Blog 2:
My service learning site is the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program at St. Mary Corwin Hospital. This grant-funded program supports new nurse graduates who are employed at both St. Mary Corwin Hospital, and their sister facility, St. Thomas More Hospital, as they transition into the professional nursing role. My service to the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program is to offer the participants experiences with high fidelity simulation, individually developed for the nurse’s specialty unit. The participants of the New Nurse Residency program have had the opportunity to practice patient care in a safe learning environment.
What was the best/worst/most challenging thing that happened this semester?
My greatest challenge this semester was observing the performance of one of the new graduate nurses. During the scenario, this particular new nurse was completely out of her scope of practice and behaved in an inappropriate manner with an interdisciplinary team member (respiratory therapist). She was demanding and rude to the interdisciplinary team member. She never phoned a physician to resolve the patient care issue, but rather prescribed her own treatments, and demanded the same of the interdisciplinary team member. There were two other new graduates and the New Nurse Graduate Residency Coordinator in the lab observing the scenario. During the debriefing session, the new nurse stated that she always orders her own treatments and the respiratory therapist always administers the treatment she prescribes. I led a lengthy discussion on “scope of practice” and “interdisciplinary collaboration”.
I am grateful that this simulated patient care scenario occurred in a safe learning environment, and I am hopeful that this experience was beneficial for the new nurse. I hope that she left the simulation lab with a new perspective on her role, the role of the interdisciplinary team member, and the role of the provider. The New Nurse Graduate Residency Coordinator was able to observe this performance and will now be able to further assist this new nurse to understand her new role. Simulation was able to bring forward an issue that must be addressed so that this new nurse will have a more successful nursing career.
What can you do differently as an individual and as a professional to support and advocate for some of the issues you encountered during your service learning experience?
I will continue to develop and implement simulation opportunities for the new nurses participating in the New Nurse Graduate Residency Program at St Mary Corwin Hospital. I believe that this experience can lead the new nurse to recognize areas of weakness or false impression that can be remedied, so that the nurse will have a more fulfilling career. As an individual, and as a professional, I am compassionate to the struggles and challenges of nursing students, as well a new nurses. There is so much to learn and the responsibilities are so tremendous in this profession. We must support and advocate for one another.
JoAnn,
ReplyDeleteThis new nurse was not your typical reserved student! It is interesting how she interpreted her role as a nurse and I wonder how she has done this as she works with patients. I think you have come upon a very useful tool to identify safety issues that could have come up with this nurse. Your debriefing must have been an eye opener for her. It makes me wonder if she will change that practice! I love simulation to be able to put even experienced nurses in situations that are close to real and let them go through the scenario to see if they catch themselves and change their direction if they started off wrong. I would love to have this capability where I work! This is a very good learning activity for the new residents and allows them to learn how to work with interdisciplinary team members.
Margaret Orn