Education for All – What a Concept!

The evolution of nursing staff development takes us from its roots in hospital based diploma nursing programs to the present wide range of services offered. Just as Joint Commission requires seamless continuum of care evident via documentation in the medical record, it also requires consistent processes for staff education, evident via documentation in the employee file.

Nearly ten years ago Nowicki (1998) made twenty one predictions for nursing staff development:

1. Change will be constant in our future.
2. Traditional ways of thinking will be challenged and become obsolete.
3. Organizations and departments will continue to restructure their operations to focus on quality and customer service.
4. A majority of healthcare workers will be grouped into some form of a team to most effectively accomplish their work.
5. Empowerment will lead staff to higher levels of responsibility, accountability, and ownership of their jobs.
6. Leadership development will be a critical ingredient in the overall success of an organization.
7. The paradigm of a traditional staff development department will become obsolete. While staff development will always be needed and present in organizations, it will be integrated in ways we have yet to imagine.
8. Roles for staff development educators will be redefined, but they will continue to exist.
9. Educators will need their own network of support.
10. Collaborative relationships with educators from various practice settings will begin to bridge the gas among academia, business, and community education.
11. Educators will become increasingly recognized as experts of the education process and facilitators of learning.
12. Educators will spend an increasing amount of time developing educational opportunities for advanced level practitioners.
13. Greater emphasis will be placed on the value of life experiences in addition to formal education.
14. The days of providing “nice to know” information will be gone forever.
15. Traditional methods of evaluating learning will take a back seat to more innovative, efficient and effective ways.
16. Patients and their families will demand quick, yet comprehensive education to understand their health problem and how to manage it.
17. Education will play a major role in understanding and valuing cultural diversity.
18. Everyone will need sophisticated computer skills.
19. Technology will explode and create numerous avenues for learning.
20. A vast majority of nurses will belong to specialty nursing organizations and be certified in at least one specialty.
21. Political involvement will continue to be a vital link in creating our future.

Sound familiar? While nurses usually make up the largest group in a healthcare facility, all staff deserves equal consideration. Many adults are returning to school, expect to advance in their careers, and value educational benefits offered at work. Recruitment, retention and employee satisfaction, as well as the competition must be considered when evaluating educational benefits.

Parker and Asselin (2004) beckoned the nurse educator to study forces that require change, a transition from a nursing focused to a hospital-wide education department. Examples of external forces include state and agency regulation (ex. facility inspections, re-licensure requirements, Medicare guidelines) Joint Commission accreditation and regional student clinical placement needs. Determination of internal forces requires an assessment of the nursing education department’s alignment with organization goals, organizational structure, and educational needs of clinical and non-clinical staff, competency assessment, facility expansion, committee participation, and patient care issues. Defining hospital wide education needs to be determined. Once the advantages of a transition are identified, planning strategies may follow which include consideration of department resources, collaboration among key departments including Human Resources and Information Services, and close contact between educators and management and staff.

Opportunities are plentiful for the staff development specialist to impact the workplace. The dynamic pace of today’s healthcare environment is fertile ground for providing services that benefit both staff and the organization’s present needs and future challenges in education. Administrators and educators in South Florida hold the keys to enact these possibilities.