Case
studies are an important part of learning to become a nurse.
They
provide a human context that can help students learn to think like a nurse
using the following steps: noticing, interpreting, responding and reflecting.
Beyond
that, nurses need to understand and incorporate the ‘human’ element of nursing.
These are essential steps for a nurse in their goal to get to know the client,
said Profs. Daphne Kennedy and Peggy Colbourne, nursing instructors at the
Western Regional School of Nursing.
The
instructors wanted to provide their nursing students access to real-life patients
and expose them to important contributors to health including culture, family
support and access to services while in the classrooms setting.
The nursing
instructors hired an actor to record the narrative of a provided fictional persona
and script that could resemble any given
middle-aged, rural, Aboriginal man in Newfoundland and Labrador, knows as “Mr.
Benoit.” Through an unfolding story presented sequentially throughout the term,
the students came to understand the factors that affect one’s health. Some of
the issues discussed by the ‘patient’ through the were: complexity of
care, chronic illness, cultural competency, critical care, rehabilitation,
community care, and end-of-life care.
“Students
were deeply engaged with Mr. Benoit’s story,” said Profs. Kennedy and Colbourne. “They became
invested in his health outcomes, and anticipated the potential consequences of
their nursing actions, or inactions. When the students realized that this story
would unfold throughout the term and incorporate the essential course concepts,
some were worried that he would be the person that would die when learning
about end-of-life care.”
Coming to
know Mr. Benoit helped students connect with the course concepts in a
meaningful way, said the instructors.
“Students
were able to practice nursing deliberately, and with a sense of what the
priorities were from the perspective of the client. They were thinking like
nurses, using their clinical judgement in subsequent simulations and class
activities, which is exactly what our research tells us is a critical component
of nursing education.”
