In the new world of health care, Nursing profession is emerging as a significant contender. The introduction of advanced technology in curricula and scope for varied areas of specialisation has opened vistas of opportunities for professional growth. But the increasing expectations of consumers for efficiency in health care demand clinical competency in care givers, which is an integrated application of humanistic attitude, relevant knowledge base and specialised psychomotor skills in health care. Developing clinical competency in students calls for developing __ampersandsignpara;effective clinical teaching methods.__ampersandsignmiddot; It has been generally observed that the gap between theoretical learning and its application to actual nursing practice is rapidly increasing. Also the understanding of the concepts of __ampersandsignpara;clinical teaching__ampersandsignmiddot; is observed to be different in teachers and students. Can the situation be altered by a different approach of clinical teaching!
The study, Experience of Nursing Teachers and Students in a New Approach to Clinical Teaching was undertaken to : (i) explore into the perception of Nurse Educators & Nursing Students, relating to Clinical Teaching; and (ii) to develop and assess the outcome of a& Clinical Teaching Strategy in terms of the Nursing Teachers and Students experience in teaching - learning.
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Review of Literature Clinical competency : Benner (1984) described the stages of clinical competence, in which a student passes through five levels of proficiencies. In a compilation by Piercey (1995) on __ampersandsignpara;assessing clinical competencies__ampersandsignmiddot;, the literature revealed a variety of meanings concerning the concepts of __ampersandsignpara;competency.__ampersandsignmiddot; Competence is, broadly stating, a complex phenomenon encompassing such attributes as knowledge, skills and attitudes. This view was adopted by the investigator. Waltz suggested a Clinical Competence Rating Scale 3. The attributes in the scale echoed the thoughts of Benner (1984) and Gaberson & Oermann (1999, 2006). Susan (2006) stated that the students__ampersandsignmiddot; perception of their own clinical competence influences the ease with which he integrates into the role of a registered nurse upon graduation. The phenomenon was experienced by the investigator in the course of this study. Strategies of clinical teaching have been described by several authors (Won, 1987; Gaberson et al, 1999, 2006); Dieter et al, 2006; Parsell & Bligh, 2001; Lee, 2002; Melrose, 2004 etc.).
Phenomenological Research Approach provided the basis forthe qualitative design of this study, which was conducted in three phases.
Phase I In a regular college CNE programme on __ampersandsignpara;Clinical Teaching__ampersandsignmiddot;, a group discussion involving 37 Nurse Educators was purposively piloted. There were 24 PG faculty, with teaching experience ranging from 1 to 10 years and 13 Clinical Instructors with teaching experience of 0 to 2 years. The emergent major perceptual components were noted as : (1) Understanding of themselves as Clinical Teachers - Role and responsibilities; Teacher preparation
(2) Clinical Teaching vs Clinical Supervision - Interrelatedness and Differences; Application of knowledge to practice; and (3) Students as learners in Clinical settings - Lack of students__ampersandsignmiddot; motivation & compliance Attitude towards nursing care. The issues related to __ampersandsignpara;Clinical Teaching__ampersandsignmiddot; were discussed in a Focus Group discussion, consisting of 16 PG students with teaching experience between 0 to 4 years. The classes for them on __ampersandsignpara;Nursing Education__ampersandsignmiddot; had not yet commenced.
The topic __ampersandsignpara;Clinical Teaching__ampersandsignmiddot; was suggested for discussion for a batch of Under-Graduate students (3rd year BSc Nursing), divided into 5 groups, 10 in each. One group had 11 students. The subject __ampersandsignpara;Nursing Education__ampersandsignmiddot; is not taught in this course.
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