In my clinical practice, I encountered a difficult learning situation just recently. It was when the Nursing Department assigned to our unit that one of the ward nurses (newly hired staff for less than a month only / and a fresh graduate) would be transitioned to a high-pressure and fast-paced environment of the Emergency Room Unit. For a couple of days and weeks, I noticed that she is having difficulty and struggling with the unit’s process flow, usual routines, triaging, prioritization, and providing rapid clinical decision-making during emergency care situations.
To address this situation, and to avoid delays in patient prompt care treatment and management, I initiated and plan to guide the staff in the whole process. To start with, I conducted a briefing session to orient her to the structure, the other members of the team etc., and provide for her to read and understand the unit policy of manual and procedures, hand by hand I also discussed with her some of the common nursing skills and procedures that are usually done in the unit.
By this point, she is handling cases on her own after I gradually mentor and oversee her as she moves from handling simpler cases to more complex ones. The teaching and learning strategy that I apply makes her more adept and more responsive in anticipating physicians’ orders, foreseeing the needed equipment, supplies, or medicines, and efficiently collaborating with the other members of the health care team.
This kind of difficult situation in the clinical field has not only taught me the significance of valuing individualized learning curves, providing support and patience to every learner, but also to act as an educator and mentor in the clinical setting.
