By: Kate Daniel B.

Samong
 In a variety settings, nurses are responsible for the educaton of patients,
families, staff, and students. Numerous factors make the nurse educator’s
role particularly challenging in meeting the information needs of these
various groups of learners.

To meet these challenges, the nurse educator must be aware of the

various factors that influence how well an individual learns. The three
determinants of learning that require assessment are (1) the needs of the
learner, (2) the state of readiness to learn, and (3) the preferred learning
styles for processing information .
Educator’s Role in
Learning
The role of educating others is one of the most essential
interventions that a nurse performs. To do it well, the nurse
must both identify the information learners need and consider
their readiness to learn and their styles of learning. The
learner - not the teacher - is the single most important person
in the education process.
The role of the educator is to enhance the learning process by serving as
a facilitator:

The educator:
 assess the learners’ deficit
 present appropriate information in unique ways
 identifies progress being made
 gives feedback
 reinforces learning in the acquisition of knowledge, or performance of a skill
 evaluates the learner’s ability
EDUCATOR’S UNIQUE POSITION
The educator is vital in giving support, encouragement, and direction during the
process of learning. The educator assists in identifying optimal learning approaches and
activities that can both support and challenge the learner.
Assessment of the learner includes attending to the three determinants:

learning needs
readiness to learn
learning style
Learning needs are gaps in knowledge that exist between a desired level
of performance and the actual level of performance.

Assessment of learning Needs

 The following are some importantant steps in assessment of learning needs:
1-Identify the learner
Is there only one learner with single need
or many needs?
Is there more than one learner with
congruent or diverse needs?
2-Choose the right setiing
Establish trusting relationship through
assuring priv and confidentiality, so that
learners feel secure in confiding
information and feel res pected.
3-Collect data on learner
Determine characteristic needs of the audience by
exploring typical health problems or issues of interest.
Subsequently, identify the type and extent of content to
be included in the teaching sessions.
4-Include the learner as a source of information
Allow the patient and/or family and staff members to
identify what is important to them. If the learners are
staff members or nursing students, ask them about the
areas of practice they feel they need new or additional
informaton.
 The following are some importantant steps in assessment of learning needs:
5-Involve members of the healthcare team
Other healthcare providers may have insight
into patients, family, nursing staff, and nursing
students educational needs. Because of their
frequent contacts with them.
6-Prioritize needs
A list of needs can become endless and
seemingly impossible to accomplish.
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, an
educator can prioritise identified learning needs.
The educator can then assist the learner to meet
the most important basic need first.
- setting priorities for learning is often difficult
when faced with many learning needs in several
areas.
This is where you section ends. Duplicate this set of slides as many times you need to go over all your sections.
 Mandatory: Needs that must be learned for survival or situations n
which the learner’s life, safety, or ability to function at an expected
level is threatened.
 Desirable: Needs that are useful and worthwhile but not essential but
that are related to learner satisfaction or further growth and
development for personal or professional advancement.
 Possible: Needs for information that is nice to know but required or
not directly related to being able to function in daily activities.
 The following are some importantant steps in assessment of learning needs:

7-Provide only need-or-want-to-know- 8-Determine availability of educational

information
without good assessment, a common
mistake is to provide more information rhan
rhe patient wants or needs.
resources
The educator may indetify the need,
but it may be useo proceed with
interventions if the proper educational
resources are not available, are unrealistic to
obtain, or do not match the learner’s needs.
 The following are some importantant steps in assessment of learning needs:

9-Assess the demands of the organization 10-Take time-management issues into

The educator should be familiar with
standards of performance required in
various employee categories, along with job
descriptions and hospital, professional, and
agency regulations that dictate the
educational focus to satisfy the lerning
needs of both consumers and employees.
account
Time constraints are a major impediment
to the assessment process, the educator
should emphasize the following important
points with respect to time management
issues:
 1) Although close
observation and active
listening take time, it is
much more efficient and
effective to take the time a
good initial assessment
upfront than waste time
by having to go back and
uncover information that
should have been obtained
before beginning
instruction.
2) Learners must be given time to offer
4) Minimizing
their own perceptions of their learning
needs, preferences, and values if the interruptions and
educator expects them to take charge and distructions during
become actively involved in the learning
process. planned assessment
interviews minimizes
productivity.
3) Informing patients and their families,
nursing staff, or nursing students ahead of
time that the educator wishes to spend time
discussing problems or needs gives learners
advance notice to sort out their thoughts,
feelings, and concerns.
General Methods to Assess
Learning Needs
 Informal Conversations
 Structured Interviews
 Focus Groups
 Questionnaires
 Tests
 Observation
 Documentation
Informal Conversations

Often learning needs are discovered during imprompto conversations

that take place with other healthcare team members involved in the care
of the patient clients between the nurse and the patient or their family or
significant others.
Structured Interviews

The structured interview is perhaps the form of needs assessment most

commonly used to solocit the learner’s point of view. The nurse educator
askss the learner direct and often predetermined questions to gather
information about learning needs.
The following are examples of interview questions that nurse educator can ask:

If the learner is a patient, the following questions might be:

● Which results do
● What do you think ● What does your you hope to obtain
from treatments?
caused your illness/health mean
● What are your
problem? to you?
● How severe is your ● What do you do to strengths and
limitations as a
illness? stay healthy?
learner?
● How do ypu learn
best?
 If the learner is a staff member or student, the following questions might be:

● Which
● what do you ● Which skill(s) obstacles have ● What do you ● How do you
you
think are your do you need see as your learn best?
encountered in
biggest help in strengths and
the past when
challenges to performing? you were limitations as
learning? learning new a learner?
information?
 Focus Groups

Involves getting together a small number (4 to 12) of potential

learners, including the facilitator, to determine areas of educational need
by using group discussion to identify points of view or knowledge about
a certain topic.
 Questionnaires

Nurse educators can obtain learners’ written responses to question

about learning needs by using questionnaires. Checklists are one of the
most common forms of questionnaires. They are easy to administer,
provide more privacy compared to interviews, and yield easy-to-tabulate
data.
 Tests

Giving written pretests prior to insction can help identify the

knowledge levels of learners about certain subjects to ascertain their
specific learning needs. This approach prevents the educator from
repeating already known material in the teaching plan.
 Observations

Helps the educator draw conclusions about established patterns of

behavior that cannot and should not be drawn from a single observation.
 Documentation

Nurse educators need to follow a consistent fromat for reviewing

medical records by looking at initial assessments, progress notes,
nursing care plans, staff notes, and discharge planning forms that can
provide valuable information about the learning needs of patients.
Specific Methods to Assess Learning
Needs of Nursing Staff

 Written Job Descriptions

 Formal and Informal Requests
 Quality Assurance Reports
 Chart Audits
 Rules and Regulations
THANK YOU!