NS0630 - Practice Learning 3: Clinical Decision Making in Clinical Practice

The main focus of this module will be your learning in clinical practice placements. However, this will also be enhanced by taught sessions at MCAST. Your professional learning in practice will be supported by a clinical mentor who will facilitate learning opportunities and provide regular feedback. Lectures, seminars and practical sessions incorporating role play and simulation, will provide you with opportunities to develop an appreciation of the importance of integrating practice and formal theory. Your lectures will examine more critically, key sources of policy and theoretical literature, and will encourage you to connect with your own independent reading, which will be key to your success as a lifelong learner. Your practice learning sessions will enable you to make stronger links between theory and practice, while developing your confidence and clinical performance. You will be expected to engage in tutor guided and self-directed independent learning by reading suggested literature from the module reading list and other sources of reference material. You will also be expected to engage with online learning resources to support your learning.

As with all other modules on your programme, successful academic achievement requires a system of robust support and guidance to help you develop and focus on your learning needs. Therefore, within this module you will be supported and/or mentored by qualified nurses in the practice learning setting, and academic staff from MCAST who are also qualified nurses with relevant practical experience and theoretical knowledge. The development of your competencies for practice will be supported by material from your classroom based lectures, seminars and practical teaching sessions, in addition to tutor/self-directed independent learning materials provided. You will be given guidance on how to use placement learning and assessment documentation. You will also be visited by your personal tutor on placement who will discuss your progress with you and your allocated mentor. This will ensure you are able to confidently meet the learning outcomes of the module, which will include a range of professional competencies. Your mentor is the key source of learning support whilst on placement. Formative assessment using clinical assessment tools will help you get feedback on your clinical performance and prepare you effectively to pass the assessment and achieve all your clinical competencies.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

By the end of this module you will be able to:
Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Critically discuss the evidence underpinning your role as a nurse with patients of all ages in making ethical, legal, professional clinical decisions, recognising your associated accountability and responsibility for patient and public safety

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
2. Demonstrate initiative, application and sound argument in decision making and problem-solving processes within the remit of nursing practice which includes adult and child patients and families.
3. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and independently as a registrant making effective use of evidence from a range of sources to inform and lead clinical decision making.
4. Achieve the required nursing competencies and relevant experience that will allow you to apply for First Level Nurse status with the Council for Nurses and Midwives, Malta

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
5. Demonstrate compassionate, person centred, ethical patient care of children and adults, with a critical appreciation of the complexity of interprofessional decision-making in practice
6. Display professional behaviour and maintain expected professional standards through critical reflection on personal and professional development, articulating your readiness to practice as a graduate nurse in relation to professional and regulatory bodies and employer expectations. How will I be assessed? (SRS 0006)
Please give details of all formative and summative assessment process indicating which MLOs will be addressed and how feedback will be provided.

Formative:
Your professional and practical skills, knowledge and competencies will be assessed during your practice placement in a range of ways. This will include regular, informal, feedback from your mentor and completion of a number of structured assessments that will give you detailed feedback on your performance. These will include Direct Observation of Practice assessments (DOPs), Total Client Care assessments (TCC) and if deemed appropriate by your mentor, a service user evaluation questionnaire (SUE-Q). In addition in the final year of your programme you will be assessed formatively using the Leading and Managing Care (LMC) assessment tool (MLO 1-6)
Summative:
1. You will be required to finalise the student part of your Professional Reflective Portfolio (PRP) which will contain a record of your practice achievements including formative feedback, reflective accounts, an account of key activity and mentor sign off for your competencies. (MLO 2,3,4,5,6,)
2. A tripartite assessment will evaluate your understanding and ability to appraise the evidence base that underpins your practice. You will meet with your academic assessor, ideally in a practice setting and your mentor(s) feedback on your performance over the year will be evaluated. You will have the opportunity during the meeting to discuss evidence, highlight your nursing knowledge and understanding and illustrate that you are prepared for independent practice (MLO 1,2, 3,4,5,6).
You will receive ongoing verbal formative feedback. You will also receive verbal and written feedback on your summative assessment at the end of your placement. Programme (Level) Learning Outcomes that this module contributes to:
[Please insert PLO number as listed on the programme specification]

Knowledge & Understanding:

KU1, KU2, KU3, KU4

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

IPSA1, IPSA2, IPSA3 & IPSA4

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity):

PVA1, PVA2 & PVA3

Formative:
Your professional and practical skills, knowledge and competencies will be assessed during your practice placement in a range of ways. This will include regular, informal, feedback from your mentor and completion of a number of structured assessments that will give you detailed feedback on your performance. These will include Direct Observation of Practice assessments (DOPs), Total Client Care assessments (TCC) and if deemed appropriate by your mentor, a service user evaluation questionnaire (SUE-Q). In addition in the final year of your programme you will be assessed formatively using the Leading and Managing Care (LMC) assessment tool (MLO 1-6)

Summative:
1. You will be required to finalise the student part of your Professional Reflective Portfolio (PRP) which will contain a record of your practice achievements including formative feedback, reflective accounts, an account of key activity and mentor sign off for your competencies. (MLO 2,3,4,5,6,)
2. A tripartite assessment will evaluate your understanding and ability to appraise the evidence base that underpins your practice. You will meet with your academic assessor, ideally in a practice setting and your mentor(s) feedback on your performance over the year will be evaluated. You will have the opportunity during the meeting to discuss evidence, highlight your nursing knowledge and understanding and illustrate that you are prepared for independent practice (MLO 1,2, 3,4,5,6).
You will receive ongoing verbal formative feedback. You will also receive verbal and written feedback on your summative assessment at the end of your placement.

None

None

This module will further develop and consolidate your professional skills and knowledge, ensuring readiness for employment and registration as a graduate nurse, able to work with both adults and children. You will be offered the opportunity to critically analyse relevant theories to a greater depth, specifically focusing on the complexities and challenges of clinical decision making in diverse interprofessional healthcare settings in order to inform your future role in the management of ethical, legal, effective, person centred nursing care for a group of patients. You will develop critical appreciation of your accountability and responsibility as a nurse in protecting patients of all ages and the public. You will learn through classroom based sessions and clinical practice placements which aim to underpin professional learning with academic knowledge and critical understanding. Lectures, seminars and practical incorporating role play and simulation, will provide you with opportunities to develop an appreciation of the importance of integrating practice and formal theory. Research rich learning relevant to professional practice will be enabled through face to face and online learning, undertaken in both the classroom and in the practice learning setting, where you will be supported by a mentor who is a qualified experienced registered nurse. A range of formative assessment strategies will be used in practice to support your learning and prepare you for the summative assessment where you will be expected to demonstrate to your mentor and your personal tutor that you have achieved the learning outcomes of the module. This will include demonstrating a range of evidence based nursing competencies essential to your future career as a registered nurse able to work in a range of healthcare settings.