Nursing Education Report: Preventing Surgical Site Infections (SSIs)

This report focuses on the development, delivery, and evaluation of a teaching session designed to educate student nurses on preventive practices for surgical site infections (SSIs). It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of continuous professional development for registered nurses and the burden of SSIs in healthcare settings. The report then details the influencing factors behind the session, including the need for nurses to be proficient in preventing SSIs to improve patient safety. A thorough training needs analysis is presented, addressing the challenges faced by student nurses during their transition to practice. The report critically analyzes relevant teaching and learning theories, specifically behaviorism, cognitive theory, and constructivism, to determine the most effective approach for the teaching session. Constructivism is selected due to its emphasis on active learning and problem-solving. The curriculum development section outlines the content of the teaching session, focusing on nurses' roles in each phase of surgery. The report aims to equip nurses with the knowledge and skills necessary to minimize SSIs and enhance their confidence in providing high-quality patient care.

Running head: EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PRACTICE
Education and training in practice
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Development of the session:............................................................................................................3
Delivery of the session:...................................................................................................................9
Evaluation of the session:..............................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

2EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PRACTICE
Introduction:
For students aspiring to be a registered nurse, continuous professional development is a
necessary requirement to maintain professional standards and provide quality care to patient.
CPD related activities supports nurses to engage in lifelong learning process and enhance their
nursing competence (Pool et al. 2015). Hence, after registration for nursing practice, each nurse
must evaluate their practice to understand professional and personal developments needs. With
the aim of providing continuous professional development opportunities to student nurses
aspiring to become a registered nurse, this report focuses on developing a teaching session for
such nurses. This teaching focuses on providing knowledge and skills to nurses regarding the
topic of preventive practices needed by nurse to prevent SSIs. As a clinical nurse educator in
clinical setting, my role is to mentor all newly placed nurses and increase their confidence in
contemporary nursing skills. I aim to provide teaching session on preventive practice for SSIs
because SSIs is a major burden in hospitals and if nurses are competent in preventing SSIs, then
patient safety goals can be easily achieved. Due to this issue, importance of clinical teaching for
nurses is realized as continuous clinical education fosters assimilation of knowledge at higher
level in nursing students (Ironside, McNelis and Ebright 2014). The report provides an insight
into the process of developing and delivering the teaching session to nursing students. The
teaching session gives ideas to students about the implications and risk factors of SSIs,
importance of nurses to be aware about current guidelines to prevent SSIs, training needs for
nurses in the area and preventive approach required by nurse to prevent SSI before, after and
during surgery. Lastly, the evaluation of the session has been provided to analyze the success of
the session for students.

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Development of the session:
Influencing factors related to the teaching session:
This report focuses on developing a teaching session on the topic of ‘preventive practices
needed by nurses to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs)’. The main influencing factor for
choosing this topic for student nurses making transition to a registered nurse is that SSIs are the
most common cause of health care associated infection and fragmented approaches used by
health care staff in wound care management increases the risk of such infection. Despite
advancement in surgical technique and operating room environment, SSIs has remained a major
cause of patient morbidity, mortality, long hospital stay and health care cost (Gillespie et al.
2015). Hence, providing teaching to student nurses regarding evidence based approach to prevent
SSIs is necessary to minimize mistakes during transition to practice and enhance confidence of
nurses in providing high quality care. As a clinical nurse educator in practice setting, I am
targeting the student’s nurse to acquire these skills before their registration because they are at
ideal position to minimize the risk related to SSI and Labeau et al. (2010) has also confirmed
about many success stories when nurses took the lead to achieve additional skills to promote
patient safety.
Context and training needs analysis:
Based on the above discussion, it can be said that patient safety and high incidence of
adverse events related to SSI in surgical patient is the main context for planning and developing
teaching session on the topic of preventive practices for SSIs. This teaching session has also
been planned after evaluating education and training needs of student’s nurses in this area. While
conducting training needs analysis before developing the teaching session, the main focus was to

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find out challenges that nurses might face while making transitions to being a registered nurse.
The foremost among them was reality jolts experiences of nurses. Many student’s nurses are not
aware about the realities of hospital setting because nursing curriculum do not prepare them in a
way to make them aware of real time challenges in practice. Most of the knowledge that they
gain in universities are not accepted in actual practice which leads to anxiety and disappointment
in student nurses (Tower et al. 2015). Hence, as a clinical educator, I aim to minimize such gap
in theoretical knowledge and practice by teaching nurses about all those things that are directly
applied in clinical setting for controlling SSIs. The strength of the teaching session is that it is
focusing on provided update knowledge to students based on current guidelines for controlling
SSIs. This would be crucial in making differences in the quality of care delivered in hospital
setting. The next session of delivery of session provides an insight to the rational for delivery
based on critical analysis of teaching and learning theories and different learning styles.
Analysis of teaching and learning theory for application in teaching plan:
While planning the curriculum design for the session, the main focus will to prepare
content that is easy for nurses to grasp and they are very much clear about their contribution in
controlling SSIs. A transparent, informative and updated teaching plan is likely to eliminate
confusion and increase confidence of nurses while dealing with SSI related issue in surgery
patients. This is also necessary because student’s nurses are most likely to implement suboptimal
strategies in preventing SSIs during the transition from student nurse to registered nurse.
Applying theoretical concepts in real setting becomes the most difficult step for nurse (Hawkins
et al. 2015).

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To design a useful and engaging content for the teaching session, there is a need to
analyze different teaching and learning theories. Taking a suitable teaching approach based on
learning styles will be effective in successfully achieving education support roles in clinical
practice and realizing the main goal of the session. Some of the relevant learning theories that are
specifically applied in nursing practices include behaviorism theories, cognitive theories and
constructivism theory. These learning theories can be a good guide for planning clinical teaching
session for student nurses. As a clinical educator, knowing about general principles of these
theories will help me to decide ways of delivering the teaching session in various learning
situations. The analysis of these theories and their suitability for teaching students is presented
below:
 Behaviorism theory:
The behaviorism theory focuses on observable aspects of learning and ignores role of
mind in acquisition of new behavior. It can also be said that favor knowledge acquisition based
on environmental conditions. The theory is based on the principles of reinforcement and the
main assumption is that environment shapes behavior of people. Two categories of behaviorism
approach have been given by Pavlov and skinner through classical and operant conditioning
respectively. In this case, learning occurs by interaction between stimulus and response (Harasim
2017). Hence, positive or negative reinforcement by educator can encourage learners to acquire
and repeat new behavior. This theory can be applied in teaching clinical skills, however this type
of learning is too reliant on learners. This is because favorable results may encourage students to
adapt the new behavior however undesirable results may refrain them from the preventive
practice. As my teaching goal is to help nurses implement preventive skills for SSIs in all
situation, this type of learning method may not work for this teaching session. Another reason for

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not applying this theory in developing teaching session is that the process is time consuming and
it is dependent on student’s motivation for learning (Aliakbari et al. 2015). If the goal of the
teaching session would have been to increase the motivation of students in adapting any new
behavior, then behaviorist approach could be taken. However, the goal of this teaching session is
not to motivate nurses for patient safety, but promote their professional development by
providing updated knowledge on SSIs. Hence, this theory cannot be applied for the learning
situation of student nurses making transition to registered nursing practice.
 Cognitive theory:
The cognitive learning theory focuses on the thought process of people behind any
behavior. It pays attention to the mental process that brings about learning in students. In contrast
to behavioral theory, learning in an individual cannot be observed, however it can be evaluated
by change in capability or skills of the person (Spiro, Bruce and Brewer 2017). Therefore, a
student can learn actively in this process if they are good in questioning skills. Nursing educators
can apply this principle in training session when the focus is to make nurses aware about any
problem in clinical context and inquire them about the implications of such problem. This means
an interactive session where students also respond during the teaching session can help to
evaluated learning process in students (Aliakbari et al. 2015). I do not want to apply this
approach in teaching because my target audiences are nursing students who have not yet entered
practice. Hence, questioning them regarding implication of SSI is the not the goal of the session.
The aim is to increase their knowledge in the area of preventing SSIs. So, I would favor a theory
that would enable taking exploratory approach in learning.
 Constructivism theory:

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The theory related to constructivism regards learning as a process where knowledge is
constructed based on interaction between experiences and their ideas. This implies that a learner
can build new ideas based on past or current experience. The main goal of constructivism
approach is to prepare learner to solve problems in tricky situations and this is similar to this
teaching plan as here the focus is to prepare nurses to solve the problem related to SSIs in
clinical setting. This learning situation is called ambiguous because there is evidence which has
revealed that there is lack of training arrangements for evidence based guidelines for SSIs
(Teshager, Engeda and Worku 2015). Qasem and Hweidi (2017) also revealed that nurses have
low level of knowledge related to evidence based guidelines for SSIs prevention. This evidence
points out to the ambiguous situation of nurses where they fail to implement the standard of care
in the absence of evidence based knowledge on prevention of SSIs. Hence, the constructivist
approach is considered appropriate to be applied in the development and delivery of the teaching
session.
Another advantage of constructivist approach in the context of teaching session for
university students is that it focuses on building student’s interest in learning. Hence, in nursing
education, this theory can be applied in teaching raise interest of students in continuous learning
and professional development. Hence, an interactive teaching session can be planned where =
idea can be provided about the prevalence of SSIs and then educator can survey them regarding
their role in controlling the negative in clinical setting (Aliakbari et al. 2015). This would help to
analyze their past knowledge on the topic and then new ideas can be built to enable necessary to
assimilate the information. The constructivism is theory can be readily embraced in today’s
nursing program as current programs are not addressing changing needs of health care
environment and not providing practices based skills to nursing aspirants. Hence, by the use of

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constructivism theory, nursing educators in any clinical setting can make a shift toward concept
based curricula and application of constructivism principle to curriculum development (Brandon
and All 2010). Constructivism will favor active and contextualized process of learning.
Curriculum development or content for teaching session:
After deciding on the teaching and learning theory that needs to be applied in teaching
session, the next step was to prepare the content for the teaching session. While planning the
content, the focus was to present information in such a manner that would support students to
understand technical and interpersonal context of SSI. The role of a clinical educator is also to
support nurses to effectively apply theoretical knowledge into informed clinical practice
(Maxwell, Black and Baillie 2014). Hence, the critical role needed by nurses each phase of
surgery will be covered in the teaching session so that students can easily apply those knowledge
in real practice. The common concern for newly place nurses is that they do not find link
between university and practice (Helminen et al. 2016). So, as a practice educator, I aim to
strengthen the link by providing student’s access to information that they would readily require
while implementing preventive strategies for SSEs. The outline and structure of the teaching
session has been prepared with the following rationales:
 The introduction gives background of the topic to set the context for the teaching session.
 The implication of SSI has been developed to make students aware about the adverse
implication of the issue
 The slide on importance of nurse knowledge towards SSI prevention has been developed
to clarify student about the core objective of the teaching session and the need for this
teaching session

9EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PRACTICE
 Risk factor section prepared to make students aware about intrinsic and extrinsic risk
contributing to SSI. The interest of student’s will be raised by this point and their past
knowledge can be explored and their knowledge can be further build in the next sections
 Knowledge needed by nurses is an important area which can easily make students aware
about the specific area where there attention is required to prevent SSI.
 The last three slides related to preventive approach before, during and after surgery gives
updated knowledge and guidelines to nurses for preventing SSI. Starting from a broader
context, the session has been narrowed down here to make nurses clear about their role in
controlling SSIs.
Delivery of the session:
To decide the best delivery method for the teaching session, the main criteria is to deliver
the session in a way that promotes active learning and encourage critical thinking in student
nurses. Active learning is necessary to help students achieve desired nursing competencies (Shin
et al. 2015). I have chosen power point presentation (PPT) as a tool for delivering the teaching
session. This is likely to promote active learning in students because content are presented in a
précise manner in power points (Ledbetter and Finn 2018). Hence, the students will not find the
session boring nor they will have the feeling that the session is too long. Another appealing point
of using PPT as a delivery method is that enhances visual appeal and improves focus of student.
Certain visual graphics related to hygiene practices and lessons for nurse to reduce risk of SSI
infection has been provided to stimulate and support learning. Visual aids are the best way to
disseminate knowledge and make teaching sessions effective. It will also help students nurses to
retain concepts permanently (Shabiralyani et al. 2015). In this teaching session, the visual aids

10EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PRACTICE
are directed to the topic, hence students may relate with those visual image and have a positive
learning experience.
Secondly, to enhance critical thinking in nurses, I have planned to make the session
interactive where I will not provide vital information to students by presentation but also interact
with them in between session to explore their past knowledge and opinion related to the topic.
Interaction during teaching session is necessary to encourage two way interactions and develop
critical thinking skills (Zarifsanaiey, Amini and Saadat 2016). Students should not just act as
lone recipient of information; they should interact too to validate certain points. The principle of
constructivist learning will also be applied in the session so that students can understand problem
in real clinical situation and strengthen their skills by taking on new information to cope with the
issue of SSI in clinical setting (Carter et al. 2016).
As a nurse educator, I have the obligation to create a learning environment that supports
critical thinking. This is dependent on transforming traditional teaching methods and
encouraging dialogue with others to promote effective learning. Hence, discussion and dialogue
in the delivery of teaching session will act as a collaborative learning exercise. Cooperative
learning will enhance clinical learning, promote interpersonal relationship and foster self-esteem
in nursing students too (Nabors 2012). Huda et al. (2016) also affirms that discussions in classed
creates productive environment for students and promotes critical thinking. From the perspective
of student nurse also, it has been found that they also favor active learning strategies compared to
traditional teaching methods because it enriches student’s learning experiences (Huda et al.
2016).

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The teaching session has been specifically planned for nursing students. Some of the
barriers that may affect delivery in the target audience include unsupportive environment for
learning and the pace of the program. To make the teaching successful, it will be essential for the
clinical setting to provide resources and tool to provide useful environment for teaching.
Secondly, the pace of delivery may also determine the effectiveness of session (Hakimzadeh et
al. 2013). I aim to take adequate support from nursing leaders in the setting so the teaching
proceeds at a good pace and students get adequate time to acquire new knowledge related to SSI
prevention.
Evaluation of the session:
The evaluation of the teaching session will be done at individual level as well as for the
whole session. To evaluate the success of teaching session in achieving the core objective, the
focus will be to analyze gesture of students and the response that they give during the session. If
the students are inquisitive during discussion, it will mean that the teaching has provoked critical
thinking in students. Secondly, after the end of session, if the students are coming to further
inquire aboit documents related to updates guidelines on SSIs, then it will indicate that students
are interested to assimilate this information in future nursing practice. The implications of the
session in terms of cost and time utilization will also be analyzed by assessing how the student
nurses implement the knowledge when they actually work with surgical patients. The decrease in
the rate of SSI related infections and adverse events for patients will be reflective of usefulness
of the session.

12EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN PRACTICE
Conclusion:
This report gave a detailed discussion on developing, delivering and evaluating a
teaching session on the topic of preventive strategies needed by nurses to prevent risk of SSIS.
The target audience for the session included student’s nurses making transition to registered
nursing practice. The main goal of the session was to provide nurse knowledge regarding
updated guidelines to prevent SSIs in different stage of surgery and hospital stay. The report
summarized the rational for taking the topic of SSI for the teaching session and also presented
training needs in this area by analyzing challenges faced by nurses in applying theoretical
knowledge in real clinical situation. In the context of developing the session, different teaching
and learning theories were analyzed and the selection of best theory for application in the session
was provided. The delivery of session was planned keeping in mind the strategies to promote
active learning and provoke critical thinking skill in students. The evaluation strategies for the
session provide effective steps to analyze the effectiveness of the session for individual students
as well as for the clinical setting where the students will work.

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