Teaching the teacher program to assist nurse managers to educate nursing staff in Ecuadorian hospitals

Abstract

Continuing education for hospital staff nurses is a concern worldwide. Current research shows that continuing education among nurses can positively affect patient outcomes (O'Brien, T., Freemantle, N., Oxman, A, et al., 2002. Interactive continuing education workshops or conferences can improve professional practice and patient outcomes. Journal of Evidence Based Nursing. 26 (5)). Seeing a need for improved patient outcomes among hospitals in Ecuador, we conducted a teaching the teacher program to assist nurse managers to carry-out continuing education in their hospital system. This teaching the teacher program was established through the collaboration between one College of Nursing in Utah, USA and a large healthcare system in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The collaboration has been ongoing for five years, 2003 to present. Initial projects included classes for the nursing staff including technical skills, life-saving techniques, and nursing process and assessment. Collaborators from the US and Ecuador believed that in order to maximize the improvement of nursing care in the hospital system it was necessary to turn attention on the nurse managers and not just the staff nurses. This would allow for meaningful ongoing learning beyond the one-time classroom setting. Continuing education is not common in Ecuadorian hospitals as it is in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to describe the project and provide initial evaluative data on the response to the curriculum; including evidence of managers using the teaching principles they were taught. The underlying aim of the project was to achieve a sustainable impact by teaching the leaders of each unit how to be more effective teachers. In May 2007, a two-day "teaching the teacher" workshop was developed with the needs of the managers in mind. The participants in the course included the chief nursing officer and leaders of various units of the hospital. In May 2008 a follow-up class was taught, along with an evaluation by a verbal and written survey with open ended questions and an observation of an actual class being taught by the participants.

Head Nurses’ Perception of Educational Needs for Acquiring Managerial Competence at Intensive Care Units: A Qualitative Study

“…In this relation, Palmer too, studied training the head nurses as directors for obtaining stable in-service education, and he counted them as more efficient teachers relative to others (4).…”

“…Various studies have confirmed the need for continuous courses on management training for head nurses to deal with the new challenges of the health system (3), and they have emphasized on training head nurses as leaders as part of in-service education (4).…”

Ethics, Emotions, and the Skills of Talking About Progressing Disease With Terminally Ill Adolescents

“…20 We and others have described standard approaches to adolescent palliative care, including how to assess patient readiness for end-of-life discussions, reframe goals, and engage teens in advance care planning. 18,19,41,42,45 The core attributes of successful communication with adolescents include (1) a systematic approach, including consistent time points for conversation and allowance of patient and family processing time 65 ; (2) direct, compassionate, nonjudgmental, concrete, and developmentally appropriate language 66,67 ; and (3) engagement of family, friends, and others who provide the patient with social support. 19 In addition, clinicians and family members must recognize the patient’s own communication preferences.…”

Proceso de enfermería: ¿qué significa para las enfermeras de Santa Cruz (Bolivia)?

“…While some countries computerize nursing documentation in the clinical history (15) , in others like Bolivia, it is limited to sketching out scarce theoretical notions without any practical development. Various studies have demonstrated that nursing education not only improves patient care, but is a critical need for the profession (16) . In this sense, Bolivian nursing's concern with adhering to an international method is understandable, for which it is key to determine its expectations and the meaning attributed to the nursing care process (17) .…”