Identification of Learning Needs During Practice in a Day Care Center

Abstract

I have long had a strong reaction to the notion, sometimes rather cynically expressed, "If you can't do it, teach it". In order to teach a subject, one must be thoroughly knowledgeable about it. Yet there is the problem for teachers of maintaining the level of their knowledge and skills. Essential reading about current developments in a subject can certainly keep one informed. But lacking the opportunity to test and apply this knowledge may cause a deficit in understanding. As a teacher of nursing, the teacher's remoteness from the actual giving of patient care except as incidental to the students' learning is a matter of concern to me. The clinical teacher, according to Smith, must be both practitioner and teacher - a duality of roles which requires a disciplined command of theory, facility in its application, and ability to help others develop knowledge and skills (l). Can a teacher retain her expertise as a practitioner when her opportunities for testing and applying theory are limited? And, if these skills are consequently diminished will it also limit her in assisting the student to develop nursing skills? Such patient contact as the teacher has is usually related to helping the student assess possible solutions to the patient's problem. Rarely is the teacher involved in helping the patient with his experience of illness and treatment. If the clinical instructor does not have the opportunity to use her own nursing skills does she retain these skills? And, is there any possibility that she will value them less highly and thus lose some of her ability to help students gain these same skills and values? Smith also states: One difficult aspect of clinical teaching involves helping students deal with situations which may run counter to natural human inclinations . . . such as, those who are despondent, helpless, anxious, disfigured or malodorous. Compassion is the bridge which can carry the nurse's skill and concern to those who need her most(2).