Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 112

112 | JADE
HIGHLIGHT #3 | 113
JULIE GREEN & PAULA WOOD
Method
Once project approval and funding had been secured, project
information leaflets were designed to encourage engagement from
community nurses, patients and their carers. The local Community
Trust already actively collated stories of care so an early meeting
provided an insight into established processes. The project required
that stories were voluntarily submitted by nurses, patients and their
carers, with contact made via several support groups. The voluntary
submission of stories, negates the need for ethical approval, with
participants made fully aware of the purpose and use of their
anonymised stories.
Submitted stories were initially screened for inclusion by the project
team. Screening of stories focused on the learning available within
each story rather than screening in terms of the quality of service
provision outlined within the story. The team agreed that whether
stories were positive or negative in terms of the care received, they
may still present an opportunity for learning and enhancement of
future service provision. In the event of the team being inundated
with too many submissions for publication, it was agreed that a
range covering patient, carer and staff stories would be included,
with additional stories stored for a further edition. The learning
available within each story would be fundamental to the decision for
inclusion. Stories would be excluded if they did not allude to care at
home or have any contemporary learning points, for example stories
that were so dated that care delivery had significantly changed.
At the end of the project, the book is intended to form an educational
resource for case-based learning for future cohorts of pre- and
post-registration students to explore the impact and experiences of
patients and carers in receipt of care in their home. The concept
is that, once the resource is available, students will be ‘set’ a story
to consider in their small group work, with discussions and debate
centred on the experiences of the people involved. Notes and
discussions would then be fed back to the larger group, with stories
providing students with a rich insight into the experiences of ‘care
at home’ from the perspective of the patient and their loved ones.
Pedagogy
The development of ‘professional competence’ is complex. More
recently, there has been a move from traditional didactic approaches
to the ‘delivery’ of education to more collaborative construction of
learner knowledge through a range of active learning approaches
(Williams, 2005; Yoo & Park, 2014). These active learning approaches
require the student to combine their skills, knowledge and attitudes
COLLECTED STORIES: BEING CARED FOR AT HOME
and apply these to problem solving, critical thinking and self- and
peer-assessment (Srisawasdi, 2012).
The adoption of case-based learning approaches, for which this
‘Collected Stories’ resource will predominantly be used, embraces
the principles of patient centred care within an action learning
approach. Case-based learning is interactive and student-centred,
drawing on real-life situations to initiate, stimulate and promote
authentic learning (Williams, 2005). This approach encourages
students, presented with diverse case-based problems based
on real life scenarios, to apply abstract knowledge to suggest
practical applications (Srisawasdi, 2012). These experiences provide
an excellent method for students to consider how to plan and
deliver care to community-based patients and to reflect these
complex situations within a safe environment. Case-based learning
encourages students to identify their own knowledge requirements
and actively seek out solutions which promote the development of
their problem-solving ability (Yoo & Park, 2014) and autonomy (Gray
& Aspland, 2011).
The case-based learning approach meets many learning needs;
for students who are inductive reasoners, these collated stories
will provide them with a means to learn from examples (Meehan-
Andrews, 2009). Indeed, evaluations of case-based learning include
reflections from students that such learning is ‘exhilarating, inspiring
and fun’ (Case Centre, 2017). In addition, Dutra (2013) stated ‘the
implementation of unfolding scenario-based case studies in the
didactic classroom is associated with learner-centred education’.
Project detail
This project accessed a number of patients and their carers who had
received community services. Names and locations within the stories
have been changed to ensure anonymity for all involved. Patients
and their carers have been supported, if necessary, to write the story
of their experiences of DN services. The book will be professionally
printed, illustrated and also available online to support student
learning.
Within nursing, the resource developed will be used within our post-
registration programmes, with a clear and immediate fit with the
long-term conditions and specialist practice programmes. Use of a
single case or the resource may challenge students to review the care
they deliver—these again will be evaluated on a session by session
basis. Further uptake of the book will be within clinical practice as a
resource for continued professional development for qualified staff.
Finally, the resource will be shared with any other areas who may
potentially learn from it including other interested HEIs, our providers