentees in making goals that are achievable, measurable and controllable. Periodic interviews were also applied ensuring that my mentees constantly revised their work in the process internalizing concepts better. I was able to assess how well I was progressing with my mentees, and I realized that to some extent I fell short in the above quality. Scaffolding is where there are individual instructional modifications that help in mastering of tasks; this can be through hues and cues known as expert scaffolding (Horton & Clarke, 2006). This is one area I fell short as a mentor as I was not able to use this to encourage learning. Provision of opportunities to the learner to strengthen fragile skills were impossible because of lack of enough time to do this. This is also one area I fell short. I was also unable to monitor the progress of my learners because of time constraints. Using research to inform practice The images held by pre-registered nursing students plays a major part in sustaining motivation to their study, but active support from knowledgeable and experienced practitioners contributed to realizing their aims (spouse, 2000). In my experience, motivation together with influence from an experienced practitioner plays a great part as they can mould a learner using different methods. Among the preconceptions, include professional rewards of nursing and viewing nursing as a worthwhile job providing an opportunity to serve humankind. Learners are known to be motivated by different factors that lead to their effort to complete their nursing studies. The first motivation is job availability as is seen in most countries. For instance, I once asked a foreign student why he enrolled for nursing and he told me his idea of nursing was that it is a dirty job but has many opportunities where he can get employed. the preconceived idea here did not seem to affect his motivation. In interacting with my students, I also learned that some students viewed it as a chance to further their education in many fields. When I pried deeply, most students told me that they wanted to major in other fields, which they had not qualified to join in the first place, but a nursing degree would take them there. As learners grew older, so did their perceptions to nursing change and their motivation to complete the course increased (Swedish national board for youth affairs 2007) having more internal influence. This was because as human beings grow older, they gain internal locus of control and try to give their lives a deeper meaning. Feedback influenced learners in terms of confidence and self-esteem. Learners, who at the beginning of their study encounter teachers with negative feedback, end up losing motivation. Students in nursing have been found to be mainly motivated by achievement (Mrayyan 2008). The similarities or differences seen in this paper as compared to spouse Jenny is due to the difference in timing of collecting data, my data is more recent as I keep interacting with nurses in day to day basis. Another reason could be the fact that nursing keeps emerging in terms of policies in different countries, for example negative policies may affect the motivation of students at different levels of training. It has also been shown in both papers that the influence of experts plays a big role as discussed above. Bibliography Atherton, J. S. 2011. Teaching and Learning: Assessment, Direct observation, [online], Available at: http://www.learning and teaching information/teaching/assessment direct/html[Accessed on december2011]. Bradshaw, M, J., Lowenstein, A, J., 2007. 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