Critical incident and reflection

Activity three: critical incident using Hagarty three-step reflective framework

 1.1 The experience:  this week I am describing a critical incident involving a technological hitch.  I take three tutorials a week for the first year Applied Psychology class where we discuss the on-line learning material and explore some of the learning concepts in greater depth.  We had completed the discussion part of the tutorial and I was loading up the DVD that showed footage of some of the experiments used to demonstrate Piaget’s theory of child development.  I had viewed the disc before coming to work that morning and had make extensive notes and a set of visual learning questions based on its content, so I was all fired up and ready to go!

However, the disc was slow to load but eventually started to play.  It ran for a couple of minutes and then kept freezing. 

1.2 The decisions I reloaded the DVD and started the process again but it still did not work properly.  The students at this stage were chatting and getting restless and I felt embarrassed and powerless.  I asked if any student in the class could assist.  A student came to the front and tried to get the DVD to play but it still did not work. 

Disappointed, I then changed tack and tried a second DVD that broadly related to the topic.  This played and we were able to see some examples.  I made notes on the board as the DVD played.   We discussed the DVD content, highlighting examples from the alternate DVD.

What did I do?  I kept calm and worked through a trouble shooting process.   I then asked for help.

What knowledge helped me?  From past experience with using equipment in different teaching venues, I had learned that you should always bring a back up resource or activity! 

How did I react?  I think I kept calm, talking through the procedure with the class.  I made light of the hitch and used humour.  Nonetheless technological failure always makes you feel stupid and vulnerable. 

What helped me?  The fact that I knew I had back up DVD.  If that didn’t work I had a supporting role play organised.

Who were the people involved and what did they do?  The incident happened in a class of 31 first year students.  They sat patiently then started to chatter.  One person came to the front when I asked for help.

Step 2

Why the decisions and actions? 

I acted using my knowledge from other similar situations. I asked fo r help because I believed someone would be able to assist me.

Why the reactions?

Why did the event occur?  Not sure.  I blamed the computer.  However, I have since learned that I should have used the DVD player underneath the desk, rather than the computer.  Therefore it was my lack of knowledge that caused the problem.

Is there anything I could have done differently?  Yes, looked for a proper DVD player although the disc had played on my computer earlier that day.

Why did others who were involved act as they did?  They probably felt sorry for me and wanted to help out.

How did my assumptions, values and beliefs influence me?  I assumed that students would help out based on previous experience.

What theoretical knowledge helped your response to the event?  That we are all learners together and the group has a shared knowledge.  Others in the group have greater technology know how that me! Synergy is achieved through the power of the group.

Step 3.  What did I learn and why?

The event reinforced by belief that others will help you out if you ask them to.  It also reinforced my teaching practice that it is always wise to have a back-up activity planned.

How will I use this experience?

This experience has already taught me to never assume that something will work.  It has reminded me that I should always check my equipment out in the room where I will be using it before the scheduled tutorial time.  It has reinforced that I need to plan to use technology as a part of my teaching and have a reacted actitivy to reinforce learning. 

The experience has also reinforce my belief in human nature that people will help you if you ask them to.  The teacher’s role is to facilitate learning which is a two-way process. The experience suggests to me that I need some training!

Actitivity 3: Interview 2

Interview 2: Conducted on Friday 18 March with a colleague who teaches Bio Science for the first  year nursing programme.

Who are their students?  Nurses in first year of the BN programme.  There are 110 students.

The five dimensions of flexibility:

Entry requirements:  Students must have passed all 14 NCEA Level 3 credits in Science subjects.

Time, delivery and logistics: Students can study the on-line material at any time and place to suit themselves.  In addition to a weekly 1.5 hour face-to-face tutorial, two hours of self-directed study is allocated on each student’s weekly timetable.  They can access this on SyllabusPlus. 

Content and instructional approaches and resources:

Chapters of learning materials are set up on Moodle. Moodle resources include:

1. PowerPoint lecture slides
2. Links to websites and other resources.
3. On-line multi choice quizzes.
4. Crossword puzzles.

Each week’s book of learning materials is made available the week before the scheduled class.  The book then remains open for the first year students for the rest of the year.   Selected second year students also have access to this material.  A mixture of learning resources and activities is provided to encompass different learning styles.  These are accessible off campus.

Weekly face-to-face tutorials are also conducted.  There are 33 students in each tutorial group.  The purpose of tutorials is to check learning, explain concepts and reinforce previous bio science content.   

Actitivity 3: Interview 1

Interview 1: Conducted on Friday 18 March with a colleague who teaches the Clinical Skills part of the second year nursing programme.

Who are their students?  Nurses in their second year of the BN programme.  There are 120 in the year. 

The five dimensions of flexibility:

Entry requirements:  Students must have passed all papers in the first year BN Nursing degree programme.

Time:  Students can study the on-line material at any time and place to suit themselves.  They do however, require good broadband internet connection.  Material is left on the Moodle site all year, so the content can be revised by students (and updated by teaching staff). 

Students come in to a Simulation Laboratory (Sim Lab) at a pre arranged time each week.  Sim Labs are designed to teach and assess practical nursing skills and run for 2 hours.

Delivery and logistics:  The class is divided into 4 groups.  After 2 weeks’ of taught classroom theory content, one half of one group (A1 of  12 students) come into a clinical Sim Lab while the other half of the group (A2 of 12 students) are out on a clinical nursing placement.  Other groups rotate through the Sim Lab over the rest of the year.

For the group doing the Sim Lab, the course content is provided on Moodle, each student is expected to have completed the directed on-line learning before coming to the Sim Lab (weekly from 10 to 12).

Content and instructional approaches and resources:

A blend of resources is used.  Preparation for the clinical scenario includes reading Instructional resources placed on Moodle.

The on-line learning chapter contains:

1)      A PowerPoint presentation (voiced over). 

2)      Three clinical placement role play scenarios.

3)      A DVD showing how to complete the clinical skills (made by the lecturer and School of Nursing staff)

4)      Directed reading from the textbook.   

In the Sim Lab time, students are organised into groups of three and are assigned one of the four role plays.  The role plays cover medical and surgical situations related to the clinical placement area, e.g., completing post-operative care for a person undergoing a femoral-popliteal bypass.  They provide a safe and effective way of practicing nursing care in a supervised environment.

In each role play scenario there are three roles. 1. The patient, 2 the Registered Nurse, and 3 the peer assessor.  Each role play takes 20 minutes to perform and students swap roles.  There is a ‘debrief’ by the clinical lecturer at the end of each role play session.  In the debrief session, each person’s performance is evaluated against the pre determined requirements.    By the end of the scheduled Sim Labs, each student has completed a full set of role plays.

Actitity 2

Activity 2: Define flexible learning in the nursing context.

I have just started to work on the second activity of flexible learning and have read the Collis and Moonen (2001) chapter while I had my lunch.  The chapter title “Flexible learning: it’s not just about distance”  catches my attention as I have just spent 2 hours in a skills laboratory with a group of nurses who are based in Timaru yet who travel to Dunedin weekly to gain the same instruction as the local student nurses.  As nursing is a skills-based profession, their learning is supported by them spending one day a week on campus.   Nursing School staff makes sure that their programme of learning is fitted around each Wednesday.  Other instruction and relay of lectures is provided by ‘Telepeads’, a large interactive videoconferencing camera and screen which lives in a lecture room in G Block. We have been trained in the use of the equipment and with each teaching session it is becoming easier to operate.  Students are based in Timaru and can see and hear the lecturer in Dunedin.  The lecturer can see the students on screen and students can ask questions and hear other student’s comments and questions in class.

So flexible learning in my context involves distance and communication with a group based in Timaru.

 Nursing has always used a system of ‘blended learning’ which incorporates many of the flexible learning components mentioned in this reading.  This involves using a mixture of face to face lecture, tutorials and workshops, class room instruction, skills laboratories, simulations, roles plays and on-line lectures. 

Teaching methods are chosen to facilitate the best possible learning outcomes.  For example, role plays are a safe and effective way to practice communications skills of interviewing and giving support.  Class room activities are an effective way of sharing experiences and information and checking understanding.   On-line learning is ideal for teaching factual information and using quizzes to check understanding.  Students are provided with self-directed learning activities and are allocated time in their study week to do these activities.  Blended learning provides the teacher with choice in the methods used.  The learner also benefits by the range or learning activities offered and the teacher’s pedagogical aim of optimising student’s learning outcomes. As I read further, I see that many of these strategies fit the components of flexible learning mentioned in the chapter.

On the last page of the reading, the institutional framework is discussed.  This reminds me of some of the not so flexible aspects of my work environment.  For the Bachelor of Nursing, places are limited to 110 students in the first year programme and about one third of applications gain places in the BN programme.  The number of places offered is limited by the requirement for students to gain nursing experiences in the healthcare sector.  The number is restricted by the ability of healthcare institutions in the Otago region to supervise students nurse’s placement experience.    

To sum up.   Flexible learning supported by technology is an ideal way of providing continuing education for nurses.  It is used in nursing for a variety of reasons.  ‘Nursing’ is a complex caring profession.  It is based on objectivity and science while at the same time requiring nurses to be empathetic and expert communicators.  Knowledge and skill builds through reading, watching, practice, and expert guidance over time.  We need to be flexible to do this well!

Flexible learning Actitivy 1

Hi everyone, I think I have just managed to set up my blog.

The Internet froze on my first attempt, so hope this works. 

My name is Liz and I work as Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing.  I worked as Nursing Tutor in Dunedin until 1984 when the School that was affiliated with Dunedin Hospital shut down.  Our greatest teaching tool was the blackboard, learning was by demonstration and doing, we used experts to educated us in their various professional fields.

Since then I have worked as a Lecturer in Management at the School of Business at the Univeristy of Otago.  There I was introduced to the 'pressure cooker' world of large class teaching and the electronic Blackboard for disseminating information. 

Now, back in the more homely world of Nursing, I am doing this course to learn how to connect learners up with the vast array of online resources that are available to us as learners.