Collaborative Nursing: Evidence and Expert

Collaborative Nursing: Evidence and Expert Interview

As I continue to advance in my career development, I continue to take steps toward reaching the two SMART goals identified in the previous section of this project. These goals, to become a nurse educator and to become a Unit Nurse Educator at Emory Healthcare, both require an extensive body of experience, knowledge and continuing career development education. The discussion presented below gives consideration to these requirements by using data drawn from both literature and professional interviews. This qualitative data is considered here and provides fresh insight into how I might best achieve both of my SMART goals.

Evidence:

Though nothing can replace the value of the actual, hands-on practice of medicine, it is important for a nursing professional to have a firm grounding in the theoretical dimensions of care-giving as well. This is why texts such as that by Motacki & Burke (2011) are so valuable. The text in question provides considerable detail on the actual demands that will come with everyday work not just as a nurse but specifically as a nurse educator. As the text demonstrates, nurse education is an essential everyday part of care management. According to the text, "the process of patient care management includes skills such as delegation, patient assignment, coordination, collaboration, communication and outcome monitoring. This process occurs in an interdisciplinary work environment, and skill in working in such environments is necessary." (Motacki & Burke, p. 1)

This helps to elucidate the skills that I must hone to be an effective nurse educator. Working in a collaborative environment, the text shows, requires exceptional skills in communication, leadership and grace under duress. Another important aspect of the working environment is the impact of its administrative leadership. Such is to say that as nursing professionals, we must contend with the difficulties that often come with working in a bureaucracy or an organization that is otherwise insensitive to the needs of patients and caregivers. As the a Unit Nurse Educator, that target position of my second SMART goal, I recognize that I will be in a position of leadership. In such a position, I will be more likely to face those bureaucratic obstacles head on. As the text by Kramer et al. (2009) contributes to this discussion, it will be incumbent upon me to find balance between respecting the administrative authority of my healthcare institution and creating a positive environment for treatment. As Kramer et al. warn, "Nurses cannot control practice or engage in activities related to a patient-centered culture at the unit level unless parallel sanction and endorsement for these activities exist at the organizational level." (p. 77)

I recognize that an important part of my aspiration to this second SMART goal is learning to lead within limitations. In addition to this resolution, the literature helps to make me more fully aware of the massive challenges that lay ahead for any nurse educator. Today, perhaps more than ever before, there is a growing deficit between the treatment challenges facing our healthcare system and the distribution of skilled nursing professionals to meet them. As the article by Parker et al. (2009) indicates, there is currently an "urgent need for research that aims to overcome poor communication and skill shortages." (p. 667)

A direct dimension of my role therefore, as a nursing educator, is to gain the necessary skills to provide direction to aspiring and advancing nurses. This denotes the importance of achieving my SMART goals and the potential that I believe I have to truly help move the nursing profession forward.

Expert Interview:

Certainly, in my interview with a professional nurse educator, I would gain further reinforcement for the findings outlined above. Specifically, the subject of my interview would state unequivocally that the difficulty of being a nurse educator is today greater than it has ever been. I spoke at length with the Unit Nurse Educator in a local university hospital ward and learned a great deal about the specific daily challenges that come with the role.

First, she explained that one of the biggest challenges she faces every day concerns how best to channel and utilize the labor at her disposal. She explained that "our hospital, like a lot of other hospitals in the region, has been effected by a nursing shortage. Many of the people that work here must work long, hard hours, which has an effect on morale and on turnover. Because of this, one of the biggest challenges for me is teaching my nurses the skills to cope with these realities and to provide the best care possible in spite of them."

This would be an especially instructive statement, helping me to better understand the managerial implications of my second SMART goal. She would explain that in many ways, the objectives of teaching nurses the skills that they need and delegating their responsibilities are inextricable from one another. This means that as a Unit Nurse Educator, one must have an equally strong grounding in the theoretical dimensions of nursing, in the practical challenges of providing everyday treatment and, on top of these already considerable tasks, in the labor management conditions that come with this occupation.

As my interview subject explained, "in my experience, the best thing you can do to become an effective Unit Nurse Educator is to be a great nurse. In other words, you have to intimately and personally understand the pressures that young nurses or new nurses have to deal with. I know from my own experience that this is not an easy job, that it can be emotionally exhausting as well as physically exhausting. If I want to get the most out of my nurses and if I want them to actually learn from their experiences, it's important for me to teach them to cope in this setting."