PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESSFUL STAFF DEVELOPMENT

A body of educational concepts and principles underlies successful staff development.

 The ultimate responsibility for continuing education or professional development
rests with the employee. Therefore, employee’s suggestions should be solicited
when planning, implementing, and evaluating staff-development programs.
 Most learning is a combination of experience and conceptualization. Therefore,
employees learn best when cast into situations that encourage self-discovery of
significant information, concepts, and skills
 Learning is an internal, personal, emotional process. Therefore, methods and
techniques that involve the individual on a deeply personal level produce the most
significant and last learning
 Learning involves a change in behaviour, and it is difficult to change habitual
behaviour. Hence, people learn best when they are slightly off balance or slightly
uncomfortable. Old ideas, and habits must be shaken or unfrozen before new
thoughts, pastimes, actions, and attitudes can be wholeheartedly undertaken
 Although a child learner rapidly accepts dependence on an adult teacher, the adult
learner demands autonomy in seeking, regulating, and using learning experiences.
Therefore, an authoritarian manner is ineffective in teaching adults. An adult
learner should be encouraged to contribute questions, examples, and information
during instructional sessions
 Although a child is willing to postpone the application of new learning, adults
learn best when lesson content can be applied immediately. Therefore, a case
method, problem-solving teaching format is well suited for nursing staff
development
 Behaviour that is positively rewarded is likely to be repeated. Learners need quick,
hearty applause or other positive feedback when they display a new behaviour that
they have been asked to perform
 Individuals tend to organize all aspects of a total learning situation into an
integrated whole. Therefore, each aspect of a learning situation should
complement or supplement every other, so all educational components interlock to
support desired objectives
 The transfer of learning is maximized when training occurs in situations closely
resembling those where the learned behaviour should be applied. Therefore,
illustrative examples, descriptive studies, and practice exercises should resemble
work problems frequently encountered by the employee
  The transfer of learning is maximized when managers reinforce changes in
employees’ behaviour resulting from staff development activities. When it
becomes necessary to change professional practice behaviors, several employees
should be educated simultaneously to display the desired knowledge, skills, or
attitudes. Group instruction will stimulate employees to support each other in
perpetuating the desired behaviour change and will motivate them to model the
desired behaviour for other employees
 Learning is an active not a passive phenomenon. Therefore, it is more effective to
give a trainee a task goal, guidelines for goal achievement, and opportunity to
work out details of optimum task performance than to direct the employee to
mimic an expert practitioners skilled performance of the task
 Adults are self-directed and possess a huge reservoir of experience from which to
draw when learning new knowledge and skill. Unfortunately, memory associations
cause proactive inhibition of learning for some content. To design individualized
staff development experiences, a teacher must obtain information about the adult
learners present life circumstances, past education and employment, and future
career aspirations
 Adult learners are heterogeneous, with extremely different life experiences,
motivation levels, cognitive styles, learning speeds, and sensual preferences. Each
staff development programe should include a variety source materials, teaching
and learning methods, and audio visual aids to satisfy the needs of diverse learners

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF A STAFF DEVELOPMENT

The major factors that determine the administrative structure of an agency-wide staff
development programe are
 Administrative philosophy, policies, and practices of health care agency
 Policies, practices and standards of nursing and other health professions
 Human and material resources within a health care agency and the community
 Physical facilities within a health care agency and the community
 Financial resources within a health care agency and the community
Qualifications of staff development personnel
The qualifications required in staff development personnel depend on the nature of staff
development task to be performed that is administration, teaching, counseling. People in
various disciplines must be used to help in assessing staff-staff development needs,
recommending where and how these needs can be met, and in planning, organizing,
implementing and evaluating staff development programme.