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From the desk of Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, April 8, 2011

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Editor's note: This feature is written by nursing staff development expert Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN. Each week, Adrianne writes about an important issue in the area of staff development or answers reader questions. If you have a question for Adrianne, e-mail her at adrianne1@comcast.net.

The role of the advanced beginner role in nursing staff development

Last week, I talked about identifying novice candidates in staff development based on Benner's (1984) framework for differentiating among various levels of clinical expertise. This week, I'll talk about my view of advanced beginners in staff development.

Advanced beginners are not nursing professional development (NPD) specialists. They have dealt with enough real life situations, such as inservice and just-in-time training, to know that learning activities must incorporate the principles of adult learning, specific learning objectives, and content appropriate to those objectives. They know that there must be a mechanism to evaluate the success of the learning activity. They follow specific rules and guidelines and are easily thrown by the unexpected (Avillion, 2011).

Advanced beginners most often fulfill the role of unit-based educators and are prepared at the bachelor degree level. They may be content to remain in their roles as unit-based educators specializing in inservice and unit-specific training. Or they may decide to pursue a graduate degree and seek promotion to the NPD specialist level. Remember that according to the most recent Nursing Professional Development Scope & Standards of Practice (2010), NPD specialists must possess a graduate degree in nursing or a related field. If the graduate degree is in a related discipline, such as adult education, the baccalaureate degree must be in nursing (ANA/NNSDO, 2010).

For now, let's look at some specific job description statements that identify some responsibilities of advanced beginners (Avillion, 2011). Note that these statements are narrower in scope and responsibility than that of an NPD specialist:

• Plans and implements inservice education and just-in-time training for designated units
• Assists NPD specialists with design of needs assessments and collection of needs assessment data
• Assists NPD specialists with planning and implementation of unit-specific continuing education
• Assists NPD specialists to gather evidence to measure the effect of education on job performance and patient outcomes and works with preceptors to facilitate preceptor effectiveness

As you can see, advanced beginners function in assistive roles to NPDs in many cases. They have neither the education nor the experience to implement NPD specialist roles, but are invaluable when it comes to dealing with the day-to-day education needs of a unit and to facilitate the achievement of staff development goals and objectives.

Be careful to differentiate between advanced beginners and NPD specialists. It is important to our specialty that we identify levels of expertise and how these levels vary in experience and role fulfillment.

References
ANA/NNSDO. (2010). Nursing Professional Development Scope & Standards of Practice. Silver Spring, MD: Authors.
Avillion, A. E. (2011). Professional Growth in Staff Development: Strategies for New and Experienced Educators. Danvers, MA: HCPro.
Benner, P. (1984). From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.

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