Professional Experience Placement

Mather, Marlow and Cummings (2013) recently published an article about the development of a digital strategy to support clinical supervisors in the workplace.  This worked stemmed from an earlier needs assessment survey undertaken to explore the needs of organizations and nursing professionals that facilitate and clinically supervise Bachelor of Nursing students in the workplace. Findings from the survey indicated that staff at healthcare organizations wanted a communication strategy that was easily accessible by clinicians who supervised students during professional experience or clinical placements. In particular they wanted to receive timely information related to the role and function of supervisors in practice. The development of the digital strategy to strengthen the development of a community of practice between the University, organizations, facilities and clinical supervisors was identified as the key method of improving communication.

This blog and the Twitter micro blog @PEPCommunity were implemented because they were easy to set up, use and enable equity of access to geographically dispersed practitioners in urban and rural areas. Change champions were identified to disseminate information about the strategy within their workplaces. Although clinicians indicated electronic communication as their preferred method, there were a number of human factors at a systems and individual level identified to be challenges when communicating with clinical supervisors who were based off-campus. Information communication technology policies and embedded culture towards social presence were impediments to using this approach in some organizations. Additionally, it was found that it is necessary for this group of clinicians to be educated about using digital methods to undertake their role as clinical supervisors in their varied clinical practice environments.

If you have any comments about access to this blog from your workplace or suggestions about how to improve your access or any comments you are welcome to email Carey.Mather@utas.edu.au