CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Nursing is a professional discipline and its members are professionals whose preparations enable them practice at various levels either as nurse administrators, nurse clinicians, nurse researchers or nurse educators, among others (Oermann & Gaberson, 2009). As a profession, nursing programmes aim to produce safe, knowledgeable, skillful and caring practitioners and professionals who are able to provide effective evidence-based care (Gray, 2013 in Brooker & Waugh, 2013). A professional is an individual who possesses expert knowledge and skills in a specific domain. The expert knowledge and skills is acquired through formal education in institutions of higher learning and through experience. As a professional, the individual uses those knowledge and skills on behalf of society by serving specified clients (Oermann & Gaberson, 2009; Asfour & El-Soussi, 2011).
Professional disciplines, according to Oermann and Gaberson (2009) and Asfour and El-Soussi (2011) are differentiated from academic disciplines by their practice component, which for nursing profession is clinical practice. Clinical practice requires critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, specialized psychomotor and technological skills, and a professional value system to make it effective. Fundamentally, effective clinical practice is a by- product of clinical experience which has always been an integral part of nursing education and at the heart of which, lies the clinical teaching (Asfour & El-Soussi, 2011). The importance of clinical teaching in education and training of student nurses cannot be overemphasized because preparation of skilled, safe and competent nurse graduates is an essential focus of nursing education (Oermann & Gaberson, 2009). Practice in clinical settings with the assistance and support of the clinical nurse instructors expose students to realities of professional practice that cannot be conveyed by a textbook or simulation (Oermann & Gaberson, 2009).
Clinical nurse instructors are expected to play several roles and responsibilities when they work with students. The clinical nurse instructor directs, manages and evaluates student learning in the clinical setting. In addition, he/she prepares clinical teacher assistants as well as preceptors for their teaching activities on approaches specific to the level of the learner and course outcomes. The clinical nurse instructor also assists the students in integration of theory and practice; evaluates student’s development of clinical reasoning skills; and facilitates clinical seminars. He / she is available at all times the students are in the clinical setting; directly observes and guides students’ learning activities with clients and evaluates students as related to the clinical posting outcomes (bhrylle sapphire publisher, 2012; University of Portland School of Nursing (UPSN), n.d ).
Clinical instructors are expected to play different or several roles as already outlined above. However, knowing which role to play depends upon an assessment of the situation; what the students need to learn, then ascertains how conducive the learning environment is in helping students to learn; and what constraints that are present (Jamshidi, 2012). In view of this, clinical teaching is really an onerous task to accomplish because it entails preparing skilled, safe, and competent nurse graduates for the kind of work they will have to do as practicing nurses (Phillips & Vinten, 2010). Unfortunately, some of these roles / functions of clinical learning experience are neither performed nor accomplished; consequently, their benefits are not achieved due to some challenges being faced by the clinical nurse instructors.
Moreover, some of the new clinical nurse instructors neither have a solid foundation in clinical teaching courses nor teaching experience as identified by Kan and Stabler-Haas (2009). Consequently, they face performance insecurities along with the daily teaching challenges as nursing programmes currently are incorporated into the universities (Jamshidi, 2012). Majority of the older nurses have only diploma in nursing and probably lack fundamental skills in nursing research, hence, they face the challenge of lack of knowledge on how to find and utilize new knowledge gained by research, to effectively guide students in their clinical experiences and inspire them in making critical analysis of procedures and routines (Ehrenberg & Haggblom, 2007).
| Project details | Contents |
|---|---|
| Number of Pages | 130 pages |
| Chapter one | Introduction |
| Chapter two | Literature review |
| Chapter three | methodology |
| Chapter four | Data analysis |
| Chapter five | Summary,discussion & recommendations |
| Reference | Reference |
| Questionnaire | Questionnaire |
| Appendix | Appendix |
| Chapter summary | 1 to 5 chapters |
| Available document | PDF and MS-word format |
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