Learning for Professional Development - Essay Example

Learning for Professional Development Table of Contents Overview 3 Discussion 4 Result of Low Response Rate 7 Linkage with other Literatures 8 References 14 Overview Nursing handover practice is regarded as a vital aspect of the nursing profession, which is mainly concerned with enhancing patients’ care and assessing patients’ outcomes as well as experiences. The approach of nursing handover of patients has gained an increased level of attention in this modern day context as compared to the previous years because of rising complexities in the healthcare domain. It can be apparently observed that the use of time based evidences is important from the perspective of developing an effective nursing handover practice, which can be better understood from the articles elaborately discussed in the subsequent sections. Thus, the prime two articles “Nursing Inter‐Shift Handover Process in Mental Health Settings: A Best Practice Implementation Project” by Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy (2013) and “A Strategy to Enhance the Safety and Efficiency of Handovers of ICU Patients: Study Protocol Of The pICUp Study” by Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem (2013) have been duly considered along with other literatures related to the similar subject matter. Moreover, it is also worth mentioning that the article “Pilot Study to Show the Loss of Important Data in Nursing Handover” by Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw (2005) has major contribution in this particular context. Further, the article of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012) also contribute to the importance of quantitative study in nursing handover process and safety to the patients. In relation to the above context, the study of Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy (2013) attempted to assess the persisting handover practices or procedures that lay in tertiary mental health based institutions and also determine the strengths along with the limitations of the same. The results of this study depict that the introduction of handover sessions play an imperative role in ensuring patients’ safety in mental health circumstances (Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy, 2013). Based on the study conducted by Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem (2013), it can be ascertained that an optimal flow of patient is quite indispensable as a handover practice, which certainly ensures greater level of quality care. The findings of this study decipher that the above stated handover practice raises the quality care level of the patients in the form of managing carefully the risks emerged from premature discharge (Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem, 2013). On the other hand, the study of Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw (2005) highlighted the significance of forming a better procedure of nursing handover, as a vital part of offering quality nursing in this contemporary healthcare setting. The findings of this study state that verbal handover procedures might not ensure patients’ safety due to the possibility of losing their treatment data. In this case, the medical professionals must consider introducing certain innovative facilities towards preventing such risk and promote quality nursing care Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw (2005). Discussion The research study of Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy (2013), which is concerned with the nursing handover process, is primarily quantitative in nature. The quantitative nature of the study is evident from the involvement of several respondents from whom necessary and relevant data has been collected. In this research study, 212 participants or respondents have been duly considered. The study was conducted in three phases and continued for 4 months in order to generate valid and reliable outcomes. In this regard, nurses and other staff of several healthcare centres have been taken into concern as the participants for the study in order to acquire a comprehensive idea about the subject matter of the research study (Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy, 2013). Another research study related to nursing handover practice, which is worth mentioning, is “A Strategy to Enhance the Safety and Efficiency of Handovers of ICU Patients: Study Protocol Of The pICUp Study” of Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem (2013). This study is also quantitative in nature, which involves the conduct of questionnaire survey for collecting relevant data. The data has been mainly collected from several stakeholders of healthcare centres including the nurses and other staff members. A major proportion of the sample also involves Dutch Intensivists. In this regard, data through a questionnaire survey is collected from 700 participants or respondents (Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem, 2013). For developing personal abilities towards effective handover of patients, the quantitative study of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012) is extremely useful. In this quantitative study, the researchers primarily focussed on clinical handover of the acute psychiatric and community mental health development in Australia. The quantitative study was executed through two phases. The first phase includes the development of relevant questionnaires and collecting data from the clinical health staff, which are highly related to the handover process. On the other hand, the second phase of the study comprised the feedbacks from non-participant observers in Australia. The feedbacks from the non-participant observers were used to evaluate the extent to which the handover procedure in the region is deemed to be effective. Moreover, for the establishment of a worthy study in the current context, the researchers prepared 1125 questionnaires and send the same to several healthcare staff members. However, it was observed that a majority of the receivers did not respond to the given set of questionnaire. It was merely 380 receivers, who returned a complete form. In this regard, the prime reason for the low response rate is the absence of face to face data collection procedure. Most of the receivers do not prefer to respond, as they perceived the study and the responses less useful and benefit to them. Nevertheless, the data collected from the limited questionnaire survey signifies that 86% of the respondents perceive of the deteriorating scenario of nursing handover (Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor, 2012). One of the major findings of this research study revealed in Poh, Parasuram & Kannusamy (2013) that the nursing handover process would become quite effective by making better use of time based evidences. The utilisation of the same is identified to be performed by determining the current practice of evidence-based audit. The research study of Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw (2005) is deemed to be quite important from the perspective of a nursing student like me. Justifiably, the study aids in uplifting the knowledge with regards to greater effectiveness of nursing handover practice concerning patients’ safety with greater focus on introducing certain effective facilities, resulting in promoting quality nursing care. The research study also suggests certain methods based on which effective nursing handover practice can be generated (Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw, 2005). Thus, the results of the research study would prove to be much beneficial, as these will aid me in ensuring patients’ safety while providing effective care to them and assist in gaining wider professional excellence and development in the respective field, i.e. nursing. As argued in Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem (2013), the research study can be ascertained as realising the need of time management for improving the effectiveness of nursing handover procedure. Justifiably, an improvement in time management leads towards increasing the efficiency of the activities performed by the nurses. This is of significant help to ensure greater safety and security of the patients. The research study also revealed the facts of lessening the mortality rate of ICU patients due to the higher effectiveness of nursing handover practice. Based on this research study, the increased reliability of the patients and their respective family members on the improved nursing handover practice through effective time management can be inferred (Sluisveld, Zegers, Westert, Hoeven & Wollershiem, 2013). The research outcomes will be extremely important for me from the perspective of developing my capability towards offering nursing handover of patients at the end of the shift. In accordance, the research study of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012) revealed that 77% of the respondents have the will of gaining higher or further education related to nursing. This would lead the respondent nurses to undergo an effective nursing practice within their respective healthcare centres. It is also observed that the nurses hold the belief of developing nursing handover practice by having wider access towards effective training program designed for them (Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor, 2012). Result of Low Response Rate In the research study of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012), which is mainly related to clinical handover in Australia, it is observed that the response rate is quite low. The response rate of the article is observed to be around 34%. One of the reasons for this low response rate can be ascertained as lack of importance and worthy of the study from the perspective of the respondents. Specially mentioning, as per the viewpoints of Parahoo (2006), the low response rate in any study, results in decreasing the robustness of its research outcomes. In addition, the results of the research study become quite biased (Sharples, 2011). Based on the research study of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012), it can be found that the viewpoints of the non-respondents were not considered. Although, attempts have been made to incorporate higher response rate in the data collection procedure, it was observed that a small proportion of the people have responded to the questionnaire due to having limited knowledge about varied nursing handover practices. Thus, there lies the probability of affecting the integrity of the research outcome due to low response rate. However, in the above stated research study, viewpoints of the non-respondents to the questionnaire were duly considered who provided valuable data during the interview session to the researchers. These non-respondents generally included senior health service providers, nurses and other valuable medical professionals of distinct healthcare centres (Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor, 2012; Clark, Heyme, Mickel, Petrie & Squire, 2009). Linkage with other Literatures In relation to the above context of nursing handover development concerning patients’ safety, the quantitative study of Clemow (2005) is deemed to be quite useful. The prime objective of this study is to share nurses’ experiences and thereby implement a practice of nursing handover that would be highly effective from the perspective of patients’ safety. The results of the study conducted by Clemow (2005) revealed that the importance of time management is required to be taken into concern for effective nursing handover of patients. Moreover, the research study also revealed that in order to perform effective nursing handover practice, proper documentation is also essential. This proper documentation about the relevant information associated with healthcare requirements of patients would certainly lead towards eradicating any confusion, which seems to be persistent in nursing handover process. This might be owing to the reason that the oral communication from one nurse to other might skip the transfer of certain vital information that adversely affects patients’ conditions at large. On the other hand, the written documentation eliminates the possibility of such skip of information by a certain level (Clemow, 2005). Thus, the written documentation process is supportive for effective nursing handover practice (Nagpal et. al., 2013; Gerrish & Lacey, 2010). With regards to determine the effectiveness and development of nursing handover practice, the study of Wilson & Walsh (2007) suggested few of the important aspects that to be considered for enhancing patients’ care, determining appropriate patients’ outcomes and experiences. These aspects include Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Action Learning (AL). In this regard, the study revealed that the notion of strong inter disciplinary communication leads towards effective conduct of nursing handover practice in the healthcare centres. Moreover, the study also inferred that the increased staff or employee satisfaction is also one of the major factors that contribute to the development of nursing handover practice. Furthermore, another important factor that contributes to the development of nursing handover process is the effective problem solving approach by the nurses and other staff members. The study conducted by the researchers is predominantly based on quantitative data, which has been collected from the staff of distinct healthcare centres (Walsh, 2010; Suter, Arndt, Arthur, Parboosingh, Taylor & Deutschlander, 2009; Wilson & Walsh, 2007). The aforementioned research studies relevant to nursing handover practice are important in the field of nursing and developing my capability towards giving proper nursing handover of patients at the end of the shift. The above research studies focused on the effectiveness of the traditional nursing handover practice. In relation to the above stated perspective, the outcomes of such studies are extremely important for making broader professional development in the field of nursing. With the aim of developing my ability in offering nursing handover of patients, the approaches that introduced by Wilson & Walsh (2007), including PAR and AL would prove to be much beneficial for me. This might be owing to the reason that the above-discussed two approaches play an imperative role in determining appropriate nursing handover, which ensures greater improvement in patients’ care and wider determination of patients’ outcomes (Meads, Ashcroft, Scott & Wild, 2005). According to Caldwell (2005), the sample size of a quantitative study is extremely important to consider for increasing the reliability of its outcomes. In this regard, Parahoo (2006) stated that smaller sample size reduces the reliability of the results and findings of a study. On the other hand, larger sample size increases the reliability of information. Contextually, the research study conducted by Caldwell (2005) provides a tentative result. Although the results cannot be blindly trusted because of the possibility of gaining biased responses from the respondents, these can be treated as quite worthy and reasonably reliable. Moreover, the research study also unfolded several gaps in my better understanding about the development in providing nursing handover of patients. However, considering the outcomes of the research studies, it is projected that the following of the same may aid in progressing my ability towards giving quality-nursing handover of patients at the end of the shift (Honey & Mumford, 1995). In this similar context, a pilot study of Kicken, Vander, Barach & Boshuizen (2012) revealed that mass communication to several nursing trainees is highly effective for their professional developments in offering nursing handover of patients. In the research process of the above study, 96 respondents including physicians and nurses were duly considered. These also included several senior and junior healthcare professionals. The data collection procedure mainly involved questionnaire methods and also an interview session. From the quantitative research study, it has been apparent that most of the respondents i.e. nearly about 60% were not satisfied with the current practice of nursing handover. This may be because of the prevailing ineffective internal communication and lack of adequate knowledge regarding the stated subject matter. Most importantly, the research study also unfolded certain essential factors that contributed towards the development of nursing handover practice. These include effective internal communication and the knowledge regarding an appropriate handover process (McGrath, Lyng & Hourican, 2012). In the context of exploring practical learning need of developing my ability to give nursing handover of patients at the end of the shift, it is realised that certain attributes of caring vulnerable patients are lagging, despite having basic knowledge of the same. In this regard, it is observed that a few of the requisites such as forming effective communication with other staff members is missing. Moreover, it is also realised that multi-disciplinary team work, which is also an important attribute in this context, is minimum. Thus, it is extremely decisive to improve on such attributes that would lead towards effective professional development in the above discussed context (Christie& Robinson, 2009). According to the report of World Health Organisation (2007), individual development in nursing handover takes place through effective training and knowledge. In this regard, training process should also include team training sessions and sessions for improving communication. Moreover, as per this report, it can be ascertained there is rarely any institution in the world that teaches nursing handover practices. Thus, the nursing training programs should include nursing handover sessions that would assist in my practical learning need of developing ability towards giving nursing handover of patients (Nursing Midwifery Council, 2011; Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2008; Gibbs, 1998). In the context of learning and development, Bulman & Schutz (2004) suggested the importance of self-awareness. In this regard, it is quite important that a learner must be aware of his/her strengths, weaknesses, qualities, beliefs and values. Through understanding the self-weaknesses and limitations, it would be highly effective in improving the above stated areas (Conzemius & Morgati-Fisher, 2011). According to a pilot study of Guy (2014), there are several factors that lead towards ineffective training in the context of offering nursing handover of patients. One of such factors can be ascertained as lack of interests in gaining knowledge about the subject matter. However, Guy (2014) also suggested of a tool, which certainly develops the ability of providing nursing handover of patients. This tool is Situation Background, Assessment and Recommendation (SBAR) (Hally, 2008). With regards to the above context, the report of National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA, 2007) also suggested ineffective communication to be one of the major reasons for ineffective nursing handover. Based on the study conducted by Pothier, Monteiro, Mooktiar & Shaw (2005), communication is an important aspect for a nurse to be effective. This communication is not only limited to other staff members of the healthcare centres, but also to the patients in the circumstance of providing them with quality care. Most importantly, as per the viewpoints of Miers & Pollard (2009), effective communication tends to build and promote collaboration amidst the staff of healthcare centres. This simultaneously leads to the generation of effective nursing handover of patients. Furthermore, effective communication amongst the staff and nurses within a healthcare organisation leads towards the reduction of medical errors (Freitag & Carroll, 2011; Bjorkstrom, Athlin & Johansson, 2008). The literatures that have been reviewed above find a linkage with the article of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012). Justifiably, the article of Hunt, Marsden & O’Connor (2012) suggests the importance of structuring an effective nursing training program for making greater development in nursing handover practices. On the other hand, the other articles revealed the methods based on which the nursing training programs can be improved in executing proper handover of patients. This is of extreme importance from the perspective of determining the practical learning need of developing my ability to give nursing handover of patients at the end of the shift in an appropriate manner. References Bjorkstrom, M. E., Athlin, E. E. & Johansson, I. S., 2008. 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