Nursing Assignment: Assessing Martha's Learning Needs in Healthcare

This assignment focuses on assessing the learning needs of Martha Myles, a 40-year-old Maori woman who was involved in a car accident and is now in the hospital. The assessment covers several key areas, including identifying Martha's current knowledge and skills, her readiness to learn about smoking cessation, and her preferred learning style (visual, aural, oral, etc.). It also emphasizes the importance of considering Martha's cultural background and preferences as a Maori individual. The nurse is tasked with gathering information from Martha, involving other healthcare professionals, and prioritizing her needs to create a personalized educational plan. The assignment highlights the need for a comprehensive approach, considering factors like available resources and time constraints. The references provided support the assessment process, emphasizing the need for cultural safety and patient-centered care.

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Part A
Answer 1
 Assessment of Martha’s learning needs- Nurse will identify the learning needs of Martha
by identifying gaps in knowledge and skill between desired knowledge level and actual
knowledge level (Polat, Celik, Erkan, & Kasali, 2014). That means nurse will identify
what Martha already knows and what she needs to know.
Nurse needs to follow certain steps to assess the learning needs.
Nurse must identify the learner which in this case is Martha. Then nurse will select a
suitable setting which must be based on a trusting environment so that Martha can feel a
sense of security in providing private information to nurse. It would also make her
believe that she is valued, important and respected. Then nurse will gather information
about Martha in order to ascertain the characteristic needs by exploring typical health
issues of interest to Martha which is smoking cessation. Nurse will gather information
from Martha as she is the most significant source of needs assessment data about herself.
Nurse must allow Martha to identify what is important to her, what she perceive their
needs to be, which kinds of social support systems are available for her and what type of
assistance these supports can offer to her. Nurse must engage Martha actively in defining
her issues and requirements so that she gets motivated to learn. It will help in investing
her in planning for an educational program particularly individualized to her unique
scenario.
Nurse must involve other health professionals in the planning as they may have an insight
into Martha’s needs because of their persistent contact with her. Nurse must partner with

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other members of the healthcare team for a broader assessment of Martha’s learning
needs (Altman, et al., 2016).
Then the nurse will prioritize Martha’s needs to make the identified needs possible to
accomplish. Nurse must ensure that Martha’s basic needs are catered to first and foremost
prior to other needs.
Then nurse will ascertain the availability of educational resources. Nurse may identify a
need for Martha but it may be useless to proceed with interventions in case appropriate
educational resources are not available. They may even be unrealistic to obtain.
After that nurse will evaluate the demands of the healthcare setting in order to get
information that reflects the organization’s culture in terms of its principles, mission,
vision, and goals. Lastly, nurse will account for time-management issues if any as
constraints based on time are chief barrier in the evaluation process.
 Assessment of Martha’s readiness to learn- Martha’s readiness to cease smoking must be
assessed and what stage of change she is in must be identified. Readiness to learn is
indicated in terms of time when Martha will show an interest in learning the information
essential to cease smoking. For this, Martha must be receptive, willing, and able to
engage in the learning process. Nurse has the responsibility of discovering exactly when
Martha is ready to learn, what she needs to learn. At this point, nurse must understand her
true motivation in order to target correct strategies. Stage of change will also offer an
outline of Martha’s issues and her readiness to quit. Like Martha is on contemplation
stage as she is considering to quit so her education plan must be based on building
confidence, setting a date for quitting, etc. (Cherry, 2019).

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 Assessment of learning style- Learning style indicate the manner in which Martha will
learn by preferring it personally. She can deal with information and experiences for
learning. On choosing a learning style Martha can concentrate, process and preserve new
and difficult information in an improved way. Martha can choose from visual, aural, oral,
physical, logical, social and solitary learning styles
 Assessment of culture- Nurse must assess cultural needs and inclinations of Martha as
she has Maori origin (RICHARDSON, 2011). Specific cultures tend to allow, prefer and
prohibit certain aspects of care so, it would be essential to keep in mind while developing
care plan (Laverty, McDermott, & Calma, 2017). Nurse must understand that cultural
safety is not about Martha but about nurse’s own behaviour and attitude toward Martha
and her ability to develop a trusting relationship.
A thorough conduct of all the above mentioned assessments must be done by the nurse so that
she gain an understanding of Martha’s physical, mental and social condition. Only after knowing
these crucial aspects of Martha’s life, nurse can prepare a personalized educative plan for her.
References
Altman, S. H., Butler, A. S., Shern, L., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine. (2016). Collaborating and Leading in Care Delivery and Redesign.
In Assessing Progress on the Institute of Medicine Report The Future of Nursing.
National Academies Press (US).

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Cherry, K. (2019, August 26). The 6 Stages of Behavior Change. Retrieved from VeryWell
Mind: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-stages-of-change-2794868
Laverty, M., McDermott, D. R., & Calma, T. (2017). Embedding cultural safety in Australia’s
main health care standards. The Medical Journal of Australia, 207(1), 15-16.
Polat, S., Celik, S., Erkan, H. A., & Kasali, K. (2014). Identification of learning needs of patients
hospitalized at a University Hospital. Pakistan journal of medical sciences, 30(6), 1253.
BIBLIOGRAPHY RICHARDSON, F. (2011, August 1). What is cultural safety and why does it matter?
Retrieved from https://healthcentral.nz/what-is-cultural-safety-and-why-does-it-matter/