Tips from BESD: Performance gap or knowledge deficit? Investigate before you educate
Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, November 19, 2010
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
By Barbara Mayer, RN-BC, MS, PhD(c)
Staff development specialist (SDS) time is a valuable yet scarce commodity, so we must identify appropriate use of this valuable resource. For example, imagine a nurse manager comes into your office and says, "Mary Lou just doesn't get it. She makes mistakes, doesn't seem to know much about medication administration, and when I talk to her about it she gets really defensive. You need to provide some education for her." Is Mary Lou's performance issue really about lack of skills or knowledge? Or could it be something else entirely?
SDSs are often asked to provide education when nurse managers identify individuals or groups of employees who are not meeting performance expectations. Although lack of skill or knowledge can be the cause of underperformance, there are other causes that should be considered.
Don't most nurses want to do a great job? Of course! So if they're not doing a great job, they must need more education, right? Not necessarily. Education is often the go-to tool in management's toolbox, and when performance does not improve, SDSs are asked to provide more education. This cycle can continue if we don't step back and really look at the cause of the performance gap.
Editor's note: Subscribers to Briefings on Evidence-Based Staff Development can read the rest of this article in the November 2010 issue.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education!
Related Products
-
A Practical Guide to Staff Development, Second Edition
Staff development specialists can turn to one resource to become competent and compelling educators while implementing...
-
Simulation Training in Nursing:
This 90-minute webcast explores the many different models of simulation training available-from high-tech to low-tech-and...
-
Charge Nurse Program Builder: Tools for Developing Unit Leaders
This all-in-one training resource contains customizable tools, templates, and checklists to help nursing leaders provide...
-
Innovation in Nursing Staff Development
This ground-breaking resource guides staff development professionals through a wide variety of proven, cutting-edge teaching...
-
Professional Growth in Staff Development:
Designed to progress staff development professionals along the learning continuum from novice to expert, this resource by...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Topic: CMS, OESS post new security compliance review information, checklist
- HIPAA Q&A: Answering service messages
- Q/A: Volume requirement for reporting hydration services
- News and briefs: Oklahoma Osteopathic Association against residency bill change
- What does case-mix index mean to you?
- QA:Coding multiple initial infusions
- The debate continues: Nurses who reported physician to the Texas Medical Board file federal appeal
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- E-mailed
-
- Featured blog post: Nurses face felony charges after reporting physician to the Texas Medical Board
- Are your workforce members texting PHI?
- Don't let these sentinel events trigger falsely
- Arkansas woman convicted for HIPAA violation
- Q/A: Coding infusions to correct low potassium levels
- Q&A tackles coding questions about injections and infusions
- Joint Commission Center announces handoff communication solutions
- Inside best practice: Reduce patient falls with a stoplight
- Identify modifiable risk factors to prevent patient falls
- Hospitalist-surgeon comanagement has no effect on outcomes
- Searched