Critical Reflections on
teaching touchy feely
subjects in the large
group setting.
Alexandra Swift
What do we mean by touchy feely
subjects?
• Communication skills e.g. Breaking Bad News
• Spirituality
• Empathy
• Grief and Bereavement
• (All of which assist the practitioner to deliver
care that is both sensitive and therapeutic)
Drivers
• Compassionate practice is an explicit requirement and a
key quality indicator for nursing (DH 2008; NMC 2010)
• Compassion in Practice The 6 C’s (Cummings and
Bennett, 2012)
• Francis Report (2013) emphasises the need for a culture
of compassion and caring in nurse recruitment, training
and education.
• “Culture of Compassionate Care” (DH, 2013) Patients first
and foremost
NMC Standards 2010
• Standard 7 for education- Theory and practice
outcomes must ensure that the holistic needs of
all patients are met, including the most
vulnerable
•
(Glasper , 2010)
Reactions from people
• “That’s just not possible!”
• “It’s just not teaching!”
• “Teaching communication skills to such a large
group of students- you’ve got to be kidding!”
FromFrom
this…………….
this………….
Proficient Practitioner
To this!!............
Potential problems
• Distressed students
• Students unwilling to share their experiences
• Students may not engage due to the anonymity
of the large group setting
• (Zavertnik et al 2010.)
•BREAKING BAD NEWS
My lesson plan
• Discuss the term breaking bad news
• Consequences of poor delivery
• Various models of breaking bad news, step by
step approaches discussed.
• Video
• Then, …..
FORBIDDEN IN LECTURE THEATRE!!
FORBIDDEN IN LECTURE THEATRE
Support and challenge
Theory (Daloz, 1986)
Community of Practice
(Lave and Wenger, 1991)
SUPPORTIVE MEASURES
• Hazard warning
• Person available
is students
become
distressed
• Offer support at
the end of session
(Fallowfield, 1993; Mortiboys, 2005)
(Mortiboys, 2005
Contributing Factors
• Being a novice lecturer actually enabled me to
empathise more with my students . Morss and
Murray (2005) report that undergraduates can
often relate more to postgraduates than
academics.
• Group dynamics
•
• Engelmann (2010) refers to the benefits of
“nursing” our students when teaching such
emotive topics.
Lessons Learned
• Whilst adopting aspects of the palliative care
nurse approach, it’s important to also be
assertive and have classroom control.
• Roving microphone. (so other students can hear
the experiences shared)
• Also provide students with copies of the models
of Breaking Bad News. Ask them to identify and
critique the various elements used when
watching the video, thus promoting student
engagement.
Engagement
• The extent to which students have been required
to actively do something with what they have
learned will determine how deeply they know it.
•
(Brookfield, 2006)
•
• Success of any lecture is measured by the level
of student engagement
•
(Race and Pickford 2007)
(Race, 1993)
Most importantly,…………
• “The best teaching is critically reflective,
constant scrutiny of assumptions about
learning/conditions fostering learning”
•
(Brookfield, 2006)
Brookfield’s 4 lenses
Autobiographical
The student’s
eyes
Colleagues’
experiences
Theoretical
literature
References
• Benner, P. (1982) “From Novice to Expert” American Journal of Nursing, 82 pp 402-407
• Brookfield, S. (2006) The Skillful Teacher, San Francisco, Jossey- Bass.
• Cummings, J. & Bennett, V (2012) Developing the Culture of Compassionate Care. Creating
a new vision for Nurses, Midwives and Caregivers, London, The Stationery Office
• Daloz, L. (1986) “Effective Teaching and Mentoring” San Francisco, Jossey Bass.
• Department of Health (2008) A High Quality Workforce: NHS next Stage Review, London,
DOH.
• Department of Health (2013) Patients First and Foremost
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment _
data/file/170701/Patients_First_and_Foremost.pdf (accessed 20 May 2013)
• Engelmann, L. (2010) “Clinical learning:Do faculty teach how to learn?” Teaching and
Learning in Nursing, 5, pp 93- 94
References continued
• Fallowfield, L. (1993) Giving sad Bad News, The Lancet, 341, 8843, pp476 -478.
• Francis, R. (2013) Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry.
www.midstaffspublicinquiry.com (accessed 20 May 2013) Glasper, A. (2010) NMC launches
New Standards for undergraduate nurse programmes, British Journal of Nursing, 19, 20, pp
1308-1309
• Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning:Legitimate Peripheral Participation,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Maslow, A. (1954) Motivation and Personality, New York, Harper.
• Morss, K. & Murray, R. (2005) Teaching at University: a guide for postgraduates and
researchers, London, Sage.
• Mortiboys, A. (2005) Teaching with Emotional Intelligence, London, Routledge.
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (2010) Standards for pre-registration Nurse Education
http://standards.nmc-uk.org/PreRegNursing/statutory/standards/pages/standards.aspx
(accessed 20 may 2013)
References continued
•
Race, P. (1993) "Never Mind the Teaching — Feel the Learning!", Quality Assurance in
Education, Vol. 1 ,2, pp.40 – 43
• Race, P., & Pickford, R. (2007) Making Teaching Work, London, Sage.
• Zavertnik, J.E., Huff, T.A., Munro, C.L. (2010) “Innovative approaches to teaching
communication skills to Nursing Students” Journal of Nursing Education, 49,2 pp 65-71.