Student feedback on teaching: some issues for consideration for nurse educators

What is the impact of the Rashomon approach in primary care education?: An educational case report of implementing dialogue and improvisation into medical education

BACKGROUND

The excessive sub-divided or concrete pre-determined objectives found in the technological approach in contemporary medical education curricula may hinder the students' spontaneous learning about diverse needs and values in care. However, medical professionals must learn the diversity for care or a variety of social factors of the patients influencing decision making in daily practice.

METHODS

We introduced a new method of curriculum development called the Rashomon approach. For testing the Rashomon approach, educational activities to teach the diversity in primary care were developed in four modules: 1) explication of the competency without specifying sub-objectives; 2) dialogue among multiple professional students; 3) visits and interviews of the patients; 4) dialogue with teachers' improvisation. The students' outcomes and responses were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 135 medical students joined this study in 2017. The descriptive data suggested that the key concepts of diversity in primary care were fully recognized and that the pre-determined general goals were achieved. Scores on the understanding of social factors in medicine, respect for other professionals, professional identity, and satisfaction with the course were very high.

CONCLUSION

Instead of the technological approach, the Rashomon approach, in which only a general goal guides educational activities was used in this research. Improvisation and dialogue fit the approach and were potentially effective activities to learn the multifaceted practice of medicine. In an era of competency-based education, the Rashomon approach could be a very useful framework in primary care education.

Student evaluations of teaching (SET): Guidelines for their use

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) provide a structured way of collecting feedback from students about the course and teacher's effectiveness. We reviewed literature describing use of SET across a broad range of disciplines in undergraduate and graduate education to provide guidelines for faculty in using SET in a nursing or other health professions program. On SET tools, students typically rate their satisfaction with a course and perceptions about the quality of the teaching. It is important to evaluate SET tools prior to their use including pilot testing tools with students because studies show students may not interpret items or questions on a SET tool as faculty intended. Common uses of the evaluation data from SET include improvement of courses and teaching, and for personnel decisions.

Students' views on the block evaluation process: A descriptive analysis

Background

Higher education institutions have executed policies and practices intended to determine and promote good teaching. Students’ evaluation of the teaching and learning process is seen as one measure of evaluating quality and effectiveness of instruction and courses. Policies and procedures guiding this process are discernible in universities, but it is often not the case for nursing colleges.

Objective

To analyse and describe the views of nursing students on block evaluation, and how feedback obtained from this process was managed.

Method

A quantitative descriptive study was conducted amongst nursing students (n = 177) in their second to fourth year of training from one nursing college in KwaZulu-Natal. A questionnaire was administered by the researcher and data were analysed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences Version 19.0.

Results

The response rate was 145 (81.9%). The participants perceived the aim of block evaluation as improving the quality of teaching and enhancing their experiences as students. They questioned the significance of their input as stakeholders given that they had never been consulted about the development or review of the evaluation tool, or the administration process; and they often did not receive feedback from the evaluation they participated in.

Conclusion

The college management should develop a clear organisational structure with supporting policies and operational guidelines for administering the evaluation process. The administration, implementation procedures, reporting of results and follow-up mechanisms should be made transparent and communicated to all concerned. Reports and actions related to these evaluations should provide feedback into relevant courses or programmes.

Imagining alternative professional identities: reconfiguring professional boundaries between nursing students and medical students

The transition of a medical student or a nursing student into a health care practitioner requires many changes. Among these is the development of an appropriate professional identity, which assists in the establishment of a sound base for professional practice and therefore should be a focus for health professions educators. There is evidence, however, that medical education and nursing education face challenges in guiding students' development of appropriate professional identities. In medicine, there is concern that medical education may contribute to the development of professional identities that alienate patients rather than identities that are patient centered. The nursing profession struggles with poor retention rates in the workforce, which have been attributed in part to discrepancies between the professional identities that students develop during nursing school and the realities of professional practice.In this Perspective, the authors explore the importance of and the pedagogical strategies used to facilitate professional identity formation for medical and nursing students. They argue that medical and nursing educators aim to instill in their students strong occupational identities which may perpetuate hierarchical disciplinary boundaries. They suggest that health professions educators should move beyond current disciplinary silos and create interprofessional education opportunities for medical students and nursing students to learn together to facilitate the development of the collaborative interprofessional identities necessary for the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered health care.

The leadership role of nurse educators in mental health nursing

Leadership behaviors and actions influence others to act, and leadership in clinical practice is an important mediator influencing patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. Indeed, positive clinical leadership has been positioned as a crucial element for transformation of health care services and has led to the development of the Practice Doctorate Movement in the United States. Nurse educators in health care have a vital leadership role as clinical experts, role models, mentors, change agents, and supporters of quality projects. By enacting these leadership attributes, nurse educators ensure a skilled and confident workforce that is focused on optimizing opportunities for students and graduates to integrate theory and practice in the workplace as well as developing more holistic models of care for the consumer. Nurse educators need to be active in supporting staff and students in health care environments and be visible leaders who can drive policy and practice changes and engage in professional forums, research, and scholarship. Although nurse educators have always been a feature of the nursing workplace, there is a paucity of literature on the role of nurse educators as clinical leaders. This discursive article describes the role and attributes of nurse educators with a focus on their role as leaders in mental health nursing. We argue that embracing the leadership role is fundamental to nurse educators and to influencing consumer-focused care in mental health. We also make recommendations for developing the leadership role of nurse educators and provide considerations for further research such as examining the impact of clinical leaders on client, staff, and organizational outcomes.