TO:   PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAVE COMMITTEE

FROM:  SUZANNE CANALE, FAMILY & HEALTH CAREERS

RE:   SPRING, 2002 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAVE SUMMARY

DATE:  SEPTEMBER 9, 2002 

My sabbatical proposal included four major objectives. The objectives and a brief report of the accomplishment of these objective follows: 

Objective #1: GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE TYPE OF ERRORS COMMONLY MADE BY NURSES WHEN PROVIDING HEALTH CARE AND EXAMINE WAYS OF REDUCING THE INCIDENCE OF THESE ERRORS. 

I gathered data from various resources such as Internet sites, nursing journals, medical journals, conference audiotapes, mass media, Risk Management reports, staff nurses, pharmacists, and nursing educators.

The most commonly reported errors dealt with medication administration. There were a variety of reasons for the errors including wrong patient, dose, drug, route, and frequency. Sources of error were traced to poorly written physicians' orders, incorrectly prescribed dosages, pharmacists, transcription personnel, and the persons actually giving the medication to the patient.

Information about the legal and ethical issues regarding reporting the errors and  the need for consumer participation in helping reduce errors were interesting 'side lines' that emerged as I gathered information.

In relation to nurses/nursing students giving medications, the focus to minimize/prevent medication errors continues to be teaching careful adherence to the principles for safe medication administration and stressing the responsibility for doing so. Currently, LCC's nursing program has a strong focus on safe medication administration in our theory and clinical instruction. We do need to be sure that we maintain an adequate system of documentation of student errors so that patterns of unsafe behavior are readily identified and dealt with. 

Objective #2: EXPLORE WAYS THAT FACULTY IN OTHER NURSING PROGRAMS EVALUATE STUDENTS' CLINICAL PERFORMANCE IN THE ACUTE CARE SETTING AND HOW THEY DEAL WITH SITUALTIONS INVOLVING FAILING BEHAVIOR. 

Information was gathered during visits to nursing programs at 4 west coast community colleges. It was very valuable to review the various clinical performance evaluation process and tools and discuss the process with faculty at the schools. I will incorporate pertinent information into our department discussions on this topic. I gained information about different methods for tracking student clinical performance both within the quarter and in subsequent quarters. My visits and review of the information reinforced the belief that we are doing a good job of this at LCC.  We do need, though, to continue implementing measures to better utilize our campus nursing lab. I learned about some good methods for gaining monies, equipment, and staff to facilitate this goal 

Objective #3: UPDATE MY KNOWLEDGE RE: CURRENT HEALTH CARE ISSUES, NURSING AND MEDICAL CARE, AND NURSING EDUCATION.

In addition to catching up on my reading journals and browsing health care related Internet sites, I was fortunate to be able to attend three conferences during my spring quarter professional development leave. They were: National Critical Care conference, Nursing Law conference, and the Oregon Colleges of Associate Degree Nursing conference, which focused on the nursing shortage and the shortage of nurse educators. All of the conferences were very valuable. I will formally and informally share the information gained during these sessions with nursing faculty, students, and hospital staff.

It was REALLY nice to attend the conferences without having to focus on arranging for a substitute, planning all of the teaching details which would take place in my absence, and spending a lot of time catching up on grading, etc upon my return!  
 

Objective #4:  INCREASE KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES THAT CAN ENHANCE MY THEORY AND CLINICAL TEACHING. 

I took 2 'online' courses (Photoshop and Introduction to XP) and reviewed basic instruction on the use of Power Point to gain 'technological' information and increased comfort and expertise working with computers. The course content was valuable and the experience of being a student in an online course was extremely helpful when I participated in teaching the 'online' Introduction to Nursing course this summer.

In discussions with nursing faculty at LCC and a number of other schools, I have been able to better identify ways I can use the computer in the theory and clinical content that I teach. I plan to implement some of these things beginning Fall, 2002.

In addition to the above activities, I  spent some time at Sacred Heart Medical Center navigating the computer program that is used by nurses and students for gathering information about patients medical information and recording patient assessments and care. My increased knowledge and comfort level will positively impact my clinical instruction.  

I really appreciate having been awarded the Professional Development leave. It has been so nice to actually spend time 'figuring out' computer programs, surfing Internet sites that have been of interest to me but never 'opened', reading journals that have been piling up, examining various teaching methods and evaluation tools from other schools, and contemplating the direction of nursing/health care professions and our program at LCC. These activities are just some of the things that are difficult or impossible to accomplish when teaching full time.  It was SO nice to actually have evenings and weekends to pursue things that were not focused on 'school work"!!