Awakening and engaging in your learning
- Authors: Lyons, Judith
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The road to nursing Chapter 2 p. 16-28
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- Description: This chapter discusses what it means to be an awake student and how you can be an engaged student to take the maximum advantage of the learning environment. It will explore the interrelationship of being an awake student and an awake nurse. Nursing requires constantly observing the situation, being aware of the context of practice, the situation or event in which you are taking part, and the patient in your care in order to make professional nursing decisions. To be successful in learning and practice, you will need to develop the graduate attributes of a nurse. These including being a professional and ethical decision-maker, politically astute situational leader and citizen, socially and culturally aware agent of change, critically reflective thinker adept in clinical reasoning, creative problem-solver, skilled therapeutic communicator, capable interdisciplinary healthcare team member and competent, caring, safe and professional nurse (Federation University Australia 2015). This chapter also provides ideas for how to overcome difficulties and engage in your learning together with ways that will help you to spend effective time in your learning endearvour. It discusses how you can transition to university learning in a way that makes you an equal partner in the learning process towards becoming an independent learner.
Foundations of nursing practice
- Authors: Cramer, Rhian , Coombs, Nicole , Lyons, Judith , Kim, Jeong-Ah
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The road to nursing Chapter 11 p. 168-182
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- Description: Becoming a safe and contemporary nurse is more than just being able to demonstrate clinical skills or understand disease processes. It is about critical thinking - understanding why we do what we do and how to do it in the most efficient and effective way. Achieving the best outcomes for the patients is always paramount. This chapter explores the foundational principles of contemporary nursing practice: evidence-based practice, person-centred care, and communication. It also introduces the growing role of technology in healthcare and looks at how numerous factors come together to influence health outcomes for the individual patient.
Nursing as a profession
- Authors: Lyons, Judith , Bliss, Suzanne
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The road to nursing Chapter 12 p. 183-203
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- Description: All regulated health practitioners need to be aware of the standards imposed on them by their regulatory body in order for them to be able to practise. The standards are imposed on nurses and midwives by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which regulates the Australian workforce through the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). The NMBA regulates registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives. This chapter focuses on the professional aspects of nursing. It is intended to assist you to understand your obligations to obtain and retain your nursing or midwifery registration and your legal, regulatory and moral obligations both as a nursing or midwifery professional and as an individual. It also differentiates the scope of practice for the registered nurse, enrolled nurse and midwife, as we have the responsibility to provide safe, quality care to our clients. The first section discusses the general legal and regulatory requirements for nurses. Next, we turn to the Professional Practice Framework that constitutes a key part of nurses' legal and regulatory obligations. The Professional Practice Framework forms the overarching statement of nursing's values contained in the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct, as well as the recently implemented Standards for Practice for Registered and Enrolled Nurses (NMBA 2016a, 2016c). We explain the registration standards first, then examine the new Standards for Practice. These standards replaced the old Competency Standards on 1 July 2016, and were developed to better reflect contemporary practice in nursing. The next section contains information on professional boundaries, including the recently updated Codes of Ethics and Conduct. Finally, we make some brief remarks relation to scope of practice.
Preparing for success
- Authors: Wikander, Lolita , Lyons, Judith
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The road to nursing Chapter 4 p. 48-60
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- Description: In this chapter, you will learn how to plan your study around your existing commitments. You will be encouraged to build on your stengths and improve in areas that may hold you back. You will learn how to find time to study and be kind to your future self. This chapter gives you an idea of the different kinds of academic support you may be able to access and provides some hints for using the online study environment to your advantage. Critical reflection in self-directed learning will assist you to develop strategies for lifelong learning. Learning in the university context is self-directed, and the skills developed and employed in your nursing education will ensure you have mastered the graduate attributes needed to continue learning while you practise a s a nurse. Self-directed learning means being active and constructive in your learning process. This entails being clear on what your learning goals are and making a choice about how you will achieve your learning goals. It also involves deciding what strategies you will adopt in your own learning, together with what the teachers require you to do for successful completion of your courses. The section on relection and self-directed learning provides you with strategies for deep learning, which is learning for understanding as opposed to surface learning like cramming to pass tests. If you employ deep learning strategies, this learning will form the basis of your knowledge and skills, and you will be able to build on and apply it in new contexts. You are a partner in the learning endeavours. You will discover that you learn not only from your lecturers, but also from your peers and networks. You will be provided with hints for making both formal and informal peer support and group work function effectively for you. Finally, you will be given suggestions for using social media to help feel connected while simmultaneously avoiding common pitfalls in your journey to become the best nurse you can.
Thinking like a nurse
- Authors: Porter, Joanne , Perkins, Alicia , Lyons, Judith , Sewgolam, Shireen
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: The road to nursing Chapter 8 p. 117-136
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- Reviewed:
- Description: Critical thinking and problem-solving, clinical reasoning, self-reflection and self-awareness are valued attributes of the contemporary nurse. These skills are essential for the provision of safe and competent person-centred care to patients with ever-increasing acuity and multiple, often complex comorbidities. This chapter focuses on critical thinking, clinical reasoning and reflective practice, and personal documentation using e-portfolios, along with strategies to assist beginning nurses in the development of these specific skills, which should be honed, practised and adapted to everyday clinical practice. The chapter also assists the professional nurse to develop methods to demonstrate their personal and professional development through the use of e-portfolios.