Innovation and Research of Teaching Way of Clinical Nursing Interns in Internal Neurology Department

Dear Editor-in-Chief

Clinical nursing teaching is a key stage to improve student’s ability to associate theory and practice. However, the current educational methods in China are still based on imparting knowledge, and neglect the development of student’s ability to study initiative (1).

In order to improve the clinical teaching quality, our department implemented a new method called “512 teaching mode”, based on exploring and improving students in practical mode, and achieving efficient effects. We enrolled 84 females nursing interns with practice duration of 3 weeks. They were divided into two groups: 42 carried out traditional teaching method (control group), and 42 practiced the “512 teaching methods” (experimental group). These two groups had no statistical differences in educational background, gender and age.

In order to ensure teaching quality in the experimental group, doctors, chief nurses and senior nurses listened to the lecture content, strictly controlled the quality and indicated the key points of teaching. The head nurse introduced the environment, department layout, types of treated diseases, code of conduct and labor disciplines of the high quality nursing demonstration ward. Senior teachers were designated to teach the operational process of internal neurology department, so that the students could become more familiar with the working environment as soon as possible. Teachers finished the teaching task according to the weekly plan. Class responsibility system was implemented to prevent the occurrence of adverse events through the art of “letting go, observation on”.

In the third week of practice, there was a departmental rotation test and unqualified students needed to take a make-up test. In order to help further standardize the nursing work, before completing the course, teachers needed to score their nursing students and so do the students. Practice manual combined with the characteristics of practice in our department to formulate the Nurses Practice Manual in Internal Neurology Department. It included special nursing operation, previous exam results, and mutual evaluation of teachers and students of the Internal Neurology Department. Meetings were held in the third weeks and interns organized a small lecture concerned with the latest research development on common diseases in Internal Neurology Department. Before completing the course, nursing students reported their internship reports in an intern forum.

For evaluation, we used the following criteria: contents included theoretical knowledge and technical operation, each part account for 50 points. For the questionnaire survey, we included questions about the enthusiasm of the practice, the development of comprehensive ability, the teaching satisfaction and the comprehensive master of nursing operation in the Department of Internal Neurology (2). The levels included good, general, poor. Each intern completed the questionnaires after practicing. We used SPSS13.0 software for our statistical analysis.

The experimental group displayed significantly higher aptitude (P < 0.05) in the theoretical (92.0±1.99 vs 86.2 ±8.52) and operational evaluations (86±0.28 vs 81.0±0.31). The results of the degree of satisfaction with the questionnaire survey of teaching experimental group were obviously better (P < 0.05) than that of control group. “512 teaching method” was proved to be a systematic teaching mode with plan and purpose. Owing to the unexpected events of patients in the Department of Internal Neurology, we design The Management of Hospitalization Process and the Procedures of First Aid Nursing in the Department of Internal Neurology, and explain it to nursing students regularly every week, in order to achieve personalized education and teach students in accordance with their aptitude (3). It helped the students to understand and master the knowledge of the Department of Internal Neurology. The combination of concentration and dispersal, and the innovative teaching methods, lead to evaluation result of experimental group, which was significantly better than that of the control group. The experimental group was obviously better than control group in enthusiasm, self-evaluation, teaching satisfaction and comprehensive mastering of nursing operation of Department of Internal Neurology. In the experimental group, the satisfaction from teaching was 94.32% while the control group only achieves 70.33%.

We believe that the reasons for better outcomes related to the “512 teaching method” were as follows: (i) Course ware review and centralized theoretical teaching system helped students to obtain better systematical and theoretical knowledge; (ii) Education in entering the department that made nursing students get more familiar with the environment and increase their self-confidence; (iii) Before starting teaching classes teachers put forward relevant nursing questions and guide students to think practically and searched for relevant information to develop corresponding nursing plan and measures; (iv) Implement mutual evaluation system of teaching: teachers trained and evaluated students in the aspects of morals, health, competence, responsibility, diligence and other capabilities. Students evaluated teachers on the aspects of their attitude toward teaching, working level, teaching ability, teaching lecture, making the rounds of the wards, asking questions and other teaching aptitudes. Teachers needed to support and encourage students to enhance student’s self-confidence and learning enthusiasm (4); (v) Intern forum was very helpful for the teacher to listen to students’ comments and suggestions and implemented them in a timely manner. Small lectures provided students with a platform for self-exercise; (vi) Nurses Practice Manual in Internal Neurology Department systematically involved the special nursing operation program of the Department of Internal Neurology, helped students to understand and master the special operation of the Department. Spot checks by the head nurse could not only standardize the clinical operational skills of nursing students, but also developed the relevant professional knowledge of nursing students and improved the comprehensiveness of mastering theory and operational knowledge for the nursing students.