Competent Practitioners (competent + practitioner)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


5.3 Global challenges in research and strategic planning

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 2002
Bruce J. Baum
Health sciences research is experiencing dramatic progress. How can dental schools throughout the world best make these research advances relevant for dental students, as well as providing them with the means to assess and utilize the research advances that will occur in the future? This complex question presents a critical challenge to the dental educational community. Research is clearly integral to the mission of dental education. By providing dental students with active learning strategies, dental educators can inculcate the ability for independent scientific thinking and thereby develop reflective as well as technically competent practitioners. However, there is a shortage of well-trained individuals to fill faculty and research positions in certain parts of the world. Global networks for mutual information exchange are imperative to overcome resource limitations in individual institutions, as is dedicated funding for research in the dental educational setting. [source]


The Nurse Educator's clinical role

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 1 2005
Odette Griscti MHSc RN
Aim., This paper reports a two-phase descriptive study exploring the clinical role of the nurse educator in Malta. Background., Previous studies indicate a number of similarities and differences in the clinical role of nurse educators by country of practice. These include importance assigned to the role, factors inhibiting/facilitating the role, means to eliminate barriers to the role, and perceptions of the ideal role. Design and methods., Data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative strategies. The quantitative phase involved asking all educators to fill in a time log of their academic and clinical activities for a 2-week period. In the qualitative phase, the first author interviewed five educators, five nurses and five students about their perceptions of factors which impact the nurse educator's clinical role, as well as what the ideal clinical role of the nurse educator should be. Findings., Maltese nurse educators allot minimal time to their clinical role. Main reasons cited included workload, perceived lack of control over the clinical area, and diminished clinical competence. Nurse educators who frequented the clinical settings (who were either university or joint university and health service employees) where the study took place perceived that employment inequities among the various categories of nurse educators played an important role in the amount of time dedicated by each group to their clinical roles, and the importance individuals in these groups assigned to that role. The majority of interviewees saw the current role of nurse educators in Malta as preparing students for successful completion of the didactic sections of their programme, rather than preparing them with all the knowledge and clinical skills necessary to be competent practitioners. Participants considered that, when in clinical areas, nurse educators did focus on their students, as they should. However, they also thought that they often did not take the opportunity to forge links with professional staff. Conclusion., The clinical role of the Maltese nurse educator needs to be more multifaceted in approach. [source]


Undergraduate psychiatric nursing education at the crossroads in Ireland.

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 6 2006
The generalist vs. specialist approach: towards a common foundation
This paper provides a critical overview of undergraduate educational preparation for psychiatric nursing and proposes the use of a model, which may equip psychiatric nurses to adapt to current and future directions in psychiatric nursing practice. It contends that mental health nursing is a distinct scope of practice and as such requires specialty undergraduate education. A major difference between educational preparation for psychiatric nursing in the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and distinct from most other developed countries, is the existence of separate, specialized pre-registration programmes that, upon graduation, allow the nurse to register as a psychiatric nurse. In other countries such as, Australia, the integration of pre-registration nurse education into the university sector resulted in the wide-scale adoption of a generalist approach to nurse education. In light of the recent changes in pre-registration nursing education in Ireland, and the integration of nursing into higher-level education, this paper examines the generalist vs. specialist approach to nurse education. It contends that neither the generalist nor the specialist model best serve the nursing profession in preparing safe and competent practitioners. Rather, it argues that the use of a model which incorporates both generalist and specialist perspectives will help to redress the imbalance inherent in both of the existing approaches and promote a sense of unity in the profession without sacrificing the real strengths of specialization. Such a model will also facilitate psychiatric nurses to adapt to current and future directions in psychiatric nursing practice. [source]


Employer-sponsored occupational therapy professional development in a multicampus facility: A quality project

AUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2009
Anne Cusick
Aim:,To critically assess and develop recommendations for professional development (PD) for occupational therapists in a multisite specialist cerebral palsy occupational therapy service. Method:,Quality improvement project based on principles of participatory action research: audit of PD resources/activity; stakeholder consultations and literature review. Results:,The PD program goal, resources, strategies, activities and evaluations conducted at the centre were identified and described. Areas for improvement were identified by critically considering the PD program in the context of reviewed literature. There was an assumption that personal change through PD would help attain the organisational goal of clinically competent practitioners who use evidence-based practice in a family-centred context. Recommendations:,Future PD plans and evaluations need to explicitly address this assumption. The use of structured reflection and the ,clinical reasoning' conceptual framework was recommended as one way to help personal change from PD to have workplace impact. This project provides a precedent and guide to occupational therapy PD planners regarding a whole-of-organisation approach to developing and maintaining competence through PD. [source]