Learning Needs Assessment - Essay Example

?Learning Needs Assessment Learning Needs Assessment a) Type of District hospital b) Type of nursing care/service provided The type of nursing care services provided by nurses who possessed expertise in palliative or oncology skills included care to patients and their families. These services, in particular, includes identification, assessment, and management of ill health and risk behaviors experienced by patients with past, present or prospective diagnosis of cancer. c) Volume of activity of the institution The volume of activity in this hospital is mainly influenced by the need to improve the outcome. For example, in areas involving complex surgical procedures, the volume of interventions and procedures is maintained at a high level in order to improve the outcome. In addition, it was observed that most of the activities are channeled towards the large units of the hospital in a bid to improve the quality of healthcare care. The following table shows the volume of activity and outcome. Number Percentage Surgical procedures 179 86.4% Cancer related procedures 84 40.3% Cardiovascular procedures 68 32.5% Orthopaedic procedures 19 8.7% others 11 4.9% In-patient 21 9.7% Traumatology 11 4.9% Cardiology 4 1.5% emergencies 3 1.0% Pneumology 3 0.5% Intensive care 2 0.5% Nephrology 2 0.5% Mixed (all types of care) 2 0.5% Obstetrics 6 2.4% Safe deliveries 2 0.5% High-risk births 1.0% neonatal intensive care 3 1.0% Outpatients 4 1.5% Total 206 100.0% d) Levels of nursing care staff employed Out of all the respondents that participated in the study, approximately 49% tendered their responses, excluding the wrong addresses. The total of the surveys that were completed was 65, which was 27% of the sample size. The survey revealed that the majority of the nurses worked in regular, full-time basis (60%) or regular and part-times basis (30%). The remaining 10% worked on casual contracts. Also, information was collected regarding the employment settings and status of respondents. Most of the nurses (70%) worked in a hospital setting. There was a good representation from other settings including nursing homes / Long Term Care (LTC) (16%), Home Care (14%), Community Health (8%) and other settings (14%). Most nurses worked in regular, full-time employment (67%) or regular, part-time employment (23%) compared to 10% who worked in casual positions. The level of education for the nursing staff that was interviewed was very diverse, of which 81 % of the staff held diplomas and 24 % held post diploma certification. Of these, 10% had oncology certification from different nursing associations, in addition to other oncology courses. Another 5% was found to have completed palliative care certificate courses (Bailey & Corner, 2009). More than 30% of the nurses were holding university degrees with specialization in different medical disciplines. Forty two percent were holders of bachelor degrees while 5% were holders of graduate degrees. Eighty one percent were working in the capacity of staff nursing role while another 7% worked in other roles such as nurse education, nurse consultation, nurse coordination, administration, family practice nursing, research coordination and executive directorship. When the level of nursing care was investigated, it was found that 69% cared for chronic patients, 70 % cared for palliative patients and 65% cared for acute patients. It was also found that a few of the nurses who were interviewed cared for emergency (21%), preventative (29%), and intensive care (16%). As shown in figure 2, these nurses were extensively experienced in cancer care. A good proportion (53%) of them had been employed in a cancer care environment for at least 11 years. Figure 2: The amount of cancer care experience A summary of the results of the educational needs assessment and analysis Identification of the highest priority educational need When the nurses were asked to rate their fields of experience in different fields classified into four types, including administration, direct care, research and education, 25% stated that they had experience in at least one area of oncology and 34% stated that they had experience in palliative care. Expertise in oncology was further categorized into surgical oncology (9%); medical oncology (15%); chemotherapy clinic (8%); cancer centre (5%); radiation oncology (6%); and other oncology related skills such as hematology (2%). The respondents, also, revealed to have commonly acquired expertise in geriatrics (34%), medical/surgical (41%), and LTC (29%). Eleven percent of the nurses were experienced in service administration, which was the major field of administration skills, while nursing research (7%) was the main expertise in the research skills. The education expertise consisted of three potential fields; that is, teaching students (15%), teaching employees (17%), and teaching clients (31%). In order to investigate the answers gotten from the respondents in terms of their experience, the findings from various interview questions were split into two classes of interviewees gotten after merging a number of variables on the interview (Bailey & Corner, 2009). Identification of institutional forces in favor of and those against responding to educational needs When asked the factors that influence response to educational needs in the hospital, the nurses cited factors such as staff receptiveness, budgetary and staff constraints, support from management, and organizational policy. These factors were given the following rating. Factor Level of influence Budgetary and staff constraints 46% Support from management 29% Staff receptiveness 15% Organizational policy 10% The next step within the institution to respond to the educational needs identified as highest priority It was also important to find out how the current knowledge and skills compared with the continuing education needs for nurses who are well qualified versus those who are not very qualified. This information would help design effective future continuing education programs for different categories of nurses. The oncology expertise break down used to analyze these groupings, and within which patterns of responses were explained was as follows: Above 75% of time spent with cancer patients and certified oncology skills; Above 75% of time spent with cancer patients and not certified oncology skills; Above 75% of time spent with cancer patients and oncology expertise And finally no oncology skills Those nurses with more than 75% of their time spent with people with cancer and who had rated themselves with oncology skills in spite of certification had high possibility of capital health environments. However, those who rated themselves as not having oncology skills had high possibility of working outside capital health environments and within long-term care environments. Seventy one percent of those without oncology skills spent less than Quarter of their time attending cancer patients (Miller, 2009). For the purpose of designing educational supports and programs, it was also found to be imperative to separate palliative care skills from oncology skills especially considering that palliative is part and parcel of a variety of oncology nursing. Therefore, palliative care and oncology skills were split down as follows: Only oncology skills; Both palliative care and oncology skills; Only palliative care, which at least 60 percent of time spent with people with cancer; No palliative care or oncology skills. The need to obtain cancer education by the nurses was found to be motivated by various reasons, which were disclosed in open ended responses. About 30% of the nurses maintained that this education would help them improve their service delivery. About a quarter of the nurses maintained that such education would help them remain updated with current issues and improve their understanding and knowledge of cancer. Another 18% cited that this education would help them support cancer patients and their families better. Also, a small proportion of 13% cited that cancer education would help them improve their family and personal cancer experience. Another 15% maintained that cancer education was very critical because cancer is extremely prevalent. Twelve percent maintained that palliative care issues motivated them to obtained cancer education. Other reasons that were stated included helping them serve as nurse educators; helping them to improve cancer care; support families who live with cancer patients at their homes; serve families and patients with relevant information regarding cancer; and to help them learn certain topics such as cancer complications and treatments (Bailey & Corner, 2009). The respondents also listed the five most critical issues, which needed continuing education, in an open-ended question. Majority of them were found to talk about getting information related to medications, treatments and their side effects. The other commonly mentioned reason was in relation to management of complications and symptoms. A more basic information regarding cancer was the third most commonly mentioned need. Lastly, to complete list of five, the respondents mentioned palliative and families’ care and education regarding supporting and interacting with patients (Miller, 2009). Reference Bailey, C.D., & Corner, J. (2009). Cancer Nursing: Care in Context. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Miller, CA. (2009). Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults: Theory and Practice. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Read More