Clinical Teaching for Professional Development: An Essay

This essay discusses the importance of clinical teaching for nurses to maintain the delivery of safe and competent care, and continuous professional development. It highlights the general factors that permit nurses to study in the practice setting as they retort to the needs and challenges in health care environment. The essay also discusses the challenges faced by nurses in an ever-changing healthcare environment and the factors that promote nurses to get actively involved in clinical practices.

CLINICAL TEACHING FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Assessment 1: ESSAY.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................1
About Clinical Teaching.....................................................................................................................1
Clinical Learning in Surgical Oncology............................................................................................2
Discussion............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................8
*List of References*............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The objective of clinical education is to develop the confidence in the nurses
(as cited in Levett-Jones, Reid-Searl & Bourgeois, 2018). There are various aspects
that help nurses acquire while practising in the challenging clinical work environment.
This essay discusses the general factors that permit nurses to study in the practice
setting as they retort to the needs and challenges in health care environment.
About Clinical Teaching
Clinical teaching occurs when professional knowledge is developed and
shared amongst clinicians. For example, in nursing, this process happens when an
experienced nurse teaches another less-experienced one in a clinical area. Clinical
teaching could involve clinical skills, non-clinical skills, direct patient care, and
indirect patient care, etc. (Health Education and Training Institute [HETI], 2013).
Clinical teaching is important for nurses of all levels of experience to maintain
the delivery of safe and competent care, and continuous professional development
(HETI, 2013). Clinical teaching should occur through a cooperative and teamwork
approach, while focusing on supporting and motivating learners(HETI, 2013).In
addition, clinical educators are advised to use guided questions, give constructive
feedback, offer suitable learning resources, integrate theory and practice, help
learners identify their own learning objectives, and foster the learner’s ability for self-
directed lifelong learning (HETI, 2013). While clinical teaching is the core point of
care supervision activity, clinical facilitation, preceptorship, buddying, transparent
and constructive peer review, coaching, mentoring, and reflective clinical supervision
all play vital roles in a nurse’s professional development journey (HETI, 2013).

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Clinical Learning in Surgical Oncology
Surgical Oncology has witnessed revolutionary changes in technology,
diagnostics, treatment strategies, and the overall understanding of cancer and its
prognosis (Veronesi & Stafyla, 2012). Despite all of that, having a patient-centred
integration of all the new information is a big systematic challenge. All international
cancer centres have implemented a team approach in oncology with the goal of
deciding the most suitable approach for the patient; this means clinicians make
decisions after sharing their expertise with one another.
In the age of information technology, continuous training and education in
surgical oncology becomes crucial. Information technology has facilitated the
worldwide sharing of knowledge and made continuous professional development
more possible. On the other hand, surgical oncologists should be able to understand
and integrate the findings of basic and clinical research into their contemporary
practice (Veronesi & Stafyla, 2012). We must treat patients as people, not cases; this
is possibly the century’s biggest challenge in surgical oncology (Veronesi & Stafyla,
2012).
Discussion
Continuous professional development is a legislative responsibility of every
nurse to maintain their registration, as it is one of the registration standards set by
the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (Ross, Barr & Stevens, 2013). Every
nurse is accountable of maintaining the necessary competence for their practice
because they must provide safe care. In that regard, nurses can participate in
ongoing professional development by seeking higher studies (e.g. post-graduate

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studies) to ascertain their clinical and academic potentials, while also improving their
career prospects.
In addition, nurses are regularly challenged to adapt to ever changing
technology and high health care costs that push health communities to respond with
different management strategies; however, any change could provide a learning
opportunity to look at things from a different perspective (Ross, Barr & Stevens, 2013).
Nurses work in an often-unpredictable work environment, look after patients
with complex conditions, and with often-challenging workload. Nurses need to
maintain a positive and collaborative relationship with their colleagues to facilitate
their work and learning all at the same time; a positive learning environment helps an
individual to develop their skills within a collaborative model of nursing (NSW
Department of Health, 2011). In clinical practices, clinical support and supervision
are required all the time to ensure safety and facilitation of work (HETI, 2013).
The nursing profession is rapidly changing due to the innovation of new
technologies effecting the way nurses provide care, document, or/and conduct health
assessments (Ross, Barr & Stevens, 2013). It is a necessity for nurses to adapt to
changes and learn about new practices under such circumstances. Change can
come from government policies, market conditions or new health service delivery
where healthcare needs to change to respond to new challenges (Ross, Barr &
Stevens, 2013). The factors that enable nurses to learn about new things and work
in such a challenging environment is by learning about all new techniques so that
they can respond to the challenges easily (Frankel & PGCMS, 2018). The new
techniques could be learned by unique learning methods that help them meet all the
contemporary healthcare requirements. In-hospital training sessions can be a way

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that enables nurses to learn, as it allows them to participate and critically observe
patient care and its outcomes(Price & Reichert, 2017). For instance, professionally
developed nurses can become mindful of and appreciate their own contributions to
nursing or admire work by peers both within their profession as well as other health
care practitioners (Ross, Barr & Stevens, 2013). It also helps them in synthesizing
the nursing theories and bringing theoretical knowledge into practical
implementation.
Continuous learning for ongoing professional development is important, as it
supports nurses to remain updated with all the latest technologies, practises, and
research findings (Ross, Barr & Stevens, 2013). Efficient use of new technologies in
the clinical setting on top of being aware of new research findings help nurses
provide evidence-based practice and make better clinical decisions (Laschinger,
Nosko, Wilk & Finegan, 2014).
It is important for nurses to be competent in their area of practice to provide
safe, efficient and standardised evidence-based care (Stokke, Olsen, Espehaug &
Nortvedt, 2014; Price & Reichert, 2017). The lack of knowledge and/or expertise can
be problematic especially when nurses are unable to properly utilise new
technologies or are not aware of new clinical information that could be incorporated
into an evidence-based practice. It is better to have a practical knowledge rather
than just having a theoretical knowledge in the health care sector; hence, ongoing
clinical work supports nurses to gain more experience in their field, which could help
them improve their career prospects (Beauvais, Stewart, DeNisco & Beauvais,
2014). For example, nursing students and new graduate nurses are sent out to
attend clinical rotations or/and placements in primary and tertiary healthcare settings
to gain progressive hands-on exposure in the clinical setting (Rayburn, Davis &

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Turco, 2017). Overtime, this will help them gain the required practical knowledge to
eventually become fully competent nurses. Nevertheless, it must be taken into
consideration that from students and early-career nurses to mid- to late-career
nurses, they all think and respond to clinical learning and professional development
differently (Price & Reichert, 2017); different learning styles must also be taken into
consideration.
Factors that promote nurses to get actively involved in clinical practices is by
having the opportunity to directly offer quality care to patients (Potter, Perry, Stockert
& Hall, 2016). The required competencies and patients with complex illnesses are
rising day by day, thus to reduce the risk of making wrong decisions, nurses should
ensure their professional practises are current (Wiechula, Conroy, Kitson, Marshall,
Whitaker & Rasmussen, 2016). Another factor that promote nurses to learn about
new things is when they gain immediate access to information and all the critical
cases with the motive of improving patients’ outcomes; however, it is recommended
that they should first gain experience by undertaking training-simulation sessions
before being involved in direct clinical practises (Hockenberry, Wilson & Rodgers,
2016).
Nurses play a central role in healthcare through their clinical knowledge and
expertise. Nurses may still miss those because of the concurrency of other patient
care requirements (Hewitt, Chreim & Forster, 2017). Other challenges to clinical
learning may also exist because of a clinician/learner’s attribute, such as the learner
being a poor communicator, uninterested in a specific area of clinical work, being a
reluctant supervisee, overconfident, or a perfectionist; nevertheless, such challenges
should encourage clinical teachers, supervisors, and managers to enhance their own
professional development and supervision skills to improve their ability in managing

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such complex matters (HETI, 2013). In addition, the matter of directly expanding
their knowledge and improving their skills while in the clinical setting can be a
challenging problem, as many nurses may not be capable of doing so in timely
fashion on their own without clinical supervision, guidance, or structured and
organisational support (Patterson, Stephens, Chiang, Price, Work & Snelgrove-
Clarke, 2017; HETI, 2013). The outcome of learning completely depends on the
environment of which they are working in (Rayburn, Davis & Turco, 2017). Nurses
can learn in the clinical setting when they work in an environment where they can
apply their theoretical knowledge into practical skills (Asegid, Belachew & Yimam,
2014). Poor learning environment for nurses can have an adverse effect on the
quality of health care, whereas a positive one will offer them a motivation to continue
their professional growth and provide better care. Attending debriefing sessions,
receiving peer reviews and constructive feedback from their clinical teachers and
supervisors also help them enhance their clinical performance, and encourage them
to self-reflect (HETI, 2013).

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Conclusion
In conclusion, clinical teaching for professional development is fundamental to
maintain optimum nursing practice standards. Based on the above analysis, while
there are various factors that help nurses engage themselves in clinical learning
practises, that does not come without challenges in an everchanging healthcare
environment. Nurses must be supported, facilitated-for, and encouraged to
participate in clinical learning processes to develop their knowledge and skills and
provide better quality care.

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*List of References*
Asegid, A., Belachew, T., & Yimam, E. (2014). Factors influencing job satisfaction
and anticipated turnover among nurses in Sidama zone public health facilities,
South Ethiopia. Nursing research and practice, 2014.
Beauvais, A. M., Stewart, J. G., DeNisco, S., & Beauvais, J. E. (2014). Factors
related to academic success among nursing students: A descriptive
correlational research study. Nurse Education Today, 34(6), 918-923.
Frankel, A., & PGCMS, R. (2018). What leadership styles should senior nurses
develop? Practice, 10, 18.
Health Education and Training Institute (HETI). (2013). The Superguide: A
Supervision Continuum for Nurses and Midwives (1st ed.). Sydney: HETI.
Hewitt, T., Chreim, S., & Forster, A. (2017). Sociocultural factors influencing incident
reporting among physicians and nurses: understanding frames underlying
self-and peer-reporting practices. Journal of patient safety, 13(3), 129-137.
Hockenberry, M. J., Wilson, D., & Rodgers, C. C. (2016). Wong's Essentials of
Paediatric Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences, 34-90.
Laschinger, H. K. S., Nosko, A., Wilk, P., & Finegan, J. (2014). Effects of unit
empowerment and perceived support for professional nursing practice on unit
effectiveness and individual nurse well-being: A time-lagged study.
International journal of nursing studies, 51(12), 1615-1623.

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Levett-Jones, T., Reid-Searl, K., & Bourgeois, S. (2018). The Clinical Placement: An
Essential Guide for Nursing Students (4th ed., pp. 4-25). Chatswood,
Australia: Elsevier.
Mcdonald, G., Jackson, D., Vickers, M. H., & Wilkes, L. (2016). Surviving workplace
adversity: a qualitative study of nurses and midwives and their strategies to
increase personal resilience. Journal of nursing management, 24(1), 123-131.
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North Sydney: Nursing and Midwifery Office, NSW Department of Health.
Patterson, C., Stephens, M., Chiang, V., Price, A. M., Work, F., & Snelgrove-Clarke,
E. (2017). The significance of personal learning environments (PLEs) in
nursing education: extending current conceptualizations. Nurse education
today, 48, 99-105.
Price, S., & Reichert, C. (2017). The Importance of Continuing Professional
Development to Career Satisfaction and Patient Care: Meeting the Needs of
Novice to Mid- to Late-Career Nurses throughout Their Career
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Regan, S., Laschinger, H. K., & Wong, C. A. (2016). The influence of empowerment,
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perceived interprofessional collaboration. Journal of nursing management,
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Ross, K., Barr, J., & Stevens, J. (2013). Mandatory continuing professional
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Stokke, K., Olsen, N. R., Espehaug, B., & Nortvedt, M. W. (2014). Evidence based
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BMC nursing, 13(1), 8.
Surgical Oncology: Principles and Practice. (2018). Retrieved from
https://sydney.edu.au/courses/units-of-study/2018/surg/surg5041.html
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In Oncology, 2. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2012.00127
Wiechula, R., Conroy, T., Kitson, A. L., Marshall, R. J., Whitaker, N., & Rasmussen,
P. (2016). Umbrella review of the evidence: what factors influence the caring
relationship between a nurse and patient?. Journal of advanced nursing,
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