We got really excited with Brisbane based nurse educator Cheryl Prescott said she’d answer a few questions about what she does at work. Cheryl got really excited too. Following are her answers to our questions!!

Please outline what you spent your time on each day while you were at work last week. 

At the end of last week we held our unit planning day so a considerable amount of time went into organising, facilitating, evaluating and then reporting on the outcomes of that. Planning is crucial to the success of any team, so a significant part of my role involves gathering information, consulting with key stakeholders, reviewing evidence and then creating robust frameworks within which educational activity and quality improvement activity can occur, be evaluated and reported, then disseminated.

At the same time a colleague and I are launching a new graduate peer support program model, and we had meetings to finalise the program content and sign off on the resources, organise a schedule and an evaluation framework, and plan our reporting strategy.

A significant part of week was, naturally, spent clinical teaching. As it is the beginning of the year, there are lots of yearly mandatory clinical competencies that nurses need to complete; this involves many hours of 1:1 and small group teaching and assessment. I estimate last week I spent around 4 hours on fire safety mandatory training alone!

I spent eight hours on Advanced Life Support training and assessment for medical and nursing staff. I was also involved in eight hours of hospital orientation for new nursing and medical staff, with a specially focus on using new digital devices and equipment which the hospital has recently invested in. I ran 4 one hour-long sessions on insertion and management of Peripheral Intravenous Cannulae (PIVC), which is a mandatory skill for nurses within my area.

I spend as much time as I can in the unit, supporting staff. Last week this included assisting or supporting nurses having difficulties with VAC dressings, cardiac monitoring, ECG interpretation and patient handling equipment. All these clinical encounters are opportunities for education, and I take full advantage!

I also attend governance and care delivery meetings, and participate in committees and special interest groups looking at various aspects of practice. I also met several times with the undergraduate clinical facilitator supporting undergraduate nursing students on clinical placement, to assist with performance appraisal and development issues in the current cohort. Then there is recruitment and orientation of new staff, data collection, mandatory reporting, responding to emails….. all the usual administrative functions that go with the position.

All up it was a busy, but fairly typical week.

Was last week a typical week? If not, how was it different to a typical week?

It is hard to say what is typical. The best thing about my job is the potential for surprises! Emergent needs at a local level, organisational or professional level can change my focus at any time. I would say that it was typically atypical!

Prior to becoming a Nurse Educator, you had about 11 years’ experience as a clinical nurse. What were some of the key things you learned during your clinical practice that you apply in your current role?

The most important lesson I learned as a clinical nurse was to be cognisant and respectful of the privileged position we are in as nurses. For me, this meant making a commitment to lifelong learning, to ensure that the care I delivered was the best it could be. We have the potential to make a huge difference in the lives of the people we connect with, but with this comes a significant responsibility. Ensuring we deliver safe, high-quality, evidence-based and person-centred care should be the goal of every nurse, and as an educator I am in a position to support this in a meaningful and very satisfying way.
On a practical level, as a clinical nurse in very busy, technologically challenging areas, I attained a large amount of clinical knowledge and skills – particular in the fields of cardiology and coronary care nursing – which have been invaluable, but I also learned the importance of time management and prioritisation, communication skills and interdisciplinary working – all of which are important to any nursing role.

Do you think there is a minimum number of years’ experience a nurse needs before applying for a role as a nurse educator?

I don’t believe there is a magic number of years that means you are ready for the role of NE. Benner suggests that clinical expertise can be attained after about three years of immersion in a specialty, while Ericcson stated that it take 10,000 hours of deliberate practice; I am sure the truth is somewhere in between! It is very subjective and would depend on the individual, their experience, the opportunities they have taken and the amount of effort they have put into developing the prerequisite skills. It also depends on the environment they will be working in, the support available and the development opportunities they can access.

I would say it is important to be clinically credible – if you are not seen as an expert clinician it is hard to be taken seriously as an educator – and to demonstrate the key attributes required by the organisation. In my workplace, we value the principles of transformational leadership and are supported by the Magnet framework. As an educator it is vital to embody these principles and role-model them to your team, in order to justify the privileged position you occupy.

How do you go about implementing and evaluating an education program?

This is quite an involved process and most educators develop their own version based on evidence, educational frameworks, their own experience and contexts. Mine is fairly convoluted but, simply put, involves six stages:

• Identify a need and your target audience
• Select an appropriate delivery method – identify the resources needed, including time, cost and practical support
• Compile the training outline – this should include explicit goals, learning objectives, content of delivery, assessment method, evaluation method and a plan for future proofing the program.
• Undertake summative assessment (ie establish how learners are progressing, their perceptions of the program, whether their needs are being met) DURING the program
• Undertake formative assessment AFTER the program has been completed – this can involve review of results, outcome data, external review and/participant feedback.
• Incorporate feedback and analysis into redesign of the program.

Why do you have a particular interest in Simulation-based education?

The short answer is because I am a massive nerd!

I love technology and exploring new options for delivering education. SBE is constantly evolving, changing and adapting and there is always something new to learn. There are so many examples of great SBE out there, and lessons to learn – it is impossible to keep up, and I love that!

SBE as a modality of education offers participants a safe environment to learn in, where it is OK to make mistakes, with less distractions than occur in the clinical area.

For the educator, it is an opportunity to be immersed in the teaching moment. You can engage the learner in a way not possible with PowerPoints or videos, or didactic lectures. I love the interactivity, the responsiveness and the authenticity of SBE. To me, it is the essence of clinical education.

What innovations do you see on the horizon in nursing in a MAPU setting?

Changes in the demographic profile of patients– such as Australia’s ageing population, and the increased number of people living with chronic illness, mental health and substance abuse issues – will have a significant impact, and will require a change of perspective in education. Australia has always been a multicultural society but we will need to work with our organisational and professional bodies to meet the needs of vulnerable migrant and refugee populations. I foresee a great deal of work in this area.

On a practical level, as we are increasing harnessing information technology, digital health innovations, and eHealth processes, more time will need to be spent on promoting digital literacy,
eProfessionalism and related skills. I also foresee an increased focus on postgraduate education, as more nurses are Masters-prepared or pursuing higher degrees.

My wish would be that more nurses will take control of their professional development, including increased self-directed learning – but also by accesssing free, credible options, such as Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), teaching nursing blogs such as Injectable Orange http://injectableorange.com/ and The Nurse Path http://thenursepath.com/, and other free open access nursing education (#FOANed) resources.

You are also doing a thesis. How do you juggle that with your nurse educator role and have work/life balance?

I ask myself that all the time!

The first factor is support. I have a very understanding husband who knew what he was getting into when he married me! I schedule time to study around family commitments, and try to keep ahead of my workload so I don’t get caught out at the last minute.

I genuinely enjoy learning new things and gaining knowledge that I can apply in my role. I am currently completing a Masters in Nurse Education, and am also enrolled in a MNR (which is currently deferred). Because my subject is directly relevant to my work, it is easier to maintain focus and justify the time I spend on study.

Did you decide you wanted to a do a thesis, and then choose a topic, or did you see a specific need for research on nurse participation in the Rapid Response Team and so decide to do a thesis?

It was a combination of both. I knew I wanted to complete my Masters at some point and, as I was employed in a Coronary Care Unit that had recently commenced the RRT role at that time, it was a topic close to my heart, which I wanted to investigate further. I would have been doing both, so the opportunity to combine the two with a MNR was serendipitous!

Since commencing my thesis, I have moved state, changed job and commenced a second Masters in Nurse Education, so the MNR is currently deferred. I will return to it once my MNE is complete, as I remain passionate about the topic. It will take a different direction though, as knowledge and experience of RRT has advanced and evolved. I am excited to pick it up again, hopefully later this year.

Thanks so much Cheryl for letting us know about what life is like as a nurse educator who is also doing research!!

Work-life balance image: Stuart Miles – freedigitalphotos.net
Nerd holding keyboard image: stockimages – freedigitalphotos.net