Queensland adventures

Tired but happy

Well, as you may assume from the title, I am working hard. I'm still pulling 10-11 hour days, 5 days per week and I've got a bit of marking coming up (oh joy, oh rapture). I've managed to withdraw 2 students from placement and this is only mid way through the second week of four. I'm battling with how exactly to deal with students that I fail/remove from the clinical environment as the process around it isn't particularly clear. I'm seeing all of the facilitators who manage our students while they're out on prac once a week I think with good effect (well, that's some of the feedback that I received from one of the international support team this afternoon). I'm trying to do some thinking around my yet unfinished article although I keep on getting interrupted. But you know what? I'm really enjoying it.

I went through a period a couple of weeks ago, where I didn't really feel like I was useful or being utilised. My unit is quite a specific one and it is "all stations go" when they're out, but much less involved in the times in between their two placements. And so I was left to metaphorically wander around the developing corn field that is nursing education up here ... a time that I initially thought was a bit of a waste, but which I am coming to understand is/has actually been quite important.

I'm still figuring out where everyone fits, who is aligned with who, where people place their emphasis. But what I have come to realise during this "downtime", is that I am quite good at talking with people from both within and without the university. When I'm chatting with our facilitators and educators, whole strings of ideas come tumbling out of my mouth and then, as people are earnestly listening to me talk about my various hobby horses, I realise it was me who just said those quite intelligent things. It was me who people are looking to, to help them make decisions about how to progress with students, to guide their (sometimes inadequate) documentation, to make them laugh about the absurdity of various situations. Surely this only comes when you've got a captured audience? A conference perhaps, or when you pay them to be there (kidding ... who's got the money to throw away like that)?

I'm not saying that I've conquered the world yet, but If I'm not careful, I might start believing in my own goodness. I'm happy mucking around in what I think is a developing undergraduate nursing degree - one that does need a bit of work, but if I'm lucky and play my cards right, one that I could be quite instrumental in guiding forward. I am tired. But I am happy too. I hope this continues!

Introducing things slowly ... but did I do it right?

I had/have a concern with QUT not assessing their students in relation to at least some clinical concepts before they launch out into the big wide nursing/health world as beginning practitioners. At the moment, it seems that there is a huge emphasis on the "experience of learning" and very little saying that the student is either right or wrong in relation to specific skills. I'm worried that it's the cart leading the horse here. For example, in my unit, their assessment is a reflection on their strengths and weaknesses in the previous placement, and subsequently, some ideas about how they might address their perceived deficits in the next placement. While I think this is all well and good (and probably necessary for an insightful practitioner), they haven't throughout their whole 3 year degree been assessed practically on things such as medication administration (although they do do a med calculations test), wound dressings, fundamental nursing skills (BPs, pulses, temperatures and other various things that we "do" as nurses). I'm acutely aware that nursing is much more than an individual focus on the tasks of our work, but you do need to be competent at doing these things in order to care for patients effectively and safely in a busy health care environment.

I have spoken with 3 people in the last couple of weeks about this:

1. Jo who is the woman who manages the day to day workings of the undergraduate degree. I got the impression from her (and others when discussing her) that she wasn't necessarily an advocate of this type of assessment. She used large student cohort sizes as a reason not to assess in this manner.
2. Fiona who is the woman who I think may have some clout in being able to make this happen. She is the big picture thinker who is driving some of the changes in the school at the moment. When I cornered her at lunch the other day, she confessed that she thought this was a good idea in relation to clinical subjects and that it was "on her radar" as something that needed to be addressed. I outlined some ideas about how I thought it could be implemented, why I thought it was important and some experiences of how it had played out at Sydney Uni when I was there.
3. One of the other newbies who is managing the CP2 (Clinical Practice 2) unit and who has made whopping changes to her course - for the better in terms of the unit, but I think it nearly killed her in the process because she has the largest student group in nursing that QUT has ever seen in its history ... 600+ students. Leanne also feels that it's a really necessary step toward ensuring good standards of clinical practice at QUT and in QLD more broadly.

We had a Clinical Practice Unit Co-ordinator meeting the other day to discuss the new curriculum and how it would affect us all. When it came to the CP5 unit, I spoke a little about the need to assess students more throughout their degrees, but didn't go into specifics. I didn't feel that this was the right place to "dump" these ideas. Fiona during that meeting however, looked at me almost pleadingly (if I was reading her eye contact correctly) and I wasn't quite certain as to how to respond. I hadn't spoken to the other 3 CP coordinators about my thoughts, but had spoken to the above three people in private conversations about the same. Was this the right thing to do? I'm not sure and have been a little worried about my action/(?perceived) inaction since then.

In talking with Leanne yesterday about a variety of things she mentioned that she had spoken to Fiona about clinical assessment prior to students attending placement (Fiona is/was Leanne's PhD supervisor. It's coming to a close pretty soon for her which is marvellous). She said that with the new curriculum being so close she felt is was an opportune time to introduce some of these changes now for the new group coming through next year. A great idea and I think Fiona agreed, although I'm now getting this information second hand from Leanne. Leanne said to me "You've seeded such a great idea here" and for some reason, I was a bit affronted by the statement.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm a bit uncomfortable about here. Is it that I didn't say anything publically at the CP meeting and now Leanne has spoken with (and will probably do something about) the lack of clinical assessment in the course? Is it because when the students come to me it is their final placement so the need/ability to be able to assess in this fashion is limited? Is it because I can realistically only control the course that has been assigned to me (CP5) and that these changes will take place in the previous clinical units? Is it because I'm doing good big picture thinking where the emphasis is on micromanagment? What is my problem exactly? I can't shake this feeling nor make too much sense of it.

To be continued (I suspect) ...

A funny thing happened on my way to the office ...

So, I've marked all of my assignments and written some pretty detailed comments on the marking criteria. I've collected all of the marked assignments from my tutors who have done the same. I've separated out the ones that need to be resubmitted for a second bite of the cherry. I've sourced two very flashy looking paper boxes. I've made 2 signs ... one saying "Assignments for students to pick up", the other "Assignments to be resubmitted". I've blue tacked the aforementioned boxes to the corridor wall outside my office. And I've left the building for the day.

I've arrived to work to find nothing blue tacked to the walls. The cleaners had been overnight. There were virtually tumble weeds rolling down the corridor. Where the hell are my boxes?????!!!! My comments?!?!??!?! My tutors' comments?!?!?! These bloody assignments are to go with the students on the next placement starting in two weeks' time!!!! Holy crap. Is this the Graves disease that I'm feeling? Nope. Just a blind panic about the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into considering the students' goals for their next placment and that they are no longer there ...

So, I ring security. They can't help me but suggest that I call "Facilities Management" (what does that mean exactly? I'm not sure). They can't help me but suggest that I call "Lorraine" ... the cleaning manager on duty. Lorraine says hello in a fairly heavy New Zealand brouge and agrees to meet me at the garbage bins. Where we spend the next half an hour sifting through the school's garbage. Of course it was the last bin out of seven. Of course they were right down the bottom. Of course now I really have to wash my clothes thoroughly. I suspect that Napisan might do very well out of me very soon!!!

The hilarity of the whole situation. Doesn't everyone in the corridor just laugh at me now when they see me ... Jokers. They'll keep (menacing music in the background ... Download Halmystery
) ...