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New ways of teaching nursing students in clinical settings will be developed in the RMI and other islands, thanks to the efforts of Partners investing in Nursing's Future, a group of nursing faculty and local organizations. The decision to develop 'Innovative Clinical. Teaching Models' was made by Walton Bohanny, of the College of the Marshall Islands,
with nursing faculty from US-affiliated Pacific islands and their supporting partners, who met recently at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The partners agreed to collaborate in developing the Innovative Clinical Teaching Models for the nursing-programs to address the nursing shortage in the region. The total nursing shortage results from a nursing faculty shortage in US-affiliated islands,' said Judy Souviney, Partners Investing in Nursing's Future (PIN1 Grant Manager, who is based at CMI.
Although these islands have in common a shortage of nursing faculty and a shortage of nurses, each jurisdiction has its own culture and institutions, which must be included in any solution. The partners agreed that each nursing program will work with their local hospitals, public health centers and clinics to develop a teaching plan that fits their local situation.
Cultural sensitivity will be the over-arching concept for their planning.
A second important concept is the need for sharing resources across the region. The University of Guam, for instance, has already developed a course to train experienced clinical nurses to teach nursing students, and they are willing to share this training with the other nursing programs.
'Good pqtient care demands good nurses," said Souviney. 'Good nurses know why they are doing something, as well as how to do it, which means they need both knowledge from the classroom and hands-on skills they learn in the hospital and community settings. In order to provide nursing students with both knowledge and skills, there must be good teachers in all these settings.'
But right now there are not enough experienced nurses in US-affiliated islands who have been educated to be good teachers.
If the nursing faculty at local colleges can train experienced clinical nurses to teach nursing students, then the qualified nursing faculty will increase. This sort of innovative collaboration between faculty and clinical nurses has been used in other places to teach-student nurses in a better way, and it also increases staff nurse satisfaction.
Combining the expertise of clinical nurses and faculty ensures that patients will receiv excellent care.
Representatives of all seven government-supported nursing programs in US-affiliated islands participated in the meeting: University of Guam, Guam Community College, Northern Marianas College, Palau Community College, American Samoa community College, the newly approved program at the College of Micronesia-FSM, and CMI.
Supporting partners include, Pacific Island Health Officers Asssociation; Jitdam Kapeel Area Health Education Center; US Department of Health and Human Services; Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO; and University of Hawaii at Manoa, School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, that hosted the meeting. The Bank of Guam is also a major partner in the effort to improve health care in US-affiliated Pacific islands by upporting the development of nursing faculty.
'In communities around the world the nursing shortage has become so severe that it threatens patient care and safety, health care costs, and patient outcomes,' she said.
The work of the US-affiliated islands nursing partners to alleviate the nursing shortage locally is funded by The Friends of the Marshall Islands Foundation Inc. with a grant, 'Partners investing in Nursing's Future- (PIN), a partnership of the Northwest Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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