I walked down the concrete steps of my college Alma Mater over 30 years ago, excited to embark on a career that took me 5 years to complete because it was a BSN program. I was immersed in real patient care, community health experiences and lectures as a teaching strategy where I must have dozed in-between due to the lengthiness that somehow cradled my fatigue due to bus rides. Over the years I find that concepts that I learned have come in handily and I am grateful to my teachers who, despite the absence of computers and other technological gadgets so common now, have tried to teach us to the best of their abilities.
Fast forwarding to my current situation as a professional nurse, I believe that teaching is as much a vital component of my role as my skills. I manage a residential treatment facility's Infection Prevention and Control Program and because our focus is on prevention and wellness, teaching is a crucial component of our program. I deal with both the staff (approximately 350) and the student (numbering around 150) populations because these are the two sectors that comprise our school community. Because our goal is to reduce the risks of acquiring and transmitting infection in our facility, education of both sectors in carrying out our Infection Control bundle of health practices is a MUST. I enjoy my role of a teacher as I plan the format of my staff in-services and utilize ways to facilitate learning of the concepts needed to be taught. My teaching occurs in a group setting as well as on a one-on-one situation especially during my immunization clinics. In fact I jump-started my annual flu vaccine campaign two weeks ago with the skill I've learned in my Nursing 6010. I constructed a creative, eye-catching, colorful and fun powerpoint presentation about influenza and the importance of vaccination and non-pharmaceutical interventions. It was meant for our adolescent audience whose ages range from 12-18 years old whose level of knowledge about proper health practices is quite inadequate. I promoted active learning through questions-and-answers with their favorite 'cool' Ticonderoga pencils as perks. Based on audience participation and feedbacks, this was a positive learning experience for them. I also developed an Infection Prevention and Control educational checklist for each student where different topics needed to be addressed are discussed by either me or the nursing case manager and checked off when done. I did this instead of a plain lecture of the 'do's-and-don'ts' of infection control which will definitely bore my adolescent audience. Before I vaccinate a student, I do a mini teaching of what immunization does in a simple and understandable way- i.e. the virus in this solution is killed, will not hurt you and in the next several days, it will trigger your body to react to it and build its own soldier cells to fight it, so that when the real virus comes along, your body is already prepared to deal with it.' I believe that teaching them about the importance of vaccination prior to the actual procedure not only allays their fear but helps them integrate wellness measures as a life skill. The use of powerpoint in my in-service has definitely enhanced my teaching role to our adolescents, a technology that is way notches above the projector we used over 30 years ago which necessitated adjustments and didn't have color at all!
I really enjoy the teaching component of my professional role. I believe that THERE IS NO nursing/health care provider role that does not involve teaching in one way or another because it is an inherent component involved in a patient-nurse relationship. Teaching is involved every step of the way as we take care of our patient- from the basic and simple teaching of the what's, why's, when's and how's of his medication to what the cardiac monitor does and why he's attached to it or to plainly just holding his hand as we support him through his pain- these are all teaching moments that tell him that we value him and we want to help him. With breakthroughs in technology that can be utilized in teaching us, students, patients and our colleagues, the teaching component of our nursing role is inevitably enhanced and made more effective.
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Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Module 3: ' Do you know the way to San Jose'?
As I was working on our present module on Information Retrieval, including the use of Reference Management Software, a favorite song in the 70's sung by Dionne Warwick just kept on playing in my mind and it goes..."Do you know the way to San Jose, I've been away so long I might lose my way....'
I guess that it's because I've really spent a lot of time 'finding my way' through the technical challenges of presenting the 'screen shots' of the 2 assignments. Establishing my EndNote was quite a challenge as I went through the licensing and registration with the assistance of my spouse and a dear friend. However, after these 'challenging' steps, I actually enjoyed the 2 activities. I found the information retrieval very productive and meaningful especially so that I chose a topic that I am really interested in and will actually utilize the articles to help me build a stronger infection prevention and control program at our facility. The use of the EndNote is no longer foreign to me as it was in the beginning!
I utilized our school's library to access the electronic index for CINAHL and HEALTHSOURCE in order to obtain pertinent researches about my chosen topic. I also utilized the guideline index through the National Guide Clearinghouse(NGC) as well as the regular web search engine. I actually regularly use the latter whenever I need to find out information about ANY topic.
What's interesting is that all of these three sources of information present a huge initial volume of information, perhaps with the guideline index providing the most number of searches (as high as 406!) when I typed 'infection control program.' It narrowed down to 280 when I further specified education and training. The web search engine also gave different articles pertaining to the same topic. However the common thread that runs among these 3 sources is the provision of vast information about a chosen topic; there are more differences than there are similarities and although they are useful, there are distinct differences that are crucial to consider in order to focus on the research topic.
The electronic index presented a vast number of databases that provide evidence-based researches that enabled me to choose selectively with 'high precision' as described by Poynton. Such index also enabled me to import the article to an organized library such as the EndNote. The guideline index, though, despite the voluminious searches that came out by also utilizing the same words, is not as focused on the topic chosen despite that the words of "education" and 'training" were used for more clarity. It's interesting that several non-related topics came up, such as 'addiction,' and' detoxification' under the mentioned topics. It seems that the guideline index didn't specify if there is a capability for the researches to be imported, leaving a student like me to print the entries for information. The web search engine suggests different related topics and is comprised of a narrative text that does not allow a user to import the article to an organized collection like the electronic index. Most of the information is not evidence-based research and are more of references and information.
Among these three sources of information, I choose the electronic index to be my prime choice for retrieval of information because of the vast but well-organized searches I am able to do through different databases. It responded well to the use of MeSH and minimized citations that are not pertinent. I also like its capacity for the article to be imported to a folder and be organized in a reference management software like the EndNote.
Indeed, searching through the maze of information is like my favorite 70's song of a person finding her way back to a specific place, just like navigating through all the sources of information, hoping to find the pertinent ones that are relevant and useful.
I guess that it's because I've really spent a lot of time 'finding my way' through the technical challenges of presenting the 'screen shots' of the 2 assignments. Establishing my EndNote was quite a challenge as I went through the licensing and registration with the assistance of my spouse and a dear friend. However, after these 'challenging' steps, I actually enjoyed the 2 activities. I found the information retrieval very productive and meaningful especially so that I chose a topic that I am really interested in and will actually utilize the articles to help me build a stronger infection prevention and control program at our facility. The use of the EndNote is no longer foreign to me as it was in the beginning!
I utilized our school's library to access the electronic index for CINAHL and HEALTHSOURCE in order to obtain pertinent researches about my chosen topic. I also utilized the guideline index through the National Guide Clearinghouse(NGC) as well as the regular web search engine. I actually regularly use the latter whenever I need to find out information about ANY topic.
What's interesting is that all of these three sources of information present a huge initial volume of information, perhaps with the guideline index providing the most number of searches (as high as 406!) when I typed 'infection control program.' It narrowed down to 280 when I further specified education and training. The web search engine also gave different articles pertaining to the same topic. However the common thread that runs among these 3 sources is the provision of vast information about a chosen topic; there are more differences than there are similarities and although they are useful, there are distinct differences that are crucial to consider in order to focus on the research topic.
The electronic index presented a vast number of databases that provide evidence-based researches that enabled me to choose selectively with 'high precision' as described by Poynton. Such index also enabled me to import the article to an organized library such as the EndNote. The guideline index, though, despite the voluminious searches that came out by also utilizing the same words, is not as focused on the topic chosen despite that the words of "education" and 'training" were used for more clarity. It's interesting that several non-related topics came up, such as 'addiction,' and' detoxification' under the mentioned topics. It seems that the guideline index didn't specify if there is a capability for the researches to be imported, leaving a student like me to print the entries for information. The web search engine suggests different related topics and is comprised of a narrative text that does not allow a user to import the article to an organized collection like the electronic index. Most of the information is not evidence-based research and are more of references and information.
Among these three sources of information, I choose the electronic index to be my prime choice for retrieval of information because of the vast but well-organized searches I am able to do through different databases. It responded well to the use of MeSH and minimized citations that are not pertinent. I also like its capacity for the article to be imported to a folder and be organized in a reference management software like the EndNote.
Indeed, searching through the maze of information is like my favorite 70's song of a person finding her way back to a specific place, just like navigating through all the sources of information, hoping to find the pertinent ones that are relevant and useful.
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