The Clinical Educator’s Role In Creating A Positive Learning Environment For Students - Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task -          

Introduction

The last two Topics in this subject have explored theories of teaching and learning that underpin clinical education for health professionals. The eModule and lectures for Topic Three are all directed towards the theoretical foundations of facilitating learning in the clinical setting.

Learning Outcomes

• To define what is meant by the term clinical reasoning and identify various models for the education of clinical reasoning evident in contemporary literature

• To explore influencing factors upon the clinical educator’s role in creating a positive learning environment for students

• To be able to plan and implement teaching and learning strategies for the clinical setting

• To be able to critically appraise the merging of theory and practice in clinical education for students of the health sciences

Developing clinical reasoning and judgment 

Clinical reasoning is a skill used by experienced health care professionals in the provision of care to patients and clients. In quality auditing, errors in clinical reasoning account for significant morbidity and mortality inpatient experience, despite the presence of professional institutional and unit-based policies and practice guidelines (Pinnock & Welch, 2014). Therefore as patient acuity increases and the health care system evolve, the role of clinical educators in facilitating the development of clinical reasoning and judgment among clinical teams is essential.

According to Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, Day, and Shulman (2009), clinical reasoning can be defined as ‘the ability to reason about a clinical situation as it unfolds, as well as about patient and family concerns and context. It always calls for understanding the temporal nature of a case. Good (clinical) judgments can also never ignore the concerns and ‘lifeworld’ of the injured or ill patient’ (46). Clinical reasoning can also be defined as the health professional’s ability to assess patient problems or needs, to analyze data accurately, and then to frame real physical or psycho-social problems within the context of the patient’s environment (Rochmawati & Wiechula, 2010.).

There is a wide range of clinical reasoning models resulting in a number of theoretical approaches. Literature from the field of medicine suggests approaches to clinical reasoning center on two main areas – ‘decision theory’ and ‘problem-solving’ (Loftus, 2012, 1175).

Decision theory links evidence-based approaches to decision making where decisions regarding care are made based on reasoned evidence. Loftus (2012) argues that this approach to clinical reasoning is limited because while evidence-based methods are useful for populations with similar diseases or conditions, they do not necessarily take into account the additional complexities associated with social and family environments. It is vital that all information is taken into consideration when making decisions. 

Critical Questions:

What are some of the benefits and/or limitations of each of these approaches to clinical education?

Are these approaches passive or active approaches to facilitate the development of clinical reasoning skills in the health professional?

Do you utilize any of these approaches in your clinical education practice to foster student/colleagues' clinical reasoning ability?

Rochmawati and Wiechula’s study measured the four educative approaches aiming to identify the most effective approach for facilitating the development of clinical reasoning in students and/or health professionals.

What were the findings and recommendations of this study?

The clinical educator’s role in creating a positive learning environment for students 

A health science student’s ability to be educationally prepared to meet the complex social, physical, and mental challenges they will encounter in the provision of clinical care is one of the key roles of the Clinical Educator (CE’s). CE’s have the important role of bridging the clinical theory and practice gap for students. Guiding the student towards a clinical competency but also an understanding of their professional position within a health care team is a key element to the role of a CE in the health care sector (Graue, Rasmussen, Iversent, and Dunning, 2015). A clinical educator also has to balance the complexity of teaching and clinical expertise in an evolving health care setting.

Delaney and Molloy (2012) highlight that the key importance of the clinical education role for health professionals is to embed in the context of clinical practice, clinical reasoning, and for the socialization of novice health professionals into their roles. The notion of education of the novice health professional as one that involves a journey through a series of repeated interactions with the clinical environment rather than a single event is essential. Even though the student is a novice in the learning environment context, they come into this role as an adult learner with general problem solving and research skills. The role of the educator therefore is key in helping the novice health professional to reason and respond to the challenges of an evolving and unpredictable clinical setting.

The clinical education role is not only to guide a single health profession on this learning journey but also for learning to occur in communities of practice. Learning within a community of practice is a move away from the traditional apprenticeship style behaviorist influenced model of clinical education to one whereby an interprofessional approach to learning through role modeling, mentorship is supported. Flott and Linden (2015) argue that a health care organization, from an institution down to the level of clinical care setting, should promote a culture that values future health professionals by providing opportunities for the formation of students and clinicians

. If the organization, the clinical unit, or even the clinical educator does not value the access and process of clinical teaching then students are more likely to experience negative interactions with other health professionals and observe unprofessional behavior in the clinical area (Flott and Linden, 2015). Therefore it is not only an individual educator’s role to create a learning environment in which a student is provided an opportunity to bridge the theory/practice gap, but leadership at a unit and institution level in valuing the importance of clinical education in creating a community of learning to develop professional competence is of equal importance.

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