- Email: [email protected]
There is more to professional development than mandatory training
Journal of Neonatal Nursing (2011) 17, 142e143
www.elsevier.com/jneo
LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA
There is more to professional development than mandatory training I have to say I was just a tad sceptical that the world would end on Sunday, not least because I have lived through several “end of the world ” predictions and no matter what the drama, life goes on just the same! So it came to pass that whilst many around the world were whipped up into a frenzy of anxiety and fearful anticipation that the end was nigh; I was a bit busy and preoccupied with juggling four feeds that coincided together for two sets of premie twins. Neither they, the mothers, nor I had time to prepare for meeting our maker, we were too busy focussing on far more important things like making sure the EBM was shared equally and working on sucking techniques and tandem feeding, whilst being totally in awe of life! In fact, truth be known, we actually missed the moment. I had rather facetiously thought that if the world did stop revolving, I wouldn’t have to face a few big issues like my professional development update. E-learning mandatory topics are extensive and time consuming. The point of the exercise is to revise and refresh the memory and they effectively do that, although sometimes inefficiently because questions are open to interpretation. Elearning aside, I have to say the mandatory study day that I attended to reinforce my e-learning effort, was a very enlightening exercise. This study day was not just a reality check; it was a bit of a wakeup call, too. I had gone to the study day with the purpose to tick off the mandatory requirement checklist and suddenly I was being shown statistics from the Christchurch earthquake and the predicted damage here in Wellington should a quake happen here. This is an everyday reality for many in Christchurch still living with no working sewerage system, since their last huge after shock in February. Christchurch is still having aftershocks;
there have been over 4000 since September. We must be ready to return to work and to bring packed clothes because once at work it will be unknown when we will return home again! It was after the study day that I heard about the end of the world happening on Sunday. Nevertheless, I went ahead and planned to attend the newborn infant resuscitation course for the Wednesday following the said date. My prediction proved more credible than the sensational ’End of the World’ hysteria, as attendance at the study day confirmed It still took all day to rigorously teach the systematic management of the airway and respiratory support response required to overcome the stress of managing an apnoeic, grey, floppy baby at delivery. Sometimes I do wonder what the years of experience actually count for when it appears that for all the practice and education that I have had, my responsibility appears to be diminishing. I wonder if all the on-going education makes me a better nurse when policy and protocol constraints are imposed that restrict practice that used to be within my scope of practice. I can and do appreciate the need for rigorous policies and guidelines though, especially when I have more and more experience of increasing communication barriers through language and culture. We have multi-cultural challenges on all levels; between staff, staff and patients and between patients. Our cultural and racial diversity embraced cultures from China, Afghanistan, Fijian Indian, Maori, French Polynesia, Japan and Thailand. I was the only one who spoke English as a first language. My frequent experience is that although we all speak the same language, we don’t say or mean the same thing!! I find I am starved of collegial company who understands English at a far more complex level
1355-1841/$ - see front matter ª 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Neonatal Nurses Association. doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2011.06.001
Letter from Australia
143
than as a second language. Even more challenging and not yet a domain in my competency assessment, is my ability to act out nursing instructions effectively to non-English speaking families. I find that nurses challenged by communication, be it their own lack of skills or the recipients, tend to speak loudly, slowly and somewhat patronisingly to try and help break through the barriers when, in effect, it intensifies it. There needs to be an assessment for how to effectively nurse the non-English speaking patient positively that relies on open body language, gaining confidence and trust through smiling and recognising when to avert or gain eye contact It is truly quite a skill to empower a young non-English speaking Chinese lad, fearful of nasal prongs and oxygen therapy. It illustrated for me that the universal language is not English but a smile. Similarly, educational barriers seem to be increasing and negatively impacting on communication. PC educational resources that currently focus on being culturally safe for everyone, successfully achieve information overload, entirely missing the salient points being made. Educational barriers are raised as a matter of course, the information being perceived as generic and not individualised to the family or child’s specific needs. I am
working on an idea to actually create information that is tailored more to the individual and will therefore, theoretically be looked at and kept as oppose to discarded. My biggest challenge to effectively achieving this will be time and financial constraints, especially when generic pamphlets do the job by getting the tick for ’education parents’ but how effective are they in real terms? I feel there has to be a better way of engaging parents in the material that they are given to help support them with looking after their baby. It’s about going beyond the evidence based practice for sustaining fragile tiny lives and moving into supporting fragile parents, effectively using all our skills; the most important being communication and recognising that the spoken word is not necessarily the word heard or understood but the body language used in delivering the message, that will be remembered. So “Say it with a smile” and know that even if you are not sure the message being delivered is totally understood, communication barriers are softened with a smile that has the beneficial effect of toning the facial muscles. Keep smiling.
Judy Hitcock E-mail address: [email protected]
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
www.elsevier.com/jneo
LETTER FROM AUSTRALIA
There is more to professional development than mandatory training I have to say I was just a tad sceptical that the world would end on Sunday, not least because I have lived through several “end of the world ” predictions and no matter what the drama, life goes on just the same! So it came to pass that whilst many around the world were whipped up into a frenzy of anxiety and fearful anticipation that the end was nigh; I was a bit busy and preoccupied with juggling four feeds that coincided together for two sets of premie twins. Neither they, the mothers, nor I had time to prepare for meeting our maker, we were too busy focussing on far more important things like making sure the EBM was shared equally and working on sucking techniques and tandem feeding, whilst being totally in awe of life! In fact, truth be known, we actually missed the moment. I had rather facetiously thought that if the world did stop revolving, I wouldn’t have to face a few big issues like my professional development update. E-learning mandatory topics are extensive and time consuming. The point of the exercise is to revise and refresh the memory and they effectively do that, although sometimes inefficiently because questions are open to interpretation. Elearning aside, I have to say the mandatory study day that I attended to reinforce my e-learning effort, was a very enlightening exercise. This study day was not just a reality check; it was a bit of a wakeup call, too. I had gone to the study day with the purpose to tick off the mandatory requirement checklist and suddenly I was being shown statistics from the Christchurch earthquake and the predicted damage here in Wellington should a quake happen here. This is an everyday reality for many in Christchurch still living with no working sewerage system, since their last huge after shock in February. Christchurch is still having aftershocks;
there have been over 4000 since September. We must be ready to return to work and to bring packed clothes because once at work it will be unknown when we will return home again! It was after the study day that I heard about the end of the world happening on Sunday. Nevertheless, I went ahead and planned to attend the newborn infant resuscitation course for the Wednesday following the said date. My prediction proved more credible than the sensational ’End of the World’ hysteria, as attendance at the study day confirmed It still took all day to rigorously teach the systematic management of the airway and respiratory support response required to overcome the stress of managing an apnoeic, grey, floppy baby at delivery. Sometimes I do wonder what the years of experience actually count for when it appears that for all the practice and education that I have had, my responsibility appears to be diminishing. I wonder if all the on-going education makes me a better nurse when policy and protocol constraints are imposed that restrict practice that used to be within my scope of practice. I can and do appreciate the need for rigorous policies and guidelines though, especially when I have more and more experience of increasing communication barriers through language and culture. We have multi-cultural challenges on all levels; between staff, staff and patients and between patients. Our cultural and racial diversity embraced cultures from China, Afghanistan, Fijian Indian, Maori, French Polynesia, Japan and Thailand. I was the only one who spoke English as a first language. My frequent experience is that although we all speak the same language, we don’t say or mean the same thing!! I find I am starved of collegial company who understands English at a far more complex level
1355-1841/$ - see front matter ª 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Neonatal Nurses Association. doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2011.06.001
Letter from Australia
143
than as a second language. Even more challenging and not yet a domain in my competency assessment, is my ability to act out nursing instructions effectively to non-English speaking families. I find that nurses challenged by communication, be it their own lack of skills or the recipients, tend to speak loudly, slowly and somewhat patronisingly to try and help break through the barriers when, in effect, it intensifies it. There needs to be an assessment for how to effectively nurse the non-English speaking patient positively that relies on open body language, gaining confidence and trust through smiling and recognising when to avert or gain eye contact It is truly quite a skill to empower a young non-English speaking Chinese lad, fearful of nasal prongs and oxygen therapy. It illustrated for me that the universal language is not English but a smile. Similarly, educational barriers seem to be increasing and negatively impacting on communication. PC educational resources that currently focus on being culturally safe for everyone, successfully achieve information overload, entirely missing the salient points being made. Educational barriers are raised as a matter of course, the information being perceived as generic and not individualised to the family or child’s specific needs. I am
working on an idea to actually create information that is tailored more to the individual and will therefore, theoretically be looked at and kept as oppose to discarded. My biggest challenge to effectively achieving this will be time and financial constraints, especially when generic pamphlets do the job by getting the tick for ’education parents’ but how effective are they in real terms? I feel there has to be a better way of engaging parents in the material that they are given to help support them with looking after their baby. It’s about going beyond the evidence based practice for sustaining fragile tiny lives and moving into supporting fragile parents, effectively using all our skills; the most important being communication and recognising that the spoken word is not necessarily the word heard or understood but the body language used in delivering the message, that will be remembered. So “Say it with a smile” and know that even if you are not sure the message being delivered is totally understood, communication barriers are softened with a smile that has the beneficial effect of toning the facial muscles. Keep smiling.
Judy Hitcock E-mail address: [email protected]
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com