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Many of us have adopted technology to help us structure our teaching approaches in school-based learning . We ’ ve done things live to students in their homes . We ’ ve continued to try to support students to develop skills by thinking differently about how we might teach those things in an online space . And I think that ’ s been quite beneficial for us all , because it ’ s really challenged us to think about how we might do things differently .
I think when this is all over and done with , the thing that we will probably come down to is just to say , well , what were the really good innovations that we all adopted there , and what could we learn from each other that might mean that we can embed those technologies and those experiences to help learning as we move forward ?
What do you think are the most important aspects of the curriculum that should be focused on ? There ’ s a lot of talk at the moment about what might be the 10-year strategy for nursing in Australia , and certainly Greg Hunt has made a commitment to develop that strategy in collaboration with Alison McMillan , our chief nurse . I think this is a really important thing for us because we need to start to think about what is the nurse of the future , because once we start to think about who that person is , it will actually help us to think about how we should educate for that person .
I don ’ t think that nursing is going to stay the same . When we think about alternative models of care , where we have nurse leadership , where we have nurse-led models of care , we need to start to educate for that . We need to help our students and our graduates to work in an environment that is uncertain , where students and graduates are comfortable to work in uncertainty .
I see a lot of student stress around this at the moment . And while I couldn ’ t blame the student for that , sometimes I go back to think about how we ’ re actually preparing them , and are we actually preparing students to work in uncertainty ?
We need to start conversations about how we can produce a more resilient workforce , because uncertainty is here , and I think it ’ s probably never going to go away . Teaching a student how to care for somebody is only one aspect of what our educational strategy should be .
How do you feel that nursing education has evolved compared to when you were at uni ? I don ’ t know whether much has actually changed . I think the way we do things is different , but as an 18-year-old graduating high school and heading off to Sydney Uni to become a registered nurse , I did the same things then as I ’ m teaching today .
I don ’ t think that I was challenged at uni , and I think that programs of study that critically challenge students to be better , to be exceptional , to respond and take action , using what we might call critical pedagogies , that ’ s where I think some of the future lies .
I think that this notion of challenging students to do things differently is something we need to start to think about , and I think that some programs around Australia are doing that . I know that we ’ re beginning some of this work at the University of Wollongong that actually looks at challenging students to take action , to think about what are the issues that we are being faced with in a world where things are changing , and to think about how students can take action at a local level and to learn the skills for that , so that they can take action at a global level .
How do you think workplaces can make students feel more included ? We ’ ve just concluded a very large study with four universities – Uni Melbourne , Central Queensland , Western Sydney and Wollongong – looking into the value proposition of students in placement . It ’ s clear to me that people actually don ’ t understand the role of a student in a clinical situation . I ’ m sure many will remember back to a day when they were a student , and they arrived happy and excited to be on a ward only to be sitting in a room full of registered nurses who clearly did not want them to be there , where there might be an eye roll or , ‘ Oh , do I have to take a student today ?’
Workplaces are busy and stressful , but we don ’ t seem to remember or consider that the student is a member of the healthcare team and that they can be used to advantage – integrated into the healthcare team so that the healthcare team is more successful , and the student becomes more successful .
We need to think about supporting staff on the ward or the unit to be ready for
Students are really being treated as outsiders , rather than integral members of the healthcare team .
students and to be prepared to support students to learn and to develop the skills , knowledge and attributes that are needed to be a registered nurse . And we need to help students to understand that .
In conversations that you might be having with students and graduates , how are they feeling about entering the workforce during a time like this ? I think there ’ s a lot of graduating students at the moment that are really worried . A lot of them have not had what we might call a quality clinical placement . For a few months now , we seem to be obsessed with making sure our students get the 800 hours that are required of the standards , rather than considering what might be the quality of that placement for a student that helps them to actually learn to become a registered nurse .
I think students are also concerned because they ’ ve done two-thirds of their degree in an online space , and so many might be questioning whether they ’ re actually ready for graduation and ready to enter the workforce .
We ’ ve seen some new data showing that nursing was actually one of the top degrees chosen by recent school leaders . I think that was really interesting . I thought perhaps people might be turned off about coming into nursing , because it just looks so challenging and such hard work , but I think that with nursing being front and centre on the news every night people have seen that nurses have made such a significant contribution .
Many of us around the country , the nurse leaders , would say that we ’ re really uncomfortable with this notion that we ’ re superheroes . We ’ re actually highly educated individuals who learn how to manage the complexity of illness and dealing with patient vulnerability . That ’ s my expertise as a registered nurse . So I ’ m wondering whether people are actually seeing that and thinking , that ’ s a profession that I want to be part of . ■
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