Micro-learning Modules for Frontline Nurses
Summary
The RNAO Advanced Clinical Practice Fellowship that I was fortunate enough to be granted, allowed me to pursue my interest in nursing education while leading a project to improve education resources for nurses and allied Health staff. The overall goal of this fellowship was to identify and produce educational material to support frontline clinical nurses with educational resources that they could access easily and efficiently just prior to providing care for a patient. The need for these resources became increasingly apparent for the organization as medical/surgical units are experiencing increased staff turnover and lose of expert nurses due a variety of factors including retirement or transfer to other units such as critical care. The new or less experienced staff required an up to date, evidenced based resources that was available 24/7 to provide information on diseases and illnesses as well as a review of skills prior to low frequency moderate to high-risk procedures. Utilization of an educational resource would result in the provision of evidenced based quality care provided to patients who access our organization for their healthcare needs.
The dedicated time that this fellowship provided allowed me to develop and refine skills in a variety of leadership and educational areas. I was able to source and evaluate different e learning options to support our frontline nurses. I was also able to develop skills in determining the organizational needs by conducting learning needs assessments and environmental scans as well as meeting with key stakeholders such as frontline staff, nurse educators, Organizational Development and Professional Practice leaders to understand the scope and breadth of clinical learning needs. Lastly, I was able to gain additional experience in leading a project which allowed me to improve my communication skills as well as learn new skills such as the development of stakeholder analysis, development of a business case proposal which was subsequently presented to Senior Nursing Leadership. Along with my mentor I was also involved in negations on pricing for acquisition of these products something that I had never been involved with in a professional capacity.
Outcomes
It became obvious early on in my fellowship following completion of a stakeholder analysis that the organization did not have the human or financial resources to create and maintain a large repository of modules that would be required to meet the educational needs of our staff. The focus then turned to sourcing and vetting existing commercial products that would meet our needs. Contacts with a variety of companies were made and demonstration trials of these products were carried out by the fellow. Findings of these demonstrations were shared with key decision makers. This was a collaborative process involving nurse educators, organizational development, professional practice leaders and IT. A decision was made as to the product the organization was investing in and it was acquired.
The organization will now implement this resource. The organization will benefit from this resource through the creation of evidenced based orientation packages and annual recertification packages that will be available in our Learning Management System. Continuing education modules are embedded in a number of these modules for assessment of learning. Frontline nurses and allied health staff will be able to access modules on the specific topic they require for just in time education or skills checklists. This product also offers patient education material that can be printed out and provided to patients and caregivers.
Overall experience
The ACPF Fellowship allowed me to become involved in activities that are vastly different from my day-to-day work as a Nurse Practitioner. I was challenged to learn and expand my understanding of variety of skills that are required to implement an organizational wide project. This Fellowship has provided me with skills that I will be able to take forward and apply in future projects. Given the current global pandemic I was unable to do some of the activities I had planned such as attending nursing conferences that were cancelled but I hope to pursue these in the future.
This project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of my mentors Lorrie Reynolds and Carol Williams. A special thank you also to Annette Jones, V.P. Patient Experience and Chief Nursing Officer who was open to exploring options to best support clinical nurses and allied health staff. Nurse Educators Erin May and Becky Rasenberg proved to be invaluable sounding boards. They are both champions of nursing education and are committed to improving the quality of care we provide to patients.
