ABSTRACT
In today's healthcare environment, staff development specialists have experienced a shift from a nursing-focused approach to education to an organization-wide approach. The change fosters both challenges and opportunities for the staff development specialist. This article describes the strategies used by a department of nursing education to successfully transition to a hospital-wide department of education.
Subject(s)
Education Department, Hospital/organization & administration , Personnel, Hospital/education , Faculty/organization & administration , Humans , Nursing Staff, Hospital/education , Organizational Innovation , Rhode Island , Teaching/methodsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: An educational fair and poster approach was developed to meet organization-wide mandatory education requirements. METHOD: A multidisciplinary task force identified 25 mandatory topics. Task force members utilized posters to indicate key points (principles) and questions for each topic. Two interactive stations, body mechanics and fire safety, were developed to allow staff to actively participate and obtain immediate feedback on competency. This educational activity was presented in a fair-like atmosphere continuously over 3 days to reach a majority of staff. RESULTS: Ninety-three percent of the staff attended the educational activity. Department directors received immediate feedback on attendance, test scores, evaluation summaries and problem areas. Post-fair evaluation comments from department directors and staff were very positive. There was a major savings in both staff and staff development work hours. CONCLUSION: An educational fair and poster approach is an efficient method of providing organization-wide mandatory education. This approach can be adapted easily to any organization.
