CLIENT STUDY BASED ON CRITICAL INCIDENT

Client Study Based on Critical Incident



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion5

Portfolio sections6

Evidence-based practice7

Projects and activities7

User and carer involvement8

Clinical supervision information9

Implementation of the portfolio9

Conclusion13

References15

Client Study Based on Critical Incident

Introduction

Clinical work in health care is largely delivered by teams of staff rather than by individuals or hospitals as a whole. It is recognised that training whole teams can often be more effective than training individuals within the team. Hence, real quality improvements are most likely to be delivered by teams rather than by individuals. (Johns 1993; Faugier 1994) The first priority, therefore, for Dorset Healthcare's clinical supervision programme was to identify all the clinical teams delivering patient care. These teams are largely multidisciplinary and include hospital inpatient wards, community mental health teams, and specialist treatment teams. Each team is part of one of the Trust's four supervision teams (directorates): adult, older people, learning disability, and child and adolescent mental health. Trust priorities for clinical supervision are agreed and monitored through the Trust Clinical Supervision and Risk Management Committees and Subcommittees of the Trust Board. A good mentor is described as someone who possesses appropriate professional attributes, knowledge, good communication skills and the motivation to teach and support students (Davies et al. 1994). The key elements of the role were teaching, support and assessment of the students' performance in the practice area. Davies et al. found that mentors experience con¯ict between the competing demands of providing patient care and ful®lling their mentor role. However, having a mentor meant that learning was more likely to be planned and meaningful, whereas students lacking a mentor, felt they were `hanging Issues and innovations in nursing education Consequently the presence of a mentor in the practice area was an important in¯uence on a student's perception of their learning experience. These Findings re¯ect the earlier work of White et al. (1993) on mentorship. In a 4-year longitudinal study of a purposive sample of seven females and one male ®rst year supernumerary degree students, Spouse (1996, p. 120) aimed to ``describe the lived experience of becoming a nurse and to determine the processes that in¯uenced that experience''. Data collection was via in-depth, tape-recorded interviews focusing on placement experiences, written accounts of critical incidents and nonparticipant observation in placement setting. Using content analysis, ®ve categories emerged; befriending, planning, collaborating, coaching and sense-making. Spouse's work concluded that the most important element of the `micro learning environment' is the quality of the student±mentor relationship a ®nding which supports that of White et al. (1993) who found that the nature of the student±mentor relationship is fundamental to the quality of the learning experiences for DipHE students.

Clinical supervision portfolios

The Trust had an established mechanism of recording training, appraisal, supervision, etc. for individuals, and also recording audits and patient and public involvement activity at Trust and directorate level, but no clear mechanism for recording and developing such activity at team level. In order to monitor and record team clinical supervision activity, Dorset Healthcare NHS Trust provided each clinical team with a clinical ...